Populist candidate wants to give voters ‘watchdog at the top’

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006

Frustrated by both major political parties, Christopher A. Driscoll wants to shake up Annapolis from the outside.

As the Maryland Populist Party’s first gubernatorial candidate, Driscoll said his platform will appeal to voters unhappy with two-party rule.

The Takoma Park writer decided to run because of ‘‘the poor job that the two major parties do in representing the interests of the working class and the middle class.” Formed two years ago to get Ralph Nader on the 2004 presidential ballot, the Maryland Populist Party espouses progressive tax reform, an ‘‘ownership society” that would back family-owned small businesses, removing Maryland National Guard troops from foreign soil and creating a single-payer health insurance system.

Revamping the tax system is a top priority. Driscoll favors a ‘‘land-value tax” in which buildings are assessed separately from land, thereby reducing taxes. He said the system has been used effectively in Pennsylvania and has led to more efficient land-use practices. Such a tax would deter land speculators who buy residential urban property and keep them uninhabited, he said.

Christopher A. Driscoll Governor Populist Party 52, Takoma Park Experience: Recording secretary, Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics; founding member, Montgomery County Coalition Against the War; volunteer coordinator, Nader 2004 presidential campaign; chairman, Maryland Populist Party Top issues: Cut taxes for working-class families, repeal all sales taxes except on luxury items, create an ownership society Web site: www.driscoll2006.com

Driscoll and his running mate, Edward Rothstein, also want to institute a more worker-friendly progressive income tax, eliminate property taxes on homes assessed below $400,000, close corporate tax loopholes and repeal most sales taxes.

Most of Driscoll’s criticism is aimed at the Democratic Party for promoting an ‘‘open system of corruption that they call campaign financing.” Big business has too much influence in financing political campaigns, he said, which leads to ‘‘legislation that is so egregiously tilted toward the interests of big business and against the interests of middle and working-class people.”

Driscoll’s plan for self-ownership would serve as ‘‘a counterbalance to the lopsided monopoly enterprise system that the Democrats have enacted in Maryland today.”

‘‘People should vote for me because people should have a watchdog at the top,” Driscoll said. ‘‘We’ve seen what this Maryland [General] Assembly is capable of doing in the way of worker-unfriendly, big business-friendly legislation and we need a voice for people at the top.”