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Margaret Thornton is wearing tiny peace-sign earrings and well-worn Birkenstocks, but it's not what you think. She's staying with a daughter who's a wildlife rehabilitator, and if she's pitching in to care for the wounded birds and animals, that's not what you think, either. She is simply being helpful. Besides, says Margaret Thornton, laughing, "I'm too old to be a hippie." You have to say that up front when your husband is the Green Party candidate for governor and people's notions about that party are so askew - and entrenched. (For some perspective, read the commentary outside of Connecticut about the state's Democratic Party. Did you know that since the Democratic primary, George McGovern's people have come back from the grave and are ready to party? That's not true, of course. Senatorial candidate Ned Lamont is no more a lefty than I am the Queen of May, but there you are: The chattering class has spoken.) Clifford Thornton is the Greens' first gubernatorial candidate, and he is not strictly a hippie, either. He is a former phone company executive and a product of Hartford's North End whose mother died of a heroin overdose when he was a senior at Hartford High. Thornton is a former Breck girl, the daughter of a West Hartford lawyer. She grew up playing piano and bridge. They've been married 19 years and have five daughters -- parents themselves, students going for their masters' degrees, teachers and a police officer -- between them. This is the second marriage for both. She and her husband co-founded Efficacy, an organization that works to reform the country's drug policies. The Thorntons say the war on drugs is actually a war on people - mostly the disenfranchised- and that what keeps it going despite its manifest failure is that it profits people in power. Efficacy grew out of a radio show the Thorntons started 10 years ago on WWUH-FM (91.3). The show was a public-affairs program, but the conversation kept circling back to the country's misbegotten handling of illegal drugs. The death of Clifford Thornton's mother helped shape his opinion. Margaret came to her own as she did research for the show. "When you make drugs illegal, the drugs are controlled by criminals," she says. "They will never go away." But that is not the candidate's only issue. Clifford Thornton also talks about jobs -- the need for more, and the need for a living wage. He says a state lottery should pay for college educations. Politics was not in their plans, but "I feel people should do what they have a passion for," Margaret Thornton says. She acknowledges that at this point if your name isn't M. Jodi Rell, a Connecticut gubernatorial campaign looks quixotic. Rell's approval rating is overwhelmingly high, and the two-party political system keeps rolling along like the bloated tick that it is. Since Lowell Weicker's A Connecticut Party, breaking in as a third-party candidate -- an alternative to politics as usual -- has been nearly impossible. Never mind Team Lieberman. U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman lost the Democratic primary not because of the party he belongs to, but because his politics didn't jibe with the those of most Democrats in the state. Thornton's campaign is entirely different. He has said that the state needs politicians willing to make the tough decisions that might lose them elections. So far, Margaret Thornton's work has mostly been behind the scenes. She will not perfect that political-spouse look, where spouses stand on a stage looking at the candidate as a hungry dog would gaze at a biscuit, but she's already thinking of her role as the wife of the new governor. She'd like to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots, particularly among children. If children know each other as friends, they can't very well turn on one another later. But if things don't go that way -- if Connecticut continues to vote along party lines for its governor -- Margaret Thornton will be fine. "We can't lose," she says. "He's got a platform to say some of the things he believes. People will listen to him." Visit Cliff Thornton's Campaign Website at www.votethornton.com |
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We are careful not to duplicate the efforts of other organizations, and as a grassroots coalition of prisoners and social reformers, our resources (time and money) are limited. The vast expertise and scope of the various drug reform organizations will enable you to stay informed on the ever-changing, many-faceted aspects of the movement. Our colleagues in reform also give the latest drug war news. Please check their websites often. |
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