FDR Secret is Out: The Election of 2006 and  Disabled Candidates

It has been almost 74 years since Franklin D.Roosevelt hide his disability to the world as President of the United States.  In this year’s election people with disabilities in record numbers are running for political office from Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Senate, House of Representatives, State Assembly, and  local Supervisors.   There are candidates with disabilities not only on the two major political party tickets but also on third party tickets as well--Green Party and newly form Green-Rainbow Party in Massachusetts, where 30-year-old Martina Robinson, an African American with cerebral palsy is running against three White non-disabled men--Republican Reed Hillman, Democrat Tim Murray, and Independent John J Sullivan, for Lieutenant Governor. 

In Maine a two-time candidate for Governor and independent, Phillip Morris Napier, who served in the Air Force in 1965 but became disabled after being shot by police is once again running for Governor.   In 2002 Morris was a write-in candidate for governor.  He is one of five candidates on the ballot for governor in the November 7th election.  In many articles it was reported that people in Maine see Morris as a long shot and taking votes away from other candidates.  This election year has also brought diversity among disabled candidates running for office; from Tammy Duckworth, a Filipino disabled Iraq war vet, running in Illinois for the House of Representatives to the late Chris Crowder, an African American disabled community activist of DC who was running for Mayor on the DC Statehood Green Party before being shot in his wheelchair on July 8th. 

Duckworth is not the only war veteran running for political office, matter-of-fact there is a documentary on war veterans running for Congress entitled “Taking The Hill” that will air after the election on the
Discovery Channel.   The cable station noted “at no time in history have so many veterans run for national office at the same time.”  Democrat Phil Avillo, a disabled Marine veteran of the Vietnam War and a York College professor, is running in the Pennsylvania’s 19th District for the House of Representatives.

There are two other Lieutenant Governor races that involved season political officers, Democrat, David Paterson of NY and Republican Kristen Cox of Maryland; both are blind.  Paterson is the state Democratic Leader in the Senate and Kristen Cox  entered the political arena for the first time. Although the people of Winnipeg, Canada, elected a quadriplegic,Sam Sullivan as Mayor last year, here in the US we had only one known physically disabled candidate running for Mayor, Chris Crowder. Crowder was the only physically disabled candidate among 12 candidates who had filed official petitions to run for mayor.

This election year we are seeing young disabled candidates who are political newcomers.  Brooke Ellison 28 of New York City has wheeled into District 2, which covers Suffolk County, Long Island, as a Democrat for state Senate is trying to defeat John J. Flanagan, a Republican who has been in the State Legislature for 20 years.  At age 11, Ellison was hit by a car and was paralyzed from the neck down and now depends on a ventilator to breathe. Although this is her first time in the political arena, Ellison has achieved many goals in her young life.  An honors graduate of Harvard University, Brooke majored in neuroscience and delivered the 2000 commencement address. In January 2002, Brooke and her mother, Jean Ellison, published their joint autobiography, Miracles Happen, which was later made into a movie, directed by Christopher Reeve. Last year Brooke received a Masters in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 2004.

In the San Francisco Bay Area there are newcomers and incumbents who are disabled running for office.  The two that stand out are Alameda, District 16 Assembly race between Eddie Ytuarte of Oakland, who is running for state Assembly in the 16th Assembly District, which includes most of Oakland, all of Alameda and Piedmont, and part of Emeryville on the Peace & Freedom Party. Ytuarte has polio. His is a disabled advocate and Oakland Tenants Union’s coordinator.

Ytuarte goes up against Sandré Swanson, who served Congresswoman Barbara Lee as her Chief of Staff for five years, and Congressman Ron Dellums as his District Director and Senior Policy Advisor for 25 years. San Francisco Board Supervisor, Michela Alioto-Pier, Democrat, who is up for reelection in District 2, Pacific Heights and the Marina looks like a shoe in.  Alioto-Pier is the granddaughter of former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto, and the niece of Angela Alioto, former President of the SF Board of Supervisors. Alioto-Pier was paralyzed from the waist down in a ski-lift accident in 1981, when she was 13.

FDR'S secret, his disability, is now celebrated in party after party in election 2006.


Leroy F. Moore Jr.
On The Outskirts: Race & Disability Consultant
sfdamo@yahoo.com,
www.leroymoore.com
www.nmdc.us 
www.poormagazine.org 
www.molotovmouths.com
 

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