U.S. Newswire : Releases : "Press Conference to Deliver Petition Urging Rep...."

Press Conference to Deliver Petition Urging Rep. Cunningham Resign Immediately to Be Held Today at Noon at Escondido District Office

8/18/2005 1:03:00 PM


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To: Metro and Assignment desks

Contact: Matt O'Connor of the North County Unity Coalition, 619-647-9306

News Advisory:

-- Press Conference to Deliver Petition Urging Rep. Cunningham Resign Immediately to Be Held Today at Noon

-- New Developments TODAY Compel Rep. Cunningham's Resignation

-- North County Unity Coalition and partner organizations to announce plans to urge member of Congress forward complaint over numerous alleged violations to House Ethics Committee

North County Unity is holding a press conference at the Escondido Transit Center TODAY at 12 noon to discuss its drive to urge Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham to resign his 50th Congressional District seat immediately. As part of the conference, the coalition's Communications Chair, Matt O'Connor will deliver petitions the organization and its partners have been gathering for the past 2 weeks from constituents and area residents alike to Cunningham's District Office, located 1 block away at 613 West Valley Parkway, Escondido, Calif. The event is open to the public, and signatories to the petition are encouraged to attend.

An additional function of the conference will be to call attention to the need for a member of Congress to forward a complaint with the House Ethics Committee to initiate a formal investigation of the numerous charges of corruption Rep. Cunningham has been accused of. In a previous e-mail to over 3,000 activists in the region, the North County Coalition has called for residents of surrounding districts to step forward and formally request their Representative stand up for open and accountable government.

Representatives with the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) will be joining the North County Coalition at the press conference. Their Executive Director, Melanie Sloan is traveling to San Diego from Washington, DC for the event, to discuss the formal complaint they have prepared against Rep. Cunningham, available for a member of the House to forward "in good faith." The complaint is on the CREW website at http://www.citizensforethics.org. Sloan contributed an op-ed piece to the San Diego Union-Tribune in June in which she declared, "common sense tells you that in the people's House, members of Congress should be held accountable for their conduct."

The designer of the new ResignRandy.org Website, created to collect signatures for the Cunningham resignation petition online, Rick Hall, will also speak at the press conference. Hall will discuss his involvement in organizing community activists who have been outraged by the charges of bribery and corruption leveled against Rep. Cunningham over the past 2 months. In an e- mail message to signatories to the RebukeDuke.org Website he launched in June, Hall appealed for Cunnigham to resign so his constituents "can elect his replacement as soon as possible, because the people he represents deserve representation."

A downloadable flyer with details on the conference is available online at the organization's 'Supported Action/Advocacy' page at their Website, at http://www.ncunity.org/action.php. Members of the press who wish to cover the conference may contact North County Unity's Communications Chair Matt O'Connor at 619-647-9306, or by sending e-mail to moconnor@NCUnity.org or CREW's Deputy Director Naomi Seligman at 202.841.5096.

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