Midge Potts for U.S. Senate 2010 June 27th, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Midge Potts 417-569-6422 Peace Activist Officially Announces Candidacy for Missouri's US Senate Seat Converting America's Nuclear Arsenal into Economic Growth will be major priority of Progressive Party Candidate SPRINGFIELD, MO – Midge Potts, who previously ran against Representative Roy Blunt in Missouri's 7th Congressional district 2006 Republican Primary, made an official announcement on Thursday June 25th that she intends on entering the race to fill Missouri's US Senate seat currently held by Senator Kit Bond who is retiring. Ms. Potts, who is the state co-chair of the Progressive Party of Missouri, said she made the announcement in conjunction with the Proposition One Nuclear Diarmament Tour so that she could highlight Nuclear Disarmament as the center piece of her campaign platform. The announcement, made in front of a substantial crowd of supporters, took place at a local coffee house across from Missouri State University Campus in Potts' hometown of Springfield, MO. "I fully support the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act that was first introduced into the House of Representatives by Washington DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton." said Midge Potts, If elected, I intend on introducing a version of the bill in the US Senate." The bill would essentially dismantle the nuclear arsenal kept by the United States in proportion to the weapons maintained by other countries with nuclear capability, and would convert the money spent on maintaining America's nuclear missle program on healthcare and other essential social programs. According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists the United States currently has over 5,000 nuclear weapons. "As a fiscal conservative, I would also like to see a significant portion of the money saved by disarming American nukes used to pay down our 10 trillion dollar debt." Potts said, "Other issues that will play an intregal part of my platform include cancelling America's participation in NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, withdrawing all US troops from the Middle East, balancing the federal budget, abolishing the IRS and the Federal Reserve, as well as making it legal for American farmers to grow hemp and marijuana. I will also be talking about not-for-profit healthcare as a defense issue that could save countless lives in the United States." Midge Potts, who has twice run for the House of Representatives, is best known for the 2007 protest in which she was standing behind former CIA operative Valerie Plame in a House Government Oversight Committee hearing with an Impeach Bush Now t-shirt. Other protests with signs behind Bush administration officials, including Alberto Gonzales, Condoleeza Rice, and Robrt Gates, have landed photos of Potts in the New York Times, USA Today and other major news publications.