Comments on: A Message From Malik Rahim’s Campaign Manager

By: John Reeder

John Reeder — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:32:48 +0000

Obviously Greens need to expand their reach to minority voters. African-American voters will be difficult to wean from the Democratic Party which has deep roots with them, but this was a good first step.

The Dems in New Orleans and other machine controlled cities have deep control and ingrained voter preferences that we Greens will only overcome over time.

By: Green Ferret

Green Ferret — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:46:17 +0000

There are 17 Green-Rainbow elected officials in local office. GRs are knocking at the door to higher levels of government, notably Jill Stein, who got 3.5% for governor in 2002, 21% for Middlesex state rep in 2004, 18% for secretary of state in 2006, and is currently a town meeting member in Lexington.

By: Green Ferret

Green Ferret — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:40:30 +0000

I’m sure that the MA Repubs have more elected officials, altho the Dems have a safe supermajority in the legislature and executive branch. I also think that if the GRP ran as many candidates as the Repubs do, they could have more elected officials within 10 years.
MA needs an opposition party, but the Repubs are not that party. We should be.

By: Ross Levin

Ross Levin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:07:03 +0000

How many elected officials does the Mass. Republican party have vs. the Green Rainbow Party? That’s probably the best measure of party strength.

By: John

John — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:16:42 +0000

I very much appreciate this excellent analyis by Robert. There is an honesty and forthrightness in his comments that speak volumes about his sense of integrity and responsibility, including having the courage to openly admit and discuss different mistakes and problem areas. He also took the trouble to thank all of those who helped, which means a great deal to me and I’m sure others who were phone banking from a distance. He rightfully understands that we not only cared about the result but what went into it. This is the utmost in respect that a leader can offer his or her volunteers.

That said, I think in parts that Robert is a little hard on himself, and unfairly so. Greens do not live or operate in a vacuum, and we’re here to help each other when there is a tangible need. The efforts to get national phone bank volunteers were excellent, but sorely lacking was any other effort from national (and I don’t think the phone banking was their project anyway) to mobilize the hundreds more volunteers that Robert (rightfully) says we needed for Malik.

When there are a million races going on the first Tuesday of November, it’s understandably a stretch to focus too many people/resources on just one race (but even there I’ll digress; select local races can indeed be supported nationally given the right direction/leadership/priority-setting…)…. but, anyway, here, national should have been falling all over itself to get people involved in this _one race. High profile candidate, an opportunity for Greens nationally to focus on _one race, _one day… still was a longshot but what an even bigger splash we could have made if Malik & co. had more of a helping hand from above… instead we have national making fundraising phonecalls to Greens on the _same _day as the election… on a day when many Greens already are sacrificing their time by making GOTV calls, pounding the pavement etc., and when those making calls for dollars from national _themsleves should have been making GOTV calls (or at least getting others to do so) !!

This “out of touch” feeling I get from national is discomforting, and someone there needs to understand that they’ll get a lot more bucks in the long run if they motivate/mobilize people NOW to make a splash in one way or another NOW, to stoke and kindle NOW the “fire” that brought so many of us to the party in the first place and help ensure that we’ll be dedicated/motivated Greens not just NOW but for life…!

By: Green Ferret

Green Ferret — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:32:55 +0000

Looking closely at the results, I’m struck by how similar Malik Rahim’s outcome is to Ralph Nader’s in 2000.
Anh Joseph Cao’s margin of victory over William Jefferson was 1,826 votes. Malik Rahim received 1,880 votes. Nader also famously earned more votes than the officially-reported margin of victory between Bush and Gore.
Malik Rahim pulled 2.8%, Ralph Nader got 2.7%. Neither Cao nor Bush earned a majority of votes cast.
In both cases, the candidate with the longest and most distinguished record of public service was marginalized by the media and came in third.

By: Green Ferret

Green Ferret — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:24:35 +0000

Tim, I think outpolling the Republicans to become the second party in certain areas should be a key part of our strategy for building the credibility of the Green Party.
In Albany in 2005, Green candidate for mayor Alice Green received 25% of the vote, outpolling the Repub almost 4 to 1. No word yet on the Albany Greens’ plans for 2009.
In the 2006 MA elections, the Green-Rainbow Party had more statewide candidates than the MA Repubs, who are close to giving up. If the GRP fielded candidates for house and senate elections, beating the Repubs would be an attainable goal within the next 2-4 years. Pressing the collapse of the MA Republican party could create a realignment with the Dems as the dominant party, and the Greens as the progressive challenger.

Richard – Greens have not grabbed the imagination of activists partly because we haven’t done enough outreach, and partly because most activists prefer to imagine that Obama is one of them. The second factor should mostly take care of itself. We need to start putting roughly one hundred times more effort into outreach.

By: Richard Kuszmar

Richard Kuszmar — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:31:21 +0000

The reality is we have too few Cadre to grow the Party. For some reason we have not grabbed the imagination of leading movement activists in this country.

By: Babette Hogan

Babette Hogan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:58:05 +0000

Thanks to Robert for the frank assessment. We saw how much you were putting into it. It was a case of too little, too late. Many more feet on the ground needed. It’s a complicated situation you have in New Orleans, so to wrangle all the factors as you did was very helpful.

Malik remained reflective about what could have been achieved and hopeful about what can still be done.

Good luck to you in NOLA. You deserve/need it.

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:34:48 +0000

I looked back over the 2004 and 2006 congressional races and the only cases where Greens scored over 5% were in California.

This year we scored over 5% in several races in Illinois, which was promising, especially after the Illinois and Maine governors’ races in 2006.

It also seems like there are more areas where we are outpolling the Republicans to be the 2nd party. Here in the east cost that includes Washington, DC, and Baltimore and Takoma Park, Maryland.

So I think there is positive movement, albeit limited.