Green Party Watch

Former Brazilian Environment Minister and life long defender of the Amazon Marina Silva has responded to the outpouring of petitions for her to run for President by taking the next step – joining the Green Party of Brazil. While she has not announced that she is a candidate for the Presidency, she hinted at it

From Reuters:

SAO PAULO, Aug 30 (Reuters) – Brazil’s former environment minister Marina Silva took another big step on Sunday toward an expected presidential bid by joining the Green Party, which wants to field her in the 2010 race.

Silva, an internationally renowned defender of the Amazon, shook up Brazil’s political landscape last month when she said she may run for the country’s top job.

“I feel honored with the invitation to run for the presidency and that people embraced the idea,” Silva told party leaders and supporters in Sao Paulo.

“But we’ll take that decision only in 2010,” she said, amid chants of “Marina for President”.
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MAP: Green Journey – more free videos

H/T to Diane White of PA.

Anthony Zeli is running for school board in Portland, Maine. According to a post by Anna Trevorrow at Facebook, he has turned in the required signatures and a campaign kick-off party is planned for September 5th. Full details are behind the fold.
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At the recent Green Party national convention the delegates decided that energy would be part of our focus over the next year. This has been an important decision for Greens in South Carolina.

The state’s electric suppliers have proposed building four new nuclear power plants. Two are proposed near Jenkinsville, and two near Gaffney.

In addition, utilities have proposed a coal burning power plant near Florence. Recently Santee Cooper, the utility, decided to cancel their plans to build this coal burner.
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The New York Times has a feature on Green Party member Greta Browne and her “Sometimes Lonely Trek for Global Warming Awareness“:

On Route 11 north of Tuscaloosa, Ala., last April, a pickup truck pulled up next to Greta Browne, and a young man began lecturing her about global warming.

He had seen Ms. Browne’s T-shirt announcing that she was “Walking for the Climate,” and he wanted to set her straight. Humans, he told her, have nothing to do with heating up the planet.

Ms. Browne, 65, a Unitarian minister from Bethlehem, Pa., has encountered more than one global warming naysayer since last March, when she began a trek up the Eastern seaboard to draw attention to climate change.

“Sometimes, you just have to stand up,” she said.

[...]

As she has plodded along, Ms. Browne said, she has come to understand her journey as a one-woman survey of the American mindset on global warming, though one, she readily concedes, that is deeply unscientific. Normally a glass-half-full type, she says the trip has made her “more pessimistic.”

“Mostly people think it is a problem,” she said, “but mostly they think it will not impact them anytime soon.”

A longtime member of the Green Party and the founder of a vegetarian cooperative restaurant, she has been concerned for years about global warming. But after she retired last year, she joined an environmental group and read “Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet” by Mark Lynas. The book, which argues that most of humanity could be wiped out by the end of the century if Earth’s temperatures continue to warm, galvanized her.

(thanks to Kevin M for the story tip)

2009 Green Party Candidates

Close to 150 Greens are running in races around the nation in 2009. In the upper right corner of this site we now have a page listing these candidates and the offices they are running for. You can also click here to go there. We will start a 2010 candidates page shortly. If you notice any omissions please let us know.

Note that most of this information came from the GPUS searchable database of candidates, which one should appreciate if you like databases and candidate histories.

Facebook

Green Party Watch is building a presence on Facebook! We now have a “Fan Page” and hey, we want you to be a Fan! Please check us out there as well as here, you can comment on stories there as well as here, and we will be developing the discussion boards there as well. Become a Fan of GPW and get our posts in your Facebook Newsfeed. We gladly welcome any input into our Facebook endeavor.

…and speaking of Facebook…

Here are two “official” Green Party Facebook Groups and Pages (of the many out there):

Green Party (US) – This is the Page that gp.org links to, as close to “official” as you are going to get in the US of A. Join the 4,608 other fans of the Green Party!

The UK Green Party is set up as a “group” not a “fan page”, and has 5,035 members. Many of the state and local Green Party facebooks are “groups”  not “fan pages”, but note that Green Party Watch is set up as a “fan page”. I guess it is all in what you want to do with it.

Facebook can be a potentially useful organizing tool locally if one uses it right and remembers that it is at its core a profit driven web presence to be wielded carefully and without expectation of permanence.

A very grateful hat tip to Ballot Access News.

Connecticut Public Funding Law Held Unconstitutional Because it Discriminates Severely Against Minor Parties & Independent Candidates

August 27th, 2009

On August 27, U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill, a Clinton appointee, held that Connecticut’s public funding law for candidates is so discriminatory in favor of the two major parties, and against all other parties and candidates, that it is unconstitutional in its entirety. The opinion is 138 pages long. A link to the decision is found in this news story from Connecticut News Junkie. Thanks to Ken Krayeske for this news. The case is Green Party of Ct. v Garfield, 3:06cv1030. The Libertarian Party is a co-plaintiff. read more »

There is never a shortage of exciting news about Reverend Billy Talen’s Green Party campaign for mayor of New York City – especially since campaign volunteers submitted 2.5x the signatures they needed to get Billy on the ballot. Nevertheless, 2 events on Friday August 28th seem to merit special attention.

Subway whistlestop tour: 2 Train for 2 Terms!

Join Reverend Billy and the team as we sing, preach, smile and talk with New Yorkers on the subway about this campaign for Mayor. Democracy is when we talk to to each other in public, amen? This week: we’re riding the 2 Train, talking about how Mike Bloomberg and the City Council should’ve stuck with 2 terms, as decided (twice) by NYC voters at the ballot box!

BAJAO out the vote for a new NYC mayor!

Reverend Billy will be giving Midnight Mass at Club Exit’s Bajao-themed Brooklyn Summer Stomp (Bajao, from the Hindi word meaning To Play/Play Hard/Playing like never before /in a Playful Spirit)! Reverend Billy needs no introduction to New Yorkers – but did you know he’s running for Mayor? BAJAO out the vote with us and get registered! His volunteers will be with us all night to get you on the rolls.

Also, check out Billy Talen’s latest blog, a spot-on indictment of Bloomberg’s power grab entitled “It’s our Democracy, Stupid!”

In a report at Ballot Access News, Richard Winger reports that a new date, September 23, has been set for depositions to be taken in the case of the “mystery Greens”. Five people unknown to any Florida Green Party members filed to run for office in races where the Republican and Democratic Parties were both fielding candidates, paying a substantial filing fee to do so.

After they filed to run several people, including this writer, attempted to reach them to find out what their plans were. Contact was minimal and as far as can be determined no actual campaigning happened. The state chair filed suit to find out where the money to pay the filing fees came from. According to brief discussions with Floridians attending the national convention, the depositions have been delayed as lawyers representing the “mystery Greens” dropped the case and new attorneys had to be found.

The Illinois Green Party issued a press release today calling Governor Quinn’s “amendatory veto” of HB732 support for a “Protect Incumbents Act”. The bill, vetoed with provisions that would allow it to become law if amended to include an unrelated election law provision he wants, according to Ballot Access News

The full text of the press release is behind the fold.

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The ACLU and the Green Party of Arkansas has filed a law suit against Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels who has determined that the Green Party will no longer be recognized based on not exceeding 3% of the vote for President in Arkansas in 2008. In that same year, Rebekah Kennedy earned 20% of the vote in Arkansas in a state wide race for US Senate, and candidates for 3 of 4 US House seats earned 23% (Deb McFarland), 21% (Abel Tomlinson) and 14% (Joshua Drake), and elected a candidate to the State House (Richard Carroll).

More on this case as it develops, but here is the lawsuit, and here is the press release issued by the ACLU.

Ballot Access News found this TV News report.

The Green Party in Norway is one of 11 political parties fielding a full slate of candidates for office. Two of Norway’s privately owned television stations have agreed to give each of these parties access to free time, while the public television station has extended access to only seven of them, leaving the Greens out in the cold.

The Green Party in Noway has taken their case to the international Green community at a website called Democracy in Norway, and has put up a petition you can sign and send.

Good news! A Green Party is forming in India very soon. I was wondering when a country of 2 billion would finally get a Green Party! Environmental champion Subhas Dutta will be visiting the Green Party in England to exchange ideas with Leader Caroline Lucas. Here’s hoping Vandana Shiva joins the Greens (I’m a big fan)!

Datta is flying to London on September 12 for talks with Caroline Lucas, a leader of the UK Green Party and member of the European Parliament.

“I will learn about the Green Party’s constitution, policies, framework and success. I would also like to interact with members of Germany’s Green Party as it is the first among green parties worldwide to achieve national prominence by being part of the ruling Social Democratic Party coalition from 1998 to 2005. Our party will be launched next year and we will fight the 2011 Assembly elections in West Bengal,” Datta told TOI on Wednesday.

Times of India

Asked about how his party would be funded, Mr Dutta said he was hopeful that millions of Indians would donate for the Green Party “because they have become more and more environment conscious”.

He is, however, not very keen on donations from the corporate sector.

“We would prefer the corporates in private and public sector to take up some causes like Calcutta’s river front cleanup and development rather than give our party direct donations.”

BBC

Peter Orvetti reports at Independent Political Report that Rocky Neptun has issued an “Open Challenge to San Diego Green Party Members” at Indy Bay

While we squabble like spoiled brats and all too often are plagued by mouse warrior type “leaders” who talk to hear their heads rattle; the Green Party, for me, is all that is whole and decent in a corrupt political system that is owned by powerful corporate interests. The Democratic Party hierarchy will, time and again, as agents of privilege, squash true economic or political change in this country.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 26, 2009

JEREMY KARPEN FOR 39TH STATE REPRESENTATIVE
www.jeremykarpen.org

CONTACT: David Sacks – Campaign Manager
dave@jeremykarpen.org – 773-557-9411

JEREMY KARPEN LAUNCHES 2010 CAMPAIGN FOR 39TH STATE REPRESENTATIVE
-Criticizes Incumbent Berrios And Springfield

Mr. Jeremy Karpen officially launched his 2010 campaign for 39th state representative last night, at Cole’s Bar in Logan Square. The Green Party event featured local musicians, and highlighted Mr. Karpen’s message of universal healthcare, affordable housing, and full funding for education and social services.

Mr. Karpen ran for the same office in 2008, taking 21% of the vote. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor, working as a therapist for troubled youth at a residential treatment center in Chicago. Mr. Karpen also volunteers his time as a Partner Abuse Intervention Facilitator at a local domestic violence agency.

“The 2008 election ended almost 10 months ago. And for almost 10 months, people have been asking me if I’m running again in 2010,” said Karpen. “The answer is yes. I still believe health care, education, and affordable housing are human rights. Toni Berrios and Springfield continue to push gambling on our communities instead of helping people.”

“Even without Blagojevich, this year was unfortunately all too typical,” said Phil Huckelberry, Chair of the Illinois Green Party. “The General Assembly does nothing all session, ties up funding for social services and public works, then they pass a massive gambling expansion at the last minute that will barely fund either.”

The incumbent, Ms. Maria Antonia “Toni” Berrios, receives thousands of dollars every election cycle from casinos, race tracks, and gambling interests. Her father, Mr. Joseph Berrios, is simultaneously chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, Commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review, and a paid lobbyist for the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association, one of the largest pro-gambling outfits in Illinois. Ms. Berrios sits on committees and votes on bills that potentially benefit her dad’s clients, including the recently passed Video Gaming Act.
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