Mayor of Greenland AR seeks Green Senatorial nod
As reported here at Green Party Watch, speculation of a Green Senatorial campaign backed by organized labor in Arkansas has Greens there and across the nation buzzing at the prospect. Rebekah Kennedy, the Green Party standard bearer in 2008, won 20.5% of the vote with few financial resources.
Now John Gray has announced that he is seeking the Green Party’s nomination for the seat currently held by Blanche Lincoln. Gray, Mayor of Greenland, AR (population about 1000), is a former employee of the Atomic Energy Agency who became an anti-nuclear activist. He is also a former out-sourcing specialist who says that he helped move close to a thousand jobs out of the United States to Mexico. According to videos posted to Flickr, Gray became disgusted with the corporate greed he was dealing with and left when he was asked to help move these jobs from Mexico to China.
Gray is not listed as a contact at the Green Party of Arkansas website, nor does he appear in the database of Green Party mayors. Of course, previous Green Party activism is not a requirement to serve as a candidate.
Gray has gotten a good deal of online coverage. Fox 24 covered his plans to run, as did WXVT. KATV is carrying the same AP story, as does KFSM, Today’s THV, and Arkansas Online. The Arkansas Times carries a fuller report which also includes comments by several Arkansas Greens who obviously have been talking with Gray for some time. Jim Lendall, an early Green candidate in Arkansas and former state legislator, has made a comment there as well.
Perhaps the most complete coverage of Gray’s effort to date comes from NWAonline. This same piece was picked up by the Senatus blog and forms the basis, along with a video, of this post at aubunique, a blog maintained by Aubrey James Shepherd.
As was reported at Independent Political Report by Kimberly Wilder, the announcement of Gray’s intent to run was noted at Ballot Access News.
In February of this year the town of Greenland bought a wood chipper to clean up a number of limbs downed in an ice storm and to provide free mulch to town residents.
Good for John Gray and the Freen Party. Offering Americans and Arkansans more options to choose from in setting their future is the American way. Especially right now with so many politicians choosing the party first, special inerests second and the people last. I think people like John and Trevor Drown the independent candidate from Russellville are brave men for stepping up and daring to make a difference.
We here at Third Party Revolution endorse John Gray in his campaign for the Arkansas US Senate Seat, along with many other third party and independent candidates seeking public offices nation-wide, ranging from local to federal levels.
Isn’t it a coincidence that he is the Mayor of Greenland and he is now running as a Green?
Obviously the mayor of Greenland would support the only party that’s trying to keep his homeland from melting.
This is excellent news. As we reported earlier at GPW, progressives in Arkansas, especially union members, are looking for an alternative to Lincoln, the Senator from Wal-Mart.
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2009/05/13/will-unions-back-a-green-for-us-senate-in-arkansas/
Rebekah Kennedy pulling 20% of the vote in 2008 made an impression on people. The Arkansas Green Party is on a smart path to growth by running high-profile campaigns like this. Even better that John Gray is already an elected officeholder.