Green Party Watch

Posted at Ballot Access News:

In 2008, five Florida voters filed in the Green Party primary to run for the legislature. No Green Party leaders had ever been aware of them, and circumstantial evidence suggested that Republican Party activists had recruited them to run, for the purpose of giving the Republican nominees in those five districts an advantage. Although all five races had been expected to be close, Democrats won all five despite the presence of the Green Party nominees.

The state chair of the Green Party filed a lawsuit last year, seeking to find out whether the candidates’ campaign finance reports might have been untruthful, because each said he or she paid the filing fee of approximately $2,000 without help from any outside source, which seems dubious. There was to have been a deposition of one of the candidates on September 23, but it was cancelled, for the second time, because no one knows where that one candidate is now, so she couldn’t be served. The plaintiffs will now seek to depose the other four candidates, if they can be found. The case is called King v Roman, Pasco Co., 6th dist., 51-2008-ca-8091.

This race is in Arlington Virginia. John Reeder’s website: http://reeder4arlington.org/

From the Sun Gazette:

The Green Party’s candidate for County Board out-raised the Democratic incumbent during the two months ending Aug. 31, but County Board Vice Chairman Jay Fisette maintained a 10-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage in his bid for a fourth term.

Green Party nominee John Reeder reported $3,038 in contributions during the most recent reporting period, compared to $2,068 for Democrat Fisette, according to campaign filings released Sept. 15 by the State Board of Elections.

Unfortunately for Reeder, he only started the reporting period with $623 on hand, compared to $31,517 for Fisette. Counting expenditures made during the period, Fisette on Sept. 1 began the final two-month stretch to the election with $24,738 on hand, compared to $2,406 for the Reeder campaign.

(There is no Republican candidate in the race.)
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This is interesting. Maine  Green Party Independent leaders Pat LaMarche and Lynne Williams (2010 candidate for governor) are on the opposite sides of a tax referendum issue, Question 2, in this coming November election. LaMarche is in favor of Question 2 and Williams is opposed to the question.

Here is the wording of the ballot question:

Question 2: An Act to Decrease the Automobile Excise Tax and Promote Energy

“Do you want to cut the rate of the municipal excise tax by an average of 55% on motor vehicles less than six years old and exempt hybrid and other alternative-energy and highly fuel-efficient motor vehicles from sales tax and three years of excise tax?”

You can find the language of the legislation here.

Here are what the two sides had to say about the ballot question:

LaMarche and the Yes side:

“To me, it doesn’t matter that they thought I would agree with this. The fact is, they’re right,” LaMarche says.

LaMarche says as a volunteer for the campaign she remembers how hard it is to pay excise taxes and still pay the bills.

She also thinks the proposed changes to the excise tax will provide an incentive for mainers to buy fuel-efficient cars in a better way than the federal government’s Cash for Clunkers program, which gave rebates for older cars, and then took them off the road.

“This one is not that way,” says LaMarche. “The person who buys the more fuel-efficient car will get a tax break as the incentive did for Cash for Clunkers. But their used cars will stay in the car pool so that a person with less opportunity to purchase will still have a car to buy.”

Williams and the No side:

“We wanted to make sure, and reiterate the fact, and set the record straight that environmentalists are not for this issue,” says Lizzy Reinholt, a spokesperson for the NO on 2 campaign. “And Lynne was the perfect person for that.”

Reinholt counters that the referendum would cut revenues by $85 million– money that most towns and cities use to pay for repairs of roads and bridges.

She says that attempts to green the referendum are disingenous, because a hybrid that gets only 20 miles per gallon could still qualify for the tax break.

“I am Green and I try to speak with a green voice,” Williams says.

Williams says that the referendum will not improve the environment AS supporters claims, noting that most Mainers do not have the money to go buy new cars.

Meanwhile, the Maine Green Independent Party has not officially taken a stance yet.

Source: Maine Public Broadcasting Network

Posted by Paulie at
Independent Political Report:

Emailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com:

Green Party gubernatorial candidate, Rich Whitney, will team up with the Green candidate for congress in Illinois’s 5th congressional district, Matt Reichel, for a fundraiser the evening of Wednesday, September 30th.

This event will conclude Reichel’s Money Bomb, wherein he has been asking supporters to pledge to donate online on the final day of the third accounting period. If the campaign surpasses $5,000, Reichel will be required to file with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

On the prospects of these two campaigns, Reichel says: “Rich Whitney put the Greens on the scene here in Illinois with his tremendous showing in the 2006 gubernatorial race, while I surpassed all expectations in scoring an impressive 7% of the vote in a district that has traditionally elected conservative machine Democrats. It is clear that the forces of change are behind us, and we are headed for historic election results here in Illinois next November.”

The event will begin at 7:00 pm at the Globe Pub, 1934 W. Irving Park in Chicago. At 8:00pm, both candidates will address supporters.

Entertainment will be provided by the Maybenauts, DJ Shami Sosa and others.

Posted by Ross Levin at Independent Political Report:

A recent upsurge in violent crimes in Richmond, California has citizens looking to the local government and its leaders for solutions. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a Green who has a constituency larger than any other elected official from her party in the country, is trying to address those concerns. Richmond is a city of over 100,000 people, and the violence in the past week has included:

Police have identified four of those victims, including a carjacking suspect killed by a Pinole police officer after a chase on Saturday night.

Levi Boynton was one of three carjacking suspects who fled from Pinole police and got into a shootout when their vehicle crashed near Richmond Parkway on Saturday night. He died and the other two men are now in jail.

Later that same day, Richmond police found 34-year-old Tamar Anderson suffering from a gunshot wound in the 2800 block of Virginia Avenue. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Friday night, 20-year-old Alfred Thomas of Rodeo and 19-year-old Kaneesha Mallard of Hercules were killed at the 76 gas station at Imperial Avenue and Carlson Boulevard.

Mayor McLaughlin tried to offer solutions to the problem. From KCBS Richmond:

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said the city had been taking steps to reverse what she called “decades of injustice.” She cited the job training and life skills training programs offered through Richmond’s Office of Neighborhood Safety.

“We’re reaching out to young people,” McLaughlin said.

Richmond’s homicide toll now stands at 40.

And from The San Francisco Chronicle:

Family members and local officials said the violence was symptomatic of a broader societal problem.

“Either there is no plan or the plan that is in place is not working,” Shumake said. “Something is wrong and we need some answers. We are tired of the devastation that is taking place in our community.”

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, who joined the family at the gas station Wednesday, said, “This is most definitely a systemic problem. For decades, we’ve seen a lot of neglect.”

The mayor said police, including officers on bikes and on foot, were patrolling “hot spots” and that community outreach teams have been going into the neighborhoods in hopes of stemming the violence.

Ballot Access News reports:

The Green Party of Canada does well in elections, but has never elected anyone to the Canadian Parliament. On September 19, the party nominated its national leader, Elizabeth May, to run in the next national election from the British Columbia district known as Saanich-Gulf Islands. In the last election, May ran for Parliament from Nova Scotia. Canada, like Great Britain, does not have a tradition that members of Parliament need to have any special residential connection with the districts they seek to represent.

The Green Party national leadership evaluated all the districts in Canada, and concluded that Saanich-Gulf Islands is more likely to elect a Green than any other district. However, not every Green supported the May nomination for that district, and the decision was not unanimous. See this story.

Brazilian author Paulo Coelho is reportedly considering a run for the Brazilian legislature with the Green Party there. This follows close on the heals of a decision by Marina Silva, a prominent environmentalist activist and former Environment Minister, to join the Green Party.

Paulo Coelho is also the author of The Alchemist, the most translated book by a living writer.

The Irish government is a coalition in which the Irish Green Party plays a small but essential role. The Irish government is considering a proposal, the NAMA, which would put assets from bankers and developers into a “bad bank” designed to dispose of these poorly performing investments.

Now the Belfast Telegraph is reporting that the Irish Green Party leadership is telling the other coalition partners that there must be changes to the NAMA to make it acceptable to the Green Party’s members or expect the government to fail.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 is world-wide CAR FREE DAY!!!!
  
Try to walk, bike, or take the bus to work, the store, run errands, etc…….
 
The Mahoning Valley Green Party will be riding the WRTA to downtown Youngstown around 10:30am to spend the midmorning having lunch and encourages others to join us on that day….
 
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party

The Mahoning Valley Greens of Youngstown, Ohio teamed up with Repower America, Repower Ohio, and the Climate Protection Action Fund and held a Use the power of the pen to repower America! Letter writing and national call in Day to urge our senators to pass clean energy climate protection legistlation this year.

A large number of Green members came out to  help write letters and call senators regarding bringing renewable energy jobs to Youngstown and Ohio!

In June, popular TV host Bill Maher asked, “Shouldn’t there be one party that unambiguously supports cutting the military budget, a party that is straight up in favor of gun control, gay marriage, higher taxes on the rich, universal health care — legalizing pot — and steep, direct taxing of polluters?… what we need is an actual progressive party to represent the millions of Americans who aren’t being served by the Democrats.”

Let’s introduce Bill Maher — and his national audience — to Reverend Billy Talen, the Green candidate for mayor of New York City.

Rev. Billy is an eloquent spokesperson for the Green movement.  He’s smart, dynamic and hilarious too.

Will you ask Real Time with Bill Maher to have Rev. Billy on the show?

Rev. Billy just turned in more than 18,000 signatures to earn a spot on this November’s ballot to run against the “billionaire mayor,” Mike Bloomberg.

Can you help Rev. Billy spread his message that we need Green solutions to create vibrant, diverse neighborhoods?

Yes, I want Green voices in the media – I’ll contact Real Time With Bill Maher today!

For more on Billy Talen’s campaign, take a look at VoteRevBilly.org.

The Green Party’s press release inviting recently-ousted White House green jobs advisor Van Jones to join the Greens, potentially as a candidate, has been making the rounds, starting with a story on influential Washington blog The Hill that speculated that Greens are looking to Jones as a future presidential candidate.

Then Environmental Leader picked up the story, taking it a step further than The Hill with the headline “Green Party Considers Van Jones for Presidential Run”.

Hip Hop Wired joined in, with some of the most interesting commentary yet:

Following the leaks, he found himself silenced saying what millions of people were thinking, and had to formally “resign.”  Now he’s getting his past due and will reportedly be the Green Party’s candidate for President in the 2012 election. The Green Party is sticking up for the brother and denouncing the Republican party for attacking Black politicians…

Rosa Clemente, 2008 Green Vice-presidential candidate, also spoke her mind in a guest post on PBS host Tavis Smiley’s blog.

A “Draft Van Jones for Governor of California” facebook page, encouraging Jones to seek the Green nomination for the California governor’s race in 2010, is up and running. If you agree with Van Jones’ vision of solving our economic and ecological crises at the same time with green public works, join the group and spread the word.

• America needs Medicare For All/Single-Payer, not a life-support system for insurance companies and HMOs

• Whether Obamacare passes or the GOP blocks health care reform, insurance companies will win and American people will lose

• Attention paid to Obamacare vs. town hall hecklers eclipses the fact that most Americans want national health care, according to polls

The following is a Green Party (http://www.gp.org) response to President Obama’s address to Congress on September 9, 2009

President Obama was correct when he said, quoting the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, that health care was fundamentally a moral issue and a matter of “social justice and the character of our country.” President Obama understands that we’re in a national crisis — that’s why he wants to lead on health care reform.

But the President stopped short of asserting that health care should be made a right for all Americans. He said he has “no interest in putting insurance companies out of business.” He did not admit the fact that the insurance industry’s very existence depends on the power to restrict coverage, deny claims to those with coverage, cancel coverage for people when they need medical care most, and reject people who are high-risk because of low income, age, and prior medical condition. (President Obama related several accounts of such outrages in his speech.) The insurance business plays a middle-man role, exacting huge fees for its profits, administrative costs, overhead, and high CEO salaries, while providing no medical services.

As long as for-profit insurance continues to exist, access to health care remains secondary to corporate middle-man profits. Replacing private insurance and HMO coverage with a plan to make Medicare universal is the only solution.
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Ohio’s Dennis Spisak’s Petitions Certified, on the ballot in November

Dennis Spisak, one of the first Greens elected in Ohio back in 2005, has had his petitions certified by the Mahoning County Board of Elections and will seek re-election to the
Struthers City Schools Board of Education this November 3, 2009.

Although the race is non-partisan, Struthers is a one-party town and Mr. Spisak is facing a tough challenge from the ruling Democratic Party who will be running two candidates against him for his seat on the board of education.

Mr. Spisak’s web site is www.spisakforschoolboard.com. Donations are welcomed and appreciated to help keep a Green voice in our public education system.

In a statement received by Green Party Watch, the Partido Verde, the Brazilian Green Party, announced that Senator Marina Silva has joined the party. More than a thousand Brazilian Greens were at a national meeting in Sao Paulo when she announced that she was joining the Green Party.

Silva had served as Environment Minister in President Lula da Silva’s cabinet. Being broadly encouraged to join the Partido Verde, Silva said that she would make no decisions on a possible presidential run of her own until 2010.

The full text of the announcement is below the fold.

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