Green Party Watch

Yesterday the Green Party Black Caucus issued a press release addressing a letter of protest they sent to Attorney General Eric Holder. In part the GPBC is concerned about the impact of the Electoral College on minority and smaller party voters. The full text of the press release is below the fold.

In addition, the GPBC website carries this 12 minute video of Asa Gordon called “Democratizing the Electoral College” H/T to Diane White.

read more »

The first is a re-posting from On The Wilder Side, and addresses the Green Party of New York State’s response to the Governor’s “State of the State” address. It includes comments by David Doonan, Mayor of the Village of Greenwich.

From the pay-to-play politics endemic between lobbyists, special interest groups, and legislators, nearly guaranteed re-election of incumbents, to the power of Senate and Assembly leaders, the legislature makes a mockery of the term representative democracy.

The piece was written by Kimberly Wilder.

The second is about the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts and Jill Stein’s decision to run for Governor of the Commonwealth.

“I’ll soon be announcing a campaign for governor of Massachusetts, a campaign to take our future back from lobbyists and insiders, and get Massachusetts working for the people, and the environment our economy depends on,”

This piece was written by paulie. The IPR piece can be read in full here

The third is about Allison Duncan of New York getting ready to run for Governor. The article includes a link to a press release issued by the New York Greens. It quotes candidate Duncan saying

“The strongest difference between a Green and a Democratic governor is that the Democratic governor is beholden to corporate interests and the Green governor is beholden to the voters.”

It goes on to point to criticism of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger by that state’ Green Party. The article quotes a press release which said

Despite claiming “we all share the pain,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal announced today again protects his wealthy friends and imposes cruel, draconian and life-threatening cuts on the poor, the elderly and children.

This piece was written by d.eris.

Back in 2006 Carl Romanelli sought to run as a Green Party candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania. His ballot access petitions were challenged. He was tossed off the ballot. Later he was charged the costs of the challenger’s expenses. Pennsylvania is the only state to do this. It’s important to understand that that Romanelli was not fined, as he did nothing illegal.

Later it was revealed that some of the challenges were undertaken by state employees working on the taxpayer dollar on behalf of the Democratic nominee. Yesterday seven people pleaded guilty in this case. The story was reported at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The article includes this

Observers in the courtroom included Carl Romanelli, who ran in 2006 as a Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate. Some of the charges in the Bonusgate case revolve around allegations that Democratic staffers worked on state time to challenge signatures on his election petitions in an attempt to knock him off the ballot and secure more votes for Democrat Bob Casey.

Yesterday’s guilty pleas were good news for third-party candidates who have a hard enough time running against majority parties when everyone plays by the rules, Mr. Romanelli said.

Nicholas Ruiz III has announced his campaign for US House of Representatives representing Florida’s 24th House District. He needs to gather 5000 signatures on a ballot access petition to avoid paying a substantial filing fee. His campaign has set an initial goal of raising $10,000 as a foundation for success.

The district includes portions of Orange, Volusia, Seminole and Brevard counties. His campaign plans a “listening tour” of the district. Ruiz is author or co-author of three books, and donations to his campaign can be made here.

Wednesday I attended a hearing by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The case was Tempel v Platt. George Temple, chair of the Charleston Democratic Party sued to keep Eugene Platt, the Green Party nominee for SC House District 115, off the November ballot. Platt had been nominated by the SC Green Party before the Democratic Party held it’s primary. Platt opted to run in the Democratic primary. While he won the SCGP nomination, he lost the Democratic primary. The Charleston Post and Courier has a story on the case as well. H/T to Ballot Access News for the link to the Post and Courier piece.

South Carolina law requires candidates to sign a “loyalty pledge” which says that the candidate will not run a write-in campaign nor attempt to appear on the ballot as a petition candidate if they lose a primary campaign. Platt did not offer as a write-in candidate, nor did he seek signatures to appear as a petition candidate after losing the Democratic primary. Instead, he simply sought to appear on the ballot as the nominee of the ballot qualified party which nominated him: the SC Green Party.

Tempel sued in state court to force Platt off the ballot. The first court to hear the case did not permit the submission of any testimony or evidence. The judge simply said that Platt had signed the pledge and was off the ballot. Case closed.

Wednesday the supreme court heard Platt’s appeal. read more »

January 6th saw the ACLU arguing for Eugene Platt before the South Carolina Supreme Court. Platt had been denied a spot on the ballot in 2008 even though he had been properly nominated by the South Carolina Green Party. After Platt won the Green Party nomination he lost the Democratic primary.

The ACLU press release points out that South Carolina’s loyalty pledge law violates the South Carolina Green Party’s free association rights, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The full release is available at the ACLU website or below the fold. A personal reflection on the court hearing is in progress and will hopefully be here later tonight. read more »

For several weeks Greens across the nation, and especially in Connecticut, have been encouraging Ralph Nader to enter the Senatorial race seeking the seat currently occupied by Christopher Dodd. A darling of Wall Street Bankers and other financial firms, Dodd received a sweetheart mortgage deal from Country Wide as the committee he heads up was deliberating on new regulation of the nation’s financial firms. Now the disgraced Dodd has admitted defeat and decided to take his chips off the table and retire a rich man.

The Democratic Party is now expected to offer up Dick Blumenthal, the state’s Attorney General. The CT Green Party issued a press release today explaining why they still want Nader to run. The full text of the press release is below the fold.

read more »

In a press release issued via PR Newswire, Los Angles Green Party member Deacon Alexander announced his intent to seek the Green Party nomination for Governor of California. Much of the press release concerns an Academy Award ® qualified feature film, Punctured Hope.

In an article at the New York Post, Election Systems & Software lobbyist Anthony Mangone admits that he altered Green Party ballots in an effort to help Republican state senator Nicholas Spano win the Green Party’s nomination. New York is a fusion state.

Mangone testified that he opened up about 30 Green Party ballots, filled them in, “sealed them up” and then had them sent to the Board of Elections, the Journal News reported at the time.

Spano won the Green Party primary by a thin margin, but lost his seat years later.

According to Newsweek, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France may be a “dead man walking”. The article, in part, credits the Green Party’s success in recent European Union elections as well as court rulings that Sarkozy’s carbon tax proposal violates their constitution.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Iran requested a visit by a European delegation, and at the last moment asked that the visit be postponed. According to the article, German Green Party leader Barbara Lochbihler says members of Iranian civil-rights groups have asked her to proceed with the visit despite international criticism. Media attention fueled by criticism from U.S. lawmakers and individual members of the European Parliament gave Iran an “excuse” to postpone the visit, according to Lochbihler.

Finally, the Irish Times is reporting that Green Party Minister of Finance, Brian Lenihan, has announced that he is battling cancer. Placing principal before personality, Lenihan said yesterday that he hoped pposition finance spokespeople would continue their critique of Government policy, adding that the last thing he would want was for them to feel inhibited by his medical condition.

According to the News and Star, the Green Party in Carlisle, England, is opposed to a proposal to lengthen shopping hours next year during the holiday season.

Legislation restricts larger stores, any over 3,000 square feet, to opening for six hours anytime between 10am and 6pm.

Boxing Day 2010 (December 26th) falls on a Sunday and so retailers are asking for the law to be relaxed, arguing that in the current climate it has become one of the most important days of the year.

No, not the former Vice President Spiro Agnew. The candidate in question is Steven Agnew, and the Green Party of Ireland has selected him to run for Parliament from North Down at the next general election. The BBC has details at their site.

The proposals to place Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming and Vermont into inactive status is being voted on now, as mentioned in an earlier article. As of now there are a few “no” votes, and a few “abstain” votes, but most are voting “yes”. Thus far votes have been cast by 22 states or caucuses.

Two other issues are up for votes right now. One, Proposal 433, would appoint Hank Bardel of New York to the Finance Committee. The other, Proposal 432 would establish a “fast track” system for Steering Committee approval of time-sensitive sign-on letters and/or petitions forwarded by the Eco-Action Committee.

As of now, votes on these two proposals are read more »

The Charleston Post and Courier is carrying story about Eugene Platt and his appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court to protect his free speech rights, and the same rights for the South Carolina Green Party.

Platt had sought the Green Party and Working Families Party nomination in spring of 2008. He was nominated by both parties, and Platt’s nomination by the Democratic Party in a primary would seem to make his election all the more likely. South Carolina is one of the states which permit fusion voting.

However, when the Democratic Party primary was held, read more »

The Green National Committee (GNC) is responsible for decision making between Annual National Meetings.  Over the holidays they have been busy, and several proposals are now in the voting phase.

In the not too distant past, some proposals and appointments have failed due to a lack of a voting quorum. To address that problem it has been proposed that four states be assigned a “temporary inactive status”. They include Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Vermont.

All these proposals were submitted by the Accreditation Committee. This committee is headed up by Nannette Garrett of Georgia and Roger Snyder of New York.

So far there have been only “Yes” and “abstain” votes cast, but only a few of those. Voting began today and ends on the 10th.