Green Party Watch

News from Ballot Access News about the New Mexico Green Party petitioning efforts:

From Ross Levin at Independent Political Report:

Mayor John Gray of Greenland, Arkansas is running as a Green Party candidate for US Senate in Arkansas.  He was recently featured on the television station KTHV-TV’s news show.

Keep reading for a transcript of the broadcast, or watch the video at the above link. read more »

In Illinois, Green Party candidates Rich Whitney (Governor), LeAlan Jones (U.S. Senate), and Tom Tresser (Cook County Board President) will appear on the WTTW PBS program “Chicago Tonight” tomorrow Wednesday 2/17 at 7pm central time zone.

If you’re in the Chicago, try to catch it!. If you’re not, WTTW will post an archive of the interviews on their website here probably Thurs. I’ll update this post when they do so please check back here!

I’m quite impressed so far of how much mainstream media IL Green Party candidates are getting. I would be scared if I was Mike Madigan or Tom Cross.

*Update 2/18, 12:01am: Here’s the video:

In Wisconsin, Spring elections are mostly local, non-partisan elections. The Wisconsin Green Party has a long history of running and winning in these races.

In 2010, 7 Wisconsin Greens will be on the ballot. 5 are incumbents, 2 are running unopposed. Two candidates face February 16 Primaries.

Polk County

Kathy Kienholz is running for re-election to the Polk County Board (District 6). She was first elected in 2008. This year, according to the Osceola Sun, Kienholz will face 2 challengers in a February 16 primary that will eliminate one candidate.

Jeff Peterson is back in the race for Polk County Board (District 5) as a challenger this time. He was first elected in 2006, then defeated in 2008 by a stealth write-in campaign. This year he is challenging the man that beat him. Peterson first ran for office in 1994, for State Assembly. In 1998 he got 2% of the vote for the statewide State Treasurer race. In 2002 he was the Wisconsin Green Party candidate for Lt. Governor.

Winnebago County

Ronald Hardy is running for Oshkosh City Council, this is his first time running for office. There are 7 candidates in the at-large race running for 3 seats, meaning there will be a February 16 primary to narrow the field to six candidates. Hardy is the Chair of the City of Oshkosh Sustainability Board, a library administrator at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, and chair of the Lake Winnebago Green Party.

Two other Greens (Tony Palmeri and Bob Poeschl) are currently serving on the seven member Oshkosh City Council.

Dane County

In Dane County, home of Madison, Barbara Vedder and John Hendrick are both running unopposed for re-election to the Dane County Board. Vedder was first elected to the County Board in 2006. Prior to that, she served on the Madison City Council from 1995-2001. Her son is a former Green Elected, Echnaton Vedder.

John Hendrick was first elected to the Dane County Board in 2000.

Wyndham Manning, who was elected to the County Board in 2008, is not seeking re-election.

Jefferson County

In Jefferson County, Greg David is running for re-election to the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors. David is involved with the Natural Step for Sustainable Communities movement, and has helped educate Wisconsin Greens as well as many others about the Natural Ste. He has one opponent in the race.

Douglas County

David Conley is running for re-election to Douglas County Board of Supervisors, District 5. He was first elected to the County Board in 1986, making him the longest continuously serving Green in office at 24 years.

Fellow County Board Supervisor Bob Browne however is not running for re-election. He was first elected in 1992 and will have served for 18 years.

Portage County

Incumbent John Rendall is not seeking re-election to the Portage County Board of Supervisors. He was first elected in 2006, and re-elected in 2008.

Barron County

Incumbent John Hardin has left the Green Party and is now an Independent. Hardin was elected as a Green in 2002 and re-elected to the Barron County Board in 2004, 2006, and 2008.

Via Independent Political Report:

Ross Mirkarimi, a Green San Francisco Supervisor and one of the more successful Green Party politicians in the nation, was recently elected to chair the San Francisco Transportation Authority.  From the San Francisco Examiner:

During Tuesday morning’s Transportation Authority meeting a new chair was elected to the post, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. The political maneuvering puts the more progressive members of the Board of Supervisors, who enjoy a majority rule, in charge of the authority.

The authority was created in 1989 to administer a half-cent transportation sales tax program and approves the spending of the money on various projects, including those of the MTA. The authority is made up of the 11 members of the Board of Supervisors.

The authority was led by Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who apparently saw the writing on the political wall when he offered a motion Tuesday morning during the annual election of the chair to succeed and nominate Mirkarimi as the chair.

Carol Marin is a big time political columnist for the Chicago Sun Times and is the political editor for the NBC-Chicago affiliate. She recently wrote a sweet article on the Illinois Green Party in her last column in the Sun Times. This is a pretty significant story considering Marin is well respected in the Chicago mainstream media.

Discontented Voters Could Go Green

“…In Chicago, according to Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Jim Allen, fully 5 percent of those who bothered to vote in the Democratic or Republican primaries didn’t check off any candidate for governor. Not even after the voting machine spit their ballot back out alerting them that they had left the office blank.

“Even with this alert system and even with this lively heated contest, more people took a pass on it than they did four years ago when it was Blagojevich vs. Edwin Eisendrath, a functional unknown,” Allen said.

Interestingly, that alert system was only triggered for statewide offices. So further on down the ballot, when it came to voting for president of the Cook County Board, voters received no electronic reminder to vote but seemed determined to do so anyway.

“The one office that got more voter participation than any other was Cook County Board president,” Allen said. “Only 3.9 percent of the voters did not make a choice.”

And the resounding choice was to throw Todd Stroger out and bring Toni Preckwinkle in.

So what does any of this say about the Greens for 2010?

That, like the beleaguered Scott Lee Cohen of momentary lieutenant governor fame, if they can hone their message and capitalize on the raging discontent in the electorate, they might be hosting a Green tea party of their own.”

In other Illinois news, Richard Winger of Ballot Access News is reporting that 5,501 voters pulled a Green Party in the last primary election two weeks ago. That’s an amazing increase from 2008 where close to 3,000 voters pulled a Green primary ballot.

read more »

From Indian Country Today:

Jimi Castillo is the first Native American to run for the office of Lt. Governor in California on behalf of the Green Party. His tribal ancestry is Tongva, the original people of the Greater Los Angeles area, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino County (commonly referred to as the Gabrieleno) and Acjachemen, the original people of the south Orange County area and northern San Diego County (commonly referred to as the Juaneno).

read more »

Today is Green Blog Action Day over at Green Change.  The topic for today is electoral reform, which is addressed  in the Green Party’s platform.   It will be interesting to read from bloggers on Green Change from all over the country on the topic of electoral reform.   My contribution to the Green Blog Action Day today is to provide a summary of electoral issues in Utah, including bills up for adoption during this year’s Legislative Session.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, that resulted in granting corporations the same constitutional rights as people have, has, in essence, made a mockery of campaign finance laws and election laws in general.   We have before us, then, greater challenges than ever before in the world of electoral politics.

One of the biggest issues at the forefront in Utah has been election fraud, an issue that many states have faced.  Voters have found in recent years that their votes haven’t counted or they weren’t even able to vote, or that the electronic voting machines were flawed.  Greens, such as David Cobb, 2004 Green Party Presidential Candidate, have been at the forefront of demanding vote recounts in elections where fraud was suspected.  “Either every vote is sacred, or democracy is a sham.“~ David Cobb, December 2009

Read the rest of my post here, where I highlight the electronic voting machine debacle of 2006, voter issues, and bills currently under consideration in Utah’s 2010 Legislative Session.

A blogger on the San Francisco Chronicle’s City Brights blog recently interviewed Don MacLeay, Green Party candidate for Mayor of Oakland. The original post includes a 20-minute video interview with MacLeay for those interested in learning more.

When Ron Dellums became Mayor of Oakland in 2006, Don MacLeay became concerned again after Dellums said his job wasn’t to fix potholes. “I just couldn’t disagree more,” Don MacLeay said. “I’d like to be a mayor who’s interested in potholes. Who’s interested in a lot of those details.” read more »

From Pitchfork:

On Radiohead’s Dead Air Space site, frontman Thom Yorke announced today that he’ll play a “low key solo thing” at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in Cambridge, England on February 25. The show will serve as a benefit for the Green Party, and Yorke is playing it because he’s supporting environmentalist friend Tony Juniper in his campaign for a seat in the British Parliament. Juniper recently accompanied Yorke to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. read more »

From GreenChange:

Green Change endorses California’s Dan Hamburg for Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. His record of public service and passionate advocacy for Green values make him an exceptional candidate.

Mendocino County, a county the size of Delaware on California’s northern coast, is a rugged, beautiful area with numerous rivers, giant redwoods and farmland. As Supervisor, Dan Hamburg will bring vibrancy to the local economy and fiscal responsibility to government. His focus on conservation and sustainability will help preserve Mendocino County’s beautiful landscape for future generations. read more »

Dr. Jill Stein’s formal announcement on Monday of her campaign for governor of Massachusetts as the Green-Rainbow Party candidate drew coverage from media outlets including the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, MySouthEnd.com, and Open Media Boston.

“If you’ve had enough business as usual, if you’ve had enough of the culture of influence, if you’ve had enough payoffs and layoffs and rip-offs and bailouts, this is the campaign for you,” Stein told about three dozen cheering supporters who waved her green campaign signs.

“It’s true I’ve never been a CEO and I’ve never been a Beacon Hill insider,” Stein said. “I’ve never huddled with health insurance executives who have denied people their health care. I’ve never met in the backrooms with predatory lenders or casino ambling executives or real-estate schemers. And I just don’t owe any favors to machine bosses or big-money donors who are looking to buy influence. Sorry. I’m a mother and a medical doctor and an advocate for healthy people, healthy economies and a healthy democracy.”

The full text of Dr. Stein’s remarks can be found on her website JillStein.org.

Jill Stein ran for governor once before in 2002, when she earned 3.5% of the vote and was widely recognized for her excellent performance in the one debate she was allowed in. She received over 20% of the vote in a 2004 state rep. race and garnered over 350,000 votes for secretary of state in 2006. She currently serves as a member of Town Meeting in Lexington.

To learn more about Jill Stein’s campaign, check out JillStein.org.

Green Party US is attempting to amend its platform in 2010. February 15th is the deadline for Green Party members to submit platform amendments to the state parties and caucuses to which they belong.

Both GP.org and GreenChange.org have posted the current platform as a launching point for comments, discussions and proposed amendments.

Helping to work on the Green Platform is a great way to lend your voice to the Green Party’s vision for our future. Don’t miss the boat!

The United Kingdom will hold a parliamentary election sometime between now and June 3.   Although the official date hasn’t been announced, candidates are up and running.  Green Party of England and Wales party leader Caroline Lucas represents South East England in the European Parliament.  She’s standing in the UK Parliamentary seat of Brighton Pavilion in the upcoming election.  The Greens already control the local Brighton council and, as we’ve noted before, it looks like Lucas has opened up a small but significant lead in an independent poll.

Today’s UK Guardian has a brief article explaining why Lucas’ chances make this one of the more interesting contests in the upcoming election.

“One more Tory MP, one more Labour MP – what difference is that going to make?” says Lucas. “The first Green MP, I think, would have a far greater effect.” To that end, she is fighting hard, and doing as well as you’d expect among people who live in Brighton’s bohemian centre – though much of the battle will be fought in the seat’s more suburban patches, split between traditionally ­Labour-supporting estates and more Tory-favouring areas, with extensive gardens.

The Greens are on the upswing in the UK, with 125 councilors not including Scotland, but this Brighton Pavilion is their best shot at breaking into Parliament.  In the last election, the Greens nearly tied for second with the Conservatives in this constituency.   The party has built up a strong local base and now Lucas is in a position to campaign as the real progressive choice against the Conservatives.

I wish there was a way to embed the video accompanying the article into this post, because its fascinating.  Journalist John Harris doesn’t pretend to be completely disinterested in politics.  He tells everyone straightforwardly that he’s a disgruntled Labour voter.   All three candidates address him not so much as a journalist, but as a potential convert.

He asks tough questions of all three candidates, but completes the video by admitting that as a disgruntled Labour voter, he’s got a dilemma.  Although he’s concerned about voting in the Conservatives, he no longer feels that New Labour represents his politics.  He wonders if its only his “old tribal loyalties” that would stop him from voting Green.

This will be one to watch.

Links:

• Article: Could Brighton Pavilion elect Britain’s first Green MP?. John Harris. Guardian. February 8, 2010.

• Video: Brighton Pavilion: A Green leap forward? John Harris voyages to the seaside seat where Caroline Lucas could become Britain’s first Green MP

• Brighton & Hove Greens party website

• Caroline Lucas campaign website

• Wikipedia: Caroline Lucas