Green Party Watch

From Richard Winger at Ballot Access News:

Editor’s note: It’s interesting to see some of the left-wing intellectuals who actually brought democracy to Eastern Europe, like Vaclav Havel and Mikhael Gorbachev, gravitate towards the Global Green movement.

From the Prague Daily Monitor:

Former president Vaclav Havel, along with other tens of Czech intellectuals, supported the Green Party (SZ) as the sole real political alternative that does not disdain civic society yesterday, ten weeks ahead of the elections. read more »

Posted by Carlos Julia at GreenChange.org:

Last Sunday (March 14th, 2010) congressional elections were held here in Colombia. They had an interesting outcome: the rise of the Colombian Green Party as a significant political force.

The Colombian congress has 268 seats; 100 seats for the senate and 168 seats for the equivalent of the house of representatives. As far as I know, the Colombian green party only had one senate seat and no seats at all in the house. But that is going to change next July, because after the elections our number of seats in the senate went from 1 to 4 and in the house from 0 to 2… which is still low when compared to the big parties, but things are getting better. Thanks to our performance, we attracted a lot of media attention, which is going to be decisive when presidential elections come.

We also chose our presidential candidate Antanas Mockus, former mayor of Bogotá who successfully decreased the homicide rate in the city to 18 murders per 100.000 inhabitants. We hope he reaches the presidency, or at least gets enough votes to show the country and the world that we are a new option for the people concerned about the environment, education and corruption.

From Jill Stein for Governor of Massachusetts:

Health insurance companies want to raise monthly premiums by as much as 32% above the current killer rates. Workers, families, cities, towns, and state government are already staggering under the current burden.

Deval Patrick is hoping costs will be controlled by having an insurance commission review rate hikes. But even if the commission says no to an increase, the insurance companies will simply cut your health care coverage and provider choice to keep their profits coming.

Tim Cahill wants to blame the skyrocketing costs on the Mass. Health Reform. But health care costs have been out of control since long before the Health Reform Law was created.

Charlie Baker hasn’t offered any health care solutions, according to yesterday’s Globe. No surprise. As a former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care who earned $1.7 million a year while jacking up premiums, Baker is the poster boy for what’s wrong with health care in America.

But fortunately, there is a solution. And there is a gubernatorial candidate who is talking about it..

Jill Stein is the only Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate heading for the November election who has a comprehensive, proven solution – Medicare-for-all, the time-tested system used by many developed countries to provide quality health care at less than half the price we now pay. As a medical doctor and healthy community advocate she is speaking up for the one system that works AND has the support of the majority of Americans.

Please send a message to the other candidates in the race that you stand with Jill’s plan for Medicare-for-all by making an online contribution of $25.

It’s time for a Governor who stands with the people, not the insurance companies. By making a $25 donation now, you’re making it impossible for the Beacon Hill insiders and the media to ignore our case for Medicare-for-all! Let’s bring real health to the Commonwealth, and set a model worth emulating for the nation! read more »

AUGUSTA- On Monday, March 15th, the Green Independent Party of Maine turned in signatures to qualify 18 legislative candidates throughout the state, the second highest total in 12 years of holding official ballot status.

“We made legislative recruitment a top priority this year. With sweeping changes in electoral reform that came out of Augusta last year, we no longer need the governor’s race to keep party status. We turned our resources toward legislative seats, where we have better opportunity for success,” said Anna Trevorrow, Chair of the state Green Independent Party.

The party has nearly doubled its number of qualified candidates from 2008, and has expanded its geographic outreach. The Greens have qualified 15 candidates for State House and 3 for State Senate.

“This year we are running a great slate of candidates from York to Hancock County and some of them have excellent chances to win, running in open seats where the incumbent is term-limited,” said Ben Chipman, Candidate Coordinator for the state party and former Legislative Aide for John Eder, a Green who served in the State House from 2002-2006. read more »

The Broward-Palm Beach New Times has an article about an electoral reform event scheduled for Saturday, 3/20 that will bring together Greens, Libertarians, and Tea Partiers as well as independents and members of other groups to call for solutions to fix America’s broken electoral system.

…King has banded together with some strange bedfellows: She says that the Electoral Reform event she’s helping to organize for this Saturday has support from a whole spectrum of political activists.

Sure, members of the Green Party and the ACLU will show up — you expected that, right? But so, King says, will Tea Party activists, Libertarians, Independents, and even a few Republicans. The common thread is that all agree that major reforms are due in our highly compromised elections system.

You can read the full article at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

Fayetteville, AR – On Friday March 19, 2010 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in front of the Fayetteville Town Center at 15 West Mountain Street, U.S. Senate candidate John Gray will lead a Peace Prayer rally to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Iraq War. There will also be wonderful socially conscious folk music by Still on the Hill, and perhaps others as well. read more »

Many Greens are planning to march against US wars in Washington DC on 3/20/10, but not all may be aware that a march for immigration reform is planned for the very next day in DC. Participants in Sunday’s March for America will be marching for “Immigration reform for new American families and economic justice for all American families”. The marchers would surely be glad to discover that there’s already a national political party that shares their values. In other words, the March for America is an opportunity for outreach that Greens shouldn’t miss.

Thanks to Huffington Post Chicago for covering Rich Whitney, Illinois Green Party candidate for governor. In an article entitled “Rich Whitney, Green Party Governor Candidate, Announces Budget Proposals”, HuffPo Chicago compares Whitney’s comprehensive plan to turn the budget deficit into a surplus with Democratic Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed education cuts and Republican Bill Brady’s lack of a plan. You can read the full article at the Huffington Post.

From Richard Winger at Ballot Access News:

March 11 was the deadline for parties to submit a petition to be recognized in Arizona. This year the state requires 20,449 valid signatures. The Green Party is the only party that turned in a petition. That petition contained 29,015 signatures. read more »

From Ross Levin at Independent Political Report:

Even though Green Party candidate for governor Rich Whitney got over 10 percent of the vote in the 2006 gubernatorial race, for some reason Rasmussen has left him – and other third party candidates – out of a recently released poll.  Still, without any third party candidate mentioned by name, the “other” category was chosen by six percent of voters.  Neither major party candidate had an outright majority.  Rasmussen has repeatedly done the same thing in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race, as well, leaving Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein out of their polls.

Rich Whitney, the Illinois Green Party’s 2010 candidate for governor who earned over 10% of the vote in 2006, has called for legalization of cannabis in his comprehensive plan to solve Illinois’ budget crisis. Whitney’s plan for fixing Illinois’ structural budget deficit includes a proposal to “raise additional revenue by ending the socially destructive ‘war on drugs’ and specifically by legalizing and taxing the sale of marijuana”.

Other aspects of Whitney’s comprehensive economic plan include establishing a state-owned bank, taxing financial speculation, modernizing energy and transportation infrastructure, establishing single-payer health care and tuition-free higher education for state residents, raising the minimum wage to a living wage, and much more. Whitney’s decision to broach the topic of marijuana legalization has attracted attention from the Bloomington Pantagraph, Chicago Daily Herald, and WJBD radio, among others.

Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party’s 2008 candidate for president of the United States, has published an article in the UK Independent entitled “Leaders’ lack of respect for rule of law makes us all victims of 9/11″.

The war on terror did not go away with George Bush. When President Barack Obama came to power there was so much hope, but as the US Green Party presidential candidate I did not share it.

I heard candidate Obama’s speeches and knew that he would be a War President. What I did not realise was the extent to which the policies of President Obama would mirror those of his predecessor, including the renewal of the Patriot Act and commission of war crimes. Sadly, President Obama’s Justice Department is now in US courts defending the criminal acts of the Bush administration.

In his State of the Union address to the nation, President Obama defended war, erosion of civil and human rights, creation of the police state, ignoring the US Constitution and the norms of international law, by invoking the tragedy of 11 September, 2001. read more »

Green Party of California spokesperson Derek Iverson recently gave an interview on KPFA for a segment entitled “Whither the Green Party?” The interview includes frank discussion on the challenges faced by the California Greens, as well as how party members plan to take advantage of the 2010 political atmosphere while fighting a ballot measure aimed at stifling their voices. Well worth a listen.

eGov monitor has an excellent story on the UK Green Party’s plans to field over 300 candidates in the 2010 general elections, including the party’s first full slate in London and 3 candidates who are favored to become the Greens’ first members of parliament. Unlike other European states like Germany and France where Green parties have flourished in a democratic system using proportional representation, the United Kingdom elects its parliament using plurality or “first-past-the-post” voting. Therefore, the electoral growth of the UK Green Party should be of special interest to Greens in America, where Congress and state legislatures are still elected with first-past-the-post voting.