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by Ronald Hardy

Greens urge rejection of ‘Catfood Commission’ plan to reduce Social Security, Medicare

November 30, 2010 in Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders called on Congress and the American people to reject a proposal by President Obama’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to scale back Social Security and require Medicare recipients to pay more out-of-pocket costs for services.

Greens said that the bipartisan commission’s recommendations, if supported by Mr. Obama and his fellow Democrats, would amount to a betrayal of voters, and called the attempt to link spending on Social Security with the deficit a deception.

• Starlene Rankin, co-chair of the Green Party’s Lavender Green Caucus: “Taking an ax to Social Security does nothing to close the federal budget deficit, because Social Security is a separate account. If President Obama and Congress really want to reduce the deficit, they should begin by ending the war in Afghanistan and occupation of Iraq, ordering all troops and military contractors home, and reducing the military budget. The debt was caused by the two wars, bloated military budgets, tax breaks for rich people, and the huge Wall Street bailouts.”

• Julia Willebrand, 2010 Green candidate for New York State Comptroller and Social Security recipient: “Powerful lobbies want to turn Social Security into a feeding trough. Congress and the White House are under heavy pressure from the financial industry to scale back Social Security, which would have the effect of privatizing it, by driving people to invest more of their retirement savings in the Wall Street casino. Indexing Social Security to life expectancy and raising the age for recipients would place more older Americans in competition with younger people for jobs and depress wages for everyone.”
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by Ronald Hardy

Green John Russell may be Appointed Deputy Mayor (CT)

November 30, 2010 in Local Party News

In New London, Connecticut, local politics makes for strange bedfellows. In this case, it may result in Green Party City Councilor John Russell being appointed Deputy Mayor.

If all goes according to plan, Councilor John Russell, a member of the Green Party, will be nominated and elected deputy mayor. He said he also was not seeking the position.

“I’ve never asked for it. I was told I was going to be deputy mayor,” he said. “There was some stuff I wasn’t privy to behind the scenes, and Marty wanted me to be the deputy.”

He said he is thankful for the recognition from his fellow councilors but is realistic about the role of the deputy mayor.

“It’s ceremonial,” he said, adding that the deputy mayor fills in when the mayor is unavailable. “The seas aren’t going to part when you’re walking down the street.”

Read the entire story at The Day.

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Avatar of Ronald Hardy

by Ronald Hardy

Bronx Greens Protest Bloomberg’s School Chancellor Appointment

November 29, 2010 in Local Party News

From The Green Light, via Independent Political Report:

Green Party Teachers to Apply for Cathie Black’s Position as Chair of Hearst Magazines
November 27, 2010

Greens Oppose Black’s Nomination, Launches Campaign to Restore Community Control of Schools

What: Teachers to Apply for Cathie Black’s job at Heart Magazine; Greens Launch Campaign to Restore Community Control of Public Education

Who: Green Party, teachers and ex-teachers and their supporters

When: Tuesday, November 30th, 11:00 am

Where: In front of Hearst Tower, 300 West 57th St. at 8th Avenue, Manhattan

On Tuesday November 30, several current and former teachers from the Green Party of New York City will apply for the job of Chair of Hearst Magazines that Cathie Black is vacating. Ms. Black has been nominated by Mayor Bloomberg to head the NYC School System despite lacking the minimal educational qualifications. The Greens contend the nomination
of Ms. Black highlights the problems with Bloomberg’s top-down corporate CEO model of governance of the city school’s system.

If a magazine executive with no educational experience is qualified to serve as chancellor of the nation’s largest school system, then it’s only logical that an experienced teacher with no publishing background should be eminently qualified to chair the board of a media conglomerate. The teachers will bring books about the publishing industry to demonstrate that they, like Ms. Black, fully intend to “get up to speed” in their new profession.

The Greens will also launch the Green Platform for Public Education, which opposes mayoral control. The Platform calls for publicly elected NYC community school boards to elect a citywide school board, which will hire the chancellor. To mobilize public support, the Greens plan to take their campaign to NYC’s 59 Community Boards.

From the website of The Green Light:

Bronx Greens is a community based volunteer organization affiliated with the Bronx County Green Party and Green Party of New York State. We strive to uphold and promote the Green Principles of Democracy, Justice, Ecology and Peace. These principles are further defined through our Ten Key Values. Although registration in the Green Party is not required, it is encouraged. The Green Light is the banner under which Bronx Greens publishes articles, press releases, blogs and other forms of communications.

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Avatar of Ronald Hardy

by Ronald Hardy

Matt Reichel Running for Chicago Alder

November 24, 2010 in Local Elections

Two time Congressional Candidate Matt Reichel has announced that he will be running for Alderman in Chicago’s 47th Ward:

Matt Reichel, two-time Green Party nominee for Congress in Illinois’s 5th District, has announced to supporters that he will try to unseat 9-term alderman Gene Schulter in the upcoming municipal elections.

Reichel won about 1,000 votes in the 47th ward part of the 5th district in last week’s election, and believes he can make up the difference needed to beat Schulter. He told supporters:

Despite our vast disadvantage in resources and organization, we pulled nearly 1,000 votes in the ward for the Green Party vision. 1,000 votes for grassroots democracy. 1,000 votes for sustainable economics. 1,000 votes for peace. 1,000 votes for real monetary reform.

There are thousands of other progressives out there, who either voted Democrat out of fear of a Republican take over, or did not vote out of frustration with American electoral politics. There are thousands more, who are ready to join our movement, and make history in 2011.

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by Ronald Hardy

Kazumi Inamura Elected First Green Mayor in Japan

November 23, 2010 in International Greens

On November 21st, Ms. Kazumi Inamura, the former co-spokesperson of Greens Japan (Midori no Mirai) was elected Mayor of Amagasaki in West Japan, the first Green Mayor in Japan.

Kazumi Inamura won with 54.3% of the vote against three other candidates. She ran on a vision of participatory democracy, transparency and budgetary reform.

She is supposedly the youngest female city mayor in Japan’s history at 38 years old.

Amagasaki has approximately 460,000 residents, located between Kobe and Osaka.

Here is a video of Kazumi Inamura from 2008:

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Avatar of Ronald Hardy

by Ronald Hardy

Four More Election Day Wins

November 22, 2010 in Local Elections

Sent by Brent McMillan, Executive Director of GPUS:

Herb Gura was re-elected to Konocti Unified School Board, Lake County
He will be about to start his third four year term.
He finished third of six candidates for three seats with 1,638 votes or 18.2%
http://acm.co.lake.ca.us/elections/results/result21.htm#c3043

Jim Smith, President of the Canyon School Board, Canyon Township, Contra Costa, CA was up for re-election this fall. Since no one filed to run against him, no election was held, technically a win. He was rolled over into the next term.
http://www.canyon.k12.ca.us/board-of-trustees.html

Steve Larrick won his re-election to Lower Platte 5 Natural Resources District, Lancaster County
1/2 for 1 seat, 1,720 votes 60.08% final result
http://lancaster.ne.gov/election/results/resul10n.htm

Enrique Valdivia won his re-election to Edwards Aquifer Authority Board District 7, Bexar County, TX
“The Edwards Aquifer Authority Board of Directors, at its regular meeting September 14, canceled elections in four director districts and declared the unopposed candidates in each district elected to office. None of the four candidates drew opposition in the upcoming general election and, therefore, the holding of an election was not required. In Bexar County, Ron Ellis (District 5) and Enrique Valdivia (District 7) were each declared winners.”
http://www.sourcews.com/edwards-aquifer-authority-declares-four

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by Dave Schwab

New York Green Party State Committee Meeting Dec. 11th

November 22, 2010 in State Party News

From the New York Green Party:

The next meeting of the State Committee of the Green Party of New York State will be on Saturday, December 11, in Rensselaer, New York at First United Presbyterian Church, 34 Broadway. All enrolled Green Party members are welcome to attend and will have a chance to address the State Committee members some time between 9 – 10 am during the enrollee speak out.

For more information, please contact Gloria Mattera at secretary@gpny.org. Read the rest of this entry →

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Avatar of Ronald Hardy

by Ronald Hardy

Chicago Reader: “The Silver Lining Party”

November 19, 2010 in State Party News

The Chicago Reader has a feature on the Illinois Green Party’s post election mood. Below are some excerpts, but read the entire article at the Chicago Reader. What is interesting about this article is the depth it goes into the variety of positions, often contradictory, among the Illinois Green Party’s candidates this year.

The Greens, drastically underfunded and as a result excluded from most mainstream media coverage, are still struggling to get their message out. And that message can vary: the Green candidates in this election weren’t always on the same page. The party’s leaders say that’s just grassroots democracy in action. But the fundamental problem remains: the reluctance of liberal voters to vote Green when it could cost a Democrat an election.

[...]

In Jesse Jackson Jr.’s Second District, also extending from the south suburbs into the south side, Anthony Williams, an African-American pastor with distinctly un-Green views, got 6 percent. Williams is anti-gay marriage, anti-choice, and anti-immigration—but he’d beaten the endorsed Green candidate in the primary.

[...]

Huckelberry says Greens need to focus on “dinky little races” in smaller cities and towns where they can actually win and show in practice why Greens are worth electing. “We have to run for governor to be taken seriously by the electorate, so we’ll keep doing it. But we need to get more people on school boards, village boards, library boards, park boards, and build the idea of what it means to have Green elected officials.”

[...]

Amid the gloomy news, Green Party leaders take heart in some of the young volunteers they attracted this election—such as Lucky Mosqueda, a 22-year-old Latino from Albany Park who volunteered for Whitney. Mosqueda says most Latinos in his neighborhood have no idea who the Greens are. Nor did he four years ago, when he turned 18 and voted for Blagojevich. He soon became disillusioned with the Democratic Party because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the failure of Democrats to push harder for gay rights. Through connections with Gender JUST, an organization for LGBTQ youth, he learned about the Green Party’s gay rights and anti-war stances, as well as its support for universal health care. He thinks more young Latinos would embrace the Green Party if they knew what it stood for, and he’s optimistic about the Greens’ future.

“I’m a metal head, so my message to the Green Party is, just keep on rockin’,” he says. “Reach out to more people. Have round table discussions with pizza, tea, vegan food, whatever will bring people together. We’re minorities in every way, the Democratic Party isn’t representing us, so the Green Party should make more of an effort to let people know they are out there.”

I highly recommend reading the entire article. I pulled these teasers out but read the entire piece to put them in proper context.

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Avatar of Ronald Hardy

by Ronald Hardy

Modern Times: Third Party Roadmap

November 17, 2010 in General

Modern Times Magazine has an interesting piece out on third parties in the US, focusing on the Green Party, the Constitution Party and the Libertarians. It is a nice overview of the challenges of a third party in the US political system, and the strategies that these three parties are taking. Green Party (US) Executive Director Brent McMillan is quoted throughout. Read the entire thing here, but here are some excerpts:

The Green Party is similarly bent on winning elections, influencing political power, and building its infrastructure. “Our long-term goal here is to win elections. Last year we won about 40 percent of our municipal elections. We obviously struggle at this point with some of the larger races. In the long haul, hopefully, we want to start winning those races,” McMillan said.

[...]

“We have to get corporate money out of these elections,” McMillan said. “We clearly oppose this legal fiction of corporate personhood. The 14th Amendment was supposed to be used for the repatriation of the slaves (via incorporation of its Due Process clause to the U.S. Bill of Rights); now it’s being used to justify corporate personhood.”

Further, McMillan said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is essentially acting as a political action committee and has become so powerful toward that end that they don’t even need the Republican or Democratic national conventions to push their well-heeled agenda.

[...]

“We need to stop thinking of this as a left-right or liberal-conservative battle,” McMillan said. “If you’re pro-democracy then you need to be opposed to the current two-party system that we have. Those parties are controlled or heavily influenced by the multinational corporations. So vote third party. If not the Greens, then check out one of the other third parties. Otherwise we’re done as a democracy or a republic. We’re done if we don’t mount an effective challenge to that in our lifetime.”

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by Ronald Hardy

Massachusetts Green Rainbow Convention Report

November 17, 2010 in State Party News

GREEN-RAINBOW CONVENTION CELEBRATES SUCCESSES, LOOKS TO FUTURE

GRPMWORCESTER- The Green-Rainbow Party’s annual state convention was held on Sunday at Clark University in Worcester. The 80 attendees celebrated the fact that their small party had won major party status as a result of the elections and had emerged rejuvenated and poised to grow.

The convention opened with addresses from five recent GRP candidates. Jill Stein, the Party’s gubernatorial candidate, noted “There is a growing awareness that we are in serious trouble, and that the incumbents that created the mess are not going to get us out. People were been so appreciative that we were in this race and that we were speaking up for the solutions that were being ignored. ”

Lieutenant Governor candidate Rick Purcell, an Army veteran and health care worker, recounted his initial nervousness at being in a debate at a law school, facing three lawyers. But as the debate proceeded, he found that he had no trouble deflating the lawyerly bickering. “I killed them with normalcy” he recalled.

The convention applauded State Auditor candidate Nat Fortune whose vote total regained major party status for the Green-Rainbow Party. This lifts restrictive fundraising rules and puts the Party’s name on state registration forms.

Fortune told the convention “If electing Democrats to office could change things, we’d already be living in Nirvana.”
Read the rest of this entry →

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Avatar of Ronald Hardy

by Ronald Hardy

Winona LaDuke in 2012?

November 16, 2010 in Presidential Campaign

One election ends and the next begins. A movement is afoot to draft Winona LaDuke for President in 2012.

There is a Facebook Page Draft Winona LaDuke for President 2012 up.

There is a People for Winona Twitter feed.

We will be posting more on prospective Green Party candidates in the near future.

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by Ronald Hardy

Huffington Post: A Green Victory in Richmond, CA

November 16, 2010 in Ecological Wisdom & the Environment, Local Party News

The Huffington Post has an article highlighting good news this election amid the Republican “landslide”:

While the recent elections were seen as a setback for national environmental advocates, for the small city of Richmond in San Francisco’s East Bay, it marked a tidal shift in a seven-year battle to protect Point Molate, the last large undeveloped headland on the bay from a mega-casino. Here, at least, the election demonstrated that poor communities can assert their right to control their own shorelines and perhaps their own destinies — despite outside pressure.

On the winning side were local activists of Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate and the Richmond Progressive Alliance, which includes the Green Party Mayor of this low-income, predominantly African-American and Hispanic city of just over 100,000.

On the side that didn’t win was a Berkeley developer with plans for a billion dollar casino resort at the headlands, a small band of Pomo Indians hoping to break into urban gaming, and an even smaller band of environmentalists willing to cut a multi-million dollar deal with them just before Richmond was to vote on the casino.

Read the entire article at the Huffington Post.

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Avatar of Ronald Hardy

by Ronald Hardy

More Election Analysis: Top State House Races (With Details)

November 15, 2010 in Local Elections

Upon request this is further breakdown of the top 19 State House (Assembly) Green Party returns, broken into those races where there were only two candidates on the ballot (13) and those where there were more than two (6). Included is the vote (percentage) totals for each of the candidates on the ballot. This is only evaluating those Green Party candidates that finished with over 15% of the vote in a race for State Assembly or State House.

Notable is that in the multi-candidate races, Greens finished ahead of the Republicans in four of those races, and was just a few percentage points behind the Republican in a fifth race. The candidate that came closest to winning was Fred Horch in Maine, who finished just 137 votes (3.7%) behind the top vote getter. The closest 2-way race was in Massachusetts where Mark Miller lost by 981 votes (10%).

Three (or more) candidate races:
State Representative District 66, ME
Alexander Cornell du Houx (D) 1,409 (38.08%)
K. Frederick Horch (G) 1,272 (34.38%)
Jonathan Crimmins (R) 1,019 (27.54%)

State Assembly District 77, WI
Brett Hulsey (D) 12,138 (49%)
Ben Manski (G) 7,761 (31%)
David Redick (R) 4,666 (19%)
David Olson (C) 372 (1%)

State Representative District 120, ME
Diane Russell (D) 1,686 (55.39%)
Anna Trevorrow (G) 945 (31.04%)
Thomas Elliman (R) 413 (13.57%)

State Representative District 115, ME
Stephen Lovejoy (D) 1,926 (53.69%)
Seth Berner (G) 1,002 (27.93%)
Chase Martin (R) 659 (18.37%)

State Representative District 194, PA
Pamela Delissio (D) 12,015 (61.4%)
Timothy Downey (R) 4,007 (20.5%)
Hugh Giordano (G) 3,547 (18.1%)

State Representative District 21, AZ
Tom Forese (R) 42,523 (42.45%)
J.D. Mesnard (R) 39,891 (39.83%)
Linda Macias (G) 17,181 (17.15%)

Two candidate races:

State Representative 3rd Berkshire District, MA
Christoper Speranzo (D) 5,440 (55%)
Mark Miller (G) 4,459 (45%)

State Representative District 39, IL
Toni Berrios (D) 10,299 (65.4%)
Jeremy Karpen (G) 5,446 (34.6%)

State Representative District 115, IL
Mike Bost (R) 21,643 (75.1%)
Charlie Howe (G) 7,178 (24.9%)

State Representative District 11, MT
Janna Taylor (R) 3,160 (74.69%)
Cheryl Wolfe (G) 1,052 (24.86%)

State Representative District 90, AR
David Branscum (R) 7,253 (75.18%)
Mark Swaney (D) 2,394 (24.82%)

State Assembly District 39, CA
Felipe Fuentes (D) 41,056 (78.4%)
Jack Lindblad (G) 11,322 (21.6%)

State Representative District 67, CT
Clark Chapin (R) 5,349 (79.66%)
Nicholas Payne (G) 1,366 (20.34%)

State Representative District 183, PA
Julie Harhart (R) 14,709 (80.9%)
Rex D’Agostino (G) 3,482 (19.1%)

House of Delegates District 11, WV
Bob Ashley (R) 3,262 (81%)
Mark Myers (M/G) 768 (19%)

State Assembly District 51, CA
Steven Bradford (D) 65,388 (81.8%)
Cynthia Santiago (G) 14,625 (18.2%)

State Representative 4th Berkshire District, MA
Smitty Pignatelli (D) 11,269 (82%)
Lee Scott Laugenour (G) 2,483 (18%)

State Representative District 105, IL
Shane Cultra (R) 25,886 (82.2%)
Vince LaMie (G) 5,603 (17.8%)

State Representative District 29, IL
Thaddeus Jones (D) 24,194 (82.9%)
Kenneth Williams (G) 4,993 (17.1%)

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Avatar of Ronald Hardy

by Ronald Hardy

Top State House Green Party Campaigns

November 12, 2010 in Local Elections

This list was put together by Brent McMillan, consisting of Green Party campaigns for State House (or Assembly) seats. It includes all of the races that finished with over 15% of the vote in 2010:

  • Mark Miller for State Representative 3rd Berkshire District, MA 4,459 votes 45.0%
  • Jeremy Karpen for State Representative District 39, IL 5,354 34.7%
  • Fred Horch for State Representative District 66, ME 1,272 34.38%
  • Ben Manski for State Assembly District 77, WI 7,761 31.0%
  • Anna Trevorrow for State Representative District 120, ME 945 31.04%
  • Seth Berner for State Representative District 115, ME 1,002 27.93%
  • Charlie Howe for State Representative District 115, IL 7,178 24.91%
  • Cheryl Wolfe for State Representative District 11, MT 1,052 24.86%
  • Mark Swaney for State Representative District 90, AR 2,393 24.83%
  • Jack Lindblad for State Assembly District 39, CA 9,728 21.09%
  • Nicholas Payne for State Representative District 67, CT 1,366 20.34%
  • Rex D’Agostino for State Representative District 183, PA 3,482 19.1%
  • Mark Meyers for House of Delegates District 11, WV 768 19.06%
  • Cynthia Santiago for State Assembly District 51, CA 12,753 18.26%
  • Hugh Giordano for State Representative District 194, PA 3,547 18.1%
  • Lee Scott Laugenour for State Representative 4th Berkshire District, MA 2,483 18.0%
  • Kenneth Williams for State Representative District 29, IL 4,122 17.2%
  • Linda Macias for State Representative District 21, AZ 12,204 17.01%
  • Vince LaMie for State Representative District 105, IL 2,928 15.2%

Note the wide range of geographical locations, from Maine to California, Wisconsin to Arizona, Illinois, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Montana, and Arkansas.

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by Ronald Hardy

Post Election Analysis: Green Party House of Representatives

November 11, 2010 in Congressional Campaigns

53 Green Party candidates appeared on the ballot this November, one more in Washington was on the ballot in the Primary, and 4 more ran write-in campaigns. Of the 54 ballot candidates, results ranged from 0.16% to 8.32%, from 157 votes to 17,545 votes. The average percentage of the vote of all 54 races was 2.21% from 225,000 votes.

This is a decline from 2008, when the Green Party’s 59 US House of Representatives brought in over 500,000 votes, averaging 3.47% of the total vote. 2008 was unique in that the Arkansas Green Party had three candidates for three House seats that were unopposed by one of the corporate parties, resulting in finishing with 64,000 votes (23.33%), 58,000 votes (21.52%) and 31,000 votes (13.76%). There were some other very strong finishes in 2008 by Carol Wolman in California, Titus North in Pennsylvania, and Jason Wallace in Illinois.

In fact the 2010 results more closely resemble 2006, another mid-term election, when the Green Party fielded 43 candidates, netted 253,000 votes, averaging 2.74%.

One of the better finishes in 2010 came in California from Ben Emery, who finished with 17,545 votes (7.25%). Emery raised over $10,000 in individual contributions and ran hundreds of commercials on television. With a fraction of the budget of his Democratic and Republican opponents Emery worked it to get the 17,000 votes that he finished with.

The other four stronger finishes were in Illinois, where the 11 Greens running for the US House averaged two points better (4.31%) than other Greens running for the House (2.21%), and slightly better than they did in 2008 (4.00%). Robert Burns running in Illinois’ 4th Congressional District made up of two slithering slices of Chicago’s western suburbs, finished with 6,656 votes, 8.32% of the vote in a lower turnout district. This result turned out to be the highest percentage of any Green running for US House in 2010. Congrats, Robert! Another good finish was in the neighboring 3rd Congressional District where Laurel Lambert Schmidt finished with 9,864 votes (6.03%). Both Schmidt and Burns were first time candidates who improved the Green Party’s results in suburban Chicago districts.

Sheldon Schafer in his second run for US House in the larger Western Illinois 18th Congressional District improved both his vote totals and percentage of the vote from 2008, finishing with 11,244 votes (5.09%) compared to 9,725 (3.17%) in 2008.

But special props go to Bill Scheurer, a first time candidate running in the 8th Congressional District. Although his results weren’t outstanding (6,449 votes, 3.31% of the vote), Bill wins the honorable “Nader Award” (something we just made up), given out to any candidate that can inspire the media to accuse them of “spoiling” a race. Here is Eric Zorn in his own words:

The way I look at the numbers, the only thing the Green Party may have accomplished in the 2010 elections in Illinois is to help a tea-party-backed candidate win a seat in Congress. Other than that, nothing.

[...]

Bill Scheurer, seems to have drawn enough votes — about 6,500 — to hand a victory to tea party Republican Joe Walsh in the northwest suburban 8th District.

In fairness to the author, at least he sought and printed a reaction from Illinois Green Party chair Phil Huckelberry, who said: “Everyone in the party I’ve talked to can’t stand Melissa Bean and would never vote for her,” said Illinois Green Party chairman Phil Huckleberry when I asked him about this. “Any argument that says otherwise is silly.”

To view a Google Docs Spreadsheet of Green Party US House of Representatives Candidates and their election results click here. Note it also includes results from 2008 and 2006 but no further back than that.

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