Green Party Watch

Better late than never, we’ve put together the following Top 10 Green Party stories, taken from a combination of hits on Green Party Watch and other criteria to build a summary of the year. We have modeled this after our Top 10 Green Party Stories for 2010. We are well aware that there were many other stories we could have included here, feel welcome to include your own in the comments. We sincerely hope that 2012 will have plenty of Green Party to Watch!

March 2011 – German Greens Historic Victory

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition was defeated in Baden-Württemberg as support for the Greens surged to a record, putting the anti-nuclear party within reach of leading the state government. The opposition Greens took a record 24.2 percent, while the Social Democrats, which said they’ll rule with the Greens, won 23.1 percent. “There won’t just be a changing of the guard in Baden- Wuerttemberg, there will be a change of politics,” Greens national co-leader Claudia Roth told reporters in Berlin. Winfried Kretschmann was later named the new governor of Baden-Württemberg.

March 2011 – Alex White for Mayor of Rochester, NY

Small business owner Alex White ran a spirited campaign in a special election for Mayor of Rochester, NY, challenging the status quo of local politics. White ran on a “Platform of Hope“, which he says “…grows Rochester through jobs for all, more community involvement, greater transparency, community policing, and a public utility.” Ultimately White finished with 9% of the vote.

Later in the year Alex White ran for City Council, finishing with 11% of the vote.

April 2011 – Ed Shadid wins seat on Oklahoma City Council

After a long and particularly nasty campaign, Ed Shadid survived the negative smear campaign against him and won a seat on the Oklahoma City Council with over 60% of the vote. Shadid, a spinal surgeon, who ran as an Independent candidate for State Assembly last year with the backing of the Green Party, defeated Charles Swinton, a banker, and the PAC “Committee for Oklahoma City Momentum”, which spent over $100,000 in ads opposing Shadid, accusing him of being a socialist who wanted to legalize marijuana. Check out some of the negative attack ads here.

May 2011 – Elizabeth May First Green Party Member of Parliament in Canada

In the May 2 Federal Elections in Canada, Elizabeth May became the first Green Party candidate elected as a Member of Parliament. Preliminary results show that Elizabeth May won the May 2, 2011 election with 48.13% of the vote, defeating Conservative MP Gary Lunn (33.73%) and NDP candidate Edith Loring-Kuhanga (12.28%). Elizabeth May, 56, has been the leader of the Green Party of Canada since 2006, vowing to raise the Green Party’s profile in Canada, particularly in the nationally televised debates. Although she was included in a debate several years ago, this election she was barred from the debate, which she used as a campaign issue in her campaign for MP representing Saanich-Gulf Islands on Vancouver Island.

July 2011 – Annual National Meeting in Alfred NY

The Green Party (US) Annual National Meeting was held in rural Alfred, NY, in conjunction with the biennial GreenFest. Among the speakers were leaders in the campaign to ban hydrofracking (hydraulic fracturing), an environmentally destructive and dangerous technique for accessing gas in the Marcellus Shale beneath Pennsylvania, New York, and other states. Also 2004 Presidential Candidate David Cobb, Philadelphia Sheriff candidate Cheri Honkala, Canadian MP Elizabeth May, and author David Korten addressed the Meeting.

September 2011 – Strong special elections showings by Mark Miller (MA) and Farheen Hakeem (MN)

In Massachusetts, Mark Miller ran a strong campaign for a vacancy in the State Legislature, finishing in second place of four candidates, just several hundred votes short of victory. Miller was endorsed by Planned Parenthood, Mass Alliance, and the UAW.

In Minnesota, Green Party (US) Steering Committee co-chair Farheen Hakeem ran for an open State Senate seat. Hakeem finished second with 22% to 68% for Democrat Jeff Hayden. Hakeem outpolled a Republican and an independent in the race.

November 2011 – “Poor Peoples Advocate” Cheri Honkala’s campaign for Sheriff of Philadelphia

Cheri Honkala announced her candidacy for Sheriff of Philadelphia on February 17, 2011, and ran a high-profile campaign that brought issues to the table that would never had been brought forward otherwise. She got good media, interviewed in Yes! & endorsed by NOW, interviewed on Press TV, the campaign made effective use of Youtube in promoting the campaign. Ultimately, in the 3-way race for sheriff, Cheri Honkala finished 3rd with over 10,000 votes for 6.6%.

November 2011 – Fall Elections

In November’s elections, Greens won local races in California, Colorado, and Connecticut. Tanya Ishikawa was elected to the Federal Heights City Council (Colorado) with 67.5% of the vote. Larry Bragman took first place in his race for City Council, receiving 43.88% of the vote. This will be Bragman’s third term as a Council Member. Additionally, Ryan O’Neil won his first term on the City Council, helping maintain a healthy Green Party presence in the Northern California City.

In other races of interest, Portland City Councilor David Marshall finished with 7.74% in Portland, Maine’s first IRV election for Mayor. In Philadelphia, Cheri Honkala received 6.56% of the vote in her effort to be elected Sheriff of Philadelphia. She ran on a “No Evictions” platform. Brian Rudnick, running for City Council, received 11.8% of the vote. In Syracuse, NY, Howie Hawkins received 48.15% of the vote, narrowly losing to Democrat Khalid Bey. In Toledo, Ohio, Anita Rios finished with 26% of the vote in her campaign for City Council, and in St. Paul, Bee Xiong received 42% in the first round of voting for a City Council seat, not enough to win.

December 2011 – Presidential Candidate field set

The Green Party field of Presidential Candidates fluctuated throughout 2011. Roseanne Barr jumped in and then out, Socialist Stewart Alexander jumped in and then out, but by the end of the year, three candidates are seeking the Green Party Nomination for President. Kent Mesplay (G-CA) was the first to officially declare his candidacy in June. Jill Stein (G-MA) officially entered the race in October. Harley Mikkelson (G-MI) entered the race in November.

Harley Mikkelson is retired from a 26 year career with the Michigan Departments of Community Health, Education, and Human Services. Mikkelson was the Michigan Green Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002 and 2004, for the U.S. Senate in 2008, and Governor in 2010.

Kent Mesplay is an air quality inspector in San Diego, California. He sought the Green Party Presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.

Jill Stein is a physician and community health advocate who ran as the Green-Rainbow Party candidate governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010.

The 2012 Green Party Presidential Race will be followed closely right here at Green Party Watch.

December 2011 – 2011 Election Recap

With over 100 candidates across the United States, the Green Party candidates won 22 races, or 21% of the races they were in. The Green Party starts 2012 with 125 elected officeholders, 21 of which are partisan offices. A recap of the 2011 Election by former Green Party (US) Executive Director Brent McMillan.

Peregrin Wood at Irregular Times writes:

There’s a new Twitter feed for Green Party politician Jill Stein, with the address featuring a suggestive year: jillstein2012. At the same time, Jill Stein’s web site has been transformed, no longer focusing on her past political campaigns in Massachusetts. The site is now entitled Draft Jill Stein for President.

The domain, jillstein.org, is registered to Ken Selcer of Lexington, Massachusetts, and asserts that it is being “run by Green Party volunteers.” Among the volunteers that have signed up so far are Ron Hardy and David Schwab, editors of Green Party Watch.

Also among the list of volunteers is Jill Stein herself. I’d say that this presidential draft effort is one that’s likely to be successful.

The Jill Stein Facebook page reports that “We expect Jill Stein to announce her decision to run for President on October 24th. Spread the word.”

It seems that Jill Stein won’t be the Sarah Palin of the Green Party, stringing her supporters along in order to get some attention. I don’t have much doubt at this point that we’re going to see a Jill Stein campaign for President.

The Green Party Watch Facebook page has 1580 “likes” right now. Our lifetime “likes” at Facebook is 1583. This means that only three of the 1583 people who have “liked” GPW have “unliked” us…an impressive total in my mind.

We have had 256175+ visitors since the site was founded two years ago, and almost 400,000 page hits according to Sitemeter. We have regular visitors from across the globe, although US visitors represent the huge majority of our hits.

Alexa says that 88 sites link to Green Party Watch, and we are the 2,702,035th most popular website on the Internet. 85% of our readers only read the “front page”.

This website Green Party Watch was initially started in 2008 to:

1. fill a hole in online media coverage of the Green Party in the United States known as the “Green Black Out”;
2. generate and disseminate news about Green Party locals, candidates, state parties and the national party;
3. bring Green bloggers and other Greens together in one place to discuss and talk about Green Politics;

After three years, I find myself contemplating whether the site is still serving its original purposes, whether the site can be improved by new (free) software tools, and other questions.

I am always interested in what other people want to see here.  We’ve gotten great suggestions in the comments before, and we’ve tried to improve the site and services based on feedback within the bounds of money and time.

Several times we have had suggestions that there needs to be an alternative to Democratic Party “group think” sites like Daily Kos and Democratic Underground, which routinely ostracize and kick out Greens. We certainly agree, and there were some failed attempts at that in the past (see “Green Commons” for example).  Can something like that be integrated into Green Party Watch, or should it be a separate website?  Is GPW primarily a “News” site, or is the “green way” of News generation to have many Greens reporting and sharing what is happening where they are? Are they one and the same?

And then there is the question about overlap with the official “gp.org” website – sometimes people come here and think they are questioning the “Green Party Leadership”, whatever that means. Shouldn’t some of the things we do here (like a calendar of local and state Green Party meetings) be better suited on the National GP.org site?  The difference might be that here at Green Party Watch users can (or should) be able to generate content, while gp.org is less “user driven”.  How can Green Party Watch better differentiate itself from the “official” Green Party website? And how can Green Party Watch better enable users to generate content here?  Or is “user driven content” the wrong way to go?

These are some of the questions I have been pondering while I am on vacation in sunny southern California, not distracted by work. I’m interested in what people think, and I have some time now to possibly do some site redesigning over the next few days.

What do you think?

(EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS POLL WAS CREATED IN FEBRUARY, 2011, BEFORE ANY CANDIDATE HAD ANNOUNCED THEIR INTENTIONS TO RUN. THE POLL IS CLOSED. NEW POLLS WILL BE POSTED IN THE NEAR FUTURE.)

This is the first of a series of polls we will be putting up throughout 2011 in order to gauge interest in potential presidential candidates for the Green Party ticket in 2012. To date, none of these candidates have publicly declared interest in the nomination, their inclusion in this poll was at our discretion.

We chose to include a number of candidates that have been brought up here and on Green Party lists, but for this poll we decided to exclude “celebrity” candidates or candidates that are more commonly associated with another political party. There are obviously many names that we could have included and we may include them in future polls, but for this poll we wanted to keep the number of options at a manageable number.

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Jared Ball (District of Colombia)

Jared Ball is an assistant professor of communication studies at Morgan State University where his research interests include the interaction between colonialism, mass media theory and history, and the development of alternative/underground journalism and cultural expression as mechanisms of social movements and political organization. He is the founder and producer of FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show, and a former editor for the first academic journal dedicated to hip-hop, The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture. He briefly sought the Green Party nomination for President in 2008 before pulling out and endorsing Cynthia McKinney.

Rosa Clemente (New York)

Rosa Clemente is a United States community organizer, independent journalist and hip-hop activist. She was the vice presidential running mate of 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. As a student she was President of the Albany State University Black Alliance (ASUBA) and Director of Multicultural Affairs for the Student Association. At Cornell she was a founding member of La Voz Boriken, a social/political organization dedicated to supporting Puerto Rican political prisoners and the independence of Puerto Rico. In 2003, Clemente helped form and coordinate the first National Hip Hop Political Convention that drew over 3000 activists.

Tom Clements (South Carolina)

Clements is a South Carolina environmental activist and politician. Clements was the Green Party’s nominee in the 2010 United States Senate election in South Carolina. Clements received more than 9% of the general election. He is the Southeastern Nuclear Campaign Coordinator for the US branch of Friends of the Earth in Columbia, South Carolina. Clements worked as the campaign manager for Democratic Congressman Doug Barnard, Jr. in the 1980s and as well as a long environmental activist with Greenpeace and the Nuclear Control Institute.

Howie Hawkins (New York)

Howie Hawkins asked that his name not be included in this poll

Jesse Johnson (West Virginia)

In 2004, Johnson ran as the Mountain Party candidate for Governor to bring the issue of mountain top removal to statewide attention. Despite having no corporate financial support, he received 18,430 votes (2.48%). In 2006 he ran as the party’s candidate for a seat in the U.S. Senate, receiving 1.9% of the vote. In 2007 Johnson worked to merge the Mountain Party with the Green Party, and subsequently sought the Green Party’s nomination for President in 2008. Continuing to fight against mountain top removal in West Virginia, he ran for US Senate in 2010, finishing with 1.92% of the vote.

Cynthia McKinney (Georgia)

Cynthia McKinney served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat before joining the Green Party in 2007, and becoming the Green Party candidate for U.S. President in 2008. In 2008, McKinney finished with 0.12% of the popular vote. Since 2008, Cynthia McKinney has been a champion of Palestinian Rights and a supporter of the Free Gaza movement. In 2009 she was one of 21 activists on a Free Gaza relief ship that was rammed and taken captive by the Israeli Navy. She was held by the Israeli’s for 5 days. In 2010 she participated in portions of the Bike4Peace event from San Francisco to DC.

Jill Stein (Massachusetts)

Dr. Jill Stein is a mother, housewife, physician, longtime teacher of internal medicine, and pioneering environmental-health advocate. She is the co-author of two widely-praised reports, In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development, published in 2000, and Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging, published in 2009. She was the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, she ran for State Representative in 2004, Secretary of State in 2006, and again for Governor in 2008. She is the co-chair of the Massachusetts Green Rainbow Party.

kat swift (Texas)

kat swift is a former co-chair of the Green Party of Texas, former co-chair of the Green Party’s National Women’s Caucus, and public spokesperson for the Green Party of Texas during their 2010 legal fight for ballot access. At 35 years old she was the youngest person to seek the Presidential nomination in 2008. swift is currently a 2010 candidate for Bexar County Commissioner in Precinct 2.

Laura Wells (California)

Laura Wells was the Green Party candidate for Governor in 2010, finishing with 129,231 votes, 1.2% of the vote. Wells is a former financial and business analyst, and political activist in Oakland California. In 2002 she garnered nearly a half million votes in her run for California State Controller. At the last 2010 Gubernatorial debate in California, which excluded all third party candidates, Wells was arrested upon attempting to enter the building to watch the debate.

Rich Whitney (Illinois)

Whitney is a Civil Rights Attorney from Carbondale, Illinois. He was the Green Party candidate for Governor in 2006 after the Green Party netted 39,000 signatures in 90 days to get on the ballot. Whitney finished with 361,336 votes for 10.4% of the vote. Based on this strong showing, the Illinois Green Party won Major Party status in Illinois, securing full ballot access for the Green Party until 2010. Whitney ran again in 2010, and despite ballot hijinks by Democrats and being excluded from the state wide debates, he finished with 99,625 votes (2.7% of the total).

2010 was a roller coaster year for the Green Party. Mid-term elections proved voter dissatisfaction with the Democrats in power, but the media-darling Tea Party Movement drove voters to reactionary candidates, not helping Greens at the polls. International Greens saw successes in the United Kingdom, Australia, and other places, while US Greens were moved by the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza under siege by Israeli forces. The 2010 Annual National Meeting was held in Detroit, Michigan in conjunction with the US Social Forum, putting Greens side by side their brothers and sisters in the struggle for social justice in America. In the fall, Greens had many exciting candidates running for office including Jill Stein, LeAlan Jones, Laura Wells, Rich Whitney, Tom Clements, Colia Clark, Julia Willebrand, Farheen Hakeem, Howie Hawkins, Cecile Lawrence, Ben Manski, Fred Horsch, and so many other inspiring Greens.

The following Top 10 Green Party stories are taken from a combination of hits on Green Party Watch and other criteria to build a summary of the year. May 2011 be prosperous for Greens around the World. Time is running out.

Top 10 Green Party Stories of 2010

May 7, 2010 – Caroline Lucas becomes first Green Member of Parliament in United Kingdom – Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, won a hotly-contested race in Brighton Pavilion to become the Greens’ first-ever member of parliament. The Guardian summed it up best: “It’s a massive breakthrough, not only because she’s a brilliant, charismatic, humane politican who will enrich parliamentary life, but also because it proves it can be done, even under our antiquated political system.”

May 31, 2010 Green Party and Cynthia McKinney Condemn Freedom Flotilla Massacre – In May of this year the Israeli Navy attacked a flotilla of ships run by the Free Gaza movement carrying humanitarian supplies to the besieged residents of the Gaza Strip. 19 human rights activists were killed in the attack and 50 more wounded. The Green Party, led by 2008 Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney, have been vocal and active critics of Israel’s war on the people of Gaza.

“The attacks on the aid boats is a criminal act of piracy and a deliberate provocation,” said Dr. Justine McCabe, co-chair of the Green Party’s International Committee. ““We demand immediate action from the US, including emergency orders from President Obama to cut off all aid to Israel. The policies of the US regarding Israel and Palestine up to now have convinced Israel that it can act with impunity in committing massacres and massive human violations against Palestinian civilians.”

2008 Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney, who was taken prisoner by the Israelis last year on another attack on a Free Gaza ship, said: “I am outraged at Israel’s latest criminal act. I mourn with my fellow Free Gaza travelers, the lives that have been lost by Israel’s needless, senseless act against unarmed humanitarian activists.”

June 8, 2010 – California Voters Pass Prop 14, Top Two Primary Initiative By a 53% – 46% margin, California voters approved adopting a “top two primary” election reform, a system whereby all candidates appear on a single ballot in the primary but only the top two, regardless of political party, advance to the General Election.

California Gubernatorial candidate Laura Wells had this to say: “Prop 14 pretends to be “open primary,” but more accurately should be called “top two,” or party-killer! Only two candidates would be left in November, when Prop 14 would exclude all the independent, alternative political parties like the Green Party, Peace and Freedom, and Libertarian. Prop 14 would favor only Democrats and Republicans that are incumbents or highly funded.”

June 24-27, 2010 – Green Party Annual National Meeting in Detroit in Conjunction with US Social Forum The Green Party’s Annual National Meeting was held in Detroit, Michigan in conjunction with the US Social Forum. The Green Party sponsored several Social Forum workshops and registration was cross-listed between the two events. Many Green Party candidates were in attendance and available to the media. A number of candidate presentations were taped by Green Party Watch and can be found through this link.

June 2010 – Republicans pay to get Green Party on Ballot in Texas, Democrats Livid If there is one thing that drives Democrats crazier than a Green “spoiling” an election, it is Greens getting on the ballot at all despite overwhelming odds. In Texas, a Republican consultant in Arizona arranged for a non-profit in Missouri to pay for Free & Equal to come up with 92,000 signatures to get the Green Party of Texas on the ballot up and down the ticket. Democrats were livid, immediately suing and issuing injunctions against ballot access. The case went to the Texas supreme court before culminating with the Green Party candidates being allowed to remain on the ballot.

The ultimate result of this was that Ed Lindsay, Green Party of Texas candidate for State Comptroller won over 5% of the vote, ensuring that the Green Party of Texas will have state wide ballot access through the 2012 elections.

August 21, 2010 – Historic Election Results for Australian Greens The Australian Green Party performed very well in the federal elections in Australia, with Adam Bandt winning a seat outright in Melbourne with over 36% of the first-choice vote, and the Greens winning about 12% of the vote in the lower house, giving them a share of control over the balance of power in the Australian Parliament.

September 21, 2010 – Green Party Senate candidate Natasha Pettigrew hit and killed on bicycle Natasha Pettigrew, Senate candidate for the Green Party in Maryland, was riding in the bike lane on a highway early on a Sunday morning by an inattentive driver of a SUV. The driver apparently didn’t realize she had hit anyone until she arrived home. Pettigrew died from her injuries the next day. This (long after the fact) article really captures the influence this story had on people.

November 3, 2010 – Green Party Gains Ballot Access in Texas and New York Election returns resulted in the Green Party gaining ballot access through at least 2012 in two of the most populous states, New York and Texas, however the Green Party lost ballot access in Illinois and Wisconsin. In New York Greens gain ballot status through 2014 thanks to Howie Hawkins earning over 50,000 votes for governor. In Texas Greens gain ballot status through 2012 thanks to Ed Lindsay earning over 5% for comptroller.

November 5, 2010 – Green Party Candidates for US Senate Net Half Million Votes The eleven Green Party candidates on the ballot this year for US Senate netted a combined half million votes. The 510,000 votes is the highest combined total for Green Party Senate candidates since 2000, when Medea Benjamin won 326,000 votes for US Senate in California and Vance Hansen picked up over 100,000 in Arizona. The 2010 results were clearly led by Tom Clements in South Carolina, whose 118,000 votes gave him 9.37% of the total. Clements had the most votes and the highest percent of the vote of all Green Party US Senate candidates in 2010. LeAlan Jones was the second big finisher with 116,000 votes, 3.19% of the total.

2010 – Green Party Elects 37 Greens to Office in 2010 342 Greens ran for office in 2010, over 300 of them were on the ballot in November. 37 Greens were elected, a win rate of 10.8%. All but 2 of the wins were in non-partisan races.

On the November ballot, Greens had strong showings for State Legislative races, but fell short in races for Governor and US House of Representatives. One Green, Ben Chipman, was elected to the Maine State Assembly but was listed as an Independent due to a technicality.

Last week the Green Party’s National Committee passed a new Fiscal Policy intended to position the Party for financial growth going into 2011 and beyond. Now the National Committee is discussing the proposed 2011 Budget for the Party, which is (again) optimistic in light of the economic collapse this country is facing and the effect this economy has had on funding for non-profits. To the credit of this proposed budget it does more closely tie proposed expenditures to fund-raising targets, and it actually budgets for electoral support such as Ballot Access and Campaign support, something sorely missing from prior budgets.

But let me be frank – the Green Party of the United States, given that it does not accept corporate funding and is not eligible for public financing, is almost entirely funded by small donations from Greens like you and I. There are no National Membership Dues, there are only pleas for financial support. The financial support from us “Greens on the Street” have paid for having an office in DC, paid for having a Political Director, and Office Manager, and until recently a Fundraiser and Accountant. The Green Party (US) Budget has typically been shoe string at best, half or one-third that of the Libertarian Party, and likely a fraction of the budget of the two Corporate Parties that control our government and electoral system.

In fact, I will go a step further and say that there are months in which the Green Party (US) has had to decide between paying staff salaries on time versus paying off debts to creditors versus paying the rent. Sound familiar? Yup, many of us have been in the same boat.

Green Party Watch is a website dedicated to covering news and views about the Green Party, particularly the Green Party in the US, and without the Green Party we would have nothing to cover. Our goals in creating this website were primarily to help raise awareness online and through the media of what the Green Party is doing, what Green Party Candidates are doing, and what Green Party locals and state parties are doing. Green Party Watch is an ALL VOLUNTEER EFFORT. We have never asked for any money, we have never asked for any compensation for our time and work, and we don’t intend to. We have no paid advertisements on this site, there are no pop-ups, no Google ads, nothing.

We intend to continue this ad-free public service to Greens across the United States and beyond because we believe in expanding media coverage of the Green Party in order to fill that void in our corporate media, and we believe in helping to build a stronger community awareness of the Green Party by spreading the word of what the Green Party is up to, good or bad.

So now comes my rare and special plea to you, the Green Party Watch reader. I’m not going to ask for financial support for Green Party Watch (we don’t need it, not really). I’m not going to ask for support for my own campaign for City Council in Oshkosh, Wisconsin this Spring.

I am asking you to join me in making a small financial contribution to the Green Party of the United States.

Why? I won’t tell you that it is for campaign support or ballot access or anything other than what it is – A donation to KEEP THE GREEN PARTY IN THE BLACK. A donation to keep the office doors open, to keep the phone bill paid, to pay for mailings, to pay for merchandise, to pay for health insurance for the two or three employees the Green Party retains, to pay for travel costs to prepare the Annual National Meeting, to pay for the general operating expenses of an organization.

But not just any organization, the Green Party is NOT the Sierra Club. The Green Party is a bootstrap grassroots political organization that has a skeleton staff, low overhead costs, and no corporate ties. Nonetheless when I call 1-866-41-GREEN I reach an actual human who can answer my questions.

A donation to support the Green Party Candidate Database which we have used so extensively in our reporting here at GPW, and expanded coverage of Local Candidates. A donation to support continued Media Outreach, better web presence, LiveFeeds, support for a Local Organizing Kit, Publication of Green Pages, and more.

Green Party Watch gets around 500 visitors a day. During Election times or Israeli kidnapping of Cynthia McKinney we get thousands of hits a day. We have almost 1,500 people subscribed to our Facebook feed. None of this would be relevant without the Green Party. I have arranged with the Green Party (US) to set up a specific fund-raising campaign for the Green Party from Green Party Watch. I am now asking all of the GPW readers to either make a large or small donation to the Green Party or to become a sustaining member, whatever you can manage. Lets put our money where our mouths are.

I am pledging a $100 donation to the Green Party if someone will match me. Who’s in? $50? $25? How about the price of a pizza delivery?

Lets give a gift to the Green Party from Green Party Watch letting them know that we want them to keep the doors open, the phones on, and the candidates to support!

Comments MORE than welcome!

Green Party Watch now has more than 500 followers on Twitter and more than 1000 friends on Facebook.

More than a quarter million pages have been viewed.

Close to 2000 articles have been posted, and almost 5000 comments have been approved. Over 75,000 spam comments have been caught.

And we’re working with an all-volunteer staff.

The Green Party of the United States’ Annual National Meeting kicks off Thursday June 24, running parallel and within the US Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan.

“Another U.S. is Possible, Another Party is Necessary”

The Green Party Media Committee will be livestreaming a number of events with the ability to participate through chat at:

http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

*************************

I will be arriving in Detroit Thursday afternoon. I am bringing a small handheld video recorder with the ability to upload short (1-3 minute) videos to youtube which I am hoping to embed here on Green Party Watch.

My question to our readers is: What do you want to see? Candidates? Green Party ‘leaders’? US Social Forum stuff? They won’t be live because I have to find a wireless and upload them, but they will be fresh. I have been thinking about doing 90 second “GPW Update” videos interspersed with general written updates, insights, etc.

Please comment here and tell me what you want to see on Green Party Watch from the Annual National Meeting.

-Ron Hardy, Green Party Watch

Recent stories about media outlets and environmental organizations turning a blind eye to Green candidates Rich Whitney and Laura Wells inspired a piece at GreenChange.org entitled “How can we overcome the press blackout of Green candidates?” The piece has inspired a lively discussion with a lot of interesting ideas flying around, so come join the conversation on a topic close to our hearts here at Green Party Watch.

From the Huffington Post Chicago:

Rich Whitney, the Illinois Green Party’s candidate for Governor, demands to be taken more seriously.

In 2006, Whitney overcame a vigorous challenge by the state’s Democratic party to appear on the ballot, collecting nearly 15,000 ballots more than the 25,000 required by state law. He went on to outperform all expectations, taking home more than 10 percent of the vote.

That election established the Green Party in the state of Illinois, quite literally: by garnering more than 5 percent, the party gained the official status of “established political party,” lowering the thresholds needed to get on statewide ballots and offering the party access to more voter data, among other benefits.

This year, in a race between two less-than-stellar candidates who narrowly escaped their respective primaries, Whitney believes he has a chance.

But the Tribune isn’t giving him one, he wrote Monday. From his office, via GreenPartyWatch:

…[o]nce again, the Tribune treat[s] the governor’s race as a two-person race. The Trib is acting as if 2006 never happened. This is unacceptable. I would ask you, my supporters, especially those of you who live in or near Chicago or who subscribe to the Trib, to call or write the Trib ASAP and let them know that this is unacceptable and cannot be permitted to continue.

HuffPost Chicago admits to having treated this as a two-person race as well. But we hear you, Rich; we’ll keep our ear to the ground for Green Party news.

Pennsylvania Green Matt Cleveland created New Menu in 2007, because he was shocked at how many Green Party candidates either didn’t have a website, or were using free sites cluttered with unwanted advertising. He created “New Menu” to offer Green Party candidates a free website, free email, free blog, and other services to support their campaign. The site has been upgraded in 2009 and I highly recommend checking it out.

If you are a candidate on a low budget or who wants/needs a quick and easy web-presence, New Menu is made for you!

The second site I wanted to point out is maintained by the Green Party Senatorial Campaign Committee. This site has been very recently redesigned and is still a work in progress, but it’s intent is to showcase and raise funds for Greens running for federal office (US Senate, US House, US President). If nothing else, consider going to the “donate” page and investing ten or twenty dollars to a Committee that will use the money to recruit and support Green Party candidates… (Full disclosure: I am currently the Chair of the Senate Campaign Committee, so be aware that I am suggesting donations to a committee that I chair!)

Finally, a quick note regarding Green Party Watch. Our intrepid volunteers here have been taking some well deserved rest over the end-of-year holidays. We are considering a site “overhaul” before 2010, but no guarantees. We will be looking for new contributors of content to the site, particularly people who like to share state and national news about the Green Party or Green Party candidates. We are also interested in increasing our gender balance and diversity among our contributors, so if you think you can help us please let us know at gpw@greenpartywatch.org NOTE: All Volunteers, No Money. We are not a business and we are not hiring (and we have no money so don’t ask for money).

2009 Green Party Candidates

Close to 150 Greens are running in races around the nation in 2009. In the upper right corner of this site we now have a page listing these candidates and the offices they are running for. You can also click here to go there. We will start a 2010 candidates page shortly. If you notice any omissions please let us know.

Note that most of this information came from the GPUS searchable database of candidates, which one should appreciate if you like databases and candidate histories.

Facebook

Green Party Watch is building a presence on Facebook! We now have a “Fan Page” and hey, we want you to be a Fan! Please check us out there as well as here, you can comment on stories there as well as here, and we will be developing the discussion boards there as well. Become a Fan of GPW and get our posts in your Facebook Newsfeed. We gladly welcome any input into our Facebook endeavor.

…and speaking of Facebook…

Here are two “official” Green Party Facebook Groups and Pages (of the many out there):

Green Party (US) – This is the Page that gp.org links to, as close to “official” as you are going to get in the US of A. Join the 4,608 other fans of the Green Party!

The UK Green Party is set up as a “group” not a “fan page”, and has 5,035 members. Many of the state and local Green Party facebooks are “groups”  not “fan pages”, but note that Green Party Watch is set up as a “fan page”. I guess it is all in what you want to do with it.

Facebook can be a potentially useful organizing tool locally if one uses it right and remembers that it is at its core a profit driven web presence to be wielded carefully and without expectation of permanence.

Several individuals associated with the “Independent Greens of Virginia” have been banned from posting comments on Green Party Watch following accusations that they have been “posing” as political candidates in comments without those candidates knowledge.

The Independent Greens of Virginia are NOT affiliated with the Green Party of the United States. They claim affiliation with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and endorse Independent candidates in Virginia against their will.

A comment posted here on July 31, 2009, claimed to be Aaron Tweedie, an Independent running for Virginia’s House of Delegates. The “fake Aaron Tweedie” wrote that he was collecting petition signatures in 2000, supposedly in Texas for Ralph Nader, and touted Teresa Amato’s new book “Grand Illusion”. Another post the following day also claimed to be Aaron Tweedie, touting “high speed rail” in Virginia. Both posts were written with the email address novagreen@prodigy.net, from the IP address 173.66.53.204

Last night the Real Aaron Tweedie posted here:

This is Aaron N. Tweedie, the real candidate for 29th district of VA house of delegates. The above post is from an imposter. I was not in Texas gathering petition signatures in 2000. I was in VA building houses. I have never read “Grand Illusion” and am not familiar with the author Teresa Amato. I do not get my courage from the Green Party, but from knowing that I speak truth, and what I am doing is honorable, regardless of the outcome. I do not lie, and want all to know the above posts are falsehoods. I am not a Green Party member, and will remember this deception if I ever do pick a party.

After following up with Mr. Tweedie, we have determined that we are pretty certain who is falsely claiming to be him, as well as posing as up to a dozen more candidates for office in Virginia. Mr. Tweedie will be consulting his legal counsel and we here fully intend to support him in any action he takes against the Independent Greens of Virginia. Furthermore, we will be contacting the other candidates, all of them Independents in Virginia, and make them aware of the comments being posted here in their name.

This person, affiliated with the “Indy Greens of Virginia”, has posted comments under the names of:

Anthony Triplin, French Mackes, Robert Smith, Anna Marie Choi, Shirley Havey, Monique Berry, Watkins Abbit, Craig Ennis, Todd Jack, Sherman Witcher, Bill Grogan, John Parmele, Aaron Tweedie, and even Joe Shriner, who is an Ohio Politician seeking the Green Party nomination for President.

All of the above individuals are listed as candidates on the Independent Greens of Virginia website, but many are listed as “endorsed”, not actual members of the Independent Greens of Virginia. All of the comments from the above “candidates” came from one person, at one IP address, with the email address novagreen@prodigy.net.

Impersonating a political candidate for office is a serious offense, and we have blocked the offending IP addresses from posting here. We will be cooperating with any legal action any of these candidates choose to take in response to this frankly embarrassing revelation about the Independent Greens of Virginia.

Charlie Wilson and the Blue Dog Democrats: Supporting the Health Care Industry, Not

REFORM!

Congressman Charlie Wilson (OH-6) and his Blue Dog Democrats are supporting the health care industry and lobbyists in the fight over reforming health care!

If you read their Blue Dog Position Paper on Health Care, They conclude:

Available Only as a Fallback: The availability of a public option would occur only as a fallback and in the absence of adequate competition and cost containment. Fundamental insurance market reforms and increased choice through the Exchange should improve access and contribute to lower costs. However, should the private plans fail to meet specific availability and cost targets, a public option would be triggered and be allowed to compete on a level playing field subject to the conditions outlined above.

Charlie Wilson and company, in the back pockets of Big Black Dirty Coal, and now in the pockets of Big Insurance Companies and Lobbyists. Charlie Wilson needs to be removed from office in 2010!

Dennis S. Spisak

 Mahoning Valley Green Party

Ohio Green Party

Www.ohiogreens.org

www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/