Following is a list of Green Party candidates running in the 2012 US elections. More candidates will be added as we become aware of them. Jump to your state to connect with your local Green Party and candidates:
United States President
Audrey Clement is a co-chair of the Green Party (US) Steering Committee and a tireless petitioner – she has traveled around the country gathering signatures to get the Green Party on the ballot in states such as Arkansas, Virginia, and Maryland among others. She herself ran for County Board in Arliington, Virginia last fall. Now she is running in a special election to fill a vacancy on the County Board. From the Sun-Gazette:
Audrey Clement has made it official, formalizing a bid to run under the Green Party banner in the March 27 County Board special election.
Clement was busy collecting petition signatures at the Jan. 2 County Board organizational meeting. Virginia does not recognize the Green Party as an official political party for ballot purposes, so those running for office as a Green must submit paperwork as an independent to get onto the ballot.
Clement made her first bid for elected office in the November 2011 general election, trailing Democrats Walter Tejada and Mary Hynes.
“Arlington is a great place to live. But the Arlington County Board is out of touch with voters on key issues like development, escalating rents, high taxes and expensive projects that county residents don’t want or need,” Clement says in campaign literature. “The result: a bloated budget, deteriorating public services and lack of citizen input on decisions that affect us all.”
The March 27 special election was called to pick a successor to Barbara Favola, who was elected to the state Senate. Democrats will choose their nominee in a party caucus later in the month. Republicans continue to search for a candidate.
2011 Green Party Election Wrap-up by the numbers
by Brent McMillan
104 green party candidates ran for election in 2011. By comparison 150 green party candidates ran for election in 2007, 277 green party candidates ran for election in 2003 and 96 green party candidates ran for election in 1999 (the year prior to the presidential election).
More than half of the offices that greens ran for in 2011 were partisan, by my count, 54.
22 greens were elected to office in 2011, 21% of those who ran.
Eleven of the 22, half, were incumbents seeking re-election. Two of these were partisan:
In the spring, Jason West made a come back and was elected to Mayor of New Paltz, NY.
In the fall election, Leif Smith was re-elected to Constable in Redding, CT.
Of note, there was a successful write-in campaign in Virginia. Ira Richards was elected to Lord Fairfax District Soil and Water Conservation Board. He was one of 2 candidates that ran for two seats receiving 135 votes or 3%. (There may have been another successful write-in campaign in VA but have not been able to confirm.)
Officeholder summary for 2011:
California:
Larry Bragman was re-elected to Fairfax Town Council (Fall Election.)
Matthew Clark was re-elected to Granada Sanitary District (Fall Election.)
William Hayes was elected to Mendocino Coast Park and Recreation District (Fall Election.)
Kathryn Marando did not seek re-election to the Tomales Community Services District.
Ryan O’Neil was elected to Fairfax Town Council (Fall Election.)
Vahe Peroomian was re-elected to Glendale Community College District (Spring Election.)
Richard Sloan left the Green Party.
Lew Tremaine did not seek re-election to Fairfax Town Council.
Colorado:
Pete Gleichman did not seek re-election to Mayor of Ward.
Tanya Ishikawa was elected in a come back to Federal Heights City Council Ward 1 (Fall Election.)
Connecticut:
Daphne Dixon lost her re-election to Fairfield Zoning Board (Fall Election.)
Hector Lopez lost his re-election to Constable in New Canaan (Fall Election.)
Leif Smith was re-elected to Constable in Redding (Fall Election.)
Ronna Suller lost her re-election to New London Board of Eduction (Fall Election.)
Illinois:
Steve Alesch was elected to Warrenville Park District Commissioner (Spring Election.)
Don Crawford was elected to St. Elmo Library Board (Spring Election.)
Michael Drennen was elected to Ridgeville Park Board (Spring Election.)
Peter Schwartzman was elected to Galesburg City Council Ward 5 (Spring Election.)
Toni Williams was elected to Thornton Township District 205 High School Board (Spring Election.)
Maryland:
Christine Nagel was re-elected to College Park City Council District 1 (Fall Election.)
New Jersey:
Gary Novosielski was re-elected to Rutherford School Board (Spring Election.)
New York:
Jason West was elected to Mayor of New Paltz (Spring Election.)
Oklahoma:
Ed Shadid was elected to Oklahoma City Council (Spring Election.)
Pennsylvania:
Sam Ettaro left the Green Party.
Leif Winter did not seek re-election to Franklin Township Auditor, Susquehanna County.
Virginia:
Kathleen Harrigan did not seek re-election to Tri County/City (Fredericksburg) Soil and Water Conservation District Board.
Daniel Metraux did not seek re-election to Headwaters (Staunton) Soil and Water Conservation District Board.
Ira Richards was elected to Lord Fairfax District Soil and Water Conservation Board (Fall Election.)
Chris Simmons was re-elected to Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District Board (Fall Election.)
Wisconsin:
JoEllen Gramling did not seek re-election to Schleswig Town Clerk.
Tony Palmeri did not seek re-election to Oshkosh Common Council. (Instead he sought election to Mayor of Oshkosh but was not successful.)
Bob Poeschl was re-elected to Oshkosh Common Council At-Large (Spring Election)
Marsha Rummel was re-elected to Madison Common Council District 6 (Spring Election.)
The Green Party starts 2012 with 125 elected officeholders, 21 of which are partisan offices.
Jack Lindblad is planning to be in the Top Two in California’s primary in June of 2012. According to his Facebook campaign page, Lindblad has plans to use that expected victory to help push him into the state legislature. read more »
The Green Party has a feed posting election results as they find them, but we will try to assemble election results here as well.
Almost 40% for Josephine Okot in Portland School Board race
Two Green victories in Fairfax, CA, and a Green win in Federal Heights, Colorado!
Beryl Baker brought in 22 thousand votes running for Tucson City Council for 34%, a nice showing!
Arizona
Mary DeCamp, Tucson Mayor – 3,617 (4.77%) 3rd Place
Beryl Baker, Tucson City Council Ward 1 – 22,301 (34.04%) 2nd Place
California:
Larry Bragman, Fairfax Town Council – ELECTED - 1408 (43.88%) 1st Place
Ryan O’Neil, Fairfax Town Council – ELECTED - 1342 (41.82%) 2nd Place
Terry Baum, San Francisco Mayor – 1214 (0.86%) 11th Place (Unofficial, using Ranked Choice Voting, winner not yet determined)
Colorado:
Tanya Ishikawa, Federal Heights City Council – ELECTED - 206 (67.5%) 1st Place
Connecticut:
Ben Holden, Canton Selectman – 140 (3.1%) 7th Place
Dan Delventhal, Fairfield Constable – 791 (%) 9th of 9
Daphne Dixon, Fairfield Zoning Board of Appeals Alternate – 527 (%) 3rd of 3
David Bedell, New Canaan Constable
Hector Lopez, New Canaan Constable
Joan Sullivan, New London City Council – 1,014 (%) 12th of 16
Jessica Cartagena, New London City Council – 1,041 (%) 10th of 16
Ken Hansen, New London City Council – 752 (%) 15th of 16
Ronna Stuller, New London Board of Education – 1,175 (%) 11th of 17
Myrna Martinez, New London Board of Education – 1,184 (%) 10th of 17
Leif Smith, Redding Constable – ELECTED - 447 (8.6%) 6th of 6 for 6 seats
Mary Farrell, Stamford Constable – 1,120 (%) 9th of 11
Rolf Maurer, Stamford Constable – 817 (%) 10th of 11
Ruthann Johnson, Middletown Common Council – not elected
Florida:
Javier Del Sol, Lake Worth Mayor – not elected
Maine:
David Marshall, Portland Mayor – 1,516 (7.74%) 4th of 15 – IRV election, no official winner yet
John Eder, Portland Mayor – 271 (1.38%) 12th of 15 – IRV election, no official winner yet
Jack Safarik, Portland Water District – 4,351 (32.32%) – 2nd of 2
Josephine Okot, School Board at Large – 5,747 (39.68%) – 2nd of 2
Maryland:
Bill Barry, Baltimore City Council District 3 – 622 (16.81%) 2nd of 3
Douglas Armstrong, Baltimore City Council District 14 – 392 (10.31%) 2nd of 2
Christine Nagle, College Park City Council District 1 – 296 – Currently second out of 3 running for 2 seats. Absentee ballots not counted yet, and the margin is too close to call between all three candidates…
Massachusetts:
Rick Purcell, Holyoke City Council – 587 (34.87%) – 2nd of 2
Tim Beaudoin, Worcester City Council – not elected
Minnesota:
Devin Miller, St. Paul School Board – 4,900 (5.34%) 9th of 10
Johnny Howard, St. Paul City Council Ward 1 – 1,010 (28%) 2nd of 4
Jim Ivey, St. Paul City Council Ward 2 – 1,435 (27%) 2nd of 5 – IRV Election, no winner yet, and Jim Ivey has a LOT of second choice ballots!
Bee K. Xiong, St. Paul City Council Ward 6 – 1,397 (42%) 2nd of 2
New Jersey:
Michael Spector, New Jersey General Assembly, District 26 – 1,090 (2%) 5th of 5
Steven Welzer, New Jersey General Assembly, District 14 – 1,049 (1%) 5th of 5
New York:
Alex White, Rochester City Council South District – 601 (11.6%) 3rd of 3
Carol Omalyev, Smithville Town Board – 96 (13.73%) 4th of 5
Cecile Lawrence, Tioga County Legislature District 3 – 194 (35.66%) 2nd of 2
Cesar Malaga, Suffolk County Legislature District 14 – 264 (2.43%) 3rd of 3
Chris Edes, Monroe County Legislature District 24 – 453 (11.03%) 2nd of 2
Christine Shahin, Herkimer County Legislature District 17 – 252 (31.98%) 2nd of 2
Howie Hawkins, Syracuse Common Council – 1,072 (48.15%) 2nd of 2
Joe Duffy, Hornell Alderman – 51 (33.55%) 2nd of 2
Joe Gajdosz, Town of Evans Council – 356 (7.41%) 3rd of 3
John Roszman, Town of Evans Supervisor – 192 (4.35%) 3rd of 3
Mike Bernhard, Afton Town Board –
Robert Clemente, Utica Mayor – 211 (2.14%) 5th of 5
Roger McGill, Cheektowaga Town Council – 1,257 (2%) 7th of 7
Stacie Porr Edick, Preston Town Council –
Steve Greenfield, Ulster County Legislature District 10 –
Suzanne Montalalou, Erie County Legislature District 2 – 1,294 (12%) 2nd of 2
Vinessa Buckland, Chili Town Board – Fusion candidate/Democrat
Mary Adams, Rochester Commission of Schools – fusion candidate, Democrat. Elected, but technically not a Green.
Wallace Smith, Rochester Commission of Schools – 2,486 (3.65%)
Howard Eagle, Rochester Commission of Schools – 2,520 (3.7%)
Mary DeCamp, Green Party candidate for Mayor of Tucson, Arizona, has her campaign headquarters in a tent at the Occupy Tucson camp. While some politicians might be talking the talk but living comfortably, DeCamp is days away from being evicted as her home is about to face foreclosure.
From Reuters:
(Reuters) – There is no bank of telephones at Mary DeCamp’s campaign headquarters, no volunteers eager to bring her message to the masses.
The Green Party candidate for mayor of Tucson, who is days away from losing her home to foreclosure, is flanked by fellow Occupy Tucson activists as she directs her long shot bid for public office from a borrowed tent in a local park.
“November 10th is my eviction date,” the aptly named candidate said cheerfully on Friday, while unpacking signs after police had pushed Occupy Tucson campers from one park to another a night earlier.
DeCamp could have saved her house, she said, and could have taken handouts from friends and family to keep her mortgage current. But she said she gave up after months of phone calls from the bank hounding her about late payments as she fell further behind.
“I just shut down,” she said.
read more »
On November 8, Portland Maine will hold an election for the first popularly elected Mayor in over 80 years. Furthermore, voters will get to rank the candidates as the election will be using Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), which will be very interesting given that there are 14 candidates on the ballot.
One of those candidates, John Eder, is a former State Legislator, one of a handful of Greens ever elected to State Legislative office in the U.S. Eder, however, did not get the endorsement of the Maine Green Independent Party (MGIP), which has instead endorsed sitting City Councilor David Marshall, also a Green:
“Let there be no mistake about it, David Marshall is the Green choice for Portland’s mayor,” states Nate Shea, MGIP Chair. “His leadership on sustainable transportation, green development, and the creative economy places him among the strongest elected Greens in the nation.”
The Green Independent Party endorses Marshall because of his vision to create a modern streetcar line in Portland, to convert homes and businesses off of oil to cleaner fuels, and to grow the population density to create a more sustainable city as well as his longstanding commitment to helping constituents cut through city bureaucracy. For these reasons, the Green Independent Party strongly urges its members to rank David Marshall as their first choice for Mayor.
On Tuesday, John Eder came out and put his support behind one of his opponents, Ethan Strimling.
The endorsement comes as somewhat of a surprise because of Eder’s background. Eder helped mentor City Councilor David Marshall, the other Green Independent Party candidate running for mayor.
But Eder said Marshall is already on the City Council and “doing great work,” and the city needs fresh leadership. He said with Marshall still there, and Strimling as mayor and Eder advocating from the outside, “we’re going to make a great team for this city.”
There are two more Greens running in Portland on November 8. Josephine Okot is running for Portland School Board, and Jack Safarik is running for Portland Water Board.
Below is Mayoral Candidate David Marshall.
The Syracuse Post-Standard has endorsed New York Green Party leader Howie Hawkins for Syracuse City Council 4th District. From the paper’s endorsement:
Hawkins, who works for UPS, has run more than a dozen times, for everything from governor and senator to mayor and councilor. He advocates for public power in the city to generate jobs and energy savings; a municipal development bank to provide training grants and job-ready employees for local enterprises like grocery, hardware and clothing stores in underserved areas; fully-funded schools and city services through tax reforms that include a city income or commuter tax; enforcement of the city’s living wage ordinance, combined with a “community hiring hall” to increase minority employment in city contracts…
Addressing the frosty relations between councilors and the mayor, Hawkins says if he couldn’t win over the mayor, he would try to build a veto-proof majority on the council. His progressive ideas, common-sense approach and undaunted quest for an opportunity to serve make him the stronger candidate.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Twin Cities Daily Planet has published interviews with two Green Party city council candidates. Johnny Howard is running in Ward 1:
“I want to change the culture of leadership,” says Johnny Howard who is competing in the race for the Saint Paul city council against incumbent council member Melvin Carter in Ward One. “Too often, there is a pretense of neighborhood involvement that disguises top-down leadership.”
Bee Kevin Xiong is running in Ward 6:
What is it like in the day of a city council candidate? Between 9 a.m. and noon, Xiong is in meetings. In afternoon to early evenings, Xiong and his team of volunteers are going door to door, talking to the residents of the sixth ward. He asks what the resident which issues they are concerned about in the ward and then explains his plan and why he’s running for city council. “I’m endorsed by the Green Party, which means we are a grassroots democracy – we care about people. We treat them with dignity and respect. We put people first.”
Read the full interview with Bee Kevin Xiong at the Twin Cities Planet.
The St. Paul Green Party has one more city council candidate and a school board candidate in the upcoming election, which will use instant runoff voting for the first time in the city’s history. Learn more about all the candidates at GreenSaintPaul.org.
MyCentralJersey.com has published interviews with New Jersey Green Party state assembly candidates Steven Welzer (14th District) and Michael Spector (26th District), as well as a letter to the editor from Welzer. An exerpt from Welzer’s interview:
How would you improve on your opponent’s record? I would bring an alternative perspective into a legislature that is bogged down in business-as-usual ineffectual polarization. Green Party positions are distinctive from those of both the Republicans and the Democrats. As might be expected, we are stronger on fighting environmental degradation. read more »
Philadelphia Green Party Sheriff candidate Cheri Honkala was recently interviewed on PressTV. Here is an excerpt of the interview, which is available on PressTV as both video and text:
Philadelphia, where I live, was just named the poorest city in the country. And we have children that go to bed every day in our country that are hungry. We have over 3 million homeless people. And like I said earlier, every 7 seconds a family is losing their home now in this country.
There is no reason for that; we have the ability to provide people with the healthcare. We have the ability to provide everybody with all the necessities of life. We just have a serious problem, we have one political party in this country and that represents corporate America. We don’t have a political system that represents the people, and that is the only reason that I have decided to run for Sheriff.
From the Green Party of the United States:
WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party candidates have continued to receive endorsements in local races across the US.
59 Greens will be on ballots in the November 8, 2011 general election. Ten Greens have been elected to public office in elections held earlier this year, out of 34 candidates who competed.
Green candidates in St. Paul, Minnesota, received several endorsements. For the first time, St. Paul will use Ranked Choice Voting (also called Instant Runofff Voting) in City Council elections, which will increase the chances of a Green election victory.
TakeAction Minnesota, a progressive grassroots coalition, has endorsed Jim Ivey for Ward 2 (http://iveyforsaintpaul.org) and Bee Kevin Xiong (http://xiongforsaintpaul.org) for Ward 6 in City Council races.
http://www.takeactionminnesota.org/_assets/document/St._Paul_City_Council_Endorsements.pdf
http://iveyforsaintpaul.org/news/jim-ivey-endorsed-takeaction-mn
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189 has also endorsed Mr. Ivey and Mr. Xiong.
http://www.ufcw789.org/newsletter/vol2issue5.pdf
http://iveyforsaintpaul.org/news/united-food-and-commercial-workers-endorse-jim read more »
Dirk Langeveld at the New London Patch has published 5 Green candidates’ responses to a questionnaire sent to all local candidates. Jessica Cartagena, Kenric Hanson, and Joan Sullivan Cooper are running for City Council. Ronna Stuller and Mirna Martinez are running for the Board of Education. With 5 local candidates, the New London Greens are one of the most electorally active Green Party chapters in the country this year.
Terry Baum, Green Party candidate for Mayor of San Francisco, speaking at the Occupy San Francisco event. (OccupySF does not endorse any political candidates).
In Portland, Maine’s largest city, the city’s first mayoral election in decades features two candidates from the Green Independent Party: former State House member John Eder and City Councilor David Marshall. Both have been featured recently in the Portland Press Herald.
In his interview, Eder said that affordable housing would be the central issue in his administration:
“We’re on the verge of the creative economy toppling the artists and workers who helped make Portland become what it is,” he said. “We can’t lose those people.”
Marshall pointed to a record of accomplishment in five years on the council and presented his plan:
Marshall’s five-point platform includes investing in the city’s school facilities, converting homes and businesses from oil to alternative fuels, and creating a streetcar line.
Those programs would cost a significant amount up front, as some opponents have pointed out. Marshall calls them “investments.” He points to a record of saving the city money.
The election will be conducted using instant runoff voting, which Green Anna Trevorrow played a key role in enacting as a member of Portland’s charter commission. Ben Chipman, an independent State House member who is closely aligned with the Greens, is also quoted in the article about Marshall.
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