Green Party Watch

From the Topanga Messenger:

Topanga resident David W. Steinman has announced his candidacy for congress as the Green Party candidate for 2012 in the redistricted 33rd District, which stretches from Malibu to Palos Verdes.

Steinman, a consumer advocate, author and magazine publisher, has taken on the nation’s most powerful corporate interests.

… “I am running for Congress as a Green Party candidate because I believe in the fundamental principles of the party and because both parties have betrayed our interests as Americans and have hurt Main Street businesses,” says Steinman, who will be challenging Rep. Henry Waxman. read more »

Green Party Candidates for President Jill Stein (MA) and Kent Mesplay (CA) will be appearing tonight in a Green Party Presidential Forum in Los Angeles, CA. The event will be Livestreamed by the Green Party, which you can watch there, or embedded here, “below the fold”.

The event begins at 7:30 PM PACIFIC, 9:30 PM CENTRAL, 10:30 PM EASTERN.
read more »

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.

Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for President, is currently campaigning in California. See the press release below for details. There will be campaign stops in Mountain View, Occupy Santa Cruz, Occupy San Francisco, Occupy Napa, Occupy Oakland, Green city Fairfax, Sacramento, Los Angeles, North Hollywood…

GREEN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JILL STEIN ANNOUNCES GOLDEN STATE TOUR
~ “The Candidate of the 99%” to cheer on Occupy Wall Street protests in 5+ cities ~

(Boston) — Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein will tour the Golden State next week, with visits planned to Occupy Wall Street protests across California, as well as a presidential primary debate before the Green Party of California state convention in Los Angeles. The tour begins Monday, November 28th, and runs through Monday, December 5th (full schedule below).

“The American people are standing up in a way we haven’t seen in generations, and they are providing the leadership that isn’t coming from the political elite,” Jill Stein said. “The people have to take charge because the political parties that are serving the top 1 percent are not going to solve the problems that the rest of us face.”

Jill Stein announced her presidential campaign on Monday, October 24th, before a crowd of supporters at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston. Stein is a medical doctor and prominent health care advocate. Her California tour follows on a statewide tour of her childhood home of Illinois earlier this month.
read more »

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Voters representing the Green, Libertarian, and Peace and Freedom parties sued Tuesday over the state’s new open primary system, saying change will deny voters the right to support third-party candidates in general elections. read more »

There will be a Green Party Presidential Forum in Los Angeles on December 3, featuring Dr. Kent Mesplay and Dr. Jill Stein, two candidates seeking the Presidential nomination. We have not been able to confirm whether the event will be livestreamed or not, but we will certainly cover it if it is.

Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/events/302578003094973/

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 »

Rob Richie and Dorothy Scheeline of Fairvote have written some interesting analysis of last week’s elections that used instant runoff voting, aka ranked choice voting. Instant runoff voting was used in San Francisco, CA, St. Paul, MN, and Portland, ME; in all three cities, Greens both helped enact IRV and ran in last Tuesday’s elections. For the mayoral elections in Portland and San Francisco, Fairvote has graphs that show the breakdown of votes round by round until someone takes a majority (in Portland, Greens David Marshall and John Eder finished 4th and 12th of 15; in SF, Green Terry Baum finished 11th of 16). In a Huffington Post article, Richie and Scheeline focus on the story of IRV’s success in Portland:

Repeatedly, we are seeing RCV winners being the candidates who do a particularly effective job at reaching out to voters, often with direct contact involving community debates, local events, and door-knocking. One Portland candidate, David Marshall, said he knocked on 20,000 doors. He didn’t win, but it was ballots from his supporters that provided a particularly strong boost to the new mayor’s win total.

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 »

Terry Baum, Green Party candidate for Mayor of San Francisco, speaking at the Occupy San Francisco event. (OccupySF does not endorse any political candidates).

The Huffington Post recently interviewed Terry Baum, California Green Party candidate for San Francisco Mayor:

Why should we vote for you?

You should vote for me because I’m a Green, and I represent a vision that this city — and our whole country — desperately needs. In this time of reactionary ranters and passive progressives, the politics of the U.S. are being pulled rapidly to the right. The Democratic Party has been incapable of confronting the idiocies of the Tea Party and the frightening rhetoric of the religious right. We need a stronger voice on the left, and the Green Party is that voice for sanity, for significant reform, and for standing up to the corporations and the wealthy, who have been dominating political dialog.

Read the full interview at the Huffington Post.

The Marin Independent Journal has endorsed California Green Party members Larry Bragman and Ryan O’Neil for town council in Fairfax, CA. Fairfax is currently the only town in the US with a Green majority in local government. From the article:

O’Neil grew up in Marin and moved to Fairfax eight years ago to raise his children in the “pleasant peace” he finds in Fairfax. He also is a member of the Green Party. He has served on the town’s Open Space Committee and recently was named to the Planning Commission. read more »

Ballot Access News (excerpt):

On October 7, California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed SB 205, which made it a crime to pay registration workers on a per-registration card basis. Because Proposition 14 has left California minor parties with only one means to remain on the ballot, by having registration equal to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, this veto will help minor parties. The Green, Libertarian, and Peace & Freedom Parties had asked that the bill not be signed. The veto message says, “Voting is at the heart of our democracy. Efforts to register voters should be encouraged, not criminalized.”

Brown also acted on four other election law bills. He signed SB 397, which makes it possible for voters to register to vote on-line.

In a press release sent to Green Party Watch, the Green Party of the United States endorsed plans to engage in a long term protest in Washington DC. Echoing the call from October2011.org, the press release quotes Sanda Everette of California.

“In making this endorsement, we’re challenging the dangerous political direction of the US. We also challenge others who support ‘October 2011′ to recognize the Green Party’s leadership on the issues these events will address, such as endless wars, the demand for Medicare For All universal health care and millions of new jobs, and the need to end the control of top corporations over our political system,” said Sanda Everette, member of the Coordinating Committee of the Green Party of California and former co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Ms. Everette will participate in the October 6 event.

Greens and others interested in supporting the party and the occupation of Freedom Plaza can check for local leadership at the October 2011 website. The full text of the press release is below the fold. read more »

KALW News has published an interview with Terry Baum, Green Party candidate for Mayor of San Francisco, at SFGate.com:

This year’s SF mayoral election is ranked choice, meaning San Franciscans can all vote for more than one candidate. If the frontrunner doesn’t get a majority of first place votes, the second place votes kick in. And that process is going to make for a lot of contenders – 16 of them, in fact. And one is Terry Baum.

Baum worked on the congressional campaign of famed feminist Bella Abzug back in 1970. She then moved to the Bay Area and started working with a lesbian theater company. In 2004 she ran as a Green candidate against Representative Nancy Pelosi for her seat in the House. And now, Baum is taking her thoughts back to the people of San Francisco by running for mayor.

Read the interview at SFGate.com.