Green Party Watch

Local Chapters of the Green Party are meeting across the Nation this week. Does your local chapter have a meeting or event coming up? If so, let us know! GPW@greenpartywatch.org See our Events Calendar for other meetings and events.

Tuesday February 1, 2011 – Hernando Greens (Florida)

6 PM at the Spring Hill Library, showing the film “Capitalism: A Love Story” followed by a meeting and discussion.

Wednesday February 2, 2011 – Arlington Greens (Virginia)

7 PM at the Clarendon Silver Diner, 3200 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA

Thursday February 3, 2011 – Alleghany County Greens (Pennsylvania)

7 PM at Citizen Power, 2121 Murray Ave, 2nd Floor, Pittsburgh, PA – General Assembly meeting, electing new officers.

Thursday February 3, 2011 – Long Beach Greens (California)

7 PM at Polly’s Coffee, 4606 E. 2nd St., Long Beach CA – Meeting

Friday February 4, 2011 – Clark County Greens (Nevada)

6 PM Meeting, contact them for location: http://clarkgreens.org/

Friday February 4, 2011 – Phily Greens (Pennsylvania) Tom Neilson Show and Fundraiser

7 PM, Roxborough Development Corporation, 6156 Ridge Avenue, Roxborough, Philadelphia. $20/person cover (includes food and drinks). Tom Neilson, www.tomneilsonmusic.com, specializes in songs of nonviolence, liberation and human rights.

Sunday February 6, 2011 – Orange County Greens (California)

2 PM – Super Slow Food Bowl Party! Featuring speaker Heather (Stoltzfus) Westenhofer for our February General Meeting. She will be serving up a Power Point presentation, along with bread and butter made on the spot in a Super Slow Food Bowl gathering! We hope you can join us for this special get together. Irvine Ranch Water District 15600 Sand Canyon, Irvine, CA

Last night the Green Party won ballot access in New York and Texas, retained it in Massachusetts and Ohio, lost it in Illinois and Wisconsin, and fell short of gaining it in Arkansas, Maryland, Minnesota, and Nevada. Here are the results by state:

Arkansas: Greens got on the 2010 ballot by petition, but failed to retain a ballot line when Jim Lendall got less than 3% of the vote for governor.

Illinois: Greens lost the ballot line and major party status gained in 2006 by Rich Whitney’s 10% for governor when Whitney got less than 5% of the vote for governor this year.

Maryland: Greens got on the 2010 ballot by petition, but failed to retain a ballot line when Maria Allwine got less than 1% of the vote for governor.

Massachusetts: Greens retain ballot access and party status after Nat Fortune earned 5% for State Auditor.

Minnesota: Annie Young’s 2.7% for State Auditor falls short of winning major party status, but retains minor party status for the Minnesota Greens.

Nevada: Greens fail to gain ballot access after David Curtis got less than 1% of the vote for governor.

New York: Greens gain ballot status through 2014 thanks to Howie Hawkins earning over 50,000 votes for governor.

Ohio: Greens retain ballot status thanks to Dennis Spisak earning over 1% for governor.

Texas: Greens gain ballot status through 2012 thanks to Ed Lindsay earning over 5% for comptroller.

Wisconsin: Greens lose ballot status after not running any statewide candidates who could qualify.

From Green Change:

Tonight, we will be focusing on the campaigns of 14 transformational Green candidates who are building the Green movement across the country. Some of these candidates are poised for history-making wins. Others are blazing the trail for future success by running party-building campaigns for statewide office.

14 Greens to Watch on Election Day

Jeremy Karpen for IL Assembly – Jeremy Karpen’s vigorous grassroots challenge to a Chicago Machine insider has earned him endorsements from the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Teacher’s Union, Independent Voters of Illinois, and even Chicago Progressive Democrats of America. Karpen, a strong supporter of single-payer health care, affordable housing, mass transit, and progressive taxation, has run a clean-money campaign as part of his commitment to reforming Illinois’ notoriously dirty pay-to-play politics.

Ben Manski for WI Assembly – Ben Manski’s insurgent run has earned the support of Madison’s teachers union, the Madison Capital Times, and leading progressives including Jim Hightower, Medea Benjamin, and Thom Hartmann. The outgoing Democratic assembly member revoked his endorsement of Manski’s main opponent, a Democrat who left the Sierra Club to lobby for the coal industry. Manski is racing to the finish line with the support of a broad transpartisan coalition of elected officials, unions, students, newspapers, and activists committed to renewing Wisconsin’s trailblazing progressive tradition.

Gayle McLaughlin for Mayor of Richmond, CA – With a population over 100,000, Richmond became the largest US city with a Green mayor when Gayle McLaughlin was elected in 2006. Since then, McLaughlin has made Richmond a center of the emerging solar industry, fought successfully to increase taxes on the local Chevron oil refinery while lowering them for small businesses, and brought down violent crime with expanded community policing. Her supporters, including Green For All founder Van Jones, hope that her record of positive accomplishments in office will carry Mayor Gayle to victory.

Hugh Giordano for PA Assembly – Hugh Giordano is a union organizer from Philadelphia’s Roxborough neighborhood whose people-powered campaign has electrified the race for an open seat in a traditionally Democratic district. After a CEO won the Democratic primary with only 30% of the vote, Giordano’s strong support for public education, single-payer health care, and worker’s rights has gained him the backing of local unions and maverick Democrats and made him a contender for the win.

Dan Hamburg for Mendocino County (CA) Supervisor – In a county the size of Delaware on the coast of California, former member of Congress and Voice Of The Environment executive director Dan Hamburg is running for supervisor to build a vibrant, sustainable local economy and protect the beautiful natural landscape for generations to come. Hamburg finished first in the 4-way June primary, and has been endorsed by the third-place finisher as well as local unions and environmentalists in his head-to-head race against the conservative, developer-backed candidate who finished a close 2nd in the primary. read more »

Punk Patriot rocks.

David Curtis, Green Party candidate for Governor of Nevada

Amy Kingsley of Las Vegas CityLife has published a profile of Nevada Green Party gubernatorial candidate David Curtis:

David Curtis is running as the Green Party’s candidate for governor. He is also, in a way, its candidate for political legitimacy and ballot access. The Greens are the smallest minor party in Nevada, with 4,154 registered members as of June, according to the Secretary of State’s office. More voters registered as “Other,” a catch-all affiliation that captures every fringe ideology from neo-fascism to crypto-anarchism.

The Green Party is so small, it only fielded one official candidate: Curtis. In a television interview on PBS, Curtis wore a light army jacket and a collared shirt. On this day, he looks similarly unassuming, in a bohemian kind of way, with rumpled shirt and satchel. None of his clothes advertise his candidacy, and he’s not even wearing a button for the occasion.

“I’m in this race to win it as much as I can,” Curtis added.

Read the full article at Las Vegas CityLife.

WASHINGTON, DC — Several Green candidates have launched campaigns in their states’ races for governor in 2010.

The Green Party of California will have a contested primary election for the gubernatorial race, with Laura Wells and Deacon Alexander competing for the nomination, to be decided on June 8.

In recent years, gubernatorial races in some states have given Green Parties high enough percentages to achieve or maintain ballot status and determine the outcome of the election.

In 2006, Rich Whitney and his fellow Greens overcame an attempt by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to keep the Green Party off the Illinois ballot. Gov. Blagojevich spent about $800,000 to block the Green Party. Mr. Whitney drew over 10% of the vote on Election Day 2006 and will be on the ballot in 2010.

Some Green gubernatorial candidates to watch: read more »

I love the “Letters to the Editor” section of any newspaper. I seem to recall there being a campaign to get Green “Letters” out there in the media in full force this summer since the media doesn’t have the funds to cover third parties.

This one comes from a Green candidate for Congress in the Las Vegas Review-Journal (May 30, 2008):

To the editor:

In his ludicrous Sunday Viewpoints commentary, “The Church of Green,” Jonah Goldberg attempts to qualify environmentalists as religious zealots. I am familiar with scientific protocol, and when the great majority of the world scientific community agrees that global warming is being aided by our production of CO2, we should take heed. There is no guilt or moral bullying in this statement, just the scientific truth. A fear should be aroused, but that is a consequence of the truth.

Here on Earth, we are dealing with a finite amount of resources, and we must try to ration the remaining resources for the good of all living things.

The question on paper vs. plastic bags at food markets excludes the sensible solution: reusable canvas or cloth bags.

I don’t know of any environmentalist who subscribes to our government’s ethanol farce. We know that this process uses one gallon of petroleum to produce one gallon of ethanol, takes away food from the marketplace, etc., and that the bill was passed to subsidize agribusiness.

Mr. Goldberg’s most ridiculous statement, that our country is “ecologically healthy,” shows his lack of knowledge regarding our ecological health. Does he know of the mountaintop removal for coal mining in the Appalachians, the increase of cancer and asthma surrounding refineries and chemical plants, the influx of polluting heavy metals into our rivers and streams, the hundreds of Superfund sites that have not been addressed?

The environmental movement is based on scientific knowledge, what we visually see and measure around the world, and logic. It is secular, not religious zeal.

Bob Giaquinta

Las Vegas

The writer is treasurer of the Nevada Green Party and a candidate for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District.