Green Party Watch

There are 58 candidates running for the United States House of Representatives on November 2.

This is the second of three posts on Green Party House candidates, continuing with the Western portion of the United States. There are candidates running in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

Arlzona
William Crum (CD 2) – William Crum is a write-in candidate for U.S. House, second district. He ran for the same seat in 2008 and finished with 3,616 votes (1.1%) in a four way race. He is a father of five and grandfather of 17.
Leonard Clark (CD 3) – Len Clark is running for US House in Arizona’s 3rd District. Find out more about his campaign at his facebook page.
Rebecca Dewitt (CD 4) – Rebecca is an accountant, a mother, and the Secretary of the Arizona Green Party. She ran for the same seat in 2008 and finished with 4,464 votes (3.6%). Find out more about Rebecca Dewitt at her website.

California
Carol Wolman (CD 1) – Wolman is a psychiatrist on the Mendocino Coast, primarily working with native peoples. She is married with two children. In 2008 she ran for the same seat, finishing with an impressive 24,793 votes (8.54%), one of the best returns of congressional candidates in 2008.
Ben Emery (CD 4) – Ben Emery is a private ranch manager, he lives in Nevada City, CA with his wife and children. This is his first campaign for office.
Dave Heller (CD 9) – Heller ran a write-in campaign for this seat in 2008, finishing with 37 votes. Learn more about his campaign at his website. Also see his candidate statement video at KTVU.
Jeremy Cloward (CD 10) – Cloward is a political science professor, living in Pleasant Hill, CA with his wife and children. He last ran for this same office last year in a special election, finishing with 2,515 votes (1.83%).
Eric Peterson (CD 17) – Peterson is one of four candidates running for US House in the 17th Congressional District.

Colorado
Gary Swing (CD 1) – Gary Swing is a long time Green Party activist, working on Green Party campaigns since the mid-1990’s. He ran for State Representative in 1996 on the Green Party ticket, finishing with 1,338 votes (8.5%). He is a cultural event promoter in the Denver area, avid mountain climber, vegetarian and 9/11 truth movement supporter.

New Mexico
Alan Woodruff (CD 1) - Woodruff has been a chemical engineer, a management consultant, a financial consultant and a tax lawyer. After retiring from law practice he was a novelist and political junkie. This is his first run for office.

Oregon
Chris Henry (CD 1) – I had the pleasure of spending time with Chris Henry in Detroit this summer, he is a great guy. He is a union truck driver and green party organizer in Oregon. He last ran in 2008 for this same seat, finishing with 5,252 votes (2%).
Michael Meo (CD 3) – Meo is a math teacher and science historian, teaching at both the high school and university level. He is also a co-chair of the Pacific Green Party of Oregon. He ran for this same office in 2008, finishing with 12,741 votes (4%).
Michael Beilstein (CD 4) – Beilstein is a retired chemist from Oregon State University who also served time in the Peace Corps in the 1970s. He has also served three terms on the Corvalis City Council. He ran for this same seat in 2008, finishing with 8,195 votes (4%).
Chris Lugo (CD 5) – Lugo is a journalist and peace activist who previously ran for office on the Green Party ticket in Tennessee. Lugo has run twice for US Senate in the past, in 2008 he ran in Tennessee finishing with 9,102 votes (0.4%) and in 2006 he ran for Senate finishing with 2,578 votes (0.1%). (By the way, he has one of the most visually appealing websites from Green Party candidates.)

Texas
Jim Howe (CD 11) – Howe is an active member of the Permian Basin Central Labor Union and Communication Workers of America. This his first campaign for office.
Ed Scharf (CD 23) – Ed Scharf ran for this seat in 2002, finishing with 805 votes (0.5%). He is the co-owner of a wildlife lodge and broker with Scharf Realty.

Washington
Roy Olson (CD 9) – Olson, an actuary in Olympia, is a candidate for U.S. Representative in Washington’s Ninth Congressional District. Because of Washington’s “Top Two” election law, Olson was eliminated from the general election ballot during the primary on Sept. 1, where he finished 4th with 4,159 votes (3.34%).

Marisa Demarco of The Alibi reports on the New Mexico Green Party’s struggle to put candidates on the ballot in the face of hostile opposition from the state:

New Mexico is the only state in the nation without an independent or third-party candidate in any statewide race—or for the U.S. House. “There’s no state with a worse record this year,” says Richard Winger, who edits Ballot Access News, a national publication based in San Francisco. He writes about independent candidates and third parties, and he keeps track of developing laws state by state….

Green Party member Alan Woodruff says he showed up at the Secretary of State’s Office with about 4,500 signatures on the day they were due in June, and that they were rejected. But Don Francisco Trujillo, the deputy secretary of state, says “Alan Woodruff never showed up with any signatures.” Instead, according to Trujillo, Woodruff brought only a letter saying he was the Green Party’s candidate in the race for Congress between Rep. Martin Heinrich and Jon Barela. For this story, Woodruff brought the signatures—on 400 pages—to the Alibi offices on Tuesday, Oct. 12.

Read the full article at The Alibi.

Ballot Access News reports:

On July 1, the New Mexico Green Party filed a second ballot access lawsuit to get its U.S. House candidate on the November 2010 ballot. One case is already pending in U.S. District Court. The new lawsuit is in state court. See this story.

New Mexico is the only state that requires the nominee (not someone seeking the party nomination, but the nominee) of a qualified party to submit his or her own petition. Alan Woodruff is the nominee of the Green Party, and he complied with that law. He submitted approximately 4,000 signatures by the deadline on his nominee petition. But the signatures were rejected because the Secretary of State does not believe the Green Party is ballot-qualified. The Green Party meets the 5% vote test for a party to be entitled to its own primary, and it meets the one-third of 1% registration membership test. But it doesn’t meet yet another test, that it have polled at least one-half of 1% for President at the last presidential election. The new lawsuit in state court says that the state was supposed to have notified the Green Party after the November 2008 election that it had been disqualified, but it did not do so. read more »

News West 9 reports from New Mexico that Green Party candidate Alan Woodruff has been blocked by the Secretary of State from filing to run for Congress:

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – The secretary of state’s office has turned down an attempt by a Green Party candidate to run for Congress in New Mexico.

Alan Woodruff of Albuquerque tried to submit nominating petitions on Tuesday to become a candidate in the Albuquerque-area 1st Congressional District.

Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo said he declined to accept the petitions because the Green Party is no longer a qualified political party in New Mexico.

Woodruff said he plans to file lawsuit challenging the secretary of state’s decision.

Woodruff previously had planned to run as a Libertarian candidate. He is part of a 2009 lawsuit pending in federal court that alleges the state unfairly restricts ballot access for minor parties.

Political parties to help develop election rules
May 10, 2010

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – Secretary of State Mary Herrera has formed a committee of political party representatives to help with regulations implementing new state election laws.

Herrera announced Monday the appointment of members of the Democratic, Republican and Green parties to the committee.

The panel will assist the secretary of state’s office in developing rules for a law requiring a check of the accuracy of vote tabulators before the November general election. The law also requires a post-election audit of tabulators in random precincts in races in which the winning margin is less than 15 percent.

Named to the committee were Democrat Paul Stokes of Corrales, Republican Barbara Blackwell of Santa Fe and Green Party member Sean Knight of Pojoaque.

(hat tip to Brent McMillan for the story)

The Santa Fe Reporter recently published an article about the New Mexico Green Party’s state convention. The article asks “Can New Mexico’s Green Party recapture its heyday?” and covers the party’s conflict with NM’s Secretary of State, as well as the party’s nomination of Alan Woodruff for US Representative in district 1.

Members of the Green Party work daily recruiting candidates, educating voters, lobbying their local and state governments, serving on local boards and city councils, and lately, challenging obstructive and unequal election and campaigning laws in court.  Below is a round-up of some the latest legal moves and victories won by state Green Parties across the country.  Your support of the Green Party on all levels is vital if we are going to continue to work for better election laws and candidate recruitment.

Read on for news from Arkansas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Connecticut about how Greens are working for better election laws. read more »

In a commentary at the New Mexico Independent, writer Arthur Alpert praises the Libertarian and Green Parties in that state for going to court to press their case for participation in elections.

Alpert writes

New Mexico Greens care about bread-and-butter issues like health care as well as the environment. Conversely, the traditional state Democratic Party harbors lots of careerists less excited by issues than finding jobs for friends and family.

Sadly, some also tolerate “honest graft.”

In a truly eye opening line, Alpert writes

The multiple scandals (including, perhaps, dishonest graft) swirling around New Mexico Democrats today could send a sufficient number of voters Green-ward next election to allow a fresh-faced, not-too-Republican candidate to win the governorship.

And in the saddest, and perhaps most accurate passage, Alpert writes

Our two-party system derives from an ideological debate between the nation’s founders. Today the parties fight mostly over money and power.

Alpert’s understanding of New Mexico and New Mexican politics makes this a read worth the time…and some of the comments give us an insight to the opinions others have of us and multi-party democracy itself.

KOAT is reporting on a ballot access lawsuit brought by the New Mexico Green and Libertarian parties News West 9 is carrying the same AP story.

Report from Ballot Access News:

On April 27, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office said that it recognizes the Independent Party and the Constitution Party as being ballot-qualified. It said the Green Party and the Libertarian Party are not ballot-qualified.

The Green Party does appear to meet the statutory qualifications to be a major party. The law says, “Major party means any qualified political party, ANY of whose candidates received as many as 5% of the total number of votes for the office of governor, or president of the United States, as the case may be and whose membership totals not less than one-third of 1% of the statewide registered voter file on the day of the governor’s primary election proclamation.”

The Green Party candidate for Public Regulation Commission, Rick Lass, in 2008, polled 77,006 votes in a partisan race. The number of votes cast for president in New Mexico last year was 830,158. 5% of 830,158 is only 41,508, so Lass polled more than 5%. Also, the Green Party’s registration is greater than one-third of 1% of the state total.
read more »

Wish I had a way to change that headline every time, but my mind is just not creative enough.

North West Arkansas’ News Source reports on endorsements made by the Washington County Green Party.

The Santa Fe Reporter covers Rick Lass’ race for Public Regulation Commission in detail, including explaining the problems faced by New Mexican Democrats as they strive to explain to their voters how to vote for the Green, Lass, even after voting a straight party ticket. New Mexico’s system is like South Carolina’s. The staraigh ballot vote is in essence a statement of which party you “belong”, while allowing the voter to vote for some, all, or none of that party’s nominees.

The Journal Inquirer of Connecticut covers all the candidates in that state’s 2nd Congressional district race, including the Green Party candidate, G. Scott Deshefy, who will be at a panel discussion on health care tomorrow, and who will be in a debate on the 28th.

Iowa Green Wendy Barth is covered in this Des Moines Register article.

New Mexico Green Rick Lass is covered in an article at The Santa Fe New Mexican in his race for Public Regulation Commission.

Nebraska Green Steve Larrick was covered by the Associated Press in his race for US Senate.

The Rev. Edward Pickney is running for Congress from prison. Running in Benton Harbor, Michigan, home of the Whirlpool Corporation, Pickney is in prison for 3 to 10 years because he quoted the Bible, violating his probation.

In the race for New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner (3rd Dist.), Green Rick Lass is facing off against ‘heir apparent’ Jerome Block, Jr., Democrat. The race has been very contentious (see previous coverage here and here and here and here and here) and is entering its final stages. I would claim that this is one of the top 5 or 10 races Greens should be watching nationwide this November.

The race is interesting because #1 There is no Republican in the race; #2 The Democrat has a history of illegal campaign finance activity, falsified records on his resumes, a restraining order related to gang activities, public urination, and being the son of a former long time public relations commissioner; #3 The Green, Rick Lass, has been running an effective campaign against Jerome Block and for Rick Lass; #4 This race is close close close, but might be far less so due to the fact that Block will have a Capital D for Democrat after his name on the ballot and Lass will have a G for GREEN PARTY.
read more »

…lied about their education, lied about their arrest record, denied being involved in “pseudo-gang related activity”, had restraining orders against him in college for repeatedly threatening the life of another, got off of a drunk driving charge because the arresting officer didn’t show up to court, was busted for urinating in public and arrested for being a passenger with a drunk driver… and he refuses to debate his Green opponent?

Alas, the opponent is a Democrat, whose father and grandfather held the seat before him.

What is a Green to do (besides show up at Obama rallies and pitch himself to Democrats)?

Story here.

In the ongoing heated war of words between Green Party candidate Rick Lass and Democrat Jerome Block, Jr., it now appears that Democrat Block lied on a candidate questionnaire about his educational background. From the Albuquerque Journal:

There’s just one problem with Democrat Jerome Block Jr.’s claim to have earned an associate’s degree at the “UNM Anderson School of Banking.”

Such a school doesn’t exist. The District 3 Public Regulation Commission candidate listed the purported degree on a Journal candidate questionnaire during the primary campaign in May. Block also told the Santa Fe New Mexican that he attended New Mexico State University but did not graduate and received the “equivalent” of an associate’s degree from the banking school at the University of New Mexico.

UNM spokeswoman Leslie Venzuela said UNM’s Anderson School of Management does not offer associate’s degrees.

Block appears to be referring to a 16-day professional development program for bank employees that was for years affiliated with Anderson. It’s known as the Western States School of Banking, and students do not receive academic credit for participation in courses like bank profitability and team building.

“I think it’d be a stretch to refer to it as the Anderson School of Banking,” school executive director Mark Fidel told the Journal.

read more »