Green Party Watch

From Howie Hawkins’ website:

A Green New Deal

A teach-in on Progressive Taxes, Single Payer Healthcare and Running for Office

Sunday, February 12 from 2 to 5 pm
ArtRage Gallery, 505 Hawley Ave.
Free and open to the public!

Join the discussion as we
demystify how state taxes affect our community
learn the how we can fight for Universal healthcare for all after the Affordable Care Act (Vermont did it!)
hear about how to run a successful campaign for office! read more »

According to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Donald Hassig intends to run for the House of Representatives in New York’s 23rd District:

A St. Lawrence County man plans to run as a Green Party candidate in the race for New York’s 23rd Congressional District seat.

Donald Hassig lives in Colton and since 2000 has run an advocacy group called Cancer Action NY, dedicated to stopping the spread of chemical carcinogens. He believes he’s ready to challenge U.S. Rep. Bill Owens, a Democrat from Plattsburgh.

[...] read more »

From the New York Green Party:

A Green Party of NY State Committee meeting will be held Saturday, Jan. 28, in Rensselaer, NY, at the First Presbyterian Church, 34 Broadway. All enrolled Green Party members are welcome to attend and will have a chance to address the State Committee members during the morning enrollee speak out. Contact chair@gpny.org for more information. (Read more for agenda and directions.) read more »

From the New York Green Party:

Governor Cuomo’s agenda for 2012 is designed to maintain the power and wealth of the 1%, promoting austerity rather than prosperity for the vast majority of New Yorkers.

“If we follow Governor Cuomo, the richest 1% of New Yorkers will still receive 34% of the state income. The janitor at Trump Tower will still pay a higher rate of state and local taxes than Donald Trump and Mike Bloomberg. The state Capitol will remain a source of corruption. The minimum wage will remain a poverty wage and hydrofracking for natural gas will harm our environment and health,” said state co-chair Howie Hawkins. read more »

From the New York Green Party:

The Green Party of NY State slammed Gov. Cuomo and the State Legislature’s proposed tax bracket reshuffling as a major tax giveaway to the wealthiest New Yorkers.

The Green Party also called for seizing the assets of the “too big to fail” banks, breaking them up, and turning them into state and community owned banks oriented towards developing the economy for the public good.

“Cuomo’s plan is once-again a tax giveaway to his friends on Wall St. and in the 1% who donate to Democratic and Republican party campaigns.” said state party co-chair Howie Hawkins. “Gov. Cuomo should explain why his regressive tax reform, which cuts taxes for the wealthiest should be adopted when it will actually cause a a multi-billion dollar budget deficit. Last year I ran on a platform of raising personal income tax rates to the progressive rates of the 1970s and collecting the stock transfer tax, and using that money to and provide full employment through a Green New Deal. It’s time to make the Wall St. criminals and the wealthy pay for the mess they created. If we followed the Green Party plan, we’d raise nearly $8 billion yearly from income taxes while cutting what most people pay, and collecting the $15 billion we get from the stock transfer tax would go a long way towards making Wall St. clean up the mess they created. 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.

NEW YORK–The Green Party continues to stand with the nationwide Occupation movement, in the face of the NYPD’s raid on the Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park during the early hours of the morning.

As the NYPD violates a judge’s restraining order allowing Occupiers back into Zuccotti Park with their tents and equipment, one thing remains clear: despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s persistent reputation as an “independent” mayor, his actions today have irrevocably demonstrated his collusion with the 1% and corporations that have wrecked the economy and threaten the world with climate catastrophe.

“‘Mayor One Percent’ can personally install bike lanes from now until the end of his ill-gotten 3rd term, and he will still never live this down,” said Michael O’Neil, member of the Green Party NYC Committee. “He is the NYC mayor who attempted to thwart the most dynamic, spirited movement for economic justice of our time. The 99% will not forget.” read more »

From the New York Green Party:

Hawkins Blasts Cuomo for Arrests at Occupy Albany: “Governor 1% Assaults Political and Economic Rights of the 99%”

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party’s 2010 gubernatorial candidate, blasted Governor Andrew Cuomo for the arrests of Occupy Albany demonstrators over the weekend.

“The Occupy Albany demonstrators have a First Amendment constitutional right to peaceably assemble and express their views in a public park. Governor Cuomo is assaulting the political rights of the 99% just as he has been assaulting the economic rights of the 99%. Cuomo’s attempt to suppress their political rights will only mobilize more of the 99% to fight for their political and economic rights,” Hawkins said.

“Cuomo’s opposition to the Millionaires Tax or any other progressive tax reform to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes again in order to fund our schools and public services is why we call him Governor 1%,” Hawkins said. read more »

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.

On the New York Times blog “The Caucus”, a post entitled “Occupy Protestors Down on Obama, Survey Finds” has some interesting numbers for Greens:

Dr. Panagopoulos described the protesters as “disgruntled Democrats.” Sixty percent of those surveyed said they voted for Barack Obama in 2008, and about three-quarters now disapprove of Mr. Obama’s performance as president. A quarter said they were Democrats, but 39 percent said they did not identify with any political party. Eleven percent identified as Socialists, another 11 percent said they were members of the Green Party, 2 percent were Republicans and 12 percent say they identified as something else.

Read the full post at The Caucus.

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 »

From the New York Green Party:

Howie Hawkins needs your help to get elected to Syracuse City Council!

Howie won over 40% of the vote the last time he ran for this seat, and that was after having to petition like crazy to get on the ballot. This time, with ballot status, important endorsements from labor and media, and the state and county-wide exposure he earned last year, he has a great chance to win. But that victory is *far* from a foregone conclusion! The Democratic Party machine is ever-formidable and will not roll over.

Here is a summary of the key policies Howie will promote as 4th District Councilor: read more »

As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to gain momentum, Green Party activists and candidates are in the thick of the action. In these videos, Cheri Honkala, candidate for Philadelphia Sheriff, Reverend Billy Talen, former candidate for NYC Mayor, and NY Green Party organizers Mark Dunlea and Michael O’Neil report from the belly of the beast:

Cheri Honkala visits Occupy Wall Street from Jason Bosch on Vimeo.

The New York Green Party has published a list of Green candidates running in this year’s general election on November 8th. The 18 candidates on the list are running for a range of local offices, including town/city council, school board, and county legislature, in locations from Syracuse and Rochester to Suffolk County. For the details, check out the Green Party of New York State website and GPW’s own list of 2011 Green candidates.

The Utica Observer-Dispatch reports from Utica, New York:

UTICA — The city mayoral race is going green. Robert Clemente, 53, on Tuesday announced he will be running for mayor on the Green Party line – meaning five people are in contention for the position. Clemente acknowledged he is starting late in the race, but in the remaining time before the election, he plans to talk about issues, solutions and a vision for improving Utica, he said.

During his announcement Tuesday at F.T. Proctor Park, Clemente spoke about various goals for saving the city money, and many ideas had an environmental focus. One of his main initiatives would be to take over street-lighting from National Grid and build toward medium-scale municipal power generation using methods such as solar panels, he said. “We will think green, live green and save green,” he said.

Read the full article at the Utica Observer-Dispatch.