Green Party Watch

The full story can be read here, below is an excerpt.

Parks has 90 days to collect 1,742 valid signatures from registered voters. If the recall petition is certified, a special election would be held by the end of the year.

CenterCal Properties, which had worked on the mall project and was negotiating an agreement with the city’s Urban Renewal Commission, pulled the plug on the project last month. Nicita spurned offers to meet with CenterCal President Fred Bruning, who made it no secret that Nicita’s continued opposition was a key factor in the decision to kill the mall.

Last year, Bruning temporarily broke off negotiations with the city, citing a “deep division” among city commissioners — Nicita in particular.

Nicita voiced strong criticism of The Rivers, questioning whether it was viable to build a huge mall in a down economy and provide the $17.6 million subsidy the developer requested to offset construction costs. The mall would have been built on an old garbage dump.

When Nicita proposed a city charter amendment that would have killed the project and alienated other developers, more than 400 people showed up to oppose the plan, which was withdrawn.

Nicita suggested other uses for the land and proposed building a nearby trash-burning plant that could turn the waste into electricity.

Nicita, a Pacific Green Party member, was elected to a nonpartisan seat on the commission in 2008.

From the Oregon Pacific Green Party:

The Pacific Green Party fall convention and annual gathering will be held November 6-7 at Camp Myrtlewood.

We will be electing a new State Coordinating Committee member at this convention.

Draft Agenda of November 2010 State Convention
Pacific Green Party of Oregon
6/7 November 2010 read more »

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%).

The Oregon Pacific Green Party will hold its final nominating convention of 2010 on Saturday 31 July at the Metanoia Peace House in Portland, where the party will nominate candidates for elected office, including US Senate. Details can be found on facebook.

Chris Henry, Green Party candidate for US House of Representatives in Oregon’s second congressional district, speaking at the 2010 Green Party Annual National Meeting in Detroit.

Parts 2 & 3 below
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From the Pacific Green Party of Oregon:

Jeff Mapes at The Oregonian reports:

The Pacific Green Party met in Eugene this weekend and nominated former state Sen. Walt Brown of Lake Oswego to be its candidate for state treasurer.  Brown, a Democratic senator from 1975-87, also ran as the Socialist Party USA candidate for president in 2004 as well as four times in the 3rd Congressional District under the Socialist banner.

Seth Woolley, the Pacific Green Party secretary, said no candidate was nominated for governor, but he said one might emerge later.  Woolley said that the party, over the objection of some who feared drawing votes from Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., did nominate a candidate for the 5th Congressional District.

He is Oregon City resident Chris Lugo, a peace activist who moved to Oregon recently after running for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee in 2008 as a candidate of that state’s Green Party.

Having Brown in the Treasurer race could allow the Pacific Green Party to maintain its ballot status regardless of whether it finds a candidate for governor.  The party needs to win at least 1 percent of the vote in a statewide race.

From The World in Southwestern Oregon:

A Coos Bay psychiatrist is challenging Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., for his seat in Congress.

Dr. Rick Staggenborg won the Pacific Green Party of Oregon’s nomination for the U.S. Senate at the party’s convention in Corvallis on Saturday.

Staggenborg is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program and previously worked at the Bandon Veterans Administration clinic. He has spent recent months stumping for a single-payer health care system and limits to corporate involvement in politics. He said he would propose a Constitutional amendment to overturn a recent Supreme Court decision allowing the same free speech rights to corporations as citizens. read more »

Sounds simple enough. Elections should be free…or at least access to the electoral process should be…and all candidates should be treated equally.

Sadly, as articles posted here yesterday show, that is not always the case.

For many years the website Ballot Access News was the nation’s sole source of consistent and balanced news about election access and fairness. While that site remains the most complete and best documented source for such news, another effort has taken shape to bring even more attention to these issues so fundamental to our democratic process.

Free and Equal benefits from having Ballot Access News editor Richard Winger on their board, but they do provide additional information, which we will be sharing with you here at Green Party Watch. To read a few of their articles simply click on this article’s headline. In the meantime, do yourself and democracy a bit of a favor and subscribe to Ballot Access News’ print edition. It’s chock full of information, and exceptionally readable.

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Five Green Party candidates are running for election today:

Nat Fortune is running for re-election to Whately Elementary School Committee, Whately County, MA.

George Gluck is running for Montgomery County Council District 4, MD in a Special General election for an open seat. He has two opponents.

Ruth Alexander is running unopposed for re-election to Ashland School Board District 5 Position 1, Jackson County, OR.

Susan Aufderheide is running for Rogue Valley Transportation District Position 7, Jackson County, OR. She has two opponents.

Matt Donohue is running for re-election to Corvallis School Board Position 4, Benton County, OR. He has one opponent.

Thanks to Brent McMillan for making sure we are paying attention! ~GPW

In a message at Independent Political Report I reported on a statement from a Constitution Party supporter’s website. That statement said, in essence, that Oregon’s Measure 65, if passed, would be the death of third parties in that state.

In the article I linked to several pieces by Richard Winger of Ballot Access News on the topic, and to other information I was able to pick up via Google. I noted that I had sent a message to officers of that state’s Constitution, Libertarian and Green parties. Yesterday I got two responses from members of the Pacific Green Party on Measure 65, and they are available by clicking the “Read more–>” link

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While most (of any) attention often is placed on the Presidential race, Greens on the ground is where the action often is found. The Green Party (US) is made up of State Green Parties, many of which are themselves made up of Local Green Party chapters. It is at this Local level where the Four Pillars (Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Grassroots Democracy, Peace & Non-violence) are put into action.

In Oregon, local Greens are fighting a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal, the Jordan Cove Energy Project.

Perhaps the most significant setback is the state’s finding that the county hadn’t adequately addressed safety issues at the 170-acre project site; namely, that the terminal would sit atop a sand dune prone to liquefaction in the event of a major earthquake — a phenomenon similar to the ground turning into instant quicksand — and that it’s squarely in the middle of a tsunami hazard zone, which the state Department of Geology and Mineral Industries has expressly advised against, said James Nicita, co-chairman of the Pacific Green Party, which contributed arguments in the LUBA appeal.

LUBA rejected several portions of the hazards argument, but sustained at least part of the case, which will force the county to consider the risk, Nicita said.

“In the 1990s, (the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries) actually recommended to Coos County to zone hazardous facilities away from areas of high earthquake risk,” Nicita said. “Jordan Cove will say there’s an engineering solution to everything. We’ll see how this all plays out.”

In New York, the Chenango (County) Greens are all over a proposed natural gas drilling plan that involves “Hydrofracking”, a process that involves blasting vertically into the rock where the natural gas is trapped, releasing both the gas and at the same time toxic-laden water, which is brought to the surface to merge its carcinogenic properties into both running water and ground water.

From the Times Union, “Toxic Gas-Drilling Technique”

Most drilling states inject the tainted water back into the ground in areas where solid rock layers keep it isolated from drinking water, but the geology in New York and Pennsylvania makes that impossible.

Ensuring the water gets treated isn’t part of DEC’s permit review, so long as the end result complies with state laws that say it meets discharge standards.

Read the entire article, it is a classic case of deregulation gone wild in the energy sector with no care given to the health risks posed by such ventures. Also browse through the posts on the Chenango Greens website for more thoughts on this dangerous issue.

A handful of stories out there in the press mention former Green Party candidates for Congress – but why are they in the news now?

Tre Arrow, who took in 15,763 votes in his 2000 bid for the U.S. House in Oregon (placing 3rd of 5 candidates) is going to prison:

Tre Arrow, 34, pleaded guilty to the destruction of concrete-mixing trucks in Portland in April 2001 and to firebombing logging trucks at a contested logging sale near Mount Hood in June 2001.

Arrow was considered a fugitive at one point, and the FBI claims he is an agent of ELF (Earth Liberation Front). Arrow has a colorful past.

In Montana, Bob Kelleher, who ran for US Senate in 2002 (2.3%) and Governor in 2004 (1.9%) as a Green just won an upset victory in the Montana Senate primary yesterday…as a Republican:

The new nominee’s views are far from the mainstream Republican party in Montana. He has run as both a Democratic and a Green Party candidate, and he has advocated more gun control. Kelleher did not return several calls seeking comment on Election Night.

And in New Mexico, former Green Party activist and candidate Carol Miller, who in 1997 took 17% of the vote in a special election to fill U.S. House seat running on the Green Party ticket, is poised to submit 12,000 signatures to run for Congress this year as an Independent.