From the New York Times (editor’s note: the NYT has conspicuously refused to cover Green Howie Hawkins’ surging campaign for NY Governor):
The Green Party candidate from Texas, Emily Sanchez, has few resources in her bid for the United States Senate.
She has no war chest to buy ads or television time. Her campaigning is limited because she holds a full-time job. She has no campaign staff to write speeches or set up rallies. She faces formidable and well-financed opposition.
What she does have is a nickname, SpicyBrown, that voters will see on the ballot. She hopes it will garner attention and spur voters to examine her political stances.
“A lot of questions I get on my page is why I have the name,” she said, referring to her Facebook page. “Afterward, I have people ask what my platform is about. It helps that way.” Continue Reading →
Emily “Spicybrown” Sanchez, the Green Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, filed an Emergency Complaint with the Federal Communication Commission’s Media Bureau seeking inclusion in a Univision Dallas debate scheduled to take place Friday, October 24, 2014.
The complaint argues that KUVN-DT violated the Equal Time Rule by including Democratic and Republican candidates and excluding the Green and Libertarian candidates in its debate.
“Not only did Univision exclude all of the female candidates in the race, it excluded the only Mexican-American candidate and the only candidate that actually speaks Spanish,” stated Emily “SpicyBrown” Sanchez. Continue Reading →
The Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, Mark Swaney, wants to tell voters why he is running for office. Swaney said he has a number of issues that differ from his Democratic and Republican opponents. He is up against Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Cotton and Incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Pryor.
Swaney said one of the most important issues on his platform is climate change. He would implement a tax on carbon to encourage people not to use it. Swaney wants the country to focus on alternatives that would not pollute the atmosphere.
Swaney said he will also fight to make things better for the working class. Continue Reading →
Both the Libertarian Party of Arkansas and the Green Party have already submitted enough signatures to be on the ballot for the 2014 elections. On Saturday the Green Party announced a candidate for governor and US senate.
Hot Springs attorney Josh Drake is running for governor while Huntsville resident Mark Swaney is running for US senate.
The party’s public relations officer Rebekah Kennedy identified climate change, fossil fuel dependence, and the infringement of civil liberties as key issues in both candidates’ campaigns. Continue Reading →
The Texas Green Party has recruited more than 50 candidates for state and local office across Texas to occupy the ballot in 2014. This is historically the largest number of Green Party candidates that will appear on the ballot in Texas.
“We are very excited to be running so many principled progressive candidates throughout the state,” said David Wager, co-chair of the Texas Green Party.
“Our goal is to provide a progressive alternative to the other two parties in Texas and offer voters more voices and more choices than they might otherwise have on the ballot,” Wager said.
The most widely known candidate is food safety advocate and whistleblower Kenneth Kendrick of Wilson, who is running for Agriculture Commissioner. Continue Reading →
This year there are six candidates on the ballot for US Senate on the Green Party line and one registered write-in candidate.
The first Green Party candidates for US Senate were Mary Jordan (AK) and Linda Martin (HI) in 1992, 20 years ago. Jordan got 8.37% of the vote, while Martin pulled 13.73% in a four way race. Since then there have been 67 US Senate campaigns by the Green Party, with 13 candidates in 2006 as the peak. The most votes won by a Green US Senate candidate was 326,000 by Media Benjamin in California in 2000. The highest percent of the vote received by a Green US Senate candidate was 20.56% by Rebekah Kennedy in Arkansas in 2008.
In 2010, 11 Green Party candidates ran for US Senate, with Tom Clements winning 9.37% of the vote in South Carolina and all candidates combined won over 500,000 votes.
Colia Clark, a long time civil rights, peace and women activist, was a Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate in 2010 for the seat presently held by Chuck Schumer. She won 39,000 votes for 1%, finishing 3rd of four candidates. Clark, a resident of Manhattan, is a chair of Grandmothers for the Release of Mumia Abu Jamal. During the Civil Rights era, Clark was a Special Assistant to Medgar W. Evers, field Secretary for the NAACP. Clark later joined the Mississippi Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) doing voter registration work. She was the founder and Coordinator for Poor Women Against Vietnam War, and the former coordinator of the Social Justice Center in Albany.
Here is Colia Clark after being endorsed by the Green Party of New York:
Martin Pleasant (TN)
Marty Pleasant lives in South Knoxville and is an employee with the Knox County Engineering and Public Works department where he works to implement green practices in storm water management. He and his wife also operate a small organic farm and community garden space. He has been a volunteer with Americorps, Community Creek Clean-ups, River Rescue and as a youth sports coach. He has degrees in Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering.
Pleasant is running on the Green New Deal – supporting the restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, phasing out non-renewable energy, ending US involvement in foreign wars, and fully funding public education.
David Collins is a former teacher and current information services employee who lives in Houston Texas. He has been active with the Green Party since 1995, with the Harris County Green Party since 2000, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Houston Peace and Justice Center.
Collins is running for US Senate on the Green New Deal, and is an outspoken critic of the environmental damage being caused by the Keystone Pipeline as well as nuclear power plants across Texas. Breaking the US addiction to fossil fuels is one of his main policy positions, as well as ending wasteful military involvements and ending the war on drugs.
Harley Mikkelson is a retired public employee, Vietnam veteran, and active union member with AFSCME and UAW. Mikkelson has been active with the Michigan Green Party since 2000, and has run for office five times on the Green Party ticket. In 2002 he got 5,000 votes running for the House of Representatives, and 2,400 votes for the same office in 2004. In 2008 he was the Michigan Green Party candidate for US Senate, winning 43,000 votes, coming in 4th of 6 candidates. In 2010 he was the Michigan Green Party candidate for Governor, winning 20,000 votes and coming in 5th place. Mikkelson sought the Green Party nomination for President this year, losing that bid to Jill Stein.
The Green Party of Michigan has selected me to be their 2012 U.S. Senate candidate. This is a very important election. Social Security, Medicare, and public education are all under attack. Health care is becoming unaffordable. We have soldiers stationed all over the world, we are still involved in a war in Afghanistan, and the stage has been set for a war with Iran. Our environment is being ruined. There are way too many people unemployed. I am a working class person and it is the working class perspective I hope to bring to this race. I do not want the Green Party to be the party of a small group of left wing intellectuals. I want to represent people who shop at Walmart as well as Macy’s. During this campaign I will present Green alternatives to the policies of the Republicans and Democrats in power.
This video is from Mikkelson’s 2010 campaign for Governor:
Ken Wolski is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana – New Jersey, where he works to craft legislation and build support for the medical marijuana bill that passed in 2009 and was signed into law in 2010. Wolski has continued to push for implementation of the bill in the face of the Christie administration’s resistance. Wolksi is a public service nurse with a Masters degree in Public Administration. He is a strong advocate for a single payer health care system.
Andrew Groff is a small business owner, running his own computer consulting business. Last fall he became involved with the growing Occupy movement, and joined the Occupy Delaware movement working on advocacy for home foreclosure victims. Groff wants to “return a citizen-representative to the US Senate to protect the needs of Delaware citizens and Delaware law. We endeavor to demonstrate that money need not be the deciding factor in electing a senator to Washington…We will not be slaves to corporate political party manipulation and will truly represent a government by the people and for the people.”
Jeff Russell is running his second write-in campaign for US Senate in Connecticut. In 2010 he received 45 votes as a write-in candidate. He is also running on the ballot for Connecticut State Senate District 1.
Colia Clark won the unanimous vote of the Green Party State Committee to run for US Senate at a meeting held in Manhattan.
Clark, a long time civil rights, peace and women activist, was a Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate in 2010 for the seat presently held by Chuck Schumer. (Watch the video of her 2010 announcement) Clark, a resident of Manhattan, is a chair of Grandmothers for the Release of Mumia Abu Jamal. During the Civil Rights era, Clark was a Special Assistant to Medgar W. Evers, field Secretary for the NAACP. Clark later joined the Mississippi Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) doing voter registration work. She was the founder and Coordinator for Poor Women Against Vietnam War, and the former coordinator of the Social Justice Center in Albany.
Announcement of Candidacy of Colia L. Clark for the United States Senate from New York State: Continue Reading →
Running for any seat in the Green Party is more like an obstacle course than a race.
First, you need to gather signatures to appear on the ballot. That number depends on what the desired seat is, but for the U.S. Senate election you’d need at least 500. (Major parties need at least 1,000.) If anyone signed a petition in a county where they are not registered, they don’t count. Current and previous addresses rule others out. And if some print their names rather than signing it, their names are disqualified, too.
“What most people don’t realize when you’re a minor party is that every election cycle, you’re under a threat because the two major parties don’t want us to participate,” said Anita Rios, co-chair of the Green Party of Ohio and one of the candidates for U.S. Senate. She and Bowling Green resident Joe DeMare know this all too well.
Having tested the political waters last year, Kevin Chisholm appears ready to dive into a larger pool…
An engineer by profession, Chisholm retired last year as chief energy official for Arlington Public Schools. As the Green Party County Board candidate in 2010, he garnered just over 6 percent of the vote against Democratic incumbent Chris Zimmerman and Republican Mark Kelly.
Chisholm said he would be running as an independent because he sees himself “more a political centrist” than what is represented by the Green Party. He describes himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
In a year that has seen the biggest upsurge of activism against marijuana prohibition in American history, Green Party candidates across the country are leading the fight for marijuana legalization while Democrats and Republicans defend the failed, destructive “war on drugs” prohibition regime.
The eyes of Americans who oppose prohibition are on California’s Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. The California Green Party and its leading candidates, including gubernatorial candidate Laura Wells and US Senate candidate Duane Roberts, support Proposition 19, while the Democratic and Republican candidates for governor and US Senate all publicly oppose it.
Meanwhile, Green gubernatorial candidates like Howie Hawkins in New York, Rich Whitney in Illinois, and Jill Stein in Massachusetts have injected marijuana legalization into the public debate and rallied anti-prohibition voters, who number 46% in the latest Gallup poll, around an issue considered taboo by the political establishment.
By voting Green, you not only send a strong message that you want a sensible drug policy; in many cases, your vote helps the Green Party maintain its ballot line in your state, enabling Greens to run more and stronger campaigns in the future. If you want to legalize marijuana, vote Green.