Green Party Watch

The proposals to place Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming and Vermont into inactive status is being voted on now, as mentioned in an earlier article. As of now there are a few “no” votes, and a few “abstain” votes, but most are voting “yes”. Thus far votes have been cast by 22 states or caucuses.

Two other issues are up for votes right now. One, Proposal 433, would appoint Hank Bardel of New York to the Finance Committee. The other, Proposal 432 would establish a “fast track” system for Steering Committee approval of time-sensitive sign-on letters and/or petitions forwarded by the Eco-Action Committee.

As of now, votes on these two proposals are read more »

The Green National Committee (GNC) is responsible for decision making between Annual National Meetings.  Over the holidays they have been busy, and several proposals are now in the voting phase.

In the not too distant past, some proposals and appointments have failed due to a lack of a voting quorum. To address that problem it has been proposed that four states be assigned a “temporary inactive status”. They include Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Vermont.

All these proposals were submitted by the Accreditation Committee. This committee is headed up by Nannette Garrett of Georgia and Roger Snyder of New York.

So far there have been only “Yes” and “abstain” votes cast, but only a few of those. Voting began today and ends on the 10th.

Six Green Party candidates were on the ballot in Burlington Vermont today for Mayor and City Council and all fell short of victory.

While I haven’t found any “official” tallies, according to the Burlington Free Press Jerri Kohl, Steve Eckberg, Lisa Ann Oberbrunner, and Kim Mason all lost their bids for City Council by wide margins. Mayoral candidate James Simpson and City Council candidate Gregory Knops were not listed on the website.

We’ll try to post official results when we find them.

According to this story in the Burlington Free Press, there are five candidates running for city council in Burlington, VT. The election is March 3. It appears that even in the races with more than two candidates the one with the most votes win rather than a run off or using instant runoff voting.

Howver in the Mayor’s race, Burlington had adopted Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) in 2006, and this article published today  “Burlington Voters to Use Instant Runoff” describes how it was received, and how it will be used again on March 3 to determine the winner between five Mayoral candidates. This Mayor’s race is partisan, and includes a Progressive (Incumbent), Democrat, Green, Independent, and Republican. See the sample ballot with the ranked choice options here.

The Green Party candidates are:

• James Simpson, Mayor
• Jerri Kohl, Ward 1
• Gregory Knops, Ward 2
• Steve Ekberg, Ward 3
• Lisa Ann Oberbrunner, Ward 5
• Kim Mason, Ward 6

James Simpson’s positions are published in the Burlington Free Press here.

Burlington Vermont Green Party website is here.

Michigan Green Ken Mathenia is running for Congress in Michigan and the linked article covers his campaign as well as the Libertarian and others in the race.

Over at Ballot Access News we find a report that the Vermont Green Party lost their ballot access suit. I can’t find a link to any official Vermont Green Party website, so I don’t know what that means.

Home Town Source reports that the Minnesota Independence Party is meeting to discuss endorsements, and the article says that Cullen Lee is running with both party’s endorsements for the state House of Representatives.

WizNews reports on Tim Kettler’s campaign for Ohio’s 20th Senate District seat.

The Atlanta Progressive News has an extended article about Cynthia McKinney appearing in that city.

Finally, 56 You Tube videos by RunCynthiaRun can be found at the link above. Check ‘em out!