[Iowa-dx] FW: The Green Party broadens its color palette (Medill Reports)

[Hart, Holly J]

The Green Party broadens its color palette

By Elizabeth Gibson
Medill Reports, February 20, 2008
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=3D78905


WASHINGTON -- Picture the Green Party: Ralph
Nader, tree huggers and an afterthought in
presidential election results.

That stereotype is dated =96 at least the part
about Nader and hippy environmentalists.

The party=92s focus for the 2008 presidential
election has shifted toward providing basic
services for the poor, promoting universal
healthcare and ending racial disparity. The more
expansive rhetoric has surprised and attracted
some Democrats, although Sen. Barack Obama is
winning over much of the Green Party=92s
traditional base, young liberals.

The party=92s old platforms, such as ballot reform
to make it easier to run as a third party
candidate, are still there. But Greens have
grown.

=93It was so awesome to see so much diversity in
the Green Party that I never knew existed,=94 said
Philip Riehl, a sophomore at the University of
Maryland. =93The Green Party is an alternative that
I think I might be ready to accept.=94

Riehl, a registered Democrat, went this week to a
campus forum with former U.S. congresswoman
Cynthia McKinney, the front-runner among four
Green presidential candidates. She didn=92t answer
all of the questions Riehl came in with, he said,
but McKinney brought up issues he never expected
to hear from a Green candidate.

Hip hop artist Head Roc opened for =93Sister
Cynthia McKinney,=94 who held up poster-size charts
about the economy,, a photo of a lynching, and a
photo of the severed arm of an immigrant killed
in an accident while trying to cross the Mexican
border. She only mentioned the environment and
energy in passing.

McKinney, who left the Democratic Party last
year, said she became a Green because it=92s too
hard to run for public office, without a
party-based support system.

The four Green candidates each have their own
emphases, but critics said other than its
environmental niche, the organization hasn=92t
proven itself on other issues at the presidential
level.

=93They=92re not credible on those issues,=94 said
Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study
of the American Electorate at American
University.

Greens don=92t pull a lot of weight in presidential
elections. There are an estimated 250,000 to
300,000 registered party members in the U.S.,
less than 1 percent of the electorate, according
to data collected by ballot-access blogger
Richard Winger.

Greens carried 2.7 percent of the vote with Ralph
Nader in the 2000 presidential race and less than
1 percent in 2004 with David Cobb. The best
turnout for a Green Party presidential primary so
far this year was about 27,500 votes in
California, and the majority of those went to
Nader, who is not officially a Green Party
candidate in 2008..

 =93By and large it is only on local and state
issues that they have had any success,=94 Gans
said.

There are 235 elected Greens in the U.S., most
serving local governments, according to Brent
McMillan, political director for the U.S. Green
Party.

Gans said the Green Party=92s ability to build a
following at the national level, as with most
third parties, depends on how dissatisfied voters
are with the Democrat and Republican candidates.

Take Jon Tveite, formerly the advisor to Kansas
State University=92s Campus Greens group and now
the faculty advisor to the school=92s Progressive
Coalition. He said the Kansas Green Party
atrophied over the past four years, and his
students, unlike in 2000, seem relatively
satisfied with the Democratic candidates.

For the first time since 1992, Tveite said, he
attended a Democratic caucus. Obama was his
candidate.

Tveite said he and Green sympathizers seem drawn
to Obama, but he can=92t figure out why. Perhaps
it=92s Obama=92s rhetoric about rejecting traditional
partisan politics. Hillary Clinton is less
attractive for people with Green values because
voters associate her with mainstream politics,
Tveite said.

Green Party leaders said they aren=92t in a
horserace with Democrats. The point is to develop
a movement and offer people a way to voice
dissatisfaction with the status quo.

=93If you=92re really trying to build a meaningful
institution,=94 McMillan said. =93It takes time.=94


[SIDEBAR]


Key Green Party issues in the 2008 presidential
race
-- End racial disparity
-- Implementation of universal healthcare
-- Reform of the electoral system
-- Immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq
-- Repeal of President Bush=92s tax cuts
-- Aid those suffering from the housing mortgage
crisis
-- Address global warming


10 Key Values of the Green Party
1. Grassroots democracy

2. Social justice and equal opportunity

3. Ecological wisdom

4. Non-violence

5. Decentralization (of wealth and power)

6. Community-based economics and economic justice


7. Feminism and gender equity

8. Respect for diversity

9. Personal and global responsibility

10. Future focus and sustainability


Who=92s in the running for the Green Party?


Jesse Johnson
Residence: West Virginia
Experience: Chairman of Mountain Party (Green
Part affiliate), 2006 U.S. Senate candidate, 2004
gubernatorial candidate in West Virginia
Campaign contributions: Johnson has not filed
with the Federal Election Commission because he
could not be an official candidate until he
resigned from another political position. His
campaign manager estimated Johnson has raised
about $18,000.
More: Johnson has also been an actor and a
filmmaker.


Cynthia McKinney
Residence: Georgia
Experience: U.S. Congresswoman (1993-2003,
2005-2007)
Campaign contributions: $45,902
More: McKinney was a Democrat until 2007 because
she felt she had lost the party=92s support and was
dissatisfied with its results on Capitol Hill.
She was defeated in a bid for reelection to
Congress in 2006.


Kent Mesplay
Residence: California
Experience: sought 2004 Green Party presidential
nomination, sought 2006 Green Party Senate
nomination for California, biomedical engineer
Campaign contributions: $4,230
More: Mesplay works as an air quality inspector
at the Air Pollution Control District of San
Diego.


Kat Swift
Residence: Texas
Experience: former co-chairperson of the Texas
Green Party, 2007 San Antonio City Council
candidate in
Campaign contributions: $1,100
More: Swift turns 35, the age minimum for a
president, a few months before the 2008 election.



Ralph Nader
(not an official Green Party candidate)
Residence: Connecticut
Experience: presidential candidate four times
Campaign contributions: $100,286
More: Nader received 2.7 percent of the vote for
the Green Party in the 2000 presidential election
but ran as an independent in 2004.


Campaign contribution data comes from the Federal
Election Commission. According to the Green
Party, all candidates have raised at least $5,000
each.