White Supremacist Steals Cover Under Green Party Ballot Line; Greens Officially Reject Him

"Bring me your tired, your poor... " but your hateful? NOT! The Green Party suffers from a few things, but you wouldn't expect inclusivity to be one of them. Nonetheless, its recent win of ballot access in Illinois has attracted the wily ways of one alleged White Supremacist who not only turned in petitions to put himself on the Green Party ballot, but also protested all the Green and Democratic Presidential primary candidates, as well as some state and local offices. But this is not Richard Mayers first attempt to attain office.

On Nov. 14, Kurt Erickson, statehouse bureau chief for the Bloomington Pantagraph, wrote a story which insinuated, through omission, that the Green Party was rejecting one of its own. I wrote a letter to Erickson in response to the article's misleading statements and asked him to consider discussing some of the missing components in his description of the case:

"I have been following the story " Green Party tries to rid itself of Chicago-area congressional candidate" and wonder if you could consider some of the following material in your future stories.

The Headline of your piece, for which I know you are not necessarily responsible, did not indicate the importance of the Green Party action to remove this candidate, considered to be a Neo-Nazi." It may be useful for your readers to understand that Richard B. Mayers maintains a philosophy completely contrary to the Green Party platform.

Perhaps the Green Party has an essential right to protect itself from a person who will misuse its hard-fought ballot access and will completely misrepresent the party's platform. And there's a rich story of the embattled underdog who has to fight the flies in order to save the honeypot of ballot access."

Erickson responded: "Thanks. I am tracking the situation. I appreciate your input… Kurt."

Erickson will have a chance to clarify the story presumably after Dec. 6th, when the case is to have been decided by the state election board. Until he has another chance to address the topic, a smaller paper in the area, The Riverside Brookfield Landmark, has posted a much more detailed story into the life of a man who is stealing Green.

Am I posting a challenge? Perhaps. To all: if you don't like what you see, take some action.

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(Almost) Every Candidate/Party from 1789–2004

The table of information provided by "Infolink" demonstrates significant cyclical changes of parties in the United States of America. The candidates' names are also cited. It does only represent parties that attained electoral votes, so it's missing some key movements that were otherwise absorbed by the reigning parties.

Thanks to Kim of On the Wilder Side for prompting me to re-evaluate the representation of this table.

read more | digg story

Arkansas Green Party Candidates File For Presidential Primary

Cynthia McKinney, Kent Mesplay, Kat Swift and Jared Ball will appear on the Green Party ballot candidates on the Arkansas primary for President. Compare that to California or Illinois' list for an understanding of the many shades of green.

In California, in addition to the four already mentioned, Ralph Nader Elaine Brown and Jesse Johnson passed the Green radar.

In Illinois, Kat Swift and Jesse Johnson was passed over.

Delegates from other states will cast their votes during this summer's convention to be held in Chicago. Hopefully, that will give the final candidate enough time to effectively mount their final campaign for the November 2008 standoff.

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Illinois Presidential Ballot Signatures Face Objection

update: 3rd Congressional District candidate Richard B. Mayers, widely considered to be a "faux" green by the party, is responsible for the objections. Dan White, executive director of the state election board, said he was unsure how long it would take to decide the merits of Mayers’ objections.

“Some can be disposed of quickly while others could take weeks,” White said, according to the site Pantagraph.com.


original article posted on November 11, 2007

After a very successful and hard-fought petition drive, the Illinois Green Party's Presidential Candidates for the Primary have all received an objection to their petitions. At least they are in good company, however, since the Democratic candidates who filed in that state are also facing objections.

Illinois Greens, Socialist Equality Party and other third parties have had their petitions challenged by Republicans and Democrats in the past, wasting party resources and manpower for the smaller parties. So, while we could imagine that the Democrats might have done it again to the Greens (or perhaps specifically to Ralph Nader who is suing the DNC on ballot access issues dating back to 2004) - who's doing it to the Democrats?

In 2006, Democrats challenged the Green Party's petitions. Christina Tobin, founder of Illinois Free and Equal who had worked as a ballot access coordinator for the Illinois Libertarian party in 1998 and 2000, and Ralph Nader in the Green Party for Illinois' presidential ballot access in 2004, claimed both Democrat and Republican state officials urged state officials to undermine these campaigns and keep them off the ballot. Despite claimed proof of these allegations, enormous legal fees prevented Tobin from pursuing the cases further.

"I really have seen first and foremost the similarities between this two-party bullying," said Tobin. "There is really no difference when it comes to what these two parties will do in order to get [independent candidates] off the ballot and deprive the voters of more choices and the real issues they want to hear.

A representative for each of the candidates who wishes to remain on the ballot must present themselves to the State Election Board this coming Monday, November 19, 2007 at the James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph Ste: 9-040, Chicago, Illinois at 10:30AM.

Republicans do not hit their petition deadline until December 4. It will be interesting to see if their petitions also face objection.

references:
Illinois State Election Board Candidate List
Challenging Illinois Ballot Access Laws
Illinois Democrats prepare challenge against petitions to place SEP candidate on ballot
Nader Case Against Democratic National Committee Chair is Assigned to an Experienced Federal Judge
Ralph Nader Sues Democratic Party

Bill to Outlaw "Voter Caging" Introduced in U.S. Senate

At BradBlog, Brad has written an excellent piece about "Voter Caging".

Thirteen Democratic Senators have introduced a bill that would outlaw "voter caging," the practice of sending mail marked "Do Not Forward" to a targeted list of voters in hopes of using the returned mailings as a basis to challenge the right of the voters to vote. The tactic was used by Republican operatives in both the 2000 and 2004 election.

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The Sweet and Sour Sauce of Blogs in Politics

Washington Post Opinion

Illinois Nails Petition Deadline for Presidential Primary

The Illinois Green Party successfully gathered enough signatures for the following four candidates on the Presidential Primary Election in February.

• Jared Ball
• Howie Hawkins, stand-in for Ralph Nader
  
• Cynthia McKinney
  
• Kent Mesplay
  

It was Gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney 's 2006 run that achieved statewide party status and significantly eased ballot access requirements for the state's new but quickly growing party. This opportunity (and challenge) to place candidates on the state's primary ballot is a symbol of success, both for the state's party but for all the Greens. Being on the primary ballot will boost the visibility of the party in the state, itself the goal of many of the candidates.

During an interview at the Annual State meeting, Whitney said that meeting the two candidates who managed to make it there made a difference for him. Californian Kent Mesplay and Washington, D.C. Jared Ball had committed their campaign pocket book to demonstrate the importance of introducing themselves to the state's party representatives. Showing up seemed to have made a difference in the case of the Illinois petition drive as signatures were not collected for other grassroots candidates.

Three grassroots candidates who were placed on the California primary ballot but did not make it onto the Illinois ballot were:

• Texas activist Kat Swift
• Georgia's Elaine Brown and
• West Virginia's Jesse Johnson, who is also considering a gubernatorial run.

Neither Howie Hawkins who is a stand-in for Ralph Nader, nor Cynthia McKinney made it to the Illinois State meeting; however their international notoriety was enough to garner the support of petitioners who collected signatures on their behalves. McKinney was in Chicago at the time and did meet with party leaders to discuss a strategy for accruing signatures, which apparently went well.

Giving Politicians the Green Finger

printed with permission of author

SAN FRANCISCO - This Saturday San Francisco hosted one of over 1,400 rallies across the country calling on political leaders to "Step It Up" by strengthening policies to cut carbon emissions – making it part of the largest coordinated climate change event in U.S. history. Step It Up San Francisco featured a carnival-like atmosphere complete with a Toss Out Fossil Fuel sock toss, sidewalk chalk, electric cars, and solar-powered smoothies. Eager for more government action around climate change, the crowd "gave City Hall the green finger" by stamping their fingers with green ink and symbolically pointing at City Hall.

"November 3 represents a new move towards political accountability," said Step It Up founder Bill McKibben. "So far it's been enough for politicians to say: I care. Now, one year out from a pivotal global warming election, it's time to see who's going to lead." Fliers distributed at the event highlighted that San Francisco is failing to meet 65% of its own climate action plan, and needs to immediately triple carbon reduction rates to get back on track. Step It Up San Francisco volunteer organizer Jerry Stone said, “It takes the momentum of a grassroots movement paired with effective policy to generate real change.”

Anti-war activist and Congressional candidate Cindy Sheehan discussed the need to reduce U.S. oil dependency to prevent climate change and stop wars waged for oil. Supervisor Aaron Peskin urged the crowd to vote "Yes on A, No on H" during this Tuesday's election to support public transit investments. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, along with Mayoral candidates Quentin Mecke, John Rinaldi and Josh Wolf, discussed the importance of fulfilling San Francisco's Climate Action Plan and implementing an energy policy called Community Choice Aggregation. Mayoral candidate Ahimsa Sumchai called on the city to address the toxic pollution in the Bay View Hunters Point being recklessly caused by Lennar Corp and PG&E's toxic legacy. Mayor Gavin Newsom did not attend.

The event kicked off with a parade of bicycles, electric cars from the San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association and a carbon-negative car that runs on coffee grinds. About two hundred people circled through the plaza, which featured a group of League of Pissed Off Voters artists painting a biofuel bus, a massive solar panel from Greenpeace that powered the event, and a carbon-eating mobile algae farm. Balloons and banners around the plaza were marked with the event's platform:

• City Hall must get back on track to meet Climate Action Plan
• No Coal, No Nukes, No Problem
• Cut Carbon 80% by 2050
• 5 Million Green Jobs Conserving 20% of Our Energy By 2015

The national Step It Up platform template was uniquely adapted by the San Francisco group of 17 endorsing organization – including Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, Sierra Club Bay Chapter, and Rainforest Action Network - by integrating an opposition to nuclear power as a central part of its platform. David Jay of the Green Guerrillas Against Greenwash noted, “Let's forget for the moment about the general nastiness of uranium mining, the recent accidents and near disasters, the fact that nuclear waste is deadly for hundreds of thousands of years and is sitting around in containers that last 20, and the fact that no one has the faintest idea what to do with it. Economically, nukes don't work… Our leaders must recognize there are distractions, like nuclear, that we can't afford.” The San Francisco organizers even posted to the national homepage of Step It Up, calling on other rallies to echo their opposition of nuclear power. Dressed in a gorilla costumer, and slurping on a solar-powered smoothie made from local organic pears, Jay led the crowd in chanting “No Coal, No Nukes, No Problem!” A delicious way to spend the day and protect the few blue skies left in our foggy city.

for more info:
Jerry James Stone, Step It Up San Francisco Organizer and Founder of GreenSix.com,

2007 Green candidates to watch on Election Day, November 6

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party is off and running with candidates for public office in races throughout the US on Election Day, November 6.

The total number of Green candidates in 2007 is 130. At least 225 Greens across the nation currently hold elected office. Greens ran 377 races throughout 2006, winning 67 races (18%). Out of 170 municipal and county races in 2007, Greens won 70 (41%).

45 states and the District of Columbia have parties affiliated with the Green Party of the United States . Twent-two state Green Parties have ballot access for the 2008 national election as of October 2007.

Several candidates deserve special attention in the 2007 election:

Chuck Turner is running for reelection to the City Council District 7 seat in Boston, Massachusetts. He is currently the highest ranking African-American Green officeholder in the US. Mr. Turner won his primary election with 75% of the votes cast.

Howie Hawkins, candidate for Councilor At-Large in Syracuse, New York was endorsed by the Syracuse Post-Standard on October 30. Mr. Hawkins ran for the US Senate in New York against Hillary Clinton in the 2006 election.

Grace Ross, for Councilor-at-large in Worcester, Massachusetts , is one of twelve candidates running for six seats after finishing sixth in the September 11 primary.

BALLOT ACCESS UPDATES

NATIONAL
On October 30, Ralph Nader, Peter Camejo, and six voters filed a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee. The 30-page complaint details the national Democratic Party’s extensive support for challenges to Mr. Nader's ballot positions, especially efforts to sabotage ballot petitions and harass petitioners in several states.

ARKANSAS
On October 17, the Arkansas Green Party was notified that its petition has been certified. It is the only Arkansas party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, that is on the ballot for all offices.

NEW JERSEY
On October 17, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Neil H. Shuster ordered that the state grant equal treatment to alternative political parties. The ruling eliminates some of the structural advantages long enjoyed by the Democratic and Republican Parties, and concedes that New Jersey election law must treat alternative parties as official "political parties" for the purposes of campaign finance, lobbying, and voter registration. The lawsuit in the case was filed by the Green Party of New Jersey, the New Jersey Constitution Party, and the New Jersey Libertarian Party.

PENNSYLVANIA
Carl Romanelli, 2006 Green candidate for the US Senate, is awaiting a decision from the State Supreme Court on $80,000-plus in costs he was ordered to pay as a penalty for invalidated signatures on his ballot petitions. In an equally troubling and unprecedented twist, the court also encumbered Mr. Romanelli's attorney, Larry Otter, with fines and costs. Pennsylvania requires over 67,000 valid signatures for third party and independent candidates but only 2,000 signatures for Democrats and Republicans running for US Senator, Governor, or President. Greens have accused the Pennsylvania court system of intimidating third parties and independents and freezing them out of major races by exacting such fines, which are unprecedented in the US. The Green, Libertarian, and Constitution Parties of Pennsylvania have filed a joint law suit in the US Supreme Court against the state's blatantly unfair and antidemocratic ballot access laws.

Mc Kinney and Nader Appear to Be Sharing A Lot More Than a Party

Cynthia McKinney has announced...wait, wait, wait....hold your breath...that she will announce her decision to accept a run for the Presidency on the Green Party ballot sometime in November. Both she and Ralph Nader, seem to be sharing a lot lately. They are both:

• acting coy about declaring their run for the Presidency, saying that November will be the time for them to announce;
• touring around the country, giving their stump speeches, shaking hands, raising money;
  
• simultaneously appearing as candidates on two ballots, the Green Party and the Peace and Freedom Party in the state of California;
• using legal measures in a high profile manner to bring about the reforms and justice that they feel is necessary.
  
  

Nader and McKinney have been hustling up some media, criss-crossing the nation to presentations. Press is something that the Green Party has been wanting. So, this tension and postponement carries a dividend. Nader has been hitting the college circuit, while McKinney has been holding court at churches and community centers, all while they are supposedly NOT running.

While coy about declaring, they are both pumped up to fight. This week, Nader took aim and sued the DNC and others for conspiracy to keep him off the ballot in 18 states in 2004. His attorney said, ''This is a case designed to make sure other independent and third party candidates will not be subject to the same kind of conspiracy in the future.'' McKinney is part of a Human Rights Suit against President Bush and Vice-President Cheney.

However, for the grassroots candidates for whom issues, not notoriety have vaulted them into this primary race, the inclusion of these larger names will make their own campaigns more difficult as money and labor resources go to the nationally recognized candidates instead of to them.

Acting coy in politics is nothing new and yet is SO ironic. Look how long it took Fred Thompson to jump in. And for all those hoping that Gore will fall in line, one rumor has him announcing after Nov. 7 (the rumor does not cite what year). However, to be able to stick out a run for the Presidency, you've got to have a really strong ego and an uncommon acceptance/desire to be a public personna, not to mention financial resources. It is not an undertaking for the shy.

While the two larger names are out blocking punches, grassroots candidates Kat Swift, Jared Ball and Kent Mesplay amongst others, have said they hope to have a fun experience with the great results of growing the size and visibility of the Green Party, vocalizing social and environmental concerns, and gaining more ballot lines.