Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Howie Hawkins endorsed by the Syracuse Post-Standard
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), October 30, 2007http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/stories/index.ssf?/base/opinion-2/1193734919100810.xml&coll=1
Five candidates are running for two
councilor-at-large seats. The Post-Standard
endorses Howie Hawkins, the Green Party
candidate, for one of the seats.
Hawkins is a familiar name in local and state
politics. But because he has run as a minor-party
candidate in so many races and has never won,
some might wonder whether he is a "legitimate"
candidate. In fact, Hawkins is one of the more
credible people running for local office this
year.
He has substantive ideas that have provoked
discussion even among his opponents - including
proposals on public power and a commuter tax. He
has a community-based perspective that is largely
lacking on the council, critically viewing such
proposals as a curfew and a parking "boot"
through the lens of less well-to-do residents.
His many ideas - including establishing a
community hiring hall, creating a municipal bank
and developing a green tech training center -
could spark more progressive, out-of-the-box
thinking in City Hall.
For the second available seat, voters would be
well-served by either Bill Ryan or Kathleen Joy,
both Democratic incumbents. Both are congenial,
smart and hard-working.
Ryan joined two of his colleagues in a trip to
Rochester recently to talk to officials about
that city's curfew, even though he has been
opposed to it. He backs a much-needed unified
economic development office and believes
quality-of-life issues are key to the city's
success.
Joy is capable of bringing groups together to
solve problems - such as her efforts to meet with
tenants, landlords and neighborhood groups to
develop rental property standards. She has taken
a lead in promoting green-building standards.
Republican Bill Harper and Conservative Bob
Teachout also are on the ballot. Harper believes
businesses must be supported, especially in
downtown, and that the city should explore
alternative energy sources.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Cynthia McKinney - Now a Green!
Former Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney has registered to vote as a member of the Green Party of California.
www.AllThingsCynthiaMckinney.com
Draft Cynthia McKinney
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Cynthia McKinney is the daughter of retired nurse, Leola McKinney and one of Atlanta's first Black law enforcement officers, former Georgia State Representative Billy McKinney.
Cynthia earned a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California, a Masters of Art in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and her mother keeps hoping that this is the year she will complete her Ph.D. Cynthia's debut into public office came in 1988 when she was elected to the Georgia State Legislature. In 1992, Cynthia made history when she became the first African American woman to represent Georgia in the United States House of Representatives.
Cynthia McKinney served as a member of Congress from 1993-2003 and again from 2005-2007.
In 1991, Cynthia spoke on the floor of the Georgia House of Representatives against George Bush's bombing of Baghdad. Her colleagues walked out on her, prompting local and national press to compare her to former State Senator Julian Bond, current National Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who was denied his seat in the Georgia State Senate because of his stand against the Vietnam War.
Because of her antiwar stance, Cynthia was approached by women civic leaders and asked to run for Congress. In 1992, the Year of the Woman, she did and we all won.
Cynthia speaks out against the loss of our fundamental freedoms during Bush Administration prosecution of the War on Terrorism and reminds Committee members of the well-known and documented abuses during the COINTELPRO era.
Cynthia also served on the House International Relations Committee for 10 years where she was the highest-ranking Democrat on the Human Rights Subcommittee.
Cynthia McKinney became one of the first Members of Congress to demand a thorough investigation into the events of September 11, 2001.
Cynthia McKinney filed articles of impeachment of President George W. Bush in 2006.
Cynthia McKinney will be in New York State November 4th and 5th to campaign for Green Party Candidates.
www.AllThingsCynthiaMckinney.com
Draft Cynthia McKinney
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Cynthia McKinney is the daughter of retired nurse, Leola McKinney and one of Atlanta's first Black law enforcement officers, former Georgia State Representative Billy McKinney.Cynthia earned a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California, a Masters of Art in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and her mother keeps hoping that this is the year she will complete her Ph.D. Cynthia's debut into public office came in 1988 when she was elected to the Georgia State Legislature. In 1992, Cynthia made history when she became the first African American woman to represent Georgia in the United States House of Representatives.
Cynthia McKinney served as a member of Congress from 1993-2003 and again from 2005-2007.
In 1991, Cynthia spoke on the floor of the Georgia House of Representatives against George Bush's bombing of Baghdad. Her colleagues walked out on her, prompting local and national press to compare her to former State Senator Julian Bond, current National Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who was denied his seat in the Georgia State Senate because of his stand against the Vietnam War.
Because of her antiwar stance, Cynthia was approached by women civic leaders and asked to run for Congress. In 1992, the Year of the Woman, she did and we all won.
Cynthia speaks out against the loss of our fundamental freedoms during Bush Administration prosecution of the War on Terrorism and reminds Committee members of the well-known and documented abuses during the COINTELPRO era.
Cynthia also served on the House International Relations Committee for 10 years where she was the highest-ranking Democrat on the Human Rights Subcommittee.
Cynthia McKinney became one of the first Members of Congress to demand a thorough investigation into the events of September 11, 2001.
Cynthia McKinney filed articles of impeachment of President George W. Bush in 2006.
Cynthia McKinney will be in New York State November 4th and 5th to campaign for Green Party Candidates.
Join a Green Party Comittee
GREEN PARTY MEMBERS – GET ACTIVE – JOIN A GREEN PARTY COMMITTEEThe Green Party of New York State has several state wide committees.
The GPNYS also is allotted 3 representatives on Green Party of U.S.
committees. Committee members are elected by State Comittee representatives but
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE ON THE STATE COMMITTEE TO BE ON A STATE WIDE OR
NATIONAL COMMITTEE – as long as you are an enrolled Green in NYS.
Below is a list of state wide and national committees, current members
and how many elected slots are open. Some state level committees have
an unlimited number of members and all accept volunteer members.
If you are interested in being considered for any of the committees,
please contact Gloria Mattera, Co-chair, GNYS or an SC representative
in your area. Elections may take place at the upcoming meeting on
Saturday, Oct 20 or soon after. You could also contact committee
chairs/members directly to get more information. If you would like to
be considered, please send a brief acknowledgement to
glomatt!earthlink.net or call 718 369-2998.
Committee Membership as of Oct 2007:
Statewide Committees
*Number of elected positions noted in parentheses
** Volunteer members designated by italics
GPNYS Web Committee (11)
Roger Snyder
Craig Seeman
Carl Arnold
James Lane
Carl Lundgren
Darin Robbins
Ann Link
David Levner
GPNYS Rules & Polices
Paul Culley
Gloria Mattera
Steve Scher
Mark Borino
Rachel Treichler
Howie Hawkins
David Cyr
David Mitchell
GPNYS Media Committee
Ron Kuriloff
Maria Kuriloff
Michele Danels
Craig Seeman
Florence Gold
George Deane
Will Maksuta
John David Baldwin – volunteer
GPNYS - Campaign Committee (10)
Eric Jones
Hank Bardel
Jason Nabewaniec
Peter LaVenia
Bill Hill
Darin Robbins
Carl Lundgren
Bob Gumbs
Tom Siracuse
Britney Turner
Ian Wilder
Roger Snyder
GPNYS Issues Committee
David Cyr
Tony Gronowicz
Tom Siracuse
David Mitchell
Mike Bernhard - chair
Florence Gold
George Deane
Bruce Alexander
Jim Brown
GPNYS Fundraising Committee
Matt Funiciello – co-chair
Maria Kuriloff
Michele Danels
Eric Jones
James Lane
Bill Hill
Brittany Turner – co- chair
GPNYS Membership & Organizing Committee
Elaine Steele
Velma Pitt-Foster
Anya Szykitka
Ron Mackinnon
Julia Willebrand
GPNYS County Committees
Ann Link
Hank Bardel
Rebecca White
Peter LaVenia
Howie Hawkins
National Committees
Accreditation (3)
Jim Maceda
Maria Kuriloff
GPUS Ballot Access (3)
Gloria Mattera
Rebecca White
Green Pages (3)
Naomi Canaan
Deyva Arthur
Matt Funiciello
GPUS Finance (3)
Matt Funiciello
Paul Culley
GPUS International
Julia Willebrand
Tony Gronowicz
Carl Arnold
GPUS Platform (3)
Jerry Kann
Tom Siracuse
DayStar Chou
GPUS Bylaws Rules Policies (3)
Jason Nabewaniec
Roger Snyder – by right of appointment as National Comm member
Dispute Resolution (3)
Alison Duncan
GPUS Peace Action (3)
Rebecca Rotzler
Mark Dunlea
Tony Gronowicz
GPUS Diversity (3)
Rebecca Rotzler
Daystar Chou
GPUS Eco Action (3)
GPUS Fundraising (3)
Naomi Canaan
GPUS Personnel (3)
GPUS Merchandise (3)
Jason Nabewaniec
GPUS Annual Meeting
Elaine Steele
GPUS Media
Craig Seeman
Mark Dunlea
Ann Link
Jim Little-observer
<\span>
Where's the Party?
The Green Party Struggles To Grow In Baltimore
By Erin Sullivan
The Baltimore City Paper, October 24, 2007
http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=14693
It's lunchtime at Lexington Market, and Maria
Allwine is standing outside on Paca Street.
Allwine, 54, is a short blond woman who often
wears buttons announcing her opposition to the
war on the lapels of her blazers and sweaters.
She is not hard to pick out at the market
regardless. The crowd is mostly African-American,
and Allwine is white; they are rushing past,
eager to get their lunches and meet friends,
while she is approaching people and asking them
if they are registered to vote in Baltimore City.
Allwine is running for City Council president as
a member of the Green Party, and right now she
faces stiff competition for the attention of
market patrons.
She is offering party literature and campaign
brochures. The vendors inside are offering
cheeseburgers and fried fish sandwiches. Allwine
is selling her candidacy, full of hope and ideas
and plans to make the city a better place to
live--food for thought that, if introduced
properly, could conceivably affect the quality of
life in Baltimore for years to come. The stalls
inside are selling saturated fats, sweets, and
empty carbs--stuff that'll fill you up for now
but leave you feeling empty again in a matter of
hours.
Most people breeze past Allwine and her promise
of a better future and head right for Polock
Johnny's or Sandwich King.
But it's quality, not quantity, that counts for
Allwine right now, and when someone does stop to
take an information sheet outlining her campaign
promises, or ask her a question about her
candidacy, she takes the time to talk to them
about why she's a Green, who she's running
against, what she's running for.
Read More!
She tells them that the Democratic Party, which
has ruled city politics for decades, has sold
them out and doesn't have their best interests at
heart. She talks about such things as
single-payer health care, a proposal that Green
Party members say would provide health insurance
for all U.S. citizens. She explains to them that
she opposes the massive investment in development
around the Inner Harbor at the expense of
struggling inner-city neighborhoods that can
barely get enough funding to beautify green
spaces and clean up trash. She talks about making
it a requirement that those corporations
receiving tax breaks and public money create new
jobs for people who live in Baltimore. She tells
them about how it was Democratic and Republican
politicians who deregulated the state's utility
system, making it possible for BGE to slam
ratepayers with a 72 percent increase in their
utility bills over the past two years.
"The City Council does not represent us," Allwine
says when asked why she's running. "People know
they are getting shafted, they know how
redevelopment is done in Baltimore, taking homes
away from people to make way for development
interests. They know what is going on, but they
think they can't do anything about it. . . . I
look at myself as a vessel, as a conduit to
fulfill the needs of the [community]."
Some of Allwine's commentary falls on deaf ears,
but she does attract a good number of curious
onlookers who listen in as she talks to a
reporter about her platform, as well as
disgruntled voters who admit to her that they
rarely vote anymore because none of the
candidates on the ballot speak to them.
"I think things are going really great out here,"
she says when asked how she feels about the
response she's been getting. "We will get
elected, no doubt about it."
This is Allwine's third attempt at public office
on the Green Party ticket. In 2004, she ran for
U.S. Senate; last year, she ran for state Senate.
As with her previous campaigns, the run for City
Council president is an uphill battle. She's
running a citywide campaign as a member of a
party not widely recognized by city voters
against Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, an incumbent
with tremendous name recognition. She's got very
little in the way of resources, because the Green
Party does not permit candidates to take money
from corporate interests, and Allwine has made a
personal commitment to cap all donations to her
campaign at just $500. Campaign-finance reports
reveal that she had just $91.76 in her campaign
account as of Aug. 31--a pittance compared to the
$99,000 balance boasted by Rawlings-Blake in the
same filing. She doesn't even have many fellow
Green candidates to campaign with; after a slate
of candidates filed to run for various state and
city offices as Greens in the 2003-'04 election
season, Allwine and Bill Barry, who is running
for City Council in the 3rd District, are the
only Baltimore Greens out on the stump this year.
But all that's OK with her.
"When you have one-party rule and no
accountability, people become hopeless," Allwine
says. "People feel they don't have any choice. .
. . If I could buy TV time, and it's too bad we
have to buy it at all, and people heard me, I
know I would win an election. I have no doubt
about it. And I am politically savvy, I am not
naive."
Ever since the Green Party formally established
itself as a political party in Maryland in 2000,
when it gained enough signatures from registered
voters to secure a place on the state ballot, an
ever-changing array of smart, well-meaning
political activists, theorists, community
organizers, and disaffected former Democrats have
been trying to get out a progressive message they
believe many of Baltimore's voters would embrace,
if they ever heard it. But election cycle after
election cycle, the Greens battle fringe status.
Some of the party faithful blame the media, which
they say doesn't offer equal time to third
parties in a two-party system. Others point to
the fact that the party doesn't have the money
the larger parties have to buy TV ad time. Still
others say the nature of the party
itself--activist, idealistic, egalitarian,
dedicated to the vagaries of "change" that its
adherents say they want in their
communities--makes it inherently difficult to
organize.
The Green Party is now at a critical point in its
development, locally, as it has solidified a base
of 1,564 registered Greens in the city and 7,998
in the state. Those in charge of steering it are
hopeful that the party is on the verge of
breaking through to voters and figuring out what
elements make for that perfect combination of
factors that thrusts candidates from the
sidelines into the limelight and, ultimately,
into office.
So what does the Green Party stand for?
According to Maryland Green Party co-chairman Tim
Willard, who has been a Green since 2004, the
party has four pillars upon which all of its
political activism is based.
"The four pillars to the Green Party are
ecological wisdom, grass-roots democracy," he
begins, but then pauses. "I can't think of the
others right now. Um. Oh. They are nonviolence
and social justice.
"I used to be a Democrat," Willard continues,
"but it seems the Democrats are more and more
just another party of corporate interests. They
used to stand for these things. And there are
some good Democrats on a local level, but on the
national level, they have moved away from what
they used to believe in. So the Green Party, to
me, is the party of change."
The national Green Party is nothing more than a
federation of state Green parties, and those
state parties are made up of various locals,
smaller groups of individuals working at the
community level to get people elected, raise
issues important to the community and the larger
party, and build up the party--all without the
support of corporate donors or special interests.
The party overall has 10 "key values" that it
asks all its candidates to support. Those include
the four points Willard brought up, as well as
equal opportunity for all, decentralization of
wealth and power, community-based economics and
economic justice, feminism, diversity, personal
and global responsibility, and sustainability.
The values are loosely defined so that each state
or local party can adjust them to fit to its
particular situation. In Baltimore, the values
are defined by local Green Party members to
represent a massive change in the way the city's
wealth is distributed, its poor are treated, and
its people are represented at the state and local
level.
And change is what many people in Baltimore say
they want. They aren't satisfied by the current
Democratic administration, the foundering city
school system, the skyrocketing crime, mediocre
city services. Yet, voters keep re-electing
Democrats--even Democrats they say do nothing for
them.
Since 2000, the Baltimore Green Party has fielded
candidates for local and state elections. In
2003, it put up eight candidates for City
Council. In 2006, in addition to Green
gubernatorial candidate Ed Boyd, five city
Greens--Jan Danforth, Richard Ochs, David Greene,
Brandy Baker, and Allwine--were on the ballot for
various state offices. Some, such as Allwine,
Baker, and Boyd, campaigned aggressively and
actually made the occasional headline in local
media outlets. Others ran quieter campaigns that
served more to fill out the slate and raise
issues than win votes. According to the Maryland
State Board of Elections, Allwine took 11 percent
of the vote in the race for 43rd District state
senator; Danforth took roughly 8 percent in her
40th District state delegate race; and Ochs,
Baker, and Greene each received between 2 percent
and 3 percent of the vote in their bids as
delegates for 43rd District. Despite the party
not winning any races, it was, by all accounts, a
banner year in terms of teamwork and visibility.
This election season, however, it's just Allwine
and Barry, who ran for the 3rd District City
Council seat in 2003.
According to Green Party organizers, few people
petitioned the party to run this year--partially,
they say, due to burnout, and partially because
the party did not aggressively seek out a large
number of candidates to fill the ballot this
season. Different members of the party,
representing different branches, have different
takes on the situation.
According to the Maryland Green Party, which is
the umbrella for all Green locals in the state,
the reason there are so few Greens running in
Baltimore this year is because the party is no
longer interested in just filling up the ballot
with names of candidates who don't have a serious
interest in being elected to office.
"Sometimes we run a lot of candidates," says Rob
Savidge, co-chair of the Maryland Green Party.
"And not all of them will run, like, a very
strong race. Sometimes they will just be on the
ballot for the name. Nowadays we like to run real
candidates who run real races."
According to Myles Hoenig, co-founder and
c0-chair of the Charm City Greens local, which
was formed in 2006, the party is trying to build
its base and needs to focus on that more than on
filling up ballots.
"Our focus is not on elections," he says. "This
time it's more about party building. Doing
outreach, doing fundraising, building a base.
More than just electoral politics."
And according to Vince Tola, interim chairman of
the Baltimore Green Party (of which Allwine and
Barry are members), the party is actually doing a
smart thing by only backing two city candidates.
It puts itself in a very good position, he says,
because both candidates are serious contenders
with lots of community involvement under their
belts, both are running real campaigns, and both
have researched what their roles would be if
elected and how to use those roles to implement
meaningful changes in city government. In Tola's
view, the party is in a better position now to
get a candidate elected than it's ever been.
"In 2004 we beat the Republicans [at the city
level] and essentially became the second party of
Baltimore," Tola says. Indeed, in several City
Council races, including ones in the 5th, 12th,
and 13th districts Green candidates earned more
votes than the perennially hapless Republican
candidates. "Now we want to beat the Democrats.
With these candidates we have this year, and the
way the election is going to go, I think we are
closer than we have ever been to winning a seat
on the council."
Hoenig says that finding candidates who can both
run for office and build coalitions to strengthen
the party is key. Candidates like Allwine and
Barry, he says, serve that purpose.
"Having fewer candidates this time shows a
maturity within the Green Party," Hoenig says.
"Always better to have quality than just focus on
quantity. In '04 it was a breaking-out event and
numbers mattered. But in addition to quality, we
need people who are there to promote the party as
strongly as they do their campaign."
One of the reasons the Green Party hasn't made
more inroads in local elected politics, members
and candidates say, is that they're already
working to make inroads elsewhere. As Bill Barry
puts it, "One of the problems with most of the
Greens is that they are doing so many other
things."
The very core of the party is grass-roots
activism, so naturally many of the people
attracted to the Green Party line are activists
heavily involved in issues like environmental
justice, the death penalty, and community
building. "Between elections nobody wants to put
any time into building the party," Barry says.
Among the things Barry says he'd like to see the
party do to develop and grow is do some
fundraising and create a structure that makes
room for young up-and-comers to work on outreach
and organization. "At Towson University there's a
very active Green Party chapter," he says. "I
would love to get those guys involved, to maybe
hire them two days a week to go out and recruit
new members. We need to create a structure where
we can make room for these guys, bring them into
the party."
Right now, he says, there is not enough money to
hire young guns to rally the faithful, nor is
there enough organizational support to make such
an effort reality. But he prefers to be proactive
within the party's structure, weak though it may
be, than to sit on the sidelines criticizing.
That's why Barry, 65, the director of labor
studies at the Community College of Baltimore
County in Dundalk, is taking the time and making
the effort to challenge longtime incumbent City
Councilman Robert Curran (D-3rd) in the Nov. 6
general election.
"It's easy to point out the shortcomings of the
[Green Party] organization," Barry says. "The
mentality is, `What are you going to do about so
and so.' But the reality is, it's a function of
time. . . . I tell my students, `Don't sit back
and complain. Get active and go do stuff. Be
involved. Because somebody is going to run the
country. Somebody is going to run the city.'"
And since those currently running the city are
running it into the ground, Barry says, he feels
it's his responsibility to change that.
In his district, he says, Curran is satisfied to
sit back and "fill potholes." Rather than finding
solutions to the problems plaguing the
district--and the city--Barry says Curran focuses
on land use and responding to complaints.
Curran, who has represented the communities that
make up the 3rd District for the past 12 years,
says, "I'm not running against Barry, I'm running
to represent the 3rd District, and I've done it
every well. My record of accomplishment is second
to none on the Baltimore City Council."
Curran lists among his accomplishments in the
past year helping the Lauraville and Waltherson
communities close down the Cameo Lounge, a bar he
says was disrupting life in those neighborhoods;
helping secure funding for a project to build
senior-citizen apartments in a complex near the
neighborhoods of Lauraville and Hamilton Hills
(without that funding, he says, the developer
planned to turn 30 of the units into low-income
apartments instead); and acting as the main force
behind the bill that will put an end to smoking
in city bars and restaurants beginning Jan. 1,
2008.
"If Mr. Barry is able to unseat me, that legacy
will still go on," Curran says. "It's not about
pie in the sky ideals, it's about nuts and bolts
and improving your community through land-use
issues. That's what a councilman is basically
there for, land-use issues."
But Barry, like Allwine, insists he offers needed
change for changing times. "Used to be that [U.S.
Sen.] Barbara Mikulski could go to Washington and
the money would just trickle down to use in the
city," he says. "But that money is not there
anymore, it's in Iraq." As a result, he says,
it's incumbent upon the City Council and other
local politicians to find new ways to raise money
to combat urban problems. "It's not enough to
just fill potholes anymore," he says, and notes
that if he were elected, he'd stop giving away
massive money in the form of subsidies to local
developers. He'd stop spreading money around the
Inner Harbor to build high-rises and condos and
invest it in the city's schools, neighborhoods,
and infrastructure. In his campaign handout, he
asks voters: "Remember when the Democrats
promised that Baltimore City schools would be
fully funded and accountable to parents? They got
elected and what happened--nothing."
"I just got fed up," Barry says when asked why he
decided to run. "If nobody else is going to do
it, then why not me?"
While Allwine has to attract attention and votes
all across Baltimore for the citywide City
Council president race, things are a bit easier
for Barry. All he has to do is get the voters of
his Northeast Baltimore district to pay attention
to what he's saying.
Barry, who says he's affiliated himself with the
Green Party since Ralph Nader's presidential
campaign in 2000, has watched the ebb and flow in
active party membership since he's been involved,
and acknowledges that, regrettably, the party
needs to do a lot of work to be a force in city
politics.
"The Green Party doesn't have a big structure in
the city," he acknowledges. But, Barry adds, "I
just don't want to give up. I think you have to
keep raising the issues. I don't want to give up
and just be hopeless. . . . Anybody can be
against something. But you've got to be for
something and do something."
One of the things the party needs to do to make a
greater impact, says Glenn Ross, is create a
presence that Baltimore's inner-city
residents--mostly black and Hispanic and
overwhelmingly lower-income--can relate to.
A longtime East Baltimore community activist,
Ross ran on the Green Party slate for the City
Council's 13th District in 2004. He says that
when he ran for office as a Green, he found that
lots of Baltimoreans just aren't familiar enough
with the party or its candidates to feel
comfortable enough to vote for them.
"The Green Party was very supportive of me when I
ran," Ross says. "The national and state Green
Party were very supportive of me. The Baltimore
chapter of the Green Party, though, they really
need some help as far as reaching different
ethnic types of groups and really getting them
involved. I don't mean to talk negatively about
them, but they are still growing and they still
have a lot of work to do."
People are afraid of change, Ross opines. They
don't often go out on a limb and support unknown
candidates, and to many voters in his East
Baltimore neighborhood, the candidates run by the
Greens are as unknown as the Democrats who come
forward to challenge Democratic incumbents--often
even more so. Also, when people look at the Green
Party, they are likely to see mostly white
candidates who talk about bigger-picture problems
that are not as easy to relate to as, say, crime
and grime or murder--issues local Democratic
candidates use as leverage to convince voters to
support them. Often, the Greens address the
issues in terms of how larger problems--the war
in Iraq, the two-party system, corruption--create
the day-to-day problems that plague people in
Baltimore. It's a tactic, Ross says, that many
Baltimoreans aren't accustomed to and don't
necessarily gravitate to.
"I feel like the people [in East Baltimore] don't
really understand the Green Party movement," Ross
says. "And maybe the people in the city in
general don't really understand it. They don't
understand what the Green Party is about. On the
West Coast, in the Midwest, further north of
Maryland, people are beginning to understand the
Green Party issues, and they have elected people
to offices in some places. But I don't think
Baltimore Greens have done enough to reach out to
our communities."
Ronald Owens-Bey, a regular on the political
circuit who over the years has run for city
office on Republican, Democratic, and Populist
party tickets, is more direct in his assessment
of why the Greens don't make inroads in the
Baltimore communities they seek to represent.
"That party is probably about 99.44 percent
European-American," he says. "In a city that is
roughly 67 to 68 percent African-American, it
would behoove them, if you will, to accept some
more African-Americans to run."
Owens-Bey has a bone to pick with the party,
because he says he sought Green Party endorsement
and support this year when he wanted to run for
City Council in the 13th District. He says he
filed his paperwork but was rejected by the
nominating committee.
"Would you believe they acted as if I had to
convince them of my credibility?" Owens-Bey says.
"That party wished for me to do some sort of song
and dance and perhaps do some licking where the
sun doesn't shine in order to get their
nomination. And I only chose their party because
one of their members suggested that was the way
to go. . . . I could have gone with the
Libertarians or the Republicans. They rolled out
the red carpet for me--`Hey, thanks for coming
around.' But the good old Green party, I'm not
good enough for them."
When asked about Owens-Bey's petition to run on
the Green ticket, Baltimore Green Party chair
Tola says the situation was more complicated than
that: He says Owens-Bey filed his paperwork, but
when it came time to go before the nominating
committee to discuss his platform, Owens-Bey
never showed up.
"He came out real last minute, and basically we
set up kind of an emergency procedure and we held
a caucus for him," Tola says. "And he didn't show
up. He says he showed up late, and maybe he did,
but by the time he got there we left. That made
people uncomfortable."
Then there was the fact that Owens-Bey has shown
he will change affiliation just to get on the
ballot. "That also makes people uncomfortable, I
think," Tola says. "People who shift their party
alliances all the time."
Ross, who chose not to run this year, says he
appreciates the party's adherence to its core
beliefs, but he also found that it can be a bit
rigid. Environmental justice, for example, is an
issue Ross says is important to the East
Baltimore communities he hoped to represent. But
the Greens nominating committee, he says, wasn't
very knowledgeable about it and "nobody was
really interested" in hearing about it either.
Instead, he says, the committee, which ultimately
approved his candidacy, questioned his dedication
to the issues it felt were most important. "I
felt like, when I went there to the nominating
committee for the 13th Councilmanic District,
they were trying to beat me up with questions,"
Ross says.
While he supports the things the Green Party
stands for, and the party's efforts in the city,
Ross says he's probably going to "switch over to
Democrat" for the coming election.
"This is a Democratic town," he says simply, and
adds that he put his vote in the September
primary behind Warren Branch, who will have no
opponent in the Nov. 6 general election. Branch
may be affiliated with the massive Democratic
Party, Ross says, but he is "an independent
thinker" who is known in the 13th District and,
Ross believes, able to get things done.
That said, Ross stresses, "I am a Green Party
person.
"When I was running for City Council [as a
Green]," he recalls, "I told people we were
working with that we had to put the Green Party
values out there. And people would say, `Green
Party, what is that?' So I would give it to them,
and they would say, `Oh, OK.' Now, when was the
last time you saw the Democratic Party give you
what their core values are?
"But this city," Ross says, "is not ready for
Green Party people."
When Charm City Greens co-founder Myles Hoenig
first met Ed Boyd at a Veterans for Peace event
in 2005, he says he knew he'd met someone unique.
Boyd, a Navy veteran who had served in the 1982
U.S.-Israeli invasion of Lebanon, had just come,
he told Hoenig, from "sleeping in a ditch in
Texas, supporting Cindy Sheehan." He was born and
raised in Miami, but after leaving the military
he drifted--he lived in Washington, D.C.,
Vermont, and California, among other places, and
for a while, Boyd says, he was homeless. Over the
years, he struggled with drug and alcohol
addiction. When Hoenig met him, Boyd was working
as a recruiter for a temporary-employment agency
and classified himself as one of this country's
"working poor." Boyd says he thought of himself
as just a regular guy.
A regular guy is just what the Green Party needed
to represent it on the ballot. In the looming
2006 gubernatorial election, in which then-Gov.
Robert Ehrlich was going to face off against
Baltimore Mayor (now governor) Martin O'Malley,
both were politicians heavily entrenched in the
two-party system that many Greens feel is corrupt
and fails to offer adequate solutions to the
problems facing working families and the poor. As
Hoenig told City Paper at the time ("Power to the
People," Campaign Beat, Nov. 1, 2006), "Boyd
wasn't a smooth-talking, slick, snake-oil
salesman like O'Malley and Ehrlich." And the
Green Party was ready to break ground by backing
the first African-American to head a statewide
party ticket in Maryland. Hoenig thought Boyd
would make a great Green gubernatorial candidate
for governor.
At first, Boyd balked. Though he aligned himself
wholeheartedly with the Green Party and believed
in its values, he had no political experience at
all and did not envision himself a politician.
Hoenig envisioned otherwise and, eventually,
convinced him.
Once he accepted the party's nomination, Boyd ran
with gusto. He was a regular at community
meetings and demonstrations protesting the
deregulation of Maryland's utility industry,
which had resulted in a 72 percent rate increase
for BGE customers. His face, round and glowing as
a fresh-picked apple, was familiar to commuters
and pedestrians who would see him standing on
street corners waving signs denouncing BGE,
Ehrlich, O'Malley, and the Iraq war. He
challenged local TV stations WJZ and MPT for not
inviting him to debate with the other
gubernatorial candidates during campaign season,
and he appeared on local radio shows and the
national syndicated radio show Democracy Now!
In the end, he earned 15,551 votes in the general
election, coming in third in a field of four
candidates and a handful of write-ins. O'Malley
was the victor and, as Boyd likes to say about
the two-party political system, it was "business
as usual."
At least in Annapolis. Back in Baltimore, where
he lives, Boyd, who also serves as co-chair of
the Charm City Greens, had been having health
problems on and off, and had been treated at the
Veterans Affairs Medical Center for difficulty
breathing and for ongoing pain in his leg, which
he had broken while in the service. One evening
in July 2007, Boyd was home alone, says Brandy
Baker, who is married to Hoenig and is a
co-founder of the Charm City Greens, when he
started having problems with his lungs. He became
so uncomfortable that he dialed 911 and an
ambulance took him to Union Memorial Hospital in
Charles Village. Once there, Boyd says, he was
stunned when a doctor treating him told him what
the problem really was.
"The doctor said, `I don't know if you know this,
but you seem to have cancer,'" Boyd recalls. The
VA doctors had told him they were running tests
on him, but they had not given him a definitive
diagnosis. The doctor at Union Memorial told Boyd
he was suffering from serious lung cancer. Later,
Boyd found out that the pain in his leg was also
cancer-related.
"That is where it really hit me what was going
on. I had been going to the VA because I'm a
disabled vet," he says from his bed at the VA
Medical Center downtown. Boyd rubs his eyes,
which are still bright behind his wire-rimmed
glasses, despite the fact that chemotherapy and
illness have exhausted him. "I had thought they
would have picked up something like that, but if
it was picked up, nobody ever told me. And the
more I talked to people, the more I found out
that there are a lot of veterans in the hospital
who were either told they were ill and haven't
gotten treatment, or who found out they are ill
but no one knows what is going on with them."
A lot of people in Boyd's predicament would have
put their political interests aside and focused
on getting better. But Boyd's battle with cancer,
exhausting as it has been for him, has given him
intensity and focus. More than ever, he's one of
America's down and out citizens--with no health
care except for the VA, and no ability to pay for
better treatment, he is one of millions that
would benefit from the Green Party's suggestion
that the nation employ a single-payer health-care
system that would provide the same quality of
care to everyone, regardless of income or
employment status.
He sits up in bed a bit and pulls the blankets up
over his chest to talk about why now, more than
ever, he feels the need to promote the Green
Party to anyone who will listen. Even fellow
hospital patients.
"I got a guy the other day who had the same
values as the Green Party," Boyd says. "But he
didn't know where to turn. He didn't want to vote
for either of the two major parties, and he was
thinking that he wouldn't vote at all. But that
is the worst thing of all you can do. So we
talked about the Green Party, and by the end of
the night, I had given a blank voter registration
form for him to fill out."
According to Charm City Greens co-founders Baker
and Hoenig, Boyd's situation perfectly
encapsulates why the Green Party needs to keep
fighting, increase its exposure, and win some
races. If Boyd did not have to rely on the
resource-stretched VA system, which often
shuffles patients in and out with little
follow-up, Baker says, he might have been
diagnosed sooner and been able to catch the
cancer before it ravaged his body. He might not
be lying in a VA hospital bed right now.
But Boyd is more than just a political ally to
Baker and Hoenig; he is a friend. And it clearly
pains them to see him in his current dilemma. No
one, they say, should be denied adequate health
care in a time of need because they can't afford
it--and that underscores their desire to see the
Green Party in Baltimore and beyond grow larger
and stronger.
"We need to have events," says Baker, standing on
a cool Friday evening in the lobby of the VA
Medical Center after a visit with Boyd. "We need
to do film festivals, community things. There are
still people who don't know about us."
"We need to be talking to communities, talking to
people who don't even know there is a Green
Party," Hoenig agrees. "We need to do the kind of
outreach that right now isn't really being done."
Hoenig says the Charm City Greens have been doing
some of that kind of thing, and the local is most
interested in "meeting with the people who are
really feeling disenfranchised," trying to get
them to understand how getting involved and
voting for a Green candidate can actually improve
their lives--even if that candidate does not get
elected right away. The Charm City Greens are in
the process of putting up a web page, he says,
and working on finding ways to get the word out
about what the Green Party is.
In fact, Hoenig says he'd like to see people get
out there and start up their own locals of the
Green Party. "But people are afraid to change
their party affiliation," he says. "It's almost a
religious thing. A lot of people are waking up,
though, and seeing that the Democratic Party is
not ordained for them, it's not the only way to
go."
Hoenig says he feels people still have
preconceived notions about what it is and what it
stands for. It is not just a bunch of knee-jerk
types who don't think about how their actions
will affect the world. Though he doesn't come out
and say it, he clearly wants it understood that
the party defies the image of white, suburban,
tree-hugging liberals.
"We don't want to be pigeonholed," he says. "We
need people like Glenn Ross, we need people like
Ed Boyd. We need everything in this party, from
age to color to gender."
Likewise, the Baltimore Green Party's Vince Tola
says the Green Party is the people's party--its
loose structure, though sometimes a weak spot, is
also a strength because it makes it easy for
citizens to become involved.
"Essentially, we have a ballot line available to
the public to use the way they want to," Tola
says. "If they want change in their area, the
Green Party is there. We just need to come
together, to organize. It's not hard for a
community person to become a candidate, or to get
together a group of like-minded people to work
together. They could start their own local or
work within our existing structure. We are open
to diverse points of view in the party."
Which ultimately is what drew in a guy like Ed
Boyd and keeps him fighting for Green Party
growth, even from his downtown hospital bed.
"Once I do get better, I'm going to have a new
fight on my hands," Boyd says. "I'm gonna be a
pathfinder for other veterans. There is a war out
there, and I do not want vets out there, coming
home, and finding out too late that he has
cancer. . . . We have much to do.
"The Green Party is not going away. If people
want the status quo, if they want business as
usual, they can go and vote the two-party system.
But if they want real change, if they want to
vote their real conscience, they should vote
Green."
? 2007 Baltimore City Paper
By Erin Sullivan
The Baltimore City Paper, October 24, 2007
http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=14693
It's lunchtime at Lexington Market, and MariaAllwine is standing outside on Paca Street.
Allwine, 54, is a short blond woman who often
wears buttons announcing her opposition to the
war on the lapels of her blazers and sweaters.
She is not hard to pick out at the market
regardless. The crowd is mostly African-American,
and Allwine is white; they are rushing past,
eager to get their lunches and meet friends,
while she is approaching people and asking them
if they are registered to vote in Baltimore City.
Allwine is running for City Council president as
a member of the Green Party, and right now she
faces stiff competition for the attention of
market patrons.
She is offering party literature and campaign
brochures. The vendors inside are offering
cheeseburgers and fried fish sandwiches. Allwine
is selling her candidacy, full of hope and ideas
and plans to make the city a better place to
live--food for thought that, if introduced
properly, could conceivably affect the quality of
life in Baltimore for years to come. The stalls
inside are selling saturated fats, sweets, and
empty carbs--stuff that'll fill you up for now
but leave you feeling empty again in a matter of
hours.
Most people breeze past Allwine and her promise
of a better future and head right for Polock
Johnny's or Sandwich King.
But it's quality, not quantity, that counts forAllwine right now, and when someone does stop to
take an information sheet outlining her campaign
promises, or ask her a question about her
candidacy, she takes the time to talk to them
about why she's a Green, who she's running
against, what she's running for.
Read More!
She tells them that the Democratic Party, which
has ruled city politics for decades, has sold
them out and doesn't have their best interests at
heart. She talks about such things as
single-payer health care, a proposal that Green
Party members say would provide health insurance
for all U.S. citizens. She explains to them that
she opposes the massive investment in development
around the Inner Harbor at the expense of
struggling inner-city neighborhoods that can
barely get enough funding to beautify green
spaces and clean up trash. She talks about making
it a requirement that those corporations
receiving tax breaks and public money create new
jobs for people who live in Baltimore. She tells
them about how it was Democratic and Republican
politicians who deregulated the state's utility
system, making it possible for BGE to slam
ratepayers with a 72 percent increase in their
utility bills over the past two years.
"The City Council does not represent us," Allwine
says when asked why she's running. "People know
they are getting shafted, they know how
redevelopment is done in Baltimore, taking homes
away from people to make way for development
interests. They know what is going on, but they
think they can't do anything about it. . . . I
look at myself as a vessel, as a conduit to
fulfill the needs of the [community]."
Some of Allwine's commentary falls on deaf ears,
but she does attract a good number of curious
onlookers who listen in as she talks to a
reporter about her platform, as well as
disgruntled voters who admit to her that they
rarely vote anymore because none of the
candidates on the ballot speak to them.
"I think things are going really great out here,"
she says when asked how she feels about the
response she's been getting. "We will get
elected, no doubt about it."
This is Allwine's third attempt at public office
on the Green Party ticket. In 2004, she ran for
U.S. Senate; last year, she ran for state Senate.
As with her previous campaigns, the run for City
Council president is an uphill battle. She's
running a citywide campaign as a member of a
party not widely recognized by city voters
against Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, an incumbent
with tremendous name recognition. She's got very
little in the way of resources, because the Green
Party does not permit candidates to take money
from corporate interests, and Allwine has made a
personal commitment to cap all donations to her
campaign at just $500. Campaign-finance reports
reveal that she had just $91.76 in her campaign
account as of Aug. 31--a pittance compared to the
$99,000 balance boasted by Rawlings-Blake in the
same filing. She doesn't even have many fellow
Green candidates to campaign with; after a slate
of candidates filed to run for various state and
city offices as Greens in the 2003-'04 election
season, Allwine and Bill Barry, who is running
for City Council in the 3rd District, are the
only Baltimore Greens out on the stump this year.
But all that's OK with her.
"When you have one-party rule and no
accountability, people become hopeless," Allwine
says. "People feel they don't have any choice. .
. . If I could buy TV time, and it's too bad we
have to buy it at all, and people heard me, I
know I would win an election. I have no doubt
about it. And I am politically savvy, I am not
naive."
Ever since the Green Party formally established
itself as a political party in Maryland in 2000,
when it gained enough signatures from registered
voters to secure a place on the state ballot, an
ever-changing array of smart, well-meaning
political activists, theorists, community
organizers, and disaffected former Democrats have
been trying to get out a progressive message they
believe many of Baltimore's voters would embrace,
if they ever heard it. But election cycle after
election cycle, the Greens battle fringe status.
Some of the party faithful blame the media, which
they say doesn't offer equal time to third
parties in a two-party system. Others point to
the fact that the party doesn't have the money
the larger parties have to buy TV ad time. Still
others say the nature of the party
itself--activist, idealistic, egalitarian,
dedicated to the vagaries of "change" that its
adherents say they want in their
communities--makes it inherently difficult to
organize.
The Green Party is now at a critical point in its
development, locally, as it has solidified a base
of 1,564 registered Greens in the city and 7,998
in the state. Those in charge of steering it are
hopeful that the party is on the verge of
breaking through to voters and figuring out what
elements make for that perfect combination of
factors that thrusts candidates from the
sidelines into the limelight and, ultimately,
into office.
So what does the Green Party stand for?
According to Maryland Green Party co-chairman Tim
Willard, who has been a Green since 2004, the
party has four pillars upon which all of its
political activism is based.
"The four pillars to the Green Party are
ecological wisdom, grass-roots democracy," he
begins, but then pauses. "I can't think of the
others right now. Um. Oh. They are nonviolence
and social justice.
"I used to be a Democrat," Willard continues,
"but it seems the Democrats are more and more
just another party of corporate interests. They
used to stand for these things. And there are
some good Democrats on a local level, but on the
national level, they have moved away from what
they used to believe in. So the Green Party, to
me, is the party of change."
The national Green Party is nothing more than a
federation of state Green parties, and those
state parties are made up of various locals,
smaller groups of individuals working at the
community level to get people elected, raise
issues important to the community and the larger
party, and build up the party--all without the
support of corporate donors or special interests.
The party overall has 10 "key values" that it
asks all its candidates to support. Those include
the four points Willard brought up, as well as
equal opportunity for all, decentralization of
wealth and power, community-based economics and
economic justice, feminism, diversity, personal
and global responsibility, and sustainability.
The values are loosely defined so that each state
or local party can adjust them to fit to its
particular situation. In Baltimore, the values
are defined by local Green Party members to
represent a massive change in the way the city's
wealth is distributed, its poor are treated, and
its people are represented at the state and local
level.
And change is what many people in Baltimore say
they want. They aren't satisfied by the current
Democratic administration, the foundering city
school system, the skyrocketing crime, mediocre
city services. Yet, voters keep re-electing
Democrats--even Democrats they say do nothing for
them.
Since 2000, the Baltimore Green Party has fielded
candidates for local and state elections. In
2003, it put up eight candidates for City
Council. In 2006, in addition to Green
gubernatorial candidate Ed Boyd, five city
Greens--Jan Danforth, Richard Ochs, David Greene,
Brandy Baker, and Allwine--were on the ballot for
various state offices. Some, such as Allwine,
Baker, and Boyd, campaigned aggressively and
actually made the occasional headline in local
media outlets. Others ran quieter campaigns that
served more to fill out the slate and raise
issues than win votes. According to the Maryland
State Board of Elections, Allwine took 11 percent
of the vote in the race for 43rd District state
senator; Danforth took roughly 8 percent in her
40th District state delegate race; and Ochs,
Baker, and Greene each received between 2 percent
and 3 percent of the vote in their bids as
delegates for 43rd District. Despite the party
not winning any races, it was, by all accounts, a
banner year in terms of teamwork and visibility.
This election season, however, it's just Allwine
and Barry, who ran for the 3rd District City
Council seat in 2003.
According to Green Party organizers, few people
petitioned the party to run this year--partially,
they say, due to burnout, and partially because
the party did not aggressively seek out a large
number of candidates to fill the ballot this
season. Different members of the party,
representing different branches, have different
takes on the situation.
According to the Maryland Green Party, which is
the umbrella for all Green locals in the state,
the reason there are so few Greens running in
Baltimore this year is because the party is no
longer interested in just filling up the ballot
with names of candidates who don't have a serious
interest in being elected to office.
"Sometimes we run a lot of candidates," says Rob
Savidge, co-chair of the Maryland Green Party.
"And not all of them will run, like, a very
strong race. Sometimes they will just be on the
ballot for the name. Nowadays we like to run real
candidates who run real races."
According to Myles Hoenig, co-founder and
c0-chair of the Charm City Greens local, which
was formed in 2006, the party is trying to build
its base and needs to focus on that more than on
filling up ballots.
"Our focus is not on elections," he says. "This
time it's more about party building. Doing
outreach, doing fundraising, building a base.
More than just electoral politics."
And according to Vince Tola, interim chairman of
the Baltimore Green Party (of which Allwine and
Barry are members), the party is actually doing a
smart thing by only backing two city candidates.
It puts itself in a very good position, he says,
because both candidates are serious contenders
with lots of community involvement under their
belts, both are running real campaigns, and both
have researched what their roles would be if
elected and how to use those roles to implement
meaningful changes in city government. In Tola's
view, the party is in a better position now to
get a candidate elected than it's ever been.
"In 2004 we beat the Republicans [at the city
level] and essentially became the second party of
Baltimore," Tola says. Indeed, in several City
Council races, including ones in the 5th, 12th,
and 13th districts Green candidates earned more
votes than the perennially hapless Republican
candidates. "Now we want to beat the Democrats.
With these candidates we have this year, and the
way the election is going to go, I think we are
closer than we have ever been to winning a seat
on the council."
Hoenig says that finding candidates who can both
run for office and build coalitions to strengthen
the party is key. Candidates like Allwine and
Barry, he says, serve that purpose.
"Having fewer candidates this time shows a
maturity within the Green Party," Hoenig says.
"Always better to have quality than just focus on
quantity. In '04 it was a breaking-out event and
numbers mattered. But in addition to quality, we
need people who are there to promote the party as
strongly as they do their campaign."
One of the reasons the Green Party hasn't made
more inroads in local elected politics, members
and candidates say, is that they're already
working to make inroads elsewhere. As Bill Barry
puts it, "One of the problems with most of the
Greens is that they are doing so many other
things."
The very core of the party is grass-roots
activism, so naturally many of the people
attracted to the Green Party line are activists
heavily involved in issues like environmental
justice, the death penalty, and community
building. "Between elections nobody wants to put
any time into building the party," Barry says.
Among the things Barry says he'd like to see the
party do to develop and grow is do some
fundraising and create a structure that makes
room for young up-and-comers to work on outreach
and organization. "At Towson University there's a
very active Green Party chapter," he says. "I
would love to get those guys involved, to maybe
hire them two days a week to go out and recruit
new members. We need to create a structure where
we can make room for these guys, bring them into
the party."
Right now, he says, there is not enough money to
hire young guns to rally the faithful, nor is
there enough organizational support to make such
an effort reality. But he prefers to be proactive
within the party's structure, weak though it may
be, than to sit on the sidelines criticizing.
That's why Barry, 65, the director of labor
studies at the Community College of Baltimore
County in Dundalk, is taking the time and making
the effort to challenge longtime incumbent City
Councilman Robert Curran (D-3rd) in the Nov. 6
general election.
"It's easy to point out the shortcomings of the
[Green Party] organization," Barry says. "The
mentality is, `What are you going to do about so
and so.' But the reality is, it's a function of
time. . . . I tell my students, `Don't sit back
and complain. Get active and go do stuff. Be
involved. Because somebody is going to run the
country. Somebody is going to run the city.'"
And since those currently running the city are
running it into the ground, Barry says, he feels
it's his responsibility to change that.
In his district, he says, Curran is satisfied to
sit back and "fill potholes." Rather than finding
solutions to the problems plaguing the
district--and the city--Barry says Curran focuses
on land use and responding to complaints.
Curran, who has represented the communities that
make up the 3rd District for the past 12 years,
says, "I'm not running against Barry, I'm running
to represent the 3rd District, and I've done it
every well. My record of accomplishment is second
to none on the Baltimore City Council."
Curran lists among his accomplishments in the
past year helping the Lauraville and Waltherson
communities close down the Cameo Lounge, a bar he
says was disrupting life in those neighborhoods;
helping secure funding for a project to build
senior-citizen apartments in a complex near the
neighborhoods of Lauraville and Hamilton Hills
(without that funding, he says, the developer
planned to turn 30 of the units into low-income
apartments instead); and acting as the main force
behind the bill that will put an end to smoking
in city bars and restaurants beginning Jan. 1,
2008.
"If Mr. Barry is able to unseat me, that legacy
will still go on," Curran says. "It's not about
pie in the sky ideals, it's about nuts and bolts
and improving your community through land-use
issues. That's what a councilman is basically
there for, land-use issues."
But Barry, like Allwine, insists he offers needed
change for changing times. "Used to be that [U.S.
Sen.] Barbara Mikulski could go to Washington and
the money would just trickle down to use in the
city," he says. "But that money is not there
anymore, it's in Iraq." As a result, he says,
it's incumbent upon the City Council and other
local politicians to find new ways to raise money
to combat urban problems. "It's not enough to
just fill potholes anymore," he says, and notes
that if he were elected, he'd stop giving away
massive money in the form of subsidies to local
developers. He'd stop spreading money around the
Inner Harbor to build high-rises and condos and
invest it in the city's schools, neighborhoods,
and infrastructure. In his campaign handout, he
asks voters: "Remember when the Democrats
promised that Baltimore City schools would be
fully funded and accountable to parents? They got
elected and what happened--nothing."
"I just got fed up," Barry says when asked why he
decided to run. "If nobody else is going to do
it, then why not me?"
While Allwine has to attract attention and votes
all across Baltimore for the citywide City
Council president race, things are a bit easier
for Barry. All he has to do is get the voters of
his Northeast Baltimore district to pay attention
to what he's saying.
Barry, who says he's affiliated himself with the
Green Party since Ralph Nader's presidential
campaign in 2000, has watched the ebb and flow in
active party membership since he's been involved,
and acknowledges that, regrettably, the party
needs to do a lot of work to be a force in city
politics.
"The Green Party doesn't have a big structure in
the city," he acknowledges. But, Barry adds, "I
just don't want to give up. I think you have to
keep raising the issues. I don't want to give up
and just be hopeless. . . . Anybody can be
against something. But you've got to be for
something and do something."
One of the things the party needs to do to make a
greater impact, says Glenn Ross, is create a
presence that Baltimore's inner-city
residents--mostly black and Hispanic and
overwhelmingly lower-income--can relate to.
A longtime East Baltimore community activist,
Ross ran on the Green Party slate for the City
Council's 13th District in 2004. He says that
when he ran for office as a Green, he found that
lots of Baltimoreans just aren't familiar enough
with the party or its candidates to feel
comfortable enough to vote for them.
"The Green Party was very supportive of me when I
ran," Ross says. "The national and state Green
Party were very supportive of me. The Baltimore
chapter of the Green Party, though, they really
need some help as far as reaching different
ethnic types of groups and really getting them
involved. I don't mean to talk negatively about
them, but they are still growing and they still
have a lot of work to do."
People are afraid of change, Ross opines. They
don't often go out on a limb and support unknown
candidates, and to many voters in his East
Baltimore neighborhood, the candidates run by the
Greens are as unknown as the Democrats who come
forward to challenge Democratic incumbents--often
even more so. Also, when people look at the Green
Party, they are likely to see mostly white
candidates who talk about bigger-picture problems
that are not as easy to relate to as, say, crime
and grime or murder--issues local Democratic
candidates use as leverage to convince voters to
support them. Often, the Greens address the
issues in terms of how larger problems--the war
in Iraq, the two-party system, corruption--create
the day-to-day problems that plague people in
Baltimore. It's a tactic, Ross says, that many
Baltimoreans aren't accustomed to and don't
necessarily gravitate to.
"I feel like the people [in East Baltimore] don't
really understand the Green Party movement," Ross
says. "And maybe the people in the city in
general don't really understand it. They don't
understand what the Green Party is about. On the
West Coast, in the Midwest, further north of
Maryland, people are beginning to understand the
Green Party issues, and they have elected people
to offices in some places. But I don't think
Baltimore Greens have done enough to reach out to
our communities."
Ronald Owens-Bey, a regular on the political
circuit who over the years has run for city
office on Republican, Democratic, and Populist
party tickets, is more direct in his assessment
of why the Greens don't make inroads in the
Baltimore communities they seek to represent.
"That party is probably about 99.44 percent
European-American," he says. "In a city that is
roughly 67 to 68 percent African-American, it
would behoove them, if you will, to accept some
more African-Americans to run."
Owens-Bey has a bone to pick with the party,
because he says he sought Green Party endorsement
and support this year when he wanted to run for
City Council in the 13th District. He says he
filed his paperwork but was rejected by the
nominating committee.
"Would you believe they acted as if I had to
convince them of my credibility?" Owens-Bey says.
"That party wished for me to do some sort of song
and dance and perhaps do some licking where the
sun doesn't shine in order to get their
nomination. And I only chose their party because
one of their members suggested that was the way
to go. . . . I could have gone with the
Libertarians or the Republicans. They rolled out
the red carpet for me--`Hey, thanks for coming
around.' But the good old Green party, I'm not
good enough for them."
When asked about Owens-Bey's petition to run on
the Green ticket, Baltimore Green Party chair
Tola says the situation was more complicated than
that: He says Owens-Bey filed his paperwork, but
when it came time to go before the nominating
committee to discuss his platform, Owens-Bey
never showed up.
"He came out real last minute, and basically we
set up kind of an emergency procedure and we held
a caucus for him," Tola says. "And he didn't show
up. He says he showed up late, and maybe he did,
but by the time he got there we left. That made
people uncomfortable."
Then there was the fact that Owens-Bey has shown
he will change affiliation just to get on the
ballot. "That also makes people uncomfortable, I
think," Tola says. "People who shift their party
alliances all the time."
Ross, who chose not to run this year, says he
appreciates the party's adherence to its core
beliefs, but he also found that it can be a bit
rigid. Environmental justice, for example, is an
issue Ross says is important to the East
Baltimore communities he hoped to represent. But
the Greens nominating committee, he says, wasn't
very knowledgeable about it and "nobody was
really interested" in hearing about it either.
Instead, he says, the committee, which ultimately
approved his candidacy, questioned his dedication
to the issues it felt were most important. "I
felt like, when I went there to the nominating
committee for the 13th Councilmanic District,
they were trying to beat me up with questions,"
Ross says.
While he supports the things the Green Party
stands for, and the party's efforts in the city,
Ross says he's probably going to "switch over to
Democrat" for the coming election.
"This is a Democratic town," he says simply, and
adds that he put his vote in the September
primary behind Warren Branch, who will have no
opponent in the Nov. 6 general election. Branch
may be affiliated with the massive Democratic
Party, Ross says, but he is "an independent
thinker" who is known in the 13th District and,
Ross believes, able to get things done.
That said, Ross stresses, "I am a Green Party
person.
"When I was running for City Council [as a
Green]," he recalls, "I told people we were
working with that we had to put the Green Party
values out there. And people would say, `Green
Party, what is that?' So I would give it to them,
and they would say, `Oh, OK.' Now, when was the
last time you saw the Democratic Party give you
what their core values are?
"But this city," Ross says, "is not ready for
Green Party people."
When Charm City Greens co-founder Myles Hoenig
first met Ed Boyd at a Veterans for Peace event
in 2005, he says he knew he'd met someone unique.
Boyd, a Navy veteran who had served in the 1982
U.S.-Israeli invasion of Lebanon, had just come,
he told Hoenig, from "sleeping in a ditch in
Texas, supporting Cindy Sheehan." He was born and
raised in Miami, but after leaving the military
he drifted--he lived in Washington, D.C.,
Vermont, and California, among other places, and
for a while, Boyd says, he was homeless. Over the
years, he struggled with drug and alcohol
addiction. When Hoenig met him, Boyd was working
as a recruiter for a temporary-employment agency
and classified himself as one of this country's
"working poor." Boyd says he thought of himself
as just a regular guy.
A regular guy is just what the Green Party needed
to represent it on the ballot. In the looming
2006 gubernatorial election, in which then-Gov.
Robert Ehrlich was going to face off against
Baltimore Mayor (now governor) Martin O'Malley,
both were politicians heavily entrenched in the
two-party system that many Greens feel is corrupt
and fails to offer adequate solutions to the
problems facing working families and the poor. As
Hoenig told City Paper at the time ("Power to the
People," Campaign Beat, Nov. 1, 2006), "Boyd
wasn't a smooth-talking, slick, snake-oil
salesman like O'Malley and Ehrlich." And the
Green Party was ready to break ground by backing
the first African-American to head a statewide
party ticket in Maryland. Hoenig thought Boyd
would make a great Green gubernatorial candidate
for governor.
At first, Boyd balked. Though he aligned himself
wholeheartedly with the Green Party and believed
in its values, he had no political experience at
all and did not envision himself a politician.
Hoenig envisioned otherwise and, eventually,
convinced him.
Once he accepted the party's nomination, Boyd ran
with gusto. He was a regular at community
meetings and demonstrations protesting the
deregulation of Maryland's utility industry,
which had resulted in a 72 percent rate increase
for BGE customers. His face, round and glowing as
a fresh-picked apple, was familiar to commuters
and pedestrians who would see him standing on
street corners waving signs denouncing BGE,
Ehrlich, O'Malley, and the Iraq war. He
challenged local TV stations WJZ and MPT for not
inviting him to debate with the other
gubernatorial candidates during campaign season,
and he appeared on local radio shows and the
national syndicated radio show Democracy Now!
In the end, he earned 15,551 votes in the general
election, coming in third in a field of four
candidates and a handful of write-ins. O'Malley
was the victor and, as Boyd likes to say about
the two-party political system, it was "business
as usual."
At least in Annapolis. Back in Baltimore, where
he lives, Boyd, who also serves as co-chair of
the Charm City Greens, had been having health
problems on and off, and had been treated at the
Veterans Affairs Medical Center for difficulty
breathing and for ongoing pain in his leg, which
he had broken while in the service. One evening
in July 2007, Boyd was home alone, says Brandy
Baker, who is married to Hoenig and is a
co-founder of the Charm City Greens, when he
started having problems with his lungs. He became
so uncomfortable that he dialed 911 and an
ambulance took him to Union Memorial Hospital in
Charles Village. Once there, Boyd says, he was
stunned when a doctor treating him told him what
the problem really was.
"The doctor said, `I don't know if you know this,
but you seem to have cancer,'" Boyd recalls. The
VA doctors had told him they were running tests
on him, but they had not given him a definitive
diagnosis. The doctor at Union Memorial told Boyd
he was suffering from serious lung cancer. Later,
Boyd found out that the pain in his leg was also
cancer-related.
"That is where it really hit me what was going
on. I had been going to the VA because I'm a
disabled vet," he says from his bed at the VA
Medical Center downtown. Boyd rubs his eyes,
which are still bright behind his wire-rimmed
glasses, despite the fact that chemotherapy and
illness have exhausted him. "I had thought they
would have picked up something like that, but if
it was picked up, nobody ever told me. And the
more I talked to people, the more I found out
that there are a lot of veterans in the hospital
who were either told they were ill and haven't
gotten treatment, or who found out they are ill
but no one knows what is going on with them."
A lot of people in Boyd's predicament would have
put their political interests aside and focused
on getting better. But Boyd's battle with cancer,
exhausting as it has been for him, has given him
intensity and focus. More than ever, he's one of
America's down and out citizens--with no health
care except for the VA, and no ability to pay for
better treatment, he is one of millions that
would benefit from the Green Party's suggestion
that the nation employ a single-payer health-care
system that would provide the same quality of
care to everyone, regardless of income or
employment status.
He sits up in bed a bit and pulls the blankets up
over his chest to talk about why now, more than
ever, he feels the need to promote the Green
Party to anyone who will listen. Even fellow
hospital patients.
"I got a guy the other day who had the same
values as the Green Party," Boyd says. "But he
didn't know where to turn. He didn't want to vote
for either of the two major parties, and he was
thinking that he wouldn't vote at all. But that
is the worst thing of all you can do. So we
talked about the Green Party, and by the end of
the night, I had given a blank voter registration
form for him to fill out."
According to Charm City Greens co-founders Baker
and Hoenig, Boyd's situation perfectly
encapsulates why the Green Party needs to keep
fighting, increase its exposure, and win some
races. If Boyd did not have to rely on the
resource-stretched VA system, which often
shuffles patients in and out with little
follow-up, Baker says, he might have been
diagnosed sooner and been able to catch the
cancer before it ravaged his body. He might not
be lying in a VA hospital bed right now.
But Boyd is more than just a political ally to
Baker and Hoenig; he is a friend. And it clearly
pains them to see him in his current dilemma. No
one, they say, should be denied adequate health
care in a time of need because they can't afford
it--and that underscores their desire to see the
Green Party in Baltimore and beyond grow larger
and stronger.
"We need to have events," says Baker, standing on
a cool Friday evening in the lobby of the VA
Medical Center after a visit with Boyd. "We need
to do film festivals, community things. There are
still people who don't know about us."
"We need to be talking to communities, talking to
people who don't even know there is a Green
Party," Hoenig agrees. "We need to do the kind of
outreach that right now isn't really being done."
Hoenig says the Charm City Greens have been doing
some of that kind of thing, and the local is most
interested in "meeting with the people who are
really feeling disenfranchised," trying to get
them to understand how getting involved and
voting for a Green candidate can actually improve
their lives--even if that candidate does not get
elected right away. The Charm City Greens are in
the process of putting up a web page, he says,
and working on finding ways to get the word out
about what the Green Party is.
In fact, Hoenig says he'd like to see people get
out there and start up their own locals of the
Green Party. "But people are afraid to change
their party affiliation," he says. "It's almost a
religious thing. A lot of people are waking up,
though, and seeing that the Democratic Party is
not ordained for them, it's not the only way to
go."
Hoenig says he feels people still have
preconceived notions about what it is and what it
stands for. It is not just a bunch of knee-jerk
types who don't think about how their actions
will affect the world. Though he doesn't come out
and say it, he clearly wants it understood that
the party defies the image of white, suburban,
tree-hugging liberals.
"We don't want to be pigeonholed," he says. "We
need people like Glenn Ross, we need people like
Ed Boyd. We need everything in this party, from
age to color to gender."
Likewise, the Baltimore Green Party's Vince Tola
says the Green Party is the people's party--its
loose structure, though sometimes a weak spot, is
also a strength because it makes it easy for
citizens to become involved.
"Essentially, we have a ballot line available to
the public to use the way they want to," Tola
says. "If they want change in their area, the
Green Party is there. We just need to come
together, to organize. It's not hard for a
community person to become a candidate, or to get
together a group of like-minded people to work
together. They could start their own local or
work within our existing structure. We are open
to diverse points of view in the party."
Which ultimately is what drew in a guy like Ed
Boyd and keeps him fighting for Green Party
growth, even from his downtown hospital bed.
"Once I do get better, I'm going to have a new
fight on my hands," Boyd says. "I'm gonna be a
pathfinder for other veterans. There is a war out
there, and I do not want vets out there, coming
home, and finding out too late that he has
cancer. . . . We have much to do.
"The Green Party is not going away. If people
want the status quo, if they want business as
usual, they can go and vote the two-party system.
But if they want real change, if they want to
vote their real conscience, they should vote
Green."
? 2007 Baltimore City Paper
Green Party urges Canada to drop border-crossing charges against US peace activist Alison Bodine
Green Party urges Canada to drop border-crossing charges against US peace activist Alison Bodine
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Friday, October 19, 2007
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party of the United States has urged the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to drop all charges against US citizen Alison Bodine, who was arrested on September 13 for attempting to cross the US-Canada border while carrying antiwar (including Green Party) literature.
Ms. Bodine was charged with "misrepresentation" and faces a possible two-year ban from Canada. The adjudicator in the case will announce a final decision on October 31.
The Green Party's national Steering Committee sent a letter to the CBSA on October 16. The text of the letter is appended below.
Green leaders called Alison Bodine's treatment part of an extremely disturbing pattern of politically motivated detention and obstruction at border crossings targeting those who have spoken out peacefully against the Iraq War. On October 3, CODEPINK and Global Exchange cofounder Medea Benjamin and retired Colonel and diplomat Ann Wright, on their way to a peace conference in Toronto, were denied entry into Canada http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1003-15.htm.
Read More!
For updates on the case, including public rallies and news from the Alison Bodine Defense Committee, visit http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com.
Date: October 16, 2007
To: Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) From: Green Party of the United States
We are writing to express our concern about the detainment of US citizen Alison Bodine. Ms. Bodine is a peace activist who has worked with a number of North American peace organizations, including the Vancouver Mobilization Against War and Occupation, the University of British Columbia's Coalition Against War on the People of Iraq and Internationally and the University of British Columbia Social Justice Center.
Ms. Bodine was unjustly arrested at the U.S.-Canadian border on Thursday, September 13, 2007, by the Canada Border Services Agency and detained by the RCMP when anti-war and Green Party literature was found among her belongings during a border search. She is being charged with "Misrepresentation." The admissibility hearing resulted in weak evidence from the prosecution; however, the final decision will not be known until October 31, 2007.
It is our understanding that she has not done anything illegal and has crossed the border many times without incident. We believe that this is a politically motivated case against Alison Bodine.
We urge that the Canada Border Services Agency drop any and all charges against Alison Bodine, return to her any and all items seized by the CBSA, and reinstate her right to freely travel between the US and Canada.
Sincerely,
Steering Committee of the Green Party of the
United States
Liz Arnone
Jim Coplen
BUdd Dickinson
Jody Grage
Holly Hart
Phil Huckelberry
Jason Nabewaniec
Sarah "echo" Steiner
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Friday, October 19, 2007
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party of the United States has urged the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to drop all charges against US citizen Alison Bodine, who was arrested on September 13 for attempting to cross the US-Canada border while carrying antiwar (including Green Party) literature.
Ms. Bodine was charged with "misrepresentation" and faces a possible two-year ban from Canada. The adjudicator in the case will announce a final decision on October 31.
The Green Party's national Steering Committee sent a letter to the CBSA on October 16. The text of the letter is appended below.
Green leaders called Alison Bodine's treatment part of an extremely disturbing pattern of politically motivated detention and obstruction at border crossings targeting those who have spoken out peacefully against the Iraq War. On October 3, CODEPINK and Global Exchange cofounder Medea Benjamin and retired Colonel and diplomat Ann Wright, on their way to a peace conference in Toronto, were denied entry into Canada http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1003-15.htm.
Read More!
For updates on the case, including public rallies and news from the Alison Bodine Defense Committee, visit http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com.
Date: October 16, 2007
To: Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) From: Green Party of the United States
We are writing to express our concern about the detainment of US citizen Alison Bodine. Ms. Bodine is a peace activist who has worked with a number of North American peace organizations, including the Vancouver Mobilization Against War and Occupation, the University of British Columbia's Coalition Against War on the People of Iraq and Internationally and the University of British Columbia Social Justice Center.
Ms. Bodine was unjustly arrested at the U.S.-Canadian border on Thursday, September 13, 2007, by the Canada Border Services Agency and detained by the RCMP when anti-war and Green Party literature was found among her belongings during a border search. She is being charged with "Misrepresentation." The admissibility hearing resulted in weak evidence from the prosecution; however, the final decision will not be known until October 31, 2007.
It is our understanding that she has not done anything illegal and has crossed the border many times without incident. We believe that this is a politically motivated case against Alison Bodine.
We urge that the Canada Border Services Agency drop any and all charges against Alison Bodine, return to her any and all items seized by the CBSA, and reinstate her right to freely travel between the US and Canada.
Sincerely,
Steering Committee of the Green Party of the
United States
Liz Arnone
Jim Coplen
BUdd Dickinson
Jody Grage
Holly Hart
Phil Huckelberry
Jason Nabewaniec
Sarah "echo" Steiner
Howie Hawkins for Syracuse City Council
Howie Hawkins for Syracuse Councilor At-Large
Fully Funded Public Schools
A Citywide Minimum Wage that is a Living Wage
Public Power for Affordable, Green Energy
Crime Prevention through Youth Jobs & Recreation
New Jobs Rebuilding Syracuse Green
Hawkins for Councilor At-Large
The Green Party's agenda seems to hold more water every time Howie Hawkins gets a platform.
Post-Standard Editorial / September 29, 2005
Howie Hawkins is the most unwavering progressive I think I've met in New York state.
Ralph Nader - Syracuse Post-Standard / October 8, 2004
Hawkins is far and away the best candidate in this three-way race. As is his custom, Hawkins has shaped his campaign around a promise to provide a voice for the voiceless. He is a tireless activist for empowering the traditionally disenfranchised. He promises to be a councilor who "represents the community instead of the power structure".
Post-Standard Editorial endorsing Howie Hawkins for 4th District Councilor in 2001 / October 20, 2001
The War in Iraq and its consequences for Syracuse
Eric Jones for Buffalo Common Council
Eric Jones is the Green Party candidate for Buffalo Common Council in the Niagara District, a small district on the Canadian border that includes one of the wealthiest and one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York State.Eric serves on the GPNYS Executive Committee and as the Chair of the Erie County Green Party. Eric is also a good friend of the Green Party of Monroe County.
Eric entered this race late when Judith Einach (former Green Party candidate for Mayor) dropped out, but he has been knocking on doors for 4 months and has some good support.
The race is pretty interesting given the strategy of the Democrats. The Democratic Party is divided in Buffalo and the two major factions each had a candidate in the primary. This led to a very ugly round of negative campaign for Democratic support.
Peter Savage III was backed by the Mayor and outspent and out worked David Rivera, the endorsed Democrat, but after counting the absentee votes Rivera won a close primary.
Savage will remain on the ballot in the General Election on the Conservative Party’s line, but he has not actively campaigned since losing the primary.
Rivera, wishing to drive home the message that the primary decides who is elected in Buffalo, quickly declared himself the winner and removed his yard signs. He actually expended the remaining energy on his campaign lowering his profile in hopes that voters will forget the primary was close.
There is also a Republican in the race, Sergio Rodriguez, in his first run for office and also is not actively campaigning.
With the Democrats split and fighting there is an opportunity for Eric Jones to win the support of the independents and disenfranchised voters. However with no overlapping contested elections Eric is going to need help getting his supporters to the polls on Election Day.
To help Eric pay for a Get Out The Vote mailing you can send a contribution to:
FRIENDS OF ERIC JONES
PO BOX 741
BUFFALO, NEW YORK 14205
To volunteer with phone banking or door knocking you can contact the campaign directly at:
(716) 908-5226 or send an email to ERIC4COUNCIL@gmail.com
Read More!
IT'S TIME FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT BUFFALO...
It's time for city government that puts people first, not political machines.
It's time to put an end to backroom deals.
It's time for a comprehensive plan to deal with Buffalo's housing problems.
It's time to focus on local business development, not corporate giveaways like Bass Pro.
It's time to enforce Buffalo's living wage law. It's time to put principles ahead of politics.
David Lussier, for Albany County Legislator
David Lussier, Green Party Candidate for the Albany County Legislature has launched is campaign website: http://lussierforleg.com
Dave has been campaigning hard and is taking the remaining weeks off of work to commit to a full time campaign. Two years ago Dave finished second out of four candidates with 30% of the vote for Albany Common Council in an overlapping district.
Dave needs only about 400 votes to beat the Albany Democratic machine, and this time the machine seems to be malfunctioning, because the non-endorsed candidate won the primary. Dave has gained the support and help from members of the county Legislature and well as the president of the Albany Common council.
Voters have been relaying stories of the Democrat's racist and sexist remarks during door to door visits. At least 2 voters have also repeated the Democrat's recounting of the time he boarded an alien space craft in his backyard.
Dave's field plan is strong on voter identification and targeted campaigning. However, the field plan hit a snag on Saturday morning when Dave ran out of both literature and money. He quickly tapped into the members of the Green Party of New York State and raised the money for another round of literature and got back on the streets. This printing will not last and he could use some help footing future printing bills.
Dave also needs help with phone banking, if you are willing to call voters please volunteer with Dave's Campaign.
Voice: (518) 495-8001
Email: seedaverun@gmail.com
Donations can be made online through a Paypal account.
Dave will accept only personal donations up to $100. A little money spent on Dave's campaign can go a long way towards improving the community!
Please send your check to:
Friends of Dave Lussier
620 Madison Ave
Apt. B
Albany, NY 12208
Read More!
Why I'm Running For Legislature
Integrity & Vision
It's time for some "homegrown" energy in the Albany County Legislature -- and that energy is David J. Lussier. Dave grew up and lives in the Albany area. Before earning a degree in Sociology with a minor in Urban Planning at SUNY Albany, Dave attended local Bethlehem schools. He is currently working in construction, repairing water & fire damaged buildings in and around the Capital Region. He is also pursuing a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from SUNY Albany.
Dave has worked hard to improve the quality of life in Albany, including organizing numerous neighborhood cleanups, serving as Vice President of the Washington Square Neighborhood Association, and promoting local participation in community life.
Dave will bring this focused and intelligent enthusiasm to the County Legislature. He's also committed to a healthy environment, sustainable development, affordable housing and health care for Albany's residents. Dave would like to see us reduce costs for Medicaid for the county through bulk purchasing of medication for seniors, which would have the added benefit of lowering their costs at the pharmacy.
He would also like to see homeowners' energy costs reduced; we could easily institute a bulk purchasing program for heating oil, and eventually a municipal power corporation akin to Green Island's to offset New York's high energy costs.
Most importantly, Dave knows community voice in local government is critical to our success. Albany County will only prosper if its neighborhoods and stakeholders are engaged in a common dialog. Dave will unite people to bring about future-focused, common sense solutions.
Issues
Fiscal Reform
Medicaid and bulk purchasing
As an increasingly large part of the county budget we are interested in providing that service and reducing costs. Although the long-term solution is universal single-payer care, in the short-term Albany County can cut down on costs to taxpayers and those on Medicaid by purchasing medicine in bulk from pharmaceutical companies. This is a common practice in various areas, and can work here as well.
Energy Costs
Rising energy costs hurt Albany's residents; our campaign proposes to help offset those costs in two ways - bulk purchasing of heating oil and a municipal power company.
Bulk purchasing of heating oil will, as with medication, allow for the county to reduce prices on a major expenditure for Albany homeowners.
Municipal power is a longer term solution, but a necessary one. Not only do municipal power companies have lower costs (and thus lower rates for customers) but by taking power generation and provision into public hands, we can invest in renewable and clean energy sources instead of the fossil fuels contributing to the climate crisis.
Livable Albany
Abandoned buildings
Albany County holds close to 1000 documented abandoned buildings. Besides contributing to the general feeling of neighborhood decay, abandoned buildings are a haven for crime and contribute little to community well-being or the tax base. We propose that the county work closely with the city to rehabilitate these properties into affordable housing. This can be done by increasing sales of the buildings to local residents and providing aid to those who wish to turn them into livable properties once more. The county could also turn them into quality, affordable public rental stock for local residents.
Living Wage We are committed to fighting for a living wage of at least $10/hr. for all workers in the county as both a sound moral and economic policy. Communities around the country such as Santa Fe, New Mexico and San Francisco have passed similar laws and have seen a decrease in poverty and little harm to businesses; in fact businesses have been helped by the increase in residents' expendable income.
Sustainable Albany
Community Urban Planning
A thriving urban core is crucial to the success of the county as a whole. SDAT, community involvement in designing the comprehensive plan is crucial to creating an Albany in which future generations will want to live. A livable, sustainable Albany will help us reach the critical goal of 100,000 people living within the city by the next census to earn an increase in federal funds. This will propel the city of Albany to another level of development.
Bike Lanes
Albany should promote the painting of bike lanes around the county in order to increase safety for all drivers and riders, besides promoting sustainable transportation.
Recycling Programs
Albany should become a model in reducing waste production by increasing the number of items that can be recycled and the incentives to do so. We should follow the lead of other forward-thinking towns which have banned unnecessary items such as incandescent bulbs and single-use plastic grocery bags, so as to reduce the waste we put into our own landfill. We can also use recycled items in benches, houses, and for various other uses around the county.
Save The Pine Bush
The expansion of the Pine Bush landfill should be halted and we should gradually reduce the amount of trash we intake from other communities. The Pine Bush is a rare ecosystem and should be treated as such.
Dave has been campaigning hard and is taking the remaining weeks off of work to commit to a full time campaign. Two years ago Dave finished second out of four candidates with 30% of the vote for Albany Common Council in an overlapping district.
Dave needs only about 400 votes to beat the Albany Democratic machine, and this time the machine seems to be malfunctioning, because the non-endorsed candidate won the primary. Dave has gained the support and help from members of the county Legislature and well as the president of the Albany Common council.
Voters have been relaying stories of the Democrat's racist and sexist remarks during door to door visits. At least 2 voters have also repeated the Democrat's recounting of the time he boarded an alien space craft in his backyard.
Dave's field plan is strong on voter identification and targeted campaigning. However, the field plan hit a snag on Saturday morning when Dave ran out of both literature and money. He quickly tapped into the members of the Green Party of New York State and raised the money for another round of literature and got back on the streets. This printing will not last and he could use some help footing future printing bills.
Dave also needs help with phone banking, if you are willing to call voters please volunteer with Dave's Campaign.
Voice: (518) 495-8001
Email: seedaverun@gmail.com
Donations can be made online through a Paypal account.
Dave will accept only personal donations up to $100. A little money spent on Dave's campaign can go a long way towards improving the community!
Please send your check to:
Friends of Dave Lussier
620 Madison Ave
Apt. B
Albany, NY 12208
Read More!
Why I'm Running For Legislature
Integrity & Vision
It's time for some "homegrown" energy in the Albany County Legislature -- and that energy is David J. Lussier. Dave grew up and lives in the Albany area. Before earning a degree in Sociology with a minor in Urban Planning at SUNY Albany, Dave attended local Bethlehem schools. He is currently working in construction, repairing water & fire damaged buildings in and around the Capital Region. He is also pursuing a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from SUNY Albany.
Dave has worked hard to improve the quality of life in Albany, including organizing numerous neighborhood cleanups, serving as Vice President of the Washington Square Neighborhood Association, and promoting local participation in community life.
Dave will bring this focused and intelligent enthusiasm to the County Legislature. He's also committed to a healthy environment, sustainable development, affordable housing and health care for Albany's residents. Dave would like to see us reduce costs for Medicaid for the county through bulk purchasing of medication for seniors, which would have the added benefit of lowering their costs at the pharmacy.
He would also like to see homeowners' energy costs reduced; we could easily institute a bulk purchasing program for heating oil, and eventually a municipal power corporation akin to Green Island's to offset New York's high energy costs.
Most importantly, Dave knows community voice in local government is critical to our success. Albany County will only prosper if its neighborhoods and stakeholders are engaged in a common dialog. Dave will unite people to bring about future-focused, common sense solutions.
Issues
Fiscal Reform
Medicaid and bulk purchasing
As an increasingly large part of the county budget we are interested in providing that service and reducing costs. Although the long-term solution is universal single-payer care, in the short-term Albany County can cut down on costs to taxpayers and those on Medicaid by purchasing medicine in bulk from pharmaceutical companies. This is a common practice in various areas, and can work here as well.
Energy Costs
Rising energy costs hurt Albany's residents; our campaign proposes to help offset those costs in two ways - bulk purchasing of heating oil and a municipal power company.
Bulk purchasing of heating oil will, as with medication, allow for the county to reduce prices on a major expenditure for Albany homeowners.
Municipal power is a longer term solution, but a necessary one. Not only do municipal power companies have lower costs (and thus lower rates for customers) but by taking power generation and provision into public hands, we can invest in renewable and clean energy sources instead of the fossil fuels contributing to the climate crisis.
Livable Albany
Abandoned buildings
Albany County holds close to 1000 documented abandoned buildings. Besides contributing to the general feeling of neighborhood decay, abandoned buildings are a haven for crime and contribute little to community well-being or the tax base. We propose that the county work closely with the city to rehabilitate these properties into affordable housing. This can be done by increasing sales of the buildings to local residents and providing aid to those who wish to turn them into livable properties once more. The county could also turn them into quality, affordable public rental stock for local residents.
Living Wage We are committed to fighting for a living wage of at least $10/hr. for all workers in the county as both a sound moral and economic policy. Communities around the country such as Santa Fe, New Mexico and San Francisco have passed similar laws and have seen a decrease in poverty and little harm to businesses; in fact businesses have been helped by the increase in residents' expendable income.
Sustainable Albany
Community Urban Planning
A thriving urban core is crucial to the success of the county as a whole. SDAT, community involvement in designing the comprehensive plan is crucial to creating an Albany in which future generations will want to live. A livable, sustainable Albany will help us reach the critical goal of 100,000 people living within the city by the next census to earn an increase in federal funds. This will propel the city of Albany to another level of development.
Bike Lanes
Albany should promote the painting of bike lanes around the county in order to increase safety for all drivers and riders, besides promoting sustainable transportation.
Recycling Programs
Albany should become a model in reducing waste production by increasing the number of items that can be recycled and the incentives to do so. We should follow the lead of other forward-thinking towns which have banned unnecessary items such as incandescent bulbs and single-use plastic grocery bags, so as to reduce the waste we put into our own landfill. We can also use recycled items in benches, houses, and for various other uses around the county.
Save The Pine Bush
The expansion of the Pine Bush landfill should be halted and we should gradually reduce the amount of trash we intake from other communities. The Pine Bush is a rare ecosystem and should be treated as such.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Protest Colin Powell at the UofR
Colin Powell will be speaking Saturday October 20th at the University of Rochester, from 11am-12. We’re encouraging people to gather for a protest at between 9:00am and 10:00am outside at the junction of Wilson Boulevard and Faculty Road.
Click here for details
Click here to sign the petition against him receiving an honorary degree.
There will be a sign-making workshop at the anti-war storefront at 658 Monroe Avenue on Friday from 4-6pm. Also try to see Dahr Jamail speak on his experiences as an independent journalist in Iraq on Friday at 6:30pm at the School Without Walls.
I saw Colin Powell in 1998(?) and he said some of the rudest degrading offensive comments I have ever heard spoken from a podium in response to a students question on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. -jason
Click here for details
Click here to sign the petition against him receiving an honorary degree.
There will be a sign-making workshop at the anti-war storefront at 658 Monroe Avenue on Friday from 4-6pm. Also try to see Dahr Jamail speak on his experiences as an independent journalist in Iraq on Friday at 6:30pm at the School Without Walls.
I saw Colin Powell in 1998(?) and he said some of the rudest degrading offensive comments I have ever heard spoken from a podium in response to a students question on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. -jason
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Greens endorse version of ENDA that includes protection on the basis of gender identity
Lavender Greens endorse version of Employment Non-Discrimination Act that includes protection on the basis of gender identity
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES"By joining United ENDA, Lavender Greens are expressing their support for ENDA language that includes gender identity along with sexual orientation among the classes protected against job discrimination," said Michelle Kinnucan, Lavender Caucus member and Michigan Green. "Transgender and other Americans who do not conform to gender stereotypes deserve the same rights as all other Americans. ENDA must cover transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bi, and straight people."
The resolution, adopted this past weekend, also urges national Green support for the inclusive version of ENDA.
"We were dismayed that Human Rights Campaign and Congressional leadership were willing to water down the bill by omitting transgender rights," said James Sheldon, Lavender Caucus member and graduate student at
The national platform of the Green Party of the
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the
http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party News Center
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
Green Party Speakers Bureau
http://www.gp.org/speakers
2007 national Green Party meeting in
http://www.gp.org/meeting2007/
Lavender Green Caucus
http://www.lavendergreens.us
United ENDA
http://www.unitedenda.org
The
http://www.nctequality.org
Analysis of ENDA by Lambda Legal Defense
http://data.lambdalegal.org/pdf/enda_llanalysis_20071016.pdf
Farming Film “FED UP!” Showing in Batavia, Oct 23
GREEN PARTY OF
WITH FARMING FILM ENTITLED “FED UP!”
The quarterly party meeting will be preceded by the viewing of the significant contemporary film, “Fed Up! Genetic Engineering, Industrial Agriculture and Sustainable Alternatives.” The film is open to the public and free and begins at
“As we enjoy another satisfying harvest season in upstate
For further information, please email the Green Party of Genesee County of New York at gpbcny@yahoo.com or go to http://gpgcny.50megs.com/
U.S. moves closer to war with Iran
Letter to the Editor in today's Democrat and Chronicle.
U.S. moves closer to war with Iran
The United States recently approved a $30 billion military aid package to Israel which, combined with the Lieberman-Kyl amendment, has moved the U.S. closer to war with Iran.
The Lieberman-Kyl amendment, passed on Sept. 26 with strong bipartisan support, designates Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a "foreign terrorist organization," making the Iran military a target in President Bush's war on terror.
After failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, President Bush seems poised to repeat history. He has yet to produce hard evidence to the world community to support U.S. claims that Iran is assisting Shi'ite militias in Iraq and plans to produce nuclear weapons for an attack on Western nations.
With increased world tensions and a loss of credibility, we cannot allow bipartisan support to continue for another war. Many prominent Democrats have refused to take an attack on Iran off the table. This could be the third bipartisan military disaster in the Middle East since 9/11.
The Green Party remains the only major national party committed to peace at home and abroad.
JASON NABEWANIEC
ROCHESTER
The writer is co-chairman, Green Party of the United States.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Green Party of New York State Meeting
State Committee Me
eting will be on Saturday, October 20, 2007
Channing Hall,
First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany
405 Washington Avenue (at Robin Street),
Albany, New York12206
Draft Agenda for October 20, 2007 SC meeting s
9:00 AM Registration, credentialing, welcome
9:30 Green enrollee speakout
10:00 Welcome
10:00 - 10:10 Election of facilitators, note takers, timekeepers, referees
10:10 - 10:20 Vote on agenda
10:20 - 10:40 Reports
11:20 - 11:40 E. Old Business - Proposals
11:40 - 12:30 PM F. New Business -Proposals
12:30 - 1:30 G. Lunch - separate from agenda: opportunity for regions to meet
and/or hold elections for EC reps, NC reps & PCSC reps
1:30 - 4:00 H. Strategic planning discussion
4:00 - 5:00 I. Committee elections (fill vacancies on national committees and on
state-level committees)
5:00 - 6:00 I. New business - continued
6:00 PM Adjournment
DIRECTIONS
From the East: Take the Thruway to Exit 24.
Continue on I-90 (Albany, Troy, Boston) east.
Exit at Exit 2 (Washington Avenue, Fuller Road, State University).
Turn left onto Washington Avenue and head east toward downtown Albany.
Go about 3 miles.
FUUSA is on the left at the corner of Washington Avenue and Robin Street.
Parking is available on the street anytime and in the University at Albany lot at the corner of Robin and Washington on Sundays only. There is a wheelchair entrance to FUUSA on West Street. Please ring the bell for admission. It is unlocked Sunday mornings.
eting will be on Saturday, October 20, 2007Channing Hall,
First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany
405 Washington Avenue (at Robin Street),
Albany, New York12206
Draft Agenda for October 20, 2007 SC meeting s
9:00 AM Registration, credentialing, welcome
9:30 Green enrollee speakout
10:00 Welcome
10:00 - 10:10 Election of facilitators, note takers, timekeepers, referees
10:10 - 10:20 Vote on agenda
10:20 - 10:40 Reports
11:20 - 11:40 E. Old Business - Proposals
11:40 - 12:30 PM F. New Business -Proposals
12:30 - 1:30 G. Lunch - separate from agenda: opportunity for regions to meet
and/or hold elections for EC reps, NC reps & PCSC reps
1:30 - 4:00 H. Strategic planning discussion
4:00 - 5:00 I. Committee elections (fill vacancies on national committees and on
state-level committees)
5:00 - 6:00 I. New business - continued
6:00 PM Adjournment
DIRECTIONS
From the East: Take the Thruway to Exit 24.
Continue on I-90 (Albany, Troy, Boston) east.
Exit at Exit 2 (Washington Avenue, Fuller Road, State University).
Turn left onto Washington Avenue and head east toward downtown Albany.
Go about 3 miles.
FUUSA is on the left at the corner of Washington Avenue and Robin Street.
Parking is available on the street anytime and in the University at Albany lot at the corner of Robin and Washington on Sundays only. There is a wheelchair entrance to FUUSA on West Street. Please ring the bell for admission. It is unlocked Sunday mornings.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
GPUS Open House Oct 21 in Washington DC
Open House party at the new office of the Green Party in Washington, DC, on October 21; media invited
- DC's '2nd Political Party,' the DC Statehood Green Party, will host
- Time: Sunday, October 21, 1-4 pm
- Location: Green Party Open House at our new national office, 1711 18th Street NW (ground floor)
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party of the United States will hold an Open House party at its new Washington, DC office on Sunday, October 21. The DC Statehood Green Party will host.
Members of the media are invited. The Open House will take place from
Organizers of the event look forward to a lively turnout of Statehood Greens, Green Parties from surrounding states, friends of the party, and possibly some Green presidential candidates.
"The Green Party is the only national party -- and the DC Statehood Green Party the only local major party -- in full support of real democracy and statehood for DC," said Gail Dixon, Statehood Green, longtime DC statehood activist, and former elected member of the DC Board of Education. "We're inaugurating our new DC office in the spirit of Josephine Butler, Julius Hobson, Hilda Mason, and other veterans of the DC Statehood Party and leaders in the movement for DC statehood."
"We're proud to host the party as the District's 'second political party' in terms of electoral clout. The DC Statehood Green Party has replaced the Republican Party as Number 2, since our candidates for local partisan office now receive more votes than Republicans. We get more votes even when we run the same number of candidates, as in the 2006 election," added Ms. Dixon.
For more on the 2006 election results and emergence of the DC Statehood Green Party as DC's second party, visit <http://www.gp.org/press/states/dc/dc_2006_11_10.shtml>. The Statehood Green Party looks forward to running a strong slate of local candidates in 2008 and will participate in the presidential primary election in January.
MORE INFORMATION
The DC Statehood Green Party
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
Green Party of the
http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
? Green Party News Center
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
? Green Party Speakers Bureau
http://www.gp.org/speakers
? 2007 national Green Party meeting in
http://www.gp.org/meeting2007/
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Kent Mesplay for President
Kent Mesplay, CA
I run to improve our political system, to help define, popularize and support the Green Party, to be an advocate for changes to our culture that will help us survive adversity and to improve our basic physical security, especially in terms of the basic categories of water, food and energy. I am optimistic that we can reform government and that we will begin building our communities with a sense of long-range planning as though we-the-people intend to be around for a long time to come. I value decentralization, diversity and sustainability, not as catch-phrases but as a good way of life. I believe that international commerce should be cognizant of the importance of people being able to meet their own basic needs of water and food, rather than the current method of seeking to exploit "developing" nations at their most basic level. Our party is pro-peace and we vigorously question the "need" for war, especially wars of choice that ultimately misuse and abuse our troops, damage our reputation and weaken our security by inciting enemies.
Over-all turnout in the last General Election was poorer than ever. Ralph Nader once said, "If you don't turn to politics, politics will turn on you." As of this time Mr. Nader is not running for the nomination. You can work to help reform politics by learning about Instant Runoff Voting (I.R.V.) or preferential voting, by advocating representational government such as proportional representation rather than "winner-take-all" and by not supporting the major parties until they stop cowering by excluding our good candidates from their "debates." One comment I recall David Cobb (Green Party Presidential Candidate, 2004) repeating, on the last campaign for the White House, is that "third" parties perform the function of introducing new ideas and applying new pressures to the powers that be so that we now have child labor laws, a 40-hour work week and some other programs that are designed to counter-balance the extreme economic power of the elite and help the common person. In a Democratic society (yes, I know we are a Republic) even non-moneyed voices deserve to be heard. We must get the money out of politics and require our elected officials to not be obligated to "earmarking" bills. Although it is an indication of support, we ought to require more from our candidates than essentially seeing who can raise the most cash. When funds are contributed it is best that they are anonymous to the recipient and are pooled. Currently, candidates have to raise their own money and I am no exception. Even a monthly contribution of $1 per person would allow me to run a visible campaign if those who will vote for me would begin doing this. Plus, such a plan approaches the concept of publicly funded elections wherein a candidate does not feel obligated to contributors of large amounts. Eventually, I would like a more fully honored separation of powers through a Constitutional amendment limiting the influence of business on government.
Moving the Money to Main Street
Moving the Money to Main Street, in support of our Key Values of Community-based Economics and Social Justice.
The major financial institutions are draining our communities' equity and we all play a part if we bank in their institutions. By finding and supporting those banks in our own communities who reinvest in our community in a sustainable way we will complete the cycle of our money supporting us.
This campaign is a coordinated effort of people across the country who will be withdrawing their checking accounts, mortgages, credit cards, etc. from the ~20 Big Banks that fund the rapacious destruction of the planet and moving them to either a locally based bank/credit union or one supporting their values. The determining factor where to place accounts will be excellence; banks and credit unions that have a history of supporting the community in a sustainable way. Our task here is to find those institutions and coordinate the efforts of individuals to make the switch.
This website, and the correlating listserv, will help organize people, Greens and otherwise, who are ready to take personal responsibility for their transactions. On this site you will find support for finding a good bank or credit union, resources like what questions to ask your banker, what to look for in a financial institution, understanding the money system and a database of banks already researched (in process). We encourage everyone to make the switch and this action can be taken whenever one is ready.
For greater impact we invite you to join with others in an organized action of withdrawing and reinvesting. This campaign will coordinate those actions and offer support to the participants. In places where we can identify 5 or more people who want to participate we will develop press opportunities around it.
We encourage all GP candidates to utilize this campaign in their electoral effort. The topic of money speaks to all voters. In order to be the Pro-Peace Party or the Environmental Party we must also be the Financially Responsible Party.
Please join us. Everyone is welcome, whether you have already made the switch or are working to that end. We need all of you. Let's start the wave that returns the power of local strength and sustainability to our communities across the country.
How we vote with our money and how we use our money can be a significant source of political power.
To join the listserv or for info on the campaign email katey@gp.org
A look at today's economic system
How to find a local bank to match your values
The US banking tapeworm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)