From: Dale McMillen <dmcmillen@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.greens
Date: 03 Jan 93 20:06 PST
Subject: Re: NEWS ABOUT THE GREENS
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1678600016:cdp:1678600019:000:7155
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!dmcmillen    Jan  3 20:06:00 1993


From: Dale McMillen <dmcmillen>
Subject: NEWS ABOUT THE GREENS

/* Written 10:30 am  Nov  9, 1992 by gpusa@igc.apc.org in igc:green.general */
/* ---------- "U.S. Green Election Results" ---------- */


Green Party USA Press Release Third update; discard previous
copies.  PO Box 30208, Kansas City, MO 64112
1-800-257-7336

For immediate release

***********************************************
Greens win 560,000 votes in 1992, seat 11 candidates
***********************************************

One year after official founding of the Green Party USA, Green
Party members across the U.S. won 11 seats in local partisan and
nonpartisan elections. Eighty Green candidates ran for national,
state and local offices in 13 states: 15 for U.S. Congress and
Senate; 28 for state houses; 22 for county and city offices; and
16 for other elected municipal and community positions. Green
candidates polled over 560,000 votes for an average showing of 16%
nationwide.

Prior to the elections, Greens already held 50 seats in local
offices ranging from town councils and mayors to county
commissions and boards of education. The current nationwide total
of Green officeholders is now 56 in fourteen states.

The new officeholders include:

Stephen Miller  Fayetteville    AR      Fayetteville City Council

Lois    Humphreys       Leucadia        CA      Leucadia Water
Board

Dona    Spring  Berkeley        CA      Berkeley City Council

Carol   Skiljan Encinitas       CA      Encinitas School Board

Barbara         Carr    La Mesa         CA      La Mesa/Spring
Valley School Board

Nancy   Bernardi                CA      Evergreen Resource
Conservation District

David   Tarr            CA      Romona Water Board

Dan     Tarr    El Cajon        CA      Valledeoro Planning Group

John    Beall           CA      Santa Clara County Evergreen
Resource Conservation District

Timothy         Moore           CA      Ramona Community Planning
Group

Keiko   Bonk-Abramson   Volcano HI      Hawaii Council

In Hawaii, where the Green Party has mounted a serious challenge
to the Democratic Party, Greens placed second (beating Republican
candidates) in four partisan races. In the best Green Party
showing for a national office--and (according to Richard Winger of
Ballot Access News) the best showing by a third-party candidate
for any Senate office--Linda Martin's candidacy for U.S.  Senate
polled 50,000 votes (over 13%) against powerful U.S. Senator
Daniel Inouye. A total of eighteen Green Party candidates ran in
Hawaii. Furthermore, Keiko Bonk-Abramson's successful Green Party
bid for seat on the Hawaii Council was the first victory by any
third party in Hawaii.

By far the largest number of Green candidates ran in California.
15 partisan and 20 nonpartisan candidates polled a total of nearly
340,000 votes, for a statewide average of 13%. State Green Party
leaders are confident of their ability to continue building a
challenge to the major parties.

Green Party candidates made good showings in other state
elections. In a bid for the New Mexico State House, Abraham
Guttman won 42% of the vote against an incumbent Democrat. Mark
Dunlea won 41% in a New York State Assembly race against his
Republican opponent's 58%. Kelly Weaverling, the current Green
Party mayor of Cordova, Alaska, polled 23% in his bid for the
Alaska State Assembly.  Green Party candidates also ran in
Missouri, Maine, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin,
and Arizona.

Greens polled an average of 16% in all the races they entered
across the U.S.. In partisan races (those in which "Green Party"
appears on the ballot with the candidate's name), Greens received
over 340,000 votes, for an average of nearly 13% per candidate.
(Similarity to the California figures above is purely
coincidental.)

Greens are represented in the parliaments of many European
countries with proportional representation, which require just 5%
support to give seats to third parties. With a truly
representative system in the U.S., Green parties would have
already won seats in state and national legislative bodies.

Greens ran against other third party and independent candidates in
18 races, and outpolled or equaled them in 13 races. Where Greens
ran against third parties and independent candidates, Green Party
candidates averaged over twice as many votes as candidates for the
Libertarian Party, and 68% more votes than all other third parties
and independent challengers combined.

The grassroots political movement known as the Greens was founded
in the U.S. in 1984, and became a national political party in
1991. By mid-1992, the Green Party had achieved state-wide ballot
status in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Alaska.
Nearly 500 local Green chapters engage in grassroots campaigns to
reform local government, protect their region's environment,
overcome racial divisions, improve education and health care,
eliminate homelessness, and more. This year's political campaigns
focused on  issues of ecology, sustainable development, community
empowerment, governmental and political reform, racial and gender
justice, community-based economics, worker's rights, and
affordable housing and health care.

Greens have frequently been attacked as a "spoiler" effort, likely
to help elect Republicans by taking Democratic votes. However, in
only one race out of 80 (Maine Green Party candidate Jonathan
Carter's U.S. Congressional bid), was the margin of Republican
victory slim enough for this to be considered. But according to
Nancy Allen of the Hancock County Green Party, Carter took more
votes from the Republican candidate, especially in rural areas.

Greens chose not to run a presidential candidate, nor did they
endorse a candidate. The Green Party employs a conscious strategy
of building "from the bottom up," meaning that policies and
campaigns initiated in local communities determine the direction
of the national organization. This decentralist strategy mirrors
the Party's vision for a society based on participatory democracy.
However, many Greens supported Ron Daniels' independent candidacy
(a campaign focusing on racial and gender justice, worker's
rights, ecology and community empowerment).

On the election of Bill Clinton, many Greens are pleased at the
success of the candidate whom they deem the least of the three
evils. Having seen Clinton's poor environmental record in
Arkansas, however, they plan to keep close watch on his
administration."I don't see any reason to be optimistic about
Clinton on foreign policy or environmental issues, but he could
surprise us," said Joan Roelofs of the Greens national
Coordinating Committee. "His answer to economic problems in
Arkansas was to bring polluting industries into the state, rather
than supporting safe, community-based businesses. People may relax
prematurely believing Gore to be an environmentalist . . . but I'm
not sure I would predict any substantive effect on national
policy."

To find out more about the Greens, or for a full listing of Green
candidates & officeholders, write Greens/Green Party USA, PO Box
30208, Kansas City, MO 64112, or call 1-800-257-7336.

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