1998 will go down in history as the year of the racist attempt to take over the Sierra Club and blame population growth on its victims. Many Greens are concerned that the 1996 Presidential campaign was used to expand an existing division and split the US Greens by a group that raised money and operated outside the existing national Green organizational framework. This group advocates setting up state Green Parties on the model of the Democratic and Republican Parties where registrants nominate candidates and, in some states, elect party leadership in primaries open to anyone, regardless of their politics. Such a Demopublican structure opens the door to domination by money and media elites and closes the door to grassroots accountability. This corporate party model is a far cry from the Green value of grassroots democracy.
Greens are also concerned about the loss of grassroots democracy in Maine.
Ever since Earth Day of 1990, progressives have challenged corporate funding of environmental events. At a time when campaign finance reform and open disclosure of funding are major political issues, it is shocking that Greens are still unable to obtain a financial report for the 1996 Gathering and Nomination Convention. If Greens want to be taken seriously when they challenge hidden financial deals of larger parties, then it seems that, as a minimum, they should b able to account for the finances of their own campaigns and national meetings.