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In United States politics, the Green Party has been active as a third party since the 1980s. The party first gained widespread public attention during Ralph Nader's presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. Currently, the primary national Green Party organization in the U.S. is the Green Party of the United States, which has eclipsed the earlier Greens/Green Party USA.

The Green Party in the United States has won elected office mostly at the local level; most winners of public office in the United States who are considered Greens have won nonpartisan-ballot elections (that is, the winning Greens won offices in elections in which candidates were not identified on the ballot as affiliated with any political party) . The highest-ranking elected Green in the nation was John Eder, who was a member of the Maine House of Representatives until his defeat on November 7, 2006. The Party has 305,000 registered members in states that allow party registration, as well as thousands of supporters in the rest of the country. It has ballot access in 31 states.

Greens emphasize environmentalism, decentralization and local autonomy, in keeping with the Green commitment to non-hierarchical participatory democracy, so it is perhaps not surprising that the strength of the Green Party does not derive from a central national organization.

History

1996 presidential election

At a 1995 national gathering of Greens from many organizations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a measure to put a candidate for president on 40 states was adopted. Those who wished to run a candidate for president continued to pursue this possibility. Working within their state parties, as well as through an independent organization called Third Parties 1995, they convinced Ralph Nader to accept placement on the Green Party of California's primary ballot, and eventually he accepted placement on more ballots, but ran a limited campaign with a self-imposed campaign spending limit of $5,000 (to avoid having to file a financial statement with the FEC). He chose Winona LaDuke as their vice-presidential candidate. The pair were on the ballot in twenty-two states and received 685,128 votes, or 0.7% of all votes cast.

1997-1999

In the aftermath of the 1996 election, representatives from thirteen state Green Parties joined to form the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP). The ASGP, while still including issue activism and non-electoral politics, was clearly more focused on getting Greens elected. In the years from 1997 to 1999, more local, regional, and statewide Green parties continued to form. Many of these parties affiliated themselves with both the ASGP and the G/GPUSA.

2000 presidential election

In the year 2000, the ASGP nominated Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke for president and vice-president again. This time, the pair were on 44 state ballots and received 2,882,897 votes, or 2.7% of all votes cast .

In October of 2000 (during the campaign), a proposal was made to alter the structures of the ASGP and G/GPUSA to be complementary organizations with the ASGP focusing on electoral politics and the G/GPUSA focusing on issue advocacy. The Boston Proposal (so named because it was negotiated at Boston in the days before the first presidential debate) was passed by the ASGP at its next annual gathering, but did not pass at the GPUSA Congress, causing a schism in membership among the GPUSA from which they never recovered. The ASGP then changed its name to "The Green Party of the United States" and was granted status as the official National Committee of the Green Party by the FEC in 2001.

2001-2003

In 2002, John Eder's election to the Maine House of Representatives marked the first Green Party state legislator in the United States elected in a regular election. (Audie Bock had won a special election as a state legislator in the California Assembly, but left the party and eventually became a Democrat.) John Eder's party designation on the ballot in 2002 was "Green Independent." Eder was personally congratulated by Ralph Nader on election night. In 2004, despite redistricting in Maine that threatened to unseat Eder, he nevertheless won re-election.

In the Spring of 2003, as the 2004 elections loomed, Greens began an often-heated debate on party presidential strategy. Democrats, liberal activists, and liberal journalists were counseling and pressuring the Green Party and Ralph Nader not to run a presidential ticket. In response, a diverse cross-section of U.S. Greens issued "Green & Growing: 2004 in Perspective" a statement initiated by national party Green Party of the United States co-chair Ben Manski. "Green & Growing"'s 158 signatories declared that "We think it essential to build a vigorous presidential campaign," citing as their chief reasons the need to gain ballot access for the Green Party, to define the Greens as an independent party, and the failures of the Democrats on issues of foreign and domestic policy. Other Greens, most prominently Ted Glick in his "A Green Party Safe States Strategy", called on the party to adopt a strategy of avoiding swing states in the upcoming presidential election. A third, intermediate "smart states" position was drafted by Dean Myerson and adopted by David Cobb, advocating a "nuanced" state-by-state strategy based on ballot access, party development, swing state, and other concerns.

2004 presidential election

On Christmas Eve, 2003, Ralph Nader declared that he would not seek the Green party's nomination for president in 2004, and in February, 2004, announced his intention to run as an independent, but later did decide to seek endorsement (rather than the nomination) of the Green Party, and other third parties. Several Greens, most notably Peter Camejo, as well as Lorna Salzman and others, endorsed this plan (Camejo would later accept a position as Nader's vice-presidential running-mate).

On June 26, 2004, the Green National Convention nominated David Cobb, who promised to focus on building the party. Just over a third of the delegates voted "No Nominee" with the intent to later vote for a Nader endorsement. Pat LaMarche of Maine was nominated for vice-president. Cobb and Nader emphasized different strategies. Cobb promised to run a "strategic states" campaign based on the preferences and needs of the individual state Green parties; as a result, Cobb campaigned heavily in some battleground states and not in others. Nader intended to run a national multiparty ticket uniting the Greens with other parties.

Two supporters of Camejo, Carol Miller and Forrest Hill, wrote one of a number of articles, printed after the convention, including, "Rigged Convention; Divided Party'," alleging that the convention elections had been undemocratic. Other Green Party members responded that the analysis they gave in the article was fundamentally flawed to produce skewed results. One such response was that of the national party Secretary, Greg Gerritt, who self-published a book on the subject, Green Party Tempest.

2006 election

The Greens had a number of races in which they expected to contest in 2006. In the Illinois governor's race, candidate Rich Whitney received 11%, granting the party ballot status in that state. The party won 35 races nationwide, including 18 in California. One of the biggest victories included the election of Gayle McLaughlin as mayor in Richmond, California. Richmond now has become the first city with over 100,000 residents to have a Green mayor. In Maine, Pat LaMarche received nearly 10% of the vote for governor and the Maine Green Independent Party also won two seats on the Portland City Council. However, the party lost their only elected state representative, John Eder. The Greens were also excited following Tom Kelly's receipt of 21% in his run for Congress in Colorado's 1st District.

8.7 million Americans voted for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and for impeachment resolutions on local and state ballots that were initiated or supported by Greens. Troop withdrawal initiatives won in all ten localities in Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, and all 11 communities in Illinois, including Chicago. Of 139 cities and towns in Massachusetts voting on the troop withdrawal measures, only a handful voted nay on initiatives demanding that Congress and the White House end the war immediately.

Structure and composition

Committees

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The Green Party has three national committees:

• the Green National Committee
• the National Green Party House Campaign Committee (NGPHCC)
• the National Green Party Senatorial Campaign Committee (NGPSCC)

The GNC is recognized by the Federal Elections Commission; the other two, similar to Congressional elections committees in the Democratic and Republican parties, are not yet recognized, being recently established. The NGPSCC's initial members were elected in July 2006: Dave Jette, Daryl Northrop, Eric Oines, Roger Snyder, Anita Wessling, and Brent White.

The GNC is the central governing body of the Green Party of the United States (GPUS). The GNC is composed of delegates from each of the affiliated member party organizations and from recognized caucuses. The GNC oversees all national party functions and elects a Steering Committee to oversee day-to-day operations of the national party.

Caucuses

Caucuses on the GNC are identity caucuses. Three have achieved formal recognition within the GNC:

• Black Caucus
• Lavender Greens (LGBTIQ)
• National Women's Caucus

Four other caucuses are working toward formal representation on the GNC:

• Disability Caucus
• Latino Caucus
• Youth Caucus

The Blue Greens (workers' caucus) and the Native American caucus also exist, but do not have organizing committees as yet.

Standing committees

The GNC has several standing committees:

• Accreditation
• Annual National Meeting
• Ballot Access
• Bylaws, Rules, Policies & Procedures
• Communications
• Coordinated Campaign
• Dispute Resolution
• Diversity
• EcoAction
• Finance
• Fundraising
• Green Pages (editorial board for the party newspaper)
• International
• Media
• Merchandising
• Outreach
• Peace Action
• Platform
• Presidential Campaign Support
• Steering

National party co-chairs

The co-chairs of the Green Party of the United States are currently: Liz Arnone, Jim Coplen, Katey Culver, Budd Dickinson, Steve Kramer, Rebecca Rotzler, Marc Sanson, and Sarah "echo" Steiner. The co-chairs of the Green Party, together with the secretary and treasurer, are called the Steering Committee. They are elected from the delegates, who serve on the Green National Committee, representing the affiliated member states.

Geographic distribution

The Green Party has shown its strongest popular support on the Pacific Coast, upper Great Lakes, and northeastern United States, as reflected in the geographical distribution of Green candidates elected . Californians have elected 67 (all of them in nonpartisan-ballot elections) of the 204 office-holding Greens nationwide as of January, 2004. Other states with high numbers of Green elected officials include Pennsylvania (27), Wisconsin (23), Massachusetts (23), and Maine (13). Wisconsin has the highest per capita number of Green elected officials in the country, and the highest victory rate at over 60% over the state party's 20 year history.

In California in 2000, the Green Party's nominee for president (Ralph Nader) received 405,722 votes; In the 2002 Governor's race, the city of San Francisco gave more votes to the Green Party candidate, Peter Camejo, than to the Republican candidate. Matt Gonzalez, who served as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and who came close to winning the San Francisco mayoral contest in 2003, is a Green Party member (although these city offices in California are elected by nonpartisan ballot). Jason West, mayor of New Paltz, NY, attained national prominence in 2004 by performing a series of 25 same-sex marriages in that city. John Eder is the highest-ranking Green in the U.S., elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 2002 (and re-elected in 2004). The Alaska Green Party has the highest per capita proportion of Greens, receiving 10% of the votes statewide in the 2000 presidential elections.

One challenge that the Green Party (as well as other third parties) face is the difficulty of overcoming repressive ballot access laws in many states. This has prevented the Green Party from reaching a point of critical mass in building party-building momentum in many states.

2004 national ticket and Ralph Nader

In the 2004 presidential election, the candidate of the Green Party of the United States for President was Texas attorney and GPUS legal counsel David Cobb, and its candidate for vice-president was labor activist Pat LaMarche of Maine.

Late in 2003, Ralph Nader, the Party's 2000 candidate for President, announced that he would run as an independent candidate. Mr. Nader explained that he was not seeking the Green Party's nomination, but would (as an independent) seek the Party's "endorsement". After David Cobb received the Party's 2004 presidential nomination at the Green National Convention in Milwaukee, apparently in a show of unity, Nader's Vice Presidential running mate, Peter Camejo, said, "I'm going to walk out of here arm in arm with David Cobb."

The Cobb-LaMarche ticket in 2004 appeared on 28 of the 51 ballots around the country; down from 44 in 2000, the Nader-Camejo ticket in 2004 appeared on 35 ballots. In 2004, Cobb was on the ballot in California (and Nader was not), whereas Nader was on the ballot in New York (and Cobb was not). Political strategists with the Democratic Party used aggressive legalistic tactics to remove Nader but not Cobb's name from several state ballots.

Many Green Party members were upset and some expressed "embarrassment" that Nader was not the party's 2004 candidate.

The voting results from the 2004 presidential election were considerably less impressive than the results of the Green Party's Nader-LaDuke presidential ticket in 2000, which had garnered more than 2,882,000 votes. In 2004, running in most states as an independent (but with high-profile Green Party activist Peter Camejo as his running mate), Ralph Nader received 465,650 votes; the Green Party's 2004 nominees, David Cobb and Patricia LaMarche, mustered 119,859 votes. Some Greens were not discouraged by the relatively low presidential vote yield in 2004 for Cobb and for Nader, because the Green Party continued to grow in many parts of the country, increasing Green Party affiliation numbers and fielding Green candidates for congressional, state, and local offices.

These claims have been directly contested in an article pointing out that the number of registered Greens declined by about 23,000 between January 2004 and March 2005, in contrast to a previous period of uninterrupted growth from 1998, that the number of Green candidacies declined compared to 2002, and that these candidates fared worse than in the past, particularly during the presidential campaign.

Office Holders

• Green party members elected President - 0
• Green party members elected to the House of Representatives - 0
• Green party members elected to the Senate - 0
• Green party members elected Governor - 0
• Green party members elected to a State Senate - 0
• Green party members elected to a State's House of Representatives - 1 John Eder (no longer in office)

The Green Party claims that "at least 223" party members hold elected office in the U.S.A. as of late October, 2006. Currently, though, there are no Greens in any State Legislature, or in the U.S Congress.

Presidential tickets

• 1996: Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke 685,128 votes
• 2000: Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke 2,882,000 votes
• 2004: David Cobb and Pat LaMarche 119,859 votes

List of national conventions/conferences

• 2000 - Denver, CO
• 2001 - Santa Barbara, CA
• 2002 - Philadelphia, PA
• 2003 - Washington, DC
• 2004 - Milwaukee, WI
• 2005 - Tulsa, OK
• 2006 - Tucson, AZ

See also

• Worldwide green parties
• List of state Green Parties in the U.S.
• List of political parties in the United States
• California Green Archives
• Ralph Nader
• Peter Camejo
• Winona LaDuke
• David McReynolds
• Joel Kovel
• Matt Gonzalez

References

1. "Green Party Ballot Status and Voter Registration Totals (United States)". Greens.org. Retrieved April 12, 2006.
2. "Greens Win Ballot Access in 31 States, Up From 17 in January". Green Party press release, September 5, 2006.
3. See full text of the Boston Proposal
4. "Green & Growing: 2004 in Perspective". Greens.org. June 20, 2003.
5. Glick, Ted. "A Green Party 'Safe States' Strategy". ZNet. July 1, 2003.

Resources

• http://www.greenpartyus.org/fec/fec.html
• http://www.greenparties.org/documents/cand_hist.html
• http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june00/green_history.html
• http://www.gp.org/ – main Green Party in the United States
• http://www.greenparty.org/ – Green group that split from main party; not registered as political party in any state
• Charlene Spretnak & Fritjof Capra, Green Politics (1984, ISBN) – incl. lengthy & influential chapter on first stirrings of U.S. Greens
• Mark Satin, New Options for America (1991, ISBN-X) – incl. lengthy & widely discussed chapters on the 1987 and 1990 Green gatherings
• Brian Tokar, The Green Alternative (rev. 1994, ISBN) – principal statement by prominent member of the original "left Greens" faction
• John Rensenbrink, Against All Odds (1999, ISBN) – history of U.S. Green organizing during the 1980s and 1990s
• Ralph Nader, Crashing the Party (2002, ISBN) – memoir of his Green campaign during the 2000 Presidential election
• Micah Sifry, Spoiling for a Fight (rev. 2003, ISBN) – description & analysis of Green and other "third" party efforts in contemporary U.S.
• Charles Shaw, Make the Greenleap (2004, Newtopia/gp.org) – Green politics & policies are about much more than just ecology and Ralph Nader. They are about replacing wasteful consumerism and a passive system of governance with a holistic, sustainable approach that incorporates social and environmental demands into national security and global trade policies.

External links

• Green Party of the United States (GPUS)
• Green Party Ballot Status and Voter Registration Totals
• Status of State Green Parties in the U.S.
• "Make The Greenleap" (Newtopia, June 2004)
• Campus Greens
• National Lavender Greens Caucus (GLBTIQ)
• Greens for Democracy and Independence
• California Green Archives
• Green Bloggers

Explanations of the ten key values

• Ten Key Values of the Green Party
• Global Greens' charter
• California Green Party's Ten Key Values
• Radical Middle Newsletter's historical intro. & early version

• Green political parties
• Political parties in the United States
• Green Party (United States)
• Leftist parties and organizations in the United States