Green Party (United States)

Green Party
Chairperson	7 Co-Chairs
Founded	2001 (2001)
Headquarters	1623 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 2009
Ideology	Green politics, Grassroots democracy, Social democracy, American progressivism, Populism
Political position	Fiscal: Left-wing Social: Progressivism, Left-wing
International affiliation	Global Greens
Official colors	Green
Seats in the Senate	0
Seats in the House	0
Website
http://www.gp.org
Politics of the United States Political parties Elections

The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is a political party in the United States, and similar in mission to many of the worldwide Green Parties. The Green Party of the United States, a voluntary association of state parties, has been active as a nationally recognized political party since 2001. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by their corresponding states. The Association of State Green Parties (ASGP), a forerunner organization, first gained widespread public attention during Ralph Nader's presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. With the founding of the Green Party of the United States, the party established a national political presence becoming the primary national Green organization in the U.S. eclipsing the earlier Greens/Green Party USA which emphasized non-electoral movement building.

The Green Party in the United States has won elected offices 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).^[1] The highest-ranking Greens ever elected in the nation were: John Eder, a member of the Maine House of Representatives until his defeat in November 2006; Audie Bock, elected to the California State Assembly in 1999 but switched her registration to Independent seven months later^[2] running as an independent in the 2000 election;^[3] and Richard Carroll, elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 2008 but switched parties to become a Democrat five months after his election.^[4] In 2005, the Green Party had 305,000 registered members in states allowing party registration, and tens of thousands of members and contributors in the rest of the country.^[5] During the 2008 elections the party had ballot access in 31 states.

Ideology

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The Green Party of the United States of America emphasizes environmentalism, non-hierarchical participatory democracy, social justice, respect for diversity, peace and nonviolence. Their "Ten Key Values," which are described as non-authoritative guiding principles, are as follows:

1. Grassroots democracy
2. Social justice and equal opportunity
3. Ecological wisdom
4. Nonviolence
5. Decentralization
6. Community-based economics
7. Feminism and gender equality
8. Respect for diversity
9. Personal and global responsibility
10. Future focus and sustainability

The Green Party does not accept donations from corporations. Thusly, the party's platforms and rhetoric critiques any corporate influence and control over government, media, and American society at large.

History

Early years

What began as the decentralized Green Committees of Correspondence^[6] evolved into a more centralized structure with a more traditional emphasis on electoral campaigns. Before the formation of a national party, early Greens were committed to an emphasis on educational projects and non-partisan activism. The idea of an "anti-party party" was formed by Petra Kelly and other leaders of Die Grünen in Germany.^[7] Their vision was a non-traditional organization in which electoralism would be the least important of the three components. A struggle for the direction of the organization culminated at the 1991 Green Congress in Elkins, West Virginia – during which those who favored an emphasis on electoral politics began to consolidate power – primarily through sheer numbers.

Structure and composition

Committees

The Green Party has two national committees recognized by the Federal Election Commission:

• the Green National Committee (GNC)
• the Green Senatorial Campaign Committee (GSCC) [2]

Green National Committee

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

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is composed of seven Co-chairs together with the Secretary and Treasurer. The Co-chairs of the Green Party of the United States are currently (2010 May): Claudia Ellquist (AZ), Sanda Everette (CA), Mike Feinstein (CA), Farheen Hakeem (MN), Jason Nabewaniec (NY), David Strand (MN), and Craig Thorsen (CA). They are elected from the delegates, who serve on the Green National Committee. The Secretary is Holly Hart (IA). The Treasurer is Jody Grage (WA).

Standing committees

The GNC has several standing committees:^[8]

Caucuses

Three identity caucuses have achieved representation on the GNC:

• Black Caucus - Acting Co-Chairs: Alfred Molison, Martina Robinson
• Lavender Greens [3] (LGBTIQ)- Chair: Jason Jones
• Women's Caucus - Co-Chairs: Nan Garrett, Sylvia Inwood

Three other caucuses are working toward formal recognition by the GNC:

• Disability Caucus
• Latino Caucus
• Youth Caucus

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

State Parties

bl - achieved 2008 ballot line
na - not yet affiliated with the national, Green Party US ^[9]
ci - currently inactive

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.^[13] Californians have elected 55 of the 226 office-holding Greens nationwide as of June 2007. Other states with high numbers of Green elected officials include Pennsylvania (31), Wisconsin (23), Massachusetts (18), and Maine (17). Maine has the highest per capita number of Green elected officials in the country, and the largest Green registration percentage with more than 29,273 greens comprising 2.95% of the electorate as of November 2006.^[14] Madison, Wisconsin, is the city with the most Green elected officials (8) followed by Portland, Maine, with (7).

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

Office holders

As of December 14, 2008, the Green Party had at least 193 party members in elected office in the United States.^[15] By comparison, there were 207 elected Libertarians serving in office across the United States at that time.^[16] In April 2007, the Greens reached the most officeholders serving at one time ever when there were 230 greens in office.^[17] With the November 2008 election of Richard Carroll as State Rep. District 39 (Little Rock) the Green Party gained its first ever state Rep. in Arkansas and the only currently elected state representative of any nationally organized Third Party. Gayle McLaughlin, is mayor of Richmond, California. With a population of 103,000, Richmond is the largest city in the United States to have a Green Party mayor.^[18] There are also Green Party members on city councils (or equivalent) in San Francisco, Boston, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Madison (5 Members), and New Haven.^[19]

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
• 2008: Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente 161,603 votes ^[20]

List of national conventions/meetings

• 1996 – Los Angeles, CA
• 2000 – Denver, CO
• 2001 – Santa Barbara, CA
• 2002 – Philadelphia, PA
• 2003 – Washington, DC
• 2004 – Milwaukee, WI
• 2005 – Tulsa, OK
• 2006 – Tucson, AZ
• 2007 – Reading, PA
• 2008 – Chicago, IL
• 2009 – Durham, NC
• 2010 – Detroit, MI

See also

• Greens/Green Party USA
• Worldwide green parties
• List of political parties in the United States
• California Green Archives
• Peter Camejo
• Mike Feinstein
• Matt Gonzalez
• Daniel Hamburg
• Howie Hawkins
• Joel Kovel
• David McReynolds
• Gayle McLaughlin
• Brent McMillan
• Ross Mirkarimi
• Malik Rahim
• Kent Warner Smith
• Dona Spring
• Charlene Spretnak
• Jello Biafra

References

External links

• Green Party of the United States (GPUS)
• Green Party Ballot Status and Voter Registration Totals
• Green Senatorial Campaign Committee (GSCC)
• National Lavender Greens Caucus (GLBTIQ)
• National Women's Caucus (NWC)
• Disability Caucus Identity Caucus of the United States Green Party
• California Green Archives
• 2004 Green Party Platform pdf
• The Real Difference - comparison of Green Party positions with other Parties

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