Green Party (United States)

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. The FEC-recognized national committee of the party is the Green Party of the United States (although there remains also a mostly-defunct separate Green national political organization, the Greens/Green Party USA).

2004 national ticket

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

Related Topics:
2004 presidential election - President - David Cobb - Texas - Pat LaMarche - Maine

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In 2004, 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. Mr. Nader's position was confusing to many Greens, because Nader's campaign also said that Nader was seeking to gain the Party's "endorsement," but Nader had also stated he would not accept the party's nomination. One point that made this situation especially confusing was that an "endorsement," unlike "nomination," does not have the kind of legal significance resulting in ballot access. After David Cobb received the Party's 2004 presidential nomination at the Green National Convention in Milwaukee, Nader's Vice Presidential running mate, Peter Camejo, said, "I'm going to walk out of here arm in arm with David Cobb."

Related Topics:
Ralph Nader - Ballot access - Milwaukee - Vice Presidential - Peter Camejo

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The Cobb-LaMarche ticket in 2004 appeared on 28 of the 51 ballots around the country; 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 in 2004 used aggressive tactics to remove Nader and Cobb's names from several state ballots. The Cobb-LaMarche campaign also endorsed the NOTA (None of the Above campaign) in Oklahoma, as a means of protesting the exclusion of all third party candidates for President on the state's ballot in 2004.

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Although some Green Party members were upset and some expressed "embarrassment" that Nader was not the party's 2004 candidate, others believed that a serious presidential campaign could be waged with a "home-grown" figure such as Cobb. Still other Greens pointed out that the presidential contest should not be the focus of a grassroots party that emphasizes organizing at the local level. According to this view, the party would benefit in the long run by concentrating on building the party at the local level, instead of focusing energy on the rough-and-tumble race for the presidency. Many Greens further argued that Ralph Nader's decision not to seek the Green nomination in 2004 might help the Green Party overcome a widespread mistaken perception that the party was based on a "cult of personality" with Ralph Nader as its central figure.

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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. They pointed out that the numbers were not alarming 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.

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