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).

History

Largely inspired by the success of the German Green Party, political activists in the United States formed the Committees of Correspondence in 1984, later to be known as the Green Committees of Correspondence (GCOC). The GCOC adopted the Ten Key Values as their philosophical basis, loosely based on the Four Pillars that most European Greens use. They organized themselves around bio-regional lines.

Related Topics:
German Green Party - 1984 - Ten Key Values - Four Pillars - Bio-regional

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The GCOC held national gatherings of Green activists in 1987, then annually starting in 1989. At the 1991 national gathering, the GCOC was disbanded, and a new structure was put into place, named the Greens/Green Party USA (G/GPUSA), which was organized with delegates from local and regional green groups, in addition to individual members.

Related Topics:
1987 - 1989 - 1991 - Greens/Green Party USA

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In 1986, the Wisconsin Greens elected two members, David Conley and Frank Koehn, to county boards in the north woods. In 1990, Jim Sykes ran as a Green for governor in Alaska. He received 3.3% of the vote, enough to grant official ballot status to the Green Party of Alaska. The California Green Party would follow, attaining official ballot status in 1991. From 1992 to 1995, the number of candidates in local and statewide elections identifying themselves as Greens grew, in addition to the number of organized local and state-wide Green groups. Hawaiian Greens, including the notable Keiko Bonk, have achieved repeated success in county-level elections.

Related Topics:
1986 - 1990 - Jim Sykes - Alaska - Green Party of Alaska - 1991 - 1992 - 1995 - Keiko Bonk

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At the 1995 national gathering of the GPUSA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a measure to run a candidate for president was defeated. However, those who wished to run a candidate for president continued to pursue this possibility. They selected Ralph Nader as their presidential candidate and 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. http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/summ.htm

Related Topics:
Albuquerque, New Mexico - Ralph Nader - Winona LaDuke

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

Related Topics:
1996 - 1997 - 1999

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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 http://fecweb1.fec.gov/pubrec/2000presgeresults.htm.

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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 G/GPUSA Congress in Carbondale, Illinois (although the rejection was controversial for a number of reasons, and lead to the exodus of a significant number of prominent G/GPUSA activists to the GPUS, who later formed The Green Alliance as a vehicle for "movement" politics within the Green Party). The ASGP then changed its name to the "Green Party of the United States," adopted some of the G/GPUSA's structures (identity caucuses, for example), and was granted status as the official National Committee of the Green Party by the FEC in 2001. Today the G/GPUSA survives as a small membership organization, led by the few Greens who opposed the Boston Proposal. Though for a time they represented themselves otherwise, today they describe themselves as "a national non-profit membership organization," not as a political party.

Related Topics:
October - Boston Proposal - Boston - G/GPUSA Congress - Carbondale, Illinois - The Green Alliance - Identity caucuses - FEC - 2001

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In 2002, John Eder's election to the Maine State 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 California, 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.

Related Topics:
2002 - John Eder - Maine - Audie Bock - Green Independent - Ralph Nader

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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 exerting a great deal of pressure on the Green Party, and on 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 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 streategy 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.

Related Topics:
Ben Manski - Ted Glick - Swing states - Dean Myerson - David Cobb

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On Christmas Eve, 2003, Ralph Nader declared that he would not seek the party's nomination for president in 2004. Six weeks later, in February, 2004, Nader announced his intention to run as independent, reiterating his decision not to seek the party's nomination. Two months later, Nader seemed to reverse course, stating that he would accept the "endorsement" rather than the "nomination" of the Green Party, as well as of 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).

Related Topics:
Christmas Eve - 2003 - 2004 - February - Peter Camejo - Lorna Salzman

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The most notable opposition came from lawyer and activist David Cobb, who promised to run a campaign focused on building the party. On June 26, Forward 2004! The Green National Convention nominated David Cobb on the second round of voting, with 408 delegates voting for Cobb, 308 voting for "No Nominee", and 51 delegates voting for other candidates or abstaining. The majority of "No Nominee" delegates supported endorsing Nader's indpendent candidacy, although some of them advocated not backing a presidential candidate at all. After nominating Cobb, the convention nominated Pat LaMarche of Maine for vice-president.

Related Topics:
David Cobb - June 26 - Pat LaMarche

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A vigorous debate continues within the Green Party regarding the place of the party in what many see as a dysfunctional electoral system.

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