A vision for the new year from Ohio's Logan Martinez

National Priority Proposal for the 2006 Election

2006 will be a crucial year for the party and the country. We need to focus our energy by mobilizing our people and organizing our resources to make a major impact. The goal of Ohio's proposal is to make 2006 the best year ever for the Green Party. It will take the state parties, the CCC, and the NC working together to make it happen. The proposal is a suggested national election strategy, leaving it to individual states to decide how they might implement it and allowing a great deal of room for innovation.

The Green Party encourages states to put together a slate of candidates, to the best of their ability, to achieve their strategic goals. A state slate might include a variety of offices. 48 states will have statewide offices, state senate and state representative elections in 2006.* The priority for 2006 will be to encourage states to run candidates in these races to build a block of Green voters across the country and to win seats. Early recruitment of candidates is important in making this happen. (In some states filing dates are fast approaching.) We suggest that states consider running candidates for their state House of Representatives, the first rung of state government, the People's Houses. This will be an effective way to challenge the system. In most states, representative districts are relatively small in size and lend themselves to grassroots, door to door neighborhood outreach. The Green Party has won two state representative seats thus far, in California and Maine. We can win in several more states if we make the effort.

Building a Green Wave for 2006 - The Coordinated Campaign Committee and the Steering Committee will develop a comprehensive mobilization plan to recruit and use volunteers to support our candidates. Our potential for 'people power' has, for the most part, been under utilized and we need to organize ourselves and our supporters to maximize our impact to win races.

(Seeking ballot access is mutually compatible with this effort. We suggest that the Ballot Access Committee and the states working on ballot access for next year devise a working plan for moving forward. Where it's applicable we need to organize regional mobilization to support states working for ballot access. Expanding the number of states that have ballot access is a national priority. )

We ask the Coordinated Campaign Committee [CCC] and the Steering Committee to research and report on the feasibility of establishing two pledge funds to support Green Party candidates. We propose that the first help Green congressional candidates and the other statewide, state representative, state senate and local candidates. Raising money is essential to successful campaigns. We can to do much better. (By setting up a pledge fund we believe we can, for the most part, bypass the legal hurdles.) We should investigate all possible avenues to increase national fundraising efforts to support candidates and the party. If we are going to make 2006 a breakout year, we must all work hard to build internal and external unity to make it happen. Ohio's proposal calls on the sc and ccc to develop proposals for mobilizing volunteers and for fundraising. But those will be future proposals and will be voted on separately.

We need to focus (but not exclusively) on doable races, city, town, and village councils and state representative seats. These races are potentially winnable and are the building blocks for the future. With a major effort we could win several state representative races which would go a long way to build the party. To be competitive next year, we need to begin mobilizing now.

Build the Green Wedge! Run with the Greens! Run as a Green!
In Solidarity, Logan Martinez Dayton OH / 937-275-7259 /

* Virginia and New Jersey both had governor, state senate and state representative races this year. Next year both states hope have greens running for congressional and other key races.

Down for the count.

Mayoral candidate Freman Hendrix has announced he will drop his recount effort if no voting irregularities are found in the next few days. With 1/3 of the 720 city precincts recounted, no significant changes to the voting totals have been discovered. Hendrix did call for changes to our voting process, particularly around absentee ballots.

The future beckons

While all the media runs their look back at 2005 (Free Press here and Detroit News here) I prefer a future focus, one of the Green Party's Ten Key Values, this time of year. As the new year approaches here is something I won't be looking forward to, the opening of the hazardous waste site near I-94. The plant will treat up to 400,000 gallons of corrosive acids, heavy metals and other toxic chemicals, to be injected into 4500 feet deep wells. Right here in the middle of 20 percent of the worlds fresh water supply, the Great Lakes. Whoever came up with and authorized this travesty didn't look beyond the money to be made.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukka and Happy New Year!

Well, this years holiday break started early and is likely to last a while. If you're looking for something to keep you occupied in the meantime, check out the blogs listed in the Green Bloggers Blogroll, particularly Greeg Jocoy's Green News and Opinion and Steve Herrick's Chlorophyll.

Enjoy the holidays and stay safe.

Water water everywhere but not a penny to keep it clean.

Both the news and the Free Press have article on the release and signing of the Great Lakes Annex 2001. While they both point out the limiting of large-scale diversions in the pact they miss the death by a thousand cut provisions that allow for any number of smaller-scale diversions such as the Nestle Ice Mountain facility in Mecosta county.

While the MCWC suit against Nestle winds its way through the courts, an injunction limits their takings to 200 gallons a minute, half their 400 g/m capacity. They, of course, just open up a second facility.

It will come as no surprise when someone brings up the idea of selling the water in order to pay for the plan. Make sense, right?

Wrong!

Stop the privatization of water!

Money for Water, not for War!

A smoking gun in Detroit's election disaster?

The Free Press reports that a handful of Detroit write-in ballots are being questioned in the Mayoral recount. The ballots appeared to be filled out by the same hand and will be investigated further on Thursday. The article mentions 8 or 15 ballots from a single precinct but Hendrix's lawyer says that as many as 8 precincts have ballots with similar irregularities. And only 100 of the 720 precints have been recounted. More news to follow I'm sure.

Elaine Brown being Counter-Sued

[This was posted as a comment on a older entry so I've brought it to the top]

Friends of Brunswick
PO Box 1776
Brunswick, GA 31521

December 10, 2005

Elaine Brown being Counter-Sued

Elaine Brown, the former and only female leader of the Black Panther Party, wanted to be Mayor of Brunswick, Georgia. Before the election a challenge was filed to the candidacy of Elaine Brown. A hearing was held and evidence presented established that Elaine Brown DID NOT meet the legal requirements to run for Mayor.

Elaine Brown has since filed appeal after appeal and filed other lawsuits challenging the Nov 8 Election results citing many violations and other reasons she cites in her lawsuits.

Now, the first COUNTER-SUIT has been filed against Elaine Brown seeking damages and legal fees.

This is a copy of the news report from The Brunswick News, Friday, December 9, 2005 on Page 2-A

Mayoral election back in court
The Brunswick News
Brunswick, Georgia

The two Brunswick residents who successfully petitioned to get Elaine brown off the mayoral ballot in the Nov 8 city election are now counter-suing her.

Brown has challenged the Glynn County Board of Elections ruling that removed her from the ballot in both Superior Court and U.S. District Court.

In their lawsuit filed Wednesday, Howard Buie and Alice Norman seek restitution of their legal fees for defending themselves during Brown’s hearings.

A hearing on Brown’s lawsuit contesting the results of last month’s election and a request for a new election will be held Dec 19 in Glynn County Superior Court.

A hearing date has not been set for the counter-suit.

[ Green Party Press Releases on Elaine Brown can be found here and here. Additional info at http://www.elainebrown.org ]

Kilpatrick Get out The Vote effort key to win

In this article the Detroit News claims it was Mayor Kilpatrick's ability to bring out non-traditional voters that won him re-election. One political consultant describes it as 'quite odd, quite unusual.' Kinda like the articles suggestion that the fallout from election irregularities was due to some Detroit News breaking stories when all they were doing was covering City Council candidate Maureen Taylor's suit against City Clerk Jackie Currie. Credit where credit is due, I guess.

The story behind the recount

In this story on Hendrix's call for a recount of the recent Mayoral race we learn that candidate Freman is certain he won in his own back yard, Northwest Detroit. His poor showing in that area is what prompted his call for a recount. While many credit the hard work of the Kilpatrick campaign for their victory, this quote may say it all: "Many of the people he [Hendrix] used to know since the 1980s have either died or moved to the suburbs," Lansing pollster Ed Sarpolus concluded from census data. It appears that the Mayor's hip-hop supporters put him back in office.

Windsor Green Party starts blogging

Our green friends across the border have started blogging. With the recent controversy over the admittance of the green party to national debates, there's a lot of interesting info. Take a look and tell them Lou sent you.