Green Party (United States)

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logo
Chairperson 7 co-chairs

Chris Blankenhorn, Darlene Elias, Darryl Moch, Gloria Mattera, Andrea Mérida, George Martin, Michael Dennis

founding 2001
Party seat PO Box 75075,

Washington, DC 20013

International connections Global Greens
ideology Green politics , environmental politics, decentralization, eco-socialism
colour green
Website gp.org

(As of March 2019)

The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is the Green Party in the United States of America . It emerged in 2001 from the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP), which was founded in 1996. After it was founded, the GPUS became the most important green organization in the USA. The party was best known for Ralph Nader's candidacy for the 2000 presidential election , when he received 2.7% of the vote.

Structures

The Greens are among the so-called third parties . In addition to the two major parties ( Democrats and Republicans ), these more or less nationally important parties also include the Constitution Party , the Libertarian Party and the Reform Party .

There are two Green Party organizations in the United States: First, the Green Party of the United States (often abbreviated GPUS), which is officially recognized by the Party Committee of the Federal Election Commission. Second, the much smaller Greens / Green Party USA (usually abbreviated as G / GPUSA). Both organizations share common values ​​and origins, but their structures and political platforms are different.

In contrast to most other green parties around the world, representatives of the Green Party of the United States have achieved successes almost exclusively in local elections . Most of the candidates have achieved positions as independent candidates. The "senior" Green incumbent was John Eder from 2002 to 2006. He was a member of the Maine State Parliament .

The party has 335,000 registered members. The Greens advocate decentralization and more local autonomy, which is in line with their self-image as a grassroots party with flat hierarchies .

Ten basic principles

The party's 10 “Key Values” include and extend the “4 Pillars of the Green Party”: peace, ecology, social justice and democracy. These four pillars have their origins in Europe and are accepted by green parties around the world.

  1. Grassroots democracy
  2. Social justice and equal opportunities
  3. Ecological foresight
  4. Nonviolence
  5. Decentralization
  6. Economic justice ("Community-Based Economics")
  7. Feminism and Gender Equality
  8. Respect for diversity
  9. Personal and global accountability
  10. Future orientation and sustainability

The Global Greens Charter , which was signed by most of the green parties in Australia in 2001 , is again based on the 10 “Key Values” and the “4 Pillars”, but has been shortened to 6 principles.

history

Until 1999

Ralph Nader

At a meeting of various green organizations in Albuquerque , New Mexico in 1995, the proposal was accepted to run a candidate in 40 states . They persuaded Ralph Nader to run for the Greens in the California primaries . He also considered running in primaries in other states, but was only able to run a limited campaign with his $ 5,000 budget. He chose Winona LaDuke as his vice presidential candidate. Both were on the ballot paper in 21 countries and received 685,128 votes (0.7%).

In the aftermath of the 1996 election, representatives from 13 state green parties formed the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP) . Although the ASGP focused on thematic activities, it began to focus more on the candidacy of Greens for office. From 1997 to 1999, more and more local and state green parties and groups were formed. Many of them joined the ASGP or the Greens / Green Party USA (G / GPUSA).

With the Californian Audie Bock , a Green was elected for the first time in a state parliament in 1999, but she resigned from the Green Party and later switched to the Democrats.

2000 presidential election and split

In 2000 the Greens again nominated Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke as candidates for president and vice- president respectively . This time they were on the ballot paper in 44 states and received 2,882,897 votes (2.7%). Nader and the Green Party was supported by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore .

During the 2000 election campaign, an agreement was reached with the G / GPUSA to coordinate the party structures so that the ASGP should concentrate more on electoral politics, while the G / GPUSA should concentrate on thematic activities. The so-called "Boston proposal" was accepted by the members of the ASGP at the next party congress, while it did not find a majority at the G / GPUSA party congress in April 2001 . There the vote even led to the split in the party, with several prominent members resigning and later forming The Green Alliance . The ASGP then changed its name to the current form "Green Party of the United States" and took over the majority of the remaining former G / GPUSA members. She was then given the status of the official "National Committee of the Green Party" by the Federal Election Committee . The G / GPUSA, led by some opponents of the "Boston Proposal", no longer exists as a party, but as a national non-profit organization.

In 2002 John Eder was elected to the Maine House of Representatives. Eder's party name on the ballot paper was "Green Independent" because he was a member of the Maine Green Independent Party. In 2004 Eder was re-elected, although a reallocation of the electoral districts threatened his re-election.

2004 presidential elections

In the spring of 2003, ahead of the 2004 elections, a heated debate began over the party's strategy for the presidential election. Democrats, liberal activists and journalists advised and tried to convince the party not to support Ralph Nader again as a candidate in order to gather the liberal electorate as closely as possible behind the Democratic candidate and not to split it up among several candidates.

In response, the party's vice-chairman Ben Manski published the statement "Green & Growing: 2004 in Perspective" with the support of a broad national cross-section of Greens. The 158 signatories said, “We believe it is imperative to have a vigorous presidential campaign.” The main reason they cited was the need to gain access to the votes and confidence of the Green Party in order to define the Green Party as an independent party to be able to criticize the mistakes of the Democratic Party in their politics.

Other prominent Greens, including Ted Glick and his “A Green Party Safe States Strategy”, appealed to the party to pursue a strategy of avoiding the “swing states”. That would mean concentrating your own campaign on states in which one of the two major parties had a relatively safe lead in the voter polls, ie on the so-called "safe states". Democrats or Republicans would therefore target their campaigns on the so-called "swing states", i. H. unsafe states, focus.

On December 24, 2003, Ralph Nader declared that he would not try to run as a candidate for the Green Party. In February 2004, however, he announced his intention to run for president and to gain support (instead of a nomination) from the Greens and other so-called third parties for his presidential candidacy. Several Greens, including Peter Camejo and Lorna Salzmann, supported this project, Camejo later accepted the position of running for Nader's vice-president (but this did not lead to a break with the party).

At the “Green National Convention” on June 26th, David Cobb was nominated against a not insignificant minority who did not want their own candidate in favor of supporting Nader's candidacy. Cobb promised to focus on building the party. At his side, Pat LaMarche was elected as a vice-presidential candidate. Cobb and Nader had different strategies: While Cobb wanted to concentrate on the "safe states" in order to avoid a Bush victory as much as possible, Nader tried to compete in all states.

The election results were significantly worse than in 2000, when Nader ran for the Greens and received 2,882,000 votes. In 2004, Nader (as an independent candidate, but with the Green Peter Camejo as the runner-up) received 465,650 votes while the duo Cobb / LaMarche received 119,859 votes. Cobb-LaMarche was on the ballot papers in 28 of the 51 states, Nader-Camejo in 35 states. But many Greens were not disappointed with the poor election result because the Green Party had grown considerably through the election campaign in large parts of the country, both in terms of the number of “affiliates” (i.e. the independent Green parties in the individual states) and the number of candidates for Congress , state parliaments and local office.

Two supporters of Camejo, Carol Miller and Forest Hill, wrote several articles after the convention , including Rigged Convention, Divided Party , in which they described the election as undemocratic. Other Greens responded that the analysis of the two in the articles contained fundamental errors that produced biased results. One such response was that of Greg Gerrit, the party's general secretary, who published the book Green Party Tempest .

Since 2006

A success of the Green Parties in 2006 was the election of Gayle McLaughlin as Mayor of Richmond , California.

In the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, Jill Stein ran as the Green candidate, receiving 0.4% (2012) and 1.1% (2016) of the vote.

In 2016, Mark Salazar set a new record for a Green candidate in the congressional elections . In the 8th Congressional constituency of Arizona he received 31.4% of the vote against incumbent Trent Franks the Republican.

structure

The head of the party is formed by a seven-person body, the so-called "National Co-Chair" (comparable to the party council of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ). Together with the secretary and the treasurer of the party council is the "Steering Committee" ( steering committee ). They were elected by the delegates. These in turn represent the affiliated member (federal) states of the “Green National Committee”.

Geographical Distribution and Achievements

The party has its most numerical supporters on the Pacific coast , the Great Lakes area and in the northeast of the United States , according to an overview of the elected Greens in an office. In 2004, for example, of the 204 Green MPs elected nationwide, 67 were from California, but they were all on the ballot papers as independent candidates. Wisconsin had the highest per capita number of Green MPs that year at 19.

  • In 2000, Ralph Nader received 405,722 votes in his candidacy for the Greens in California (a total of 2,882,000).
  • In the 2002 California gubernatorial elections, the Green candidate Peter Camejo got more votes than the Republican candidate in San Francisco .
  • The Green Matt Gonzales, who was President of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco, was narrowly defeated in the 2003 mayoral election (although such offices are filled with officially independent candidates).
  • Jason West, Mayor of New Paltz, New York, achieved national fame in 2004 when he entered into 25 consecutive same-sex marriages.
  • John Eder, in Maine Parliament from 2002 to 2006, was the highest Green MP in the United States.
  • The Alaska Green Party has the highest per capita number of Greens. It received 10% of the vote in the 2000 presidential election.
  • The largest city in the United States with a Green Mayor is Richmond, California . Gayle McLaughlin was elected there in 2006 and 2009.
  • Richard Carroll was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 2008 but has been registered with the Democratic Party since April 29, 2009.
  • Rebekah Kennedy achieved 20.6% of the vote in the 2008 election to the US Senate in Arkansas.

One problem that the Greens (as well as other third and small parties ) face is the tightening of the rules for being on the ballot papers . This has so far prevented the formation of a significant number of supporters or members in many states.

List of presidential candidates

List of party conventions (National Convention / Congress)

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting - Proposal Details. In: gp.org. Retrieved July 19, 2016 .
  2. ^ Ten Key Values. Accessed March 28, 2019 .
  3. ↑ The Four Pillars. Accessed March 28, 2019 .
  4. ↑ 1996 POPULAR VOTE SUMMARY FOR ALL CANDIDATES LISTED ON AT LEAST ONE STATE BALLOT
  5. ↑ 2000 OFFICIAL PRESIDENTIAL GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS
  6. ↑ Green & Growing: 2004 in Perspective
  7. ^ A Green Party "Safe States" Strategy ( Memento from June 29, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Carol Miller, Forrest Hill: How David Cobb Became the Green Nominee Even Though He Only Got 12 Percent of the Votes. August 7, 2004, accessed March 28, 2019 .
  9. ^ Greg Gerritt: Green Party Tempest - Weathering the Storm of 2004 . 2005 (English, full version [PDF; 634 kB ]).
  10. ↑ All Candidates for Office Year: 2013
  11. ↑ 2016 Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention - August 4–7, 2016