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News :: Elections & Legislation |
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Green Party's National Strategy 'Realistic' or 'Laughable'? |
Current rating: 0 |
by Joshua L. Weinstein
(No verified email address) |
04 Jul 2004
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Blair Bobier, the spokesman for the Cobb-LaMarche campaign, said that "we want to register as many Green voters as possible and we want to get as many people motivated to run for local office and then help them, support them, by showing up in their states and campaigning with them. |
Theresa Savage said it with a straight face, as if she believed it.
"I'd like to introduce," she said to a small group of reporters and Green Independent Party members at the State House last week, "the next vice president of the United States, Pat LaMarche."
But Savage, a Green Independent candidate for the Maine House of Representatives, acknowledged that she might not vote for her own party's top ticket. And so did LaMarche.
In fact, although it is fielding LaMarche for vice president and Texas lawyer David Cobb for president, the Green Party's goal this year is not really to win the White House. Rather it is to evict the current occupant, Republican President George W. Bush, and to strengthen local Green Party organizations across the country.
It is a strategy that LaMarche, a 43-year-old former radio personality who lives in Yarmouth and was the party's candidate for governor of Maine in 1998, says is reasonable and pragmatic. She admits the party has no chance of taking the Oval Office but believes it can win local and state seats. Her plan is to help it do that while raising issues that are important to the Green Party and calling as much attention as possible to what she believes are the president's shortcomings.
LaMarche and Cobb are pursuing what they call a "safe state" strategy designed to keep out of the way of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, whom they believe more palatable than Bush.
Some Greens, however, say it's not a strategy so much as it is a sellout.
"It's not only no way to build a party, it's part of a strategy to weaken, defang, suppress, demoralize and basically render marginal the Green Party," said Lorna Salzman, a New York Green who unsuccessfully ran for the party's nomination for president during the convention in Milwaukee last month.
"That's what it is, and that's what these people have agreed on. They've agreed that this party will be an appendage of the Democrats. Or at least not a threat to the Democrats."
She said if a party runs candidates for president and vice president, it should be serious about winning the seats. She noted that Ralph Nader, who was the party's nominee in 2000 and is running as an independent this year, is campaigning to win even if he knows the odds are against him.
LaMarche, however, said the party is better served by a top slate that will help it gain access to ballots and help candidates for local offices win.
"We understand ballot access better than other Greens," LaMarche said. Not only that, but Maine is the only state with a Green legislator - Rep. John Eder, of Portland.
LaMarche said she'll use the bully pulpit of a vice presidential candidate to energize local party members and use the expertise she gained working in Maine to boost the Green Party nationally.
Blair Bobier, the spokesman for the Cobb-LaMarche campaign, said that "we want to register as many Green voters as possible and we want to get as many people motivated to run for local office and then help them, support them, by showing up in their states and campaigning with them. . . . Maine is one of the best Green parties in the country, unquestionably."
Richard Winger, who edits Ballot Access News, said LaMarche and the party have an enormous amount of work to do.
"They've been going very slowly with their petitioning efforts for the last year," he said. "They're doing a bad job."
He explained that the party in Nebraska has been circulating a petition to gain ballot access for more than a year.
"The requirements are 4,810 signatures and they're still not done," he said. "It's due Aug. 1."
He said state Green parties have not been diligent in getting their candidates on ballots.
"Maybe they'll go a little faster now that they have got a presidential candidate," he said.
Ted Glick, a Cobb-LaMarche supporter who also runs Independent Progressive Politics Network, said the way he sees it, "there's no question the Green Party is not going to win this year. That's totally impossible. It's just not going to happen. We think it's important not to be dishonest and we understand that that is not in the cards, but there are other ways to define victory than gaining occupancy in the White House, and growth for this party, this very important party, concrete growth, new members, new locals, ballot status, local candidates winning, local candidates being elected to office, those are all victories."
True, that, said Cal Jillson, an expert in third parties and a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.
"They're being very realistic in saying, 'One of our party-building mechanisms is to bring attention to ourselves,' " he said. "The best way to do that is be in the mix of a presidential election, but we're not fools. We don't think we're going to win this thing."
He said Green Party goals are more likely attainable at the local level anyway, and that the party is wise to "work like the devil to build a Green Party at the local level, the county level, the state level, which is their natural level of political relevance."
Larry Sabato, who directs the University of Virginia Center for Politics, doesn't see it that way at all.
"The Green Party committed suicide in nominating David Cobb," he said. "It's not that he's a bad fellow, it's that even though they're on the ballot, at most that ticket will get a fraction of 1 percent of the vote. It's very clear that the only independent or third-party candidate who matters this year is Ralph Nader - and we don't know how much he matters yet."
He said LaMarche's idea of helping beat Bush by adding to the chorus of voices against him is likely to backfire. "First of all, it's laughable," he said. "She's not going to be in the debates. Of that I can assure her. She's not going to be there. And as far as having another voice against Bush, doesn't that divide the anti-Bush coalition?"
Sabato said that if Cobb and LaMarche want Kerry elected, they should be working for Kerry.
Kevin Zeese, a Green Party member who is spokesman for the Nader campaign, said he expects more Greens will vote for the 2000 standard-bearer than for Cobb, and that a Greens for Nader organization is in the works.
He said he thinks the party's strategy is wrong.
"You don't grow a strong party by being a front for another party," he said. "It's a really interesting test of two different strategies. We'll know Nov. 3 which strategy made more sense."
WHERE ARE THE GREENS?
THE GREEN PARTY'S presidential and vice presidential candidates are on the ballot in 22 states and the District of Columbia. They believe they can gain ballot access in as many as 44 states by November.
IN MAINE, where the Green Independent Party is recognized by the state and has ballot access, more than 2 percent of registered voters are members of the Greens. About a third of Maine voters are Democrats and about a third are Republicans.
THE GREEN PARTY of the United States was formed in 2001.
The Green Party's presidential and vice presidential candidates are on the ballot in 22 states and the District of Columbia. They believe they can gain ballot access in as many as 44 states by November.
In Maine, where the Green Independent Party is recognized by the state and has ballot access, more than 2 percent of registered voters are members of the Green Independent Party. About a third of Maine voters are Democrats and about a third are Republicans.
The Green Party of the United States was formed in 2001.
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