Though they are far below the radars of the many Americans focused on the Democratic primaries, Green Party presidential candidates are traveling the country, trying to develop a cohesive message and a productive strategy for the 2004 election.
They champion environmental causes, lament a loss of democracy and say they want to overthrow corporate CEOs. They warn about the long-term effects of global warming, point out a disintegration of civil liberties and criticize the county’s lack of affordable health care. They insist they were not “spoilers” in the 2000 presidential election and plan how to grow the party’s infrastructure and make sure President George W. Bush is removed from office in 2004.
Three of the party’s presidential candidates – former national Green Party General Counsel David Cobb, New York Greens co-founder Lorna Salzman and California Green Party activist Kent Mesplay – met at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government last week to debate national issues and increase their profiles in a state known for its growing Green network.
While many of their opinions on policy issues were similar, the candidates could not reach consensus on one issue – how to tackle the accusation that a vote for a Green is a vote for Bush. Cobb, whose campaign appears to have gathered the most recognition thus far (he won the Washington, D.C. Green primary, a national primary held in Ohio and the Green Iowa caucuses), advocates a state-by-state plan.
“I want to focus my time on states like Massachusetts, New York, California – where the electoral college votes are already done,” he said. In a phone interview Monday, Texas-native Cobb said there are about 35 such states, where a vote for a Green candidate would not affect the ultimate vote totals.
In other states, where electoral college votes are not a “forgone conclusion,” Cobb said he would focus more resources on local and state races as part of “building a long-term movement.”
However, Salzman, whose campaign is run primarily from Brooklyn, N.Y. and who warns of “unprecedented social chaos” if the nation does not tackle global warming within the next 30 years, said he does not support a toned-down approach.
“We want to run a full campaign in all states,” she said of herself and the other Green candidates (there are three others besides Mesplay, according to the party’s national convention website). Salzman rejected the idea that Green Party candidates pose a threat to Democrats, saying it represents “panic in the Democratic Party, which has been an abject failure.”
But Salzman said the goal of her candidacy is to reach out to environmentalists who she said have been marginalized by the Green Party’s focus on social justice. Global warming, she said, is as big a problem as terrorism, and one that needs to be addressed by reforming the country’s energy policies, public transportation system and public health focus.
Like Salzman’s, Mesplay’s campaign has one central goal. At the candidate forum, the California native stressed his Blackfoot Indian roots to illustrate his commitment to minorities. But he is primarily a “protest candidate,” Mesplay said, focused on highlighting a “disenfranchised democracy.”
STEIN CONSIDERS RACE FOR HOUSE SEAT
Massachusetts’ Green Party might get a big victory next November if Jill Stein, who fared surprisingly well in 2002’s gubernatorial race by winning three percent of the vote against Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Shannon O’Brien, wins a seat in the state Legislature.
Though the doctor and Green Party member has yet to officially declare her candidacy for state representative in the district that encompasses Lexington and Waltham, the Friends of Jill Stein committee raised more than $7,000 last year, according to the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
Stein, reached at her home Monday morning, said she was seriously considering a bid after hearing from district residents who are concerned with “problems we can do a better job of fixing.”
“I continue to be concerned as a medical doctor, mother and citizen of the commonwealth about the issues ordinary people are facing,” she said, specifically mentioning lack of affordable health care, the environment and the economy.
If elected, Stein will be the first Green Party candidate ever chosen for the state Legislature. She would face Rep. Thomas Stanley, a Democrat who lost a bid for Waltham mayor last year.
State Green-Rainbow Party co-chair Grace Ross said she is enthusiastic about the possibility of a Stein candidacy because she provided a “progressive alternative to what’s going on at the policy level in this state.”
Stein said the state’s Democrats are increasingly less progressive, and she added that her biggest challenge if elected would be to “move real reform” in a legislature where politicians are sometimes “marginalized for doing the right thing.”