Ecological Wisdom * Social Justice * Grassroots Democracy * Non-Violence
>> Green Party of Michigan <<
http://www.migreens.org
>>> ---------------- <<<
>>> News Release <<<
>>> ---------------- <<<
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
---------------------
August 12, 2004
For More Information Contact:
----------------------------
Marc Reichardt -- Chair/GPMI
chair@migreens.org
John Anthony La Pietra -- Elections Co-ordinator/GPMI
elections@migreens.org
>> Michigan Greens Offer Choices to Voters, Challenge to Duopoly <<
>> ============================================================= <<
> Mair, Nominated for Grand Traverse Clerk, 42nd GPMI Candidate <
> <
> Seagraves Charts Matching Views of Major-Party Opponents, <
> Pushes for a Spot in All 7th District Congressional Debates <
> <
> Reichardt on Ann Arbor Ballot Despite City's Grumblings <
> <
> Party Welcomes Approval of Petition to Restore Dove-Hunting Ban <
As the Democrats and Republicans wait for official certification
of their surviving candidates from the primaries, 42 candidates wait
to welcome them to the November 2 general-election ballot . . . the
2004 candidates of the Green Party of Michigan.
Greens are running for more offices than ever before in Michigan,
and at all levels of government -- from the Presidential ticket of
David Cobb and Pat LaMarche to half a dozen candidates for U.S. House
of Representatives, five for state House seats, four for the statewide
education boards, and a whopping 26 for county and local posts.
And they're running hard, offering a clear and distinct choice to
voters -- and a real challenge to two major parties which, all too
often, are so similar they hardly challenge each other at all.
For example, GPMI has repeatedly come out in favor of keeping
Michigan's ban on dove-hunting, and welcomes Wednesday's decision
by the State Board of Canvassers to approve petitions which could
block the hunt until it comes to a vote of the people in 2006.
Sometimes Greens are themselves challenged -- by inequities in the
election process. The Greens' 7th District Congressional candidate,
Jason Seagraves, has written primary winners Joe Schwarz and Sharon
Renier to congratulate them . . . and challenge them to call publicly
for his inclusion in all candidate forums and debates.
Marc Reichardt had to face down the challenge of a "bad law"
before Ann Arbor grudgingly allowed him his space on the ballot for
the 3rd Ward seat on that city's Council.
And Greens in general are challenged to campaign any which way
they can . . . using plywood signs in pick-up trucks, paper cranes
and empty water bottles and more, to make up in creativity, energy,
and integrity what they lack -- by choice -- in big bucks from
corporations and wealthy individuals.
"We wouldn't want to buy anyone's vote, even if we could," notes
GPMI elections co-ordinator John La Pietra. "We get our votes the
old-fashioned way -- we earn them . . . by campaigning as if people,
and issues, matter. They do."
Applying Green Values to Key Offices, Races
-------------------------------------------
The 42nd and final GPMI member to qualify for the ballot, Tom Mair
of Traverse City, was nominated by a caucus of Grand Traverse County
Greens the day before the primary to run for county clerk.
Mair joins Kalamazoo's James Wilber, Kathleen Blakley of Cement
City in Hillsdale County, and Michael C. Davis of Addison in Lenawee
County in running for clerk -- a good position to implement Greens'
key values of grassroots democracy and social justice.
For example, one theme of Wilber's campaign is educating voters
about their rights and the way election system works -- and how it
could work better with reforms like Instant Runoff Voting, which the
Ferndale City Council (and councilor Craig Covey, a GPMI member) has
just put on the November ballot for the voters to consider using in
future elections of mayor and council.
Seagraves is also positioned to make an issue of IRV, considering
that Schwarz was elected by less than 30% of Republicans voting. In
his open letter to Schwarz, he said: "Although I am thankful for
what your primary victory might mean to our district and our nation,
I am somewhat concerned by what it means for our democracy.
"I support a system of ranked-choice voting, known as Instant
Runoff Voting (IRV) -- which just so happens to be endorsed by your
friend, Senator John McCain. I think your primary victory with far
less than 50% of the vote helps demonstrate the need for McCain's
proposed voting reform."
In another letter inviting disgruntled Republicans to support
him, Seagraves observed: "When a voting system can produce a winning
candidate that is entirely unreflective of the majority's desires,
then that voting system can certainly not be called a democracy."
Another important office for Greens is drain commissioner --
a job intimately linked to protecting the natural environment.
Two Greens are running for drain commissioner -- one is incumbent
Joanne Bier Beemon in Charlevoix County, the other Genesee County's
Amber Carey.
Two more Greens will campaign to bring Green values to the post
of sheriff. One more is running for county prosecutor, nine for
county commissioner seats (in six different counties) . . . and
then there's Art Myatt, the one sure opponent for current Oakland
County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. (The results of a belated
Democratic write-in campaign to qualify for the November ballot
are still pending.)
And Mair has another local Green for company on Grand Traverse
County ballots. Jason Glover is running in the county's non-partisan
race for seats on the Board of Trustees of Northwest Michigan College.
In fact, though some Greens are running for major elected offices,
more are acting locally on their global thinking. Six Greens running
for Congress are matched by three candidates for township boards and
three for city councils or commissions -- Reichardt in Ann Arbor,
Keith Agdanowski in neighboring Ypsilanti, and Jim Moreno seeking re-
election to the Mount Pleasant City Commission.
Principled Stands Inform Green Answers to Ballot Questions
----------------------------------------------------------
Greens are a social-change movement as well as a political party,
so it is not surprising that GPMI has taken strong stands on many of
the major issues aimed at the ballot this year. Michigan Greens'
belief in the value of diversity has led them to support affirmative
action and the rights of same-sex couples to marry, and to oppose
ballot initiatives threatening these measures of social justice.
Seagraves has stated that banning same-sex marriage discriminates
against the beliefs of his Unitarian Universalist Church. And Wilber
has promised that, if elected county clerk, he would use the clerk's
power to issue marriage licenses for all consenting adult couples.
Greens also value non-violence -- and that is the core of GPMI's
opposition to ending Michigan's century-old ban on hunting doves . . .
the traditional bird of peace, recognized by the state House in 1998.
When she was running for governor, Jennifer Granholm promised to
veto dove-hunting bills. But, with voters continuing to favor the ban
2 to 1, Granholm's Green opponent in 2002, Douglas Campbell, suspects
there must be more behind her signing of this year's HB5029 than just
another broken promise.
Campbell speculates that Granholm is offering dove-hunting as a
diversion -- to "make you forget that 3,200 public school employees
were terminated last month and $25 million of your state tax dollars
were given to General Motors to help them 'consolidate operations' --
that is, eliminate jobs."
For his part, La Pietra is staying focused on getting the Green
message out. "Once people see there's a party out here that stands
on its principles -- and once they see that those principles are,
as David Cobb called them, 'the better instincts of our country' --
they'll start believing they have a real choice . . . and they'll
start making that choice, and facing up to the challenge of using
that power."
[---------------------------------------------------]
For more information on the petition drive to block dove-hunting
in Michigan and put the issue on the 2006 ballot, please visit the
Web site of the Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban:
http://www.stopshootingdoves.org
GPMI is listed on the site as a founding member of the Committee, and
an endorser of the petition.
GPMI has also voted to become a member of the Coalition for a
Fair Michigan, the group co-ordinating opposition to the proposed
Constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage. Their Web site
is at:
http://www.coalitionforafairmichigan.org
A full list of GPMI candidates in the Tuesday, November 2, 2004
general election ballot is shown below. For more information on GPMI,
its platform, past public statements on dove-hunting and same-sex
marriage and many others, and how you can get in contact with Green
candidates and locals in your area to help offer Michigan voters a
choice and a voice independent of the "Big Two" parties, please visit
our Web site:
http://www.migreens.org
# # #
Green Party of Michigan * 548 S. Main Street *
* Ann Arbor, MI 48104 * 734-663-3555
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Green Party of Michigan was formed in 1987 to address environmental
issues in Michigan politics. Greens are organized in all 50 states and
the District of Columbia. Each state Green Party sets its own goals
and creates its own structure, but US Greens agree on Ten Key Values:
Ecological Wisdom * Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice * Nonviolence
Community Economics * Decentralization
Feminism * Respect for Diversity
Personal and Global * Future Focus/
Responsibility Sustainability
created/distributed using donated labor
=======================================================================
Green Party of Michigan
=======================
Candidates for 2004
SUMMARY BY OFFICE/LEVEL
=======================
President / Vice President 1 (joint candidacy)
US Representative in Congress 6
Statewide Education Boards 4
State Representative 5
County Offices 19 + 1* non-partisan (endorsed)
Local Offices 5 + 1 non-partisan (endorsed)
------------- --
total GPMI members running 40 + 2 = 42
as candidates in 2004
* The non-partisan county office is Northwest Michigan College trustee
(the college's district is entirely in Grand Traverse County).
SUMMARY BY SOURCE OF NOMINATION
===============================
state convention (5/22-23) 11 + 2 non-partisan (endorsed)
national convention (6/23-28) 1 (joint candidacy)
caucuses:
Kalamazoo County (7/ 1) 2
Oakland County (7/10) 2
Wayne County (7/10) 4
Bay County (7/11) 3
Kent County (7/14) 1
Tuscola County (7/17) 1
Genesee County (7/17) 3
Charlevoix County (7/20) 3
Washtenaw County (7/21) 4
Lenawee County (7/24) 2
Hillsdale County (7/24) 1
Jackson County (7/24) 1
Grand Traverse County (8/2) 1
----------------------------- --
total Green candidates 40 + 2 = 42
*******************************************************************
*************************** candidates **************************
*******************************************************************
President / Vice President (1 candidacy)
==========================
David Cobb / Patricia LaMarche
US Representative in Congress (6)
=============================
District 01 -- David Newland
District 05 -- Harley Mikkelson
District 06 -- Randall MacPhee
[NOTE: due to health considerations,
Randall MacPhee is no longer actively campaigning]
District 07 -- Jason Seagraves
District 13 -- Tom Lavigne
District 14 -- Lisa Weltman
Statewide Education-Board Offices (4)
=================================
State Board of Education -- Peter Ponzetti III
University of Michigan Board of Regents -- Nathaniel Damren
Michigan State University Board of Trustees -- Benjamin Burgis
Wayne State University Board of Governors -- Margaret Guttshall
State Representative (5)
====================
District 001 -- Andrea Lavigne [all in Wayne County]
District 006 -- Mike Madias [all in Wayne County]
District 056 -- Robert Kull [all in Monroe County]
District 076 -- Roger McClary [all in Kent County]
District 084 -- Rebekah Mikkelson [Huron & Tuscola Counties]
County Offices (19)
==============
Bay County Su 07/11/04
------------------------------------
County Commissioner/District 7 -- Tony Kozubal
County Commissioner/District 8 -- Lloyd Clarke
Charlevoix County Tu 07/20/04
------------------------------------
County Drain Commissioner -- Joanne Bier Beemon
County Prosecutor -- Ellis Boal
Genesee County Sa 07/17/04
------------------------------------
County Drain Commissioner -- Amber Carey
County Commissioner/District 04 -- Jonathan Shaver
County Commissioner/District 05 -- Ken Mathenia
Grand Traverse County M 08/02/04
------------------------------------
County Clerk -- Tom Mair
Hillsdale County Sa 07/24/04
------------------------------------
County Clerk -- Kathleen Blakley
Jackson County Sa 07/24/04
------------------------------------
County Commissioner/District 12 -- James L. Seagraves
Kalamazoo County Th 07/01/04
------------------------------------
County Clerk -- James Wilber
County Sheriff -- Stephanie Frizzell
Lenawee County Sa 07/24/04
------------------------------------
County Clerk -- Michael C. Davis
Oakland County Sa 07/10/04
------------------------------------
County Executive -- Art Myatt
County Commissioner/District 23 -- Hillard Williams
Tuscola County Sa 07/17/04
------------------------------------
County Sheriff -- A. S. Wright
Van Buren County [convention]
------------------------------------
County Commissioner/District 1 -- Jessie Olson
Washtenaw County W 07/21/04
------------------------------------
County Commissioner/District 06 -- Elliott Smith
County Commissioner/District 07 -- Donnelly Hadden
Local Offices (5)
=============
Bay County
----------
Township Trustee/Bangor Township -- Ed Mueller
Charlevoix County
-----------------
Township Trustee/Charlevoix Township -- Joseph King
Lenawee County
--------------
Township Trustee/Adrian Township -- Judy Seigneur
Washtenaw County
----------------
City Councilor/Ann Arbor/Ward 3 -- Marc Reichardt
City Councilor/Ypsilanti/Ward 3 -- Keith Agdanowski
Greens Endorsed as Candidates in Non-Partisan Races
===================================================
Jim Moreno
City Commissioner/Mount Pleasant -- At Large
santiago@power-net.net
Jason Glover
Northwest Michigan College Board of Trustees
[Grand Traverse County]
thirdeyetc@yahoo.com
** These two candidates endorsed at state convention.
Other Contacts:
Green Party of Michigan
548 S Main St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-663-3555
info@migreens.org
posted to web 13 Aug 2004, reposted 14 Aug