Ecological Wisdom * Social Justice * Grassroots Democracy * Non-Violence
>> Green Party of Michigan <<
http://www.migreens.org
>>> ---------------- <<<
>>> News Release <<<
>>> ---------------- <<<
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
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November 8, 2004
For More Information Contact:
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John Anthony La Pietra -- Elections Co-ordinator/GPMI
elections@migreens.org
Michigan Greens Keep Growing -- Even in a "Rebuilding Year"
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Despite Fierce Top-Down Pressures to Abandon Alternative Parties,
Voters Continue to Show Interest -- Especially at the Local Level
Four Statewide Candidates Top Threshold, Keep Party on Ballot;
Myatt Gets 90,000 Green Votes for Oakland County Executive
Moreno Top Choice in Mount Pleasant, Re-Elected to City Commission;
Green-Endorsed Kestenbaum Upsets Incumbent to Win Washtenaw Clerk
Charlevoix Drain Commissioner Beemon Swamped by Business Lobby
After Her Lead Role in People's Campaign to Keep Wal-Mart Out
Party Welcomes Passage of Ferndale IRV Initiative, Restoration of
People's Control Over Detroit Schools with Defeat of Proposal E;
Disappointed by Vote for Discriminatory State Proposal 04-2
Despite being caught -- along with all the people of Michigan --
between the fires of the two sides of the duopoly in a battleground
state, Michigan Greens kept on growing in the 2004 elections . . .
especially at the county, city, and township levels.
One county-wide candidate, Art Myatt, got over 90,000 votes as
the only challenger to L. Brooks Patterson for the post of Oakland
County Executive. This was Greens' highest vote count in the state
in 2004, and second only to Susan Fawcett in 2002 as the highest ever
for someone running as a Green in Michigan.
Just behind Myatt in Green votes were the party's 2004 candidates
for the four statewide education boards -- Peter Ponzetti III for the
State Board of Education, Nathaniel Damren for U-M regent, Ben Burgis
for MSU trustee, and Margaret Guttshall for WSU governor.
These candidates received four to five times the 17,033 votes
needed to re-qualify the Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) for the 2006
ballot. Even with the extreme pressure suppressing vote counts for
David Cobb and Patricia LaMarche at the top of the ticket, statewide
Green candidates averaged more votes this year than in 2002.
Greens *not* running in the whole state picked up over 200,000
local votes across Michigan. And non-Greens endorsed by local groups
received another 100,000 -- 80,000 of them for newly-elected Washtenaw
County clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum.
One of the two Green incumbents up for re-election won. Jim
Moreno was the top vote-getter among five candidates for two seats
on the Mount Pleasant City Commission. Moreno, who won passage of
a resolution urging the state to provide health care for all as a
right guaranteed in the Michigan Constitution, will serve another
three-year term.
Charlevoix County drain commissioner Joanne Bier Beemon suffered
attacks by the Republican-dominated county commission and the land-
development lobby, and lost her bid for re-election. Beemon and her
running mates, prosecutor candidate Ellis Boal and Charlevoix Township
trustee candidate Joseph King, played leading roles in a popular
campaign to block Wal-Mart from coming into the township.
Greens were also active in other campaigns, welcoming passage of
a local issue in Ferndale to begin using Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)
for election of the city's mayor and council once compatible voting
systems are found -- and defeat of Detroit Proposal E, which would
have weakened the upcoming return of locally-elected control over
the city's public schools.
However, Greens had also taken a strong stand against statewide
Proposal 04-2, and were disappointed by the passage of the initiative
enshrining discrimination against same-sex marriage (and other forms
of personal partnership) in the Michigan Constitution.
Pretty Good for a "Rebuilding Year"
-----------------------------------
If GPMI elections co-ordinator John La Pietra can be excused
for offering one more sports metaphor about the 2004 election season,
he points out that 2004 could be seen as a "rebuilding year" for
Greens in the state and nationally.
"Our biggest-name player became a free agent this year, so it's
no surprise the Green 'team' wasn't expected to do as well. That
meant we had to work even harder to get noticed at all -- other than
as potential spoilers of someone else's championship run. And, of
course, in this game expectations and attention are a big part of
scoring . . . and winning."
For example, Myatt notes, expectations that an alternative-party
candidate couldn't win such a high-profile race as Oakland County
Executive may have helped limit media attention to his campaign, and
ultimately keep anywhere from 70,000 to 100,000 Kerry voters in the
county from voting for Myatt.
On the other hand, the results also show that over 87,000 Oakland
County voters who weren't such hard-core believers in Green principles
that they voted for either Cobb or 2000 Green nominee Ralph Nader
(570 + 2,768 = 3,338) voted for Myatt.
Led by Myatt, Green candidates below the statewide level won
almost ten times as many votes as in 2002 -- averaging roughly 5,000
votes each, as opposed to barely 1,100 in the previous election.
21 non-statewide candidates this year got more than that previous
average.
Statewide candidates won twice as many total votes in 2002 as in
2004 -- largely because there were more than twice as many of them.
The major state offices will be on the ballot again in 2006, as well
as one of Michigan's US Senate seats.
The barrage of TV and radio ads, mailers, automated phone calls,
and other pressure on voters to stay with their traditional major
parties may also have trickled down from the Presidential race to
the US House campaigns. Greens saw little or no growth overall here,
due in part to the fact that the 7th District, where one-time leading
Democratic candidate Jason Seagraves ran in the Green column, was the
one race considered vulnerable.
Seagraves was "pretty depressed" for a day or so after the results
came in. "We raised and spent more than $10,000, outperformed the
other candidates at virtually every forum and debate, received loads
of favorable press coverage, put up yard signs, aired radio ads, and
campaigned full-time for five solid months. I had hoped for more
than just 1.33% of the vote. But the 4,008 people who chose to
endorse me with their vote chose to endorse *me* -- not hereditary
allegiance to party, nor hope of being on the 'winning side'.
"So, taking what I have learned from this five-month ordeal,
I will use it to build upon for future efforts. If someone were
to take the Green mantle and raise $10,000 for a run in 2006,
I think I could help her better achieve the goals that I set for
myself. . . . I plan to run in 2006, but it will be for an office
on a smaller scale, where my goals will not be arbitrary vote
totals -- but winning."
Impact Not Limited to Winning
-----------------------------
But the exposure Green candidates and values got may have affected
some races Greens didn't win. Ben Burgis got about 75,000 votes, a
new high for a Green in the MSU Board of Trustees race, though he ran
what he calls "a far more radical platform than either of the previous
Green candidates" for MSU Trustee . . . and he may have spoiled the
race for Democrat Phil Thompson, who lost to Republican Melanie Foster
by less than 1/4%.
In his comments on the race, Burgis notes that Thompson "failed,
even after it was rather dramatically brought to his attention by
student protestors and by my campaign, to sign on to the long-running
demands of progressive student groups for MSU to join U of M and over
100 other universities in joining the Workers' Rights Consortium --
which would ensure that Spartan caps and T-shirts aren't going to be
stitched together in sweatshops by people working 16 hours a day in
countries where $2 a day is considered a good wage and union
organizers are routinely targeted by death squads.
"For this alone, he didn't deserve the votes of those progressive
Democrats that defected to me in this race."
Greens may have helped swing the Washtenaw County clerk's office
from the Republicans to the Democrats; Green-endorsed Kestenbaum won
by less than 4% over incumbent Peggy Haines. Washtenaw County Greens
chair Peter Schermerhorn has already sent Kestenbaum congratulations,
and expressed "our wish to work with him to implement IRV in the City
of Ann Arbor."
There is a movement now active in Ann Arbor to join Ferndale in
amending its charter to adopt IRV for local elections, as is permitted
by state law. Ann Arbor for Instant Runoff Voting (A2IRV) is working
to collect 6,000 signatures from registered Ann Arbor voters and put
IRV on the ballot there next spring or next fall.
Ferndale's Proposal B, with backing from many other groups and
parties as well as the Greens, passed "overwhelmingly" by a 70-30
margin (6,522 to 2,828), according to Howard Ditkoff of Ferndale for
Instant Runoff Voting (F-IRV).
Greens Around the State Pleased with
Progress -- and Focused on the Future
-------------------------------------
Greens are not only moving forward in the party's "traditional"
strongholds, such as Washtenaw County. Candidates and votes are
also piling up in many parts of the state.
Tom Shea, secretary of the Grand Traverse County Green Party,
notes with approval the campaigns of Tom Mair for county clerk and
Jason Glover for the non-partisan Northwestern Michigan College
board.
Mair got 5,838 votes (15.63%) as the only opponent to the
incumbent clerk. Glover did even better -- receiving 10,410 votes
(18.98%) in a four-candidate race for two seats; he finished
behind a 12-year incumbent and a very prominent local realtor,
but beat a retired university dean.
Comments Shea: "I think these two Green candidates and all
those who helped them did a terrific job bringing the Green Party
to the attention of Grand Traverse County. A big thanks to all of
you."
Mair is "excited by the reality of having a Green Party ballot
line, and getting 15% of the vote for county clerk. 5,838 people
made a decision to vote Green Party in a county of roughly 39,000
voters! This is what we petitioned for in '87, '88, & 2000.
Mair, who predicts that in 2006 more Greens will run in his area
than Democrats, adds, "In 2000 the best precinct in town fetched a
7% vote. We doubled that percentage this time. I've never been more
proud to be part of this movement."
In Kalamazoo County, co-chair and clerk candidate James Wilber
has a similar focus: "The measure of growth is, 'Did you do better
than last time?' In Kalamazoo County, that can be answered with a
resounding YES." He also says local Greens did a better job of
campaigning this year -- and he thinks he knows why.
"In the months leading up to the election, the Green Party of
Kalamazoo has become a stable organization, with members dedicated
to bringing about change now and in the future. We are more than
just an issue or a candidate. Within the last year we have become
a real party and a force in Kalamazoo politics. People know who we
are -- and they are listening."
Against the benchmark of Nader's 2000 Presidential race, Wilber
notes that the biggest difference is that "we actually had two
local candidates this year." And both of them -- Wilber and sheriff
candidate Stephanie Frizzell -- got more votes and higher percentages
of the vote in 2004 than Nader did in 2000. And Greens in statewide
races did better in Kalamazoo than overall, he adds.
In neighborhoods as diverse as Vine and Westnedge Hill, Kalamazoo
Greens saw that, "yes, hard work does pay off . . . and grassroots
campaigning does make a difference. Now what if we were a political
party with 100 years of established history, a full slate of
candidates, and 100 times more money?" Wilber wonders.
Schermerhorn agrees. "Some good came of this election. We had
pretty good showings by Don Hadden and Elliott Smith in Pittsfield
and Ypsilanti Townships, respectively, for County Commission. There
is more support there than expected.
"We had a great showing by Keith Agdanowski in Ypsilanti for
City Council. I am convinced that ten more, maybe even five more,
dedicated volunteers could have gotten the less than 500 extra votes
that Keith needed to win his district. Keith ran for the same
position in 2002, and increased his percentage by 5%. This is a
seat that Keith can win.
"Marc Reichardt made a respectable showing in the Council race
in Ann Arbor, against a very popular incumbent, and without running
a negative campaign -- asking people to consider sending him to
Council to offset the now 10 out of 11 voices that are the same on
the Council. . . . odd-numbered year elections for Council seem to
be far more amenable to a third-party run at this point, and I
would encourage Marc to seek the Council seat in 2005, against
freshman Councilmember Leigh Greden.
"Our statewide candidates all earned about 6,000 votes in the
county -- which shows we have much more support here than anyone
thought. If we can find where those 6,000 people came from, I think
we can build on these numbers respectably in 2005 and beyond."
To La Pietra, the biggest piece of good news for the future
is the growing number of Michigan voters who found themselves on
Election Day with one or more local Greens on the ballot. This,
he feels, is a big part of why Green candidates for county and local
office got thousands of votes in 2004 where they got hundreds in
2002 -- why a dozen Greens and seven more Green-endorsed candidates
topped 10% of the vote in their races, compared to only five in 2002.
As voters see Green candidates more and more often, the vote
totals and the percentages -- and the number of elected Greens in
Michigan -- will keep growing. And that trend will accelerate as
some get the added experience of seeing how Greens in office live
up to their values and principles.
"Greens are a worldwide movement as well as a party. We don't
run just to get elected -- and when we win, we don't govern just
to get re-elected. Running for office and serving in office are
two ways to express Green values."
La Pietra promises that Greens will continue to be involved and
active in issues of social justice, ecological wisdom, grassroots
democracy, and non-violence. "We will stay visible on the Michigan
ballot -- and in agitating for true election and campaign-finance
reform.
"And we're hearing from more people since the election -- people
who have decided they've had enough of voting for what they don't
really want, in order to vote against what they really don't want.
They want something to vote, and work, for."
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For more information on GPMI, its state platform and past
public statements on issues, the over 40 Green candidates on
the 2004 ballot, and how you can contact Green locals in your
area, please visit our Web site:
http://www.migreens.org
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contact persons with campaigns and
groups mentioned in this release:
================================
Ben Burgis
candidate, MSU Board of Trustees
Howard Ditkoff
co-ordinator, Ferndale for Instant Runoff Voting (F-IRV)
Ana Iacob
Libby Hunter
contacts, Ann Arbor for Instant Runoff Voting (A2IRV)
Jason Seagraves
candidate, US House/7th Congressional District
Peter Ponzetti III
candidate, State Board of Education
Pete Schermerhorn
Chair, Green Party of Washtenaw County
Tom Shea
secretary, Grand Traverse County Green Party
James Wilber
candidate, Kalamazoo County Clerk &
co-chair, Green Party of Kalamazoo
# # #
Green Party of Michigan * 548 S. Main Street *
* Ann Arbor, MI 48104 * 734-663-3555
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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
Other Contacts:
Green Party of Michigan
548 S Main St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-663-3555
info@migreens.org
posted to web 11 Nov 2004