|
|
| Michigan Greens Offer Choices to Voters, Challenge to Duopoly. |
|
Green Party of Michigan August 12, 2004 Contact: 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 L 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 Blakely 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
|
