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The Association of State Green PartiesMedia Advisory:
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Green Meeting Will Establish the Greens as a National Party. Santa Barbara, California, July 27-29: State delegates in the Association of State Green Parties will vote to file FEC papers, establishing the Green Party of the United States. |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Delegates from all over the U.S. will converge in Santa Barbara, California from Friday, July 27 to Sunday, July 29 for a national meeting of the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP). The delegates are expected to vote in favor of filing papers with the Federal Election Commission for National Committee Status to establish a new national party: the Green Party of the United States. "The Nader campaign brought us lots of national attention," said National Organizer Dean Myerson of Colorado. "Greens generally tend to focus their efforts on local and state races and on local issue activism, building the party from the ground up. A strong grassroots foundation will prevent the top-heavy hierarchies and resulting power struggles and schisms that have destroyed other third parties." ASGP, founded by Greens from 13 states in November, 1996 at a meeting in Middleburg, Virginia, currently serves as a national network of state parties. ASGP organized the national nominating convention that took place in Denver in June, 2000, at which Greens nominated Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke to be candidates for President and Vice President. The 2000 election established the Greens as the third national political force in the United States. Mr. Nader drew just under 3% nationally, but won about 4.5% of the vote in states where Green Parties had already achieved ballot status. 89 Greens currently hold office in 21 states. Greens won a record 38 races nationally in 2000; Green candidates have already won fourteen victories in 2001 -- over half of the twenty-seven spring races in which Greens competed. Three out of three incumbents were reelected. In California, 34 Greens hold municipal office, including 5 mayors and 19 city council members. "The choice of California for the national meeting recognizes the state as a focal point in the growing worldwide energy crisis, threat to natural resources, global warming, and power of fossil fuel lobbies over public policy, especially through the Bush Administration," said Mr. Myerson. ASGP and state and local Green Parties have joined the call, initiated at the Global Greens meeting held in Canberra, Australia in mid April, for a boycott of Exxon Mobil, Texaco, and Chevron in order to press the Bush Administration to sign back on to the Kyoto Treaty, which Greens see as a limited first step in addressing global climate change. The Green Party of California will host the ASGP meeting at La Casa de Maria in Santa Barbara. After the meeting, a press conference will be held at the office of the Santa Monica Green Party on Monday, July 30. Further details will be announced soon. MORE INFORMATION search: prty, cmp |
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