Letter: Green Party seeks matching funds
Letter received from the Green Party seeking matching funds:
We need YOUR help for our Green Presidential candidates to receive primary matching funds from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) in 2008. In order to receive primary matching funds, a candidate must raise a minimum of $5,000 each from at least 20 states before the Green Party makes its Presidential nomination on July 12. Candidates raising the money needed will be eligible to apply for $100,000 in Federal Matching Funds. This money can be used to help the Green Party succeed in its Presidential petition drives.
So far, donations from Greens all across the country have been vital in getting us on the ballot in Arkansas, Arizona, and Hawaii! Arizona was a particularly difficult state; we needed 20,449 valid signatures to get on the ballot. With generous donations of money and volunteer time, the Green Party of Arizona was able to collect 22,570 valid signatures!
Over the next two to three months, we have the chance to get our Presidential nominee on the ballot in as many as 46 states. Your donations to our candidates will help us with challenging petition drives in Connecticut (7,500 signatures), Idaho (5,984 signatures), Kansas (5,000 signatures), New York (15,000 signatures), Pennsylvania (24,666 signatures), and Virginia (10,000 signatures).
Every $1 that we can put into our petition drives gets us one signature closer to getting on the ballot. If everyone on the Green Line mailing list gives as little as $5 to each candidate, all four candidates could receive matching funds! We could have as much as $400,000 to get on the ballot and give the American people the chance to vote to bring all troops home from Iraq, to fight global warming, and to provide health care for all. The sooner that our candidates raise the money needed the sooner that they will get matching funds from the FEC, and the more time we will have to run strong petition drives. Read more about our Presidential candidates and visit their websites to make a donation.
Meet our candidates:
Jesse Johnson is the co-chair of the Mountain Party of West Virginia, which became affiliated with the Green Party of the United States at the national meeting in Reading last July. He produced, directed, and acted in many plays and films, and founded Talkback, Children Respond to Violence in the Media, which uses the arts to teach inner-city elementary school students how to combat violence. He was the Mountain Party’s candidate for Governor in 2004, and for U.S. Senate in 2006. http://www.jesse08.org/
Cynthia McKinney was elected to the Georgia state legislature as a Democrat in 1988, and to Congress in 1992. She was the first African-American woman from Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving in Congress from 1993 to 2003, and from 2005 to 2007. She filed the first resolution to impeach Bush, Cheney and Rice; has pursued meaningful answers on 9-11; has advocated for those displaced by our government in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and for the millions of voters disenfranchised in both the 2000 and 2004 elections. Last year, she left the Democratic Party and registered as a Green. http://www.runcynthiarun.org/
Kent Mesplay has been a registered Green in California since 1995, serving as one of his state’s delegates to the Green National Committee since 2004. He has worked as a substitute teacher and an Air Quality Inspector at the Air Pollution Control District, San Diego. He also served as the president of Turtle Island Institute. In 2004, he ran in the Green presidential primaries and caucuses,
and in 2006, in the Green primary for U.S. Senate. http://www.mesplay.org/
Kat Swift is a member of the Green Party of Texas, having served on her state party’s Executive Committee, and as co-spokesperson for the national party’s Women’s Caucus. She has served as a facilitator for the Green Party and for several other organizations, groups,
and coalitions, including Clean Money San Antonio and SA Democracy Now. She currently works as an accountant. In 2007, she became the first Green to run for the City Council of San Antonio. http://www.voteswift.org/
We are changing the political landscape. We can do more, but we need more help from you. With your help, we can change the world. Will you please help us out today? Tell your friends and please donate.
The future of the Green Party is in your hands. If you want to see a powerful and progressive Green Party for years to come, please act today. We must be the change we want to see.
Email: office@gp.org
Green Party of the United States
PO Box 57065 Washington, D.C. 20037 202-319-7191 or toll-free (US): 866-41GREEN
June 11th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Where does this money come from? Is any of this money taken by force (taxes).
June 11th, 2008 at 11:55 am
It comes from you and I, of course. Let’s not forget the Greens don’t stand for individual freedom in all forms.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
It brings me to tears to see the wing nuts whine in public
June 11th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I know what you mean; watching John McCain take tax money to run a campaign against a candidate funded ENTIRELY by voluntary individual contributions (No PACs or Lobbyists) just disgusting.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
1) some of my best friends are ‘wing nuts’
2) get some tissue and wipe yer eyes
I think I am going to vote ‘Green’ this year for POTUS. The ‘others’ are different types of ‘tax & spend’ liberals anyway.
I started in ‘73 as an ‘extreme-anti-Amtrak-democrat’ and there is no political party for those of us who believe in trains. 30+ years with the LP hadn’t done no good. The GOP has the ‘plane-talker’ and I want a ‘train-talker’.
June 11th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Given that the Greens want to get primary season matching funds for any or all of the presidential candidates, it seems to me to be a strategic error to fundraise for all the presidential candidates. The struggle is to get any single candidate to qualify. Since Cynthia McKinney seems to have the nomination locked up, it would be more rational for Greens to donate their money to her. If Greens scatter their contributions to all the presidential candidates, it isn’t likely that any one of them will qualify ($5,000 from each of 20 states to a single candidate, not a bunch of candidates collectively).
I believe Nader has already easily met the threshold in his quest to win the nomination of his Independent Party. When the FEC has a quorum again (perhaps next week), then Nader stands to get approximately $400,000.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
It will do no good. The fascist/stalinist criminal Ralph Nader will be utterly humiliatee as Barr and Baldwin do better than them, thus putting the Christian socialist revolutionary Barack Obama in the White House. Amen.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I had high hopes for the Green Party following the 2k elections, and made numerous donations. This view quickly faded when David Cobb, an obscure candidate, “won” a rigged nominating convention. Mr Cobb effectively neutered the GP with the “safe states” fiasco, although it didn’t really matter, because he wasn’t going to get many votes anyway; he recieved less than 100 write in votes in my home state. I believe this was the plan of the GP cabal all along.
And now its 2008. In terms of stature of elected Greens, San Francisco Board Of Supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi, is probably at the top. He also cofounded the California chapter of the GP.
And guess what? he has endorsed Obama. And there are other prominent greens who are doing the same thing, either directly or covertly.
Contributions. No thanks! I work too hard for my money for this kind of nonsense
June 11th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Thanks Joel for this great news. David Cobb is an American hero, and will be rewarded by the Obama Revolution. Amen.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Catholic Trotskyist Says:
June 11th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
It will do no good. The fascist/stalinist criminal Ralph Nader will be utterly humiliatee as Barr and Baldwin do better than them, thus putting the Christian socialist revolutionary Barack Obama in the White House. Amen.
WHY the hatred and name calling. I’m supporting Barr, but I would never call people names and in this case make up false allegations, just because I don’t agree where they stand on solutions to our problems. Nader is one fo the greatest Americans in the modern era. You can respect Nader while disagree on his positions.
Nader’s fight is our fight in many cases such as opening up the political arena, the more voices, the more choices, the better…
Nader pushes the agenda, uncovers corruption and is a defender of consumers. We are all consumers.
Besides Catholic Trotskyist probably wouldn’t have been born if it wasn’t for Nader. If your daddy wasn’t wearing a seat belt while he was getting his cock sucked by that whore you call your mom he wouldn’t have survived the accident.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I agree with Jonathan, Catholic Trotskyist thinks he is smart when he really sounds like an ass
June 11th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
“And now its 2008. In terms of stature of elected Greens, San Francisco Board Of Supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi, is probably at the top. He also cofounded the California chapter of the GP.”
And guess what? he has endorsed Obama. And there are other prominent greens who are doing the same thing, either directly or covertly.”
Ross Mirkarimi is one person. Trying to extrapolate from a single data point to the entire Green Party is silly. That’s like agreeing with the ideology of the Democratic Party but refusing to support them because one prominent Democrat endorsed McCain.
As for the unnamed “prominent Greens” who are “covertly” endorsing Obama, this is a meaningless statement. There is no way of proving this “covert” support, particularly when the targets of the accusation remain unnamed.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Richard Winger is right in my opnion, this sort of comme ce comme sa attitude toward the nomination means it’s much less likely McKinney will qualify. And she is really the only GP nominee with a chance of getting to the matching fund levels.
It’s funny how Nader is so easily dismissed, and yet he is the one able to make primary campaign matching funds.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:30 am
Why oh why friends should the taxpayers already in hock to the tune of $9,000,000,000,000+, be GIVING away money to a third party candidate? Or any candidate or party for that matter? The patients are in charge of the NUT HOUSE !
June 12th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Donna miller @ 9:07 pm ” Ross Mirkarimi is one person. Trying to extrapolate from a single data point to the entire Green Party is silly.”
Earth to Ms Miller, i’m wasn’t referring to any “one person.” I was talking about the leader of the party, David Cobb, the GP 04 presidential nominee. Apparently you don’t see anything wrong with the GP presidential nominee encouraging supporters to vote for another candidate in states the democrats might lose.
Ross Mirkarimi is not any “one person.” In terms of stature, he’s the most prominent green in the country. And he’s endorsed Obama.
You may not have a problem with the GP being a democratic party subsidiary, but judging from donations (or the lack of them), many others disagree.
ps…....I strongly suspect you’re a Green Party “leader”
June 12th, 2008 at 7:25 am
If you knew anything about the national Green Party leadership, you would know that there is no interest in “safe” states this year.
If you had read the fundraising letter, you would know that we got on the ballot in Arizona this year, which is a relatively difficult state. If we were a subsidiary of the Democratic Party, why did we even try to get on the ballot in Arizona? Why are we even trying to get on the ballot in the rest of the country? Why aren’t there any plans to endorse Obama at our convention?
The few states where we are not making a serious effort to get on the ballot are the most difficult in the country. They are all “safe” states, BTW.
If we were a subsidiary of the Democratic Party, then why did we run statewide and national candidates in 2006? Why did we fight the Democrats’ frivolous challenge to our petitions in Illinois? Why did Rich Whitney, our candidate for Governor of Illinois, stay in the race until the end and get 10% of the vote?
Guess who Whitney endorsed? Cynthia McKinney. But if you want to judge the entire Green Party by Ross Mirkarimi, that’s your choice.
If Republicans refused to support their party in 2000 because they didn’t like Dole’s lackluster campaign in 1996, Bush would have never become President. BTW, Cobb campaigned for himself in the “swing” states in 2004.