GreenLine: The E-Newsletter of the Green Party

GREEN SPOTLIGHT:
Maine State Representative John Eder

Lone Green Ranger

photo of Representative Eder
John Eder, State Representative.

When you have a conversation with Representative John Eder, it doesn’t take too long to understand how he won a seat in Maine’s state legislature. Thoughtful, perceptive and patient, Eder gives you his undivided attention, doesn’t rush you and clearly articulates his position. It is obvious that he cares about his constituents and takes a deep interest in the political process.

In 1996, Eder moved to Alfred, Maine, a peaceful and pretty town in southern Maine. At that point he had a passing awareness of the Green Party and knew enough about Green values to be attracted to them.

Maine is a pretty strong Green state. Eder might not have heard anything more about the Green Party had it not been for its presence on the ballot and a strong showing of Green candidates running for office. He is certain that these two factors have been key to raising awareness about the party.

At the time that Eder moved to the state, Maine Green Party founder John Rensenbrink was running for Senate and Eder saw his signs posted at an intersection in town. He then noted that after the signs were stolen, they did not get replaced. So Eder bought some supplies and painted new signs and put them out at the intersection. This was the first step on his Green Party journey.

When Eder moved to nearby Portland to attend massage school, he had the opportunity to meet many prominent local Greens. He started volunteering for the party in small ways. During the 2000 Nader campaign, he got more involved. At the same time he was involved in a local race for a district legislative seat. Remarkably, the Green won 35% of the vote without actively campaigning. This phenomenon sparked the interest of some Green leaders, and they started talking about winning the 2002 race.

Meanwhile Eder won the Portland Greens’ co-chair position which he held for a couple of years. Eder was then approached to run for the afore-mentioned legislative seat. As he began to consider the opportunity, he started making more of an effort to show up at local meetings and getting involved in local issues. He was actively involved with a single-payer initiative which passed. Eder was then invited to a press conference and began to gain media coverage in local weeklies. Concerned about sidewalk pesticide spraying, he helped form a Pesticide Watch Group. The group was able to defeat the application of the Monsanto spray and its use was suspended.

Eder’s biggest hurdle in making his decision to run was a personal one. Often mistrustful of the egos of leaders, he had a hard time thinking of himself in a position of leadership. “I wasn’t a confident person. I had difficulty blowing my own horn,” he recalls.

Nevertheless, about a year before the election, Eder started meeting with some Greens to plan and to develop a campaign strategy. Eder feels that the groundbreaking event was when he decided to study campaign strategy by working on the senate campaign of a local progressive Democrat. He became a student of campaigning and worked hard to learn standard campaign methodology.

This experience was pivotal for Eder and he feels Greens could benefit from using tried and true campaign methods rather than trying to do everything differently just to differentiate themselves from the two major parties. “There is a reluctance to use standard methodology to succeed,” he said, “and I don’t mean the dirty stuff. I’m an anti two-party system activist and 100% supportive of people-driven movements, but this doesn’t mean you ignore conventional wisdom,” he explained in his quiet and calm voice. “It’s like when you bake bread,” he continued, “there’s room for creativity, but you still use the same key ingredients.”

Once he studied campaigning, he found it’s methodology to be “kind of easy.” And he feels that because Greens work so hard, they could be very successful campaigning with tried and true strategies. He also emphasized that you can use these methods without ever having to compromise your ideals.

Eder and local Greens register voters all year long, not just around election time (Democrats took note and have been copying this strategy this year). “We need to talk to voters on the voter list and not just registered Greens or unregistered voters. Eder would visit the homes of registered voters and if they’d moved, he would help the new occupant register to vote.

Eder also feels that it’s important to stay in touch with young voters. He recommends that local parties dedicate a couple people to meet with young people. He recently spoke at a local middle school. They liked him immediately because he not only showed up, but was the only one that didn’t wear a suit. When he asked the group of kids if they’d ever heard of the Green Party, all of the kids raised their hand. “I thought I was going to cry,” he said. He talked to the young students about the symbol of the donkey and the elephant, and he presented them with a sunflower. “It’s very important to plant seeds for the future,” he said.

Eder has done well because he has worked with all people, not just Greens. Eder mentioned that Maine voters have a huge independent streak, they “vote the person, not the party.” When Eder was amazed that he not only won a seat in the legislature, but that he won by such a large margin. “We had no idea that we’d win so big,” he marveled. He also finds it remarkable how people have taken ownership of this win. “They love this. They are proud that their district voted in the highest elected Green in the United States.”

Eder feels his biggest accomplishment in the legislature was when his bill to protect children from cancer–causing chemicals was passed. Stockpiles of mercury were unearthed on a local school grounds. The emergency measure, his first bill to pass, won by a 2/3 majority.

Eder thinks that his success has been his ability to build relationships and “connect with people on a personal level.” This has been crucial in the legislature where Eder doesn’t have the strength of his party to back measures.

Eder tried to pass a bio-diesel bill. While a bill wasn’t passed, the legislature passed a statute defining bio-diesel. His opponent went on to get a bio-diesel bill passed. Eder sees the relevance in this. “Our opponents think that Greens are about the environment so they try to compete on this level.” But Eder’s constituents know better, because they know that John is as focused on housing, health care and wages.

He has also learned that there are only a few bright bulbs running things and that “being in the legislature is often like high school.” He noted that Greens are often criticized for not being qualified or competent to run for office, and that we should be more careful about who we invite to run for office. He said the other two parties invite people of all levels of competence and that “they’re no better qualified to lead than we are.” Most of the time, the main difference is that Greens just don’t have the power of the machine to back them.

Eder doesn’t want Greens to be discouraged by the fact that only the same few people show up to get things done. He said that it’s like this with the other major parties as well, and it’s not just a Green phenomenon. Eder feels that well-laid plans can compensate for this.

Eder is in the homestretch of his re-election campaign and seems to feel that his support is pretty solid. Of course it hasn’t hurt that Democrat dirty tricks designed to harm Eder’s campaign have backfired. When the Democrats re-districted Eder, voters saw through the ruse and were very angry. The ploy was blatantly done against the will of voters and disenfranchised them. The move augmented the support for Eder as well as their disgust for the Democrat party.

Eder decided that he would stick with the constituents for whom he served. He moved into his “new” district, and is now running against the Democrat “incumbent.” It makes for an interesting race when you have two “incumbents” running against each other.

In a second move that may backfire, the Attorney General (AG) announced a few weeks ago that some Green campaign volunteers are under indictment for an incident in Biddeford, Maine. The charges are that the volunteers mentioned the candidate's name while the voter was filling out the absentee ballot. Apparently the opposition is trying to tie this case to Eder because one of the volunteers in question is Eder's legislative aide. Interestingly enough, the AG was on the case 7 months ago, but waited until a few weeks before the election to make the announcement. Eder speculates that the charges will be dropped - after the election. While the announcement may not bode well for Eder, the move appears to have further angered voters who see it as another campaign dirty trick.

The media has taken an interest in Eder because he is the sole Green in a state legislature, and therefore he receives a good deal of press. He received the highest score (100% rating) from the AFL-CIO, although he didn’t receive their endorsement. They chose not to endorse anyone this year. Interestingly enough, they have never “not endorsed” a Democrat in his region.

It is also worth noting that Maine has cleans elections laws, making the playing field more level. Eder doesn’t have to spend time fundraising against the well-greased Democrat machine. People interested in supporting John Eder’s campaign can do so by helping the local Green Independent Party in their organization efforts. For more information, see www.mainegreens.org.