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Spring 2008 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION ORDER BUNDLES ----- Green Pages Board Business |
Students make gains in Wisconsin; N.Y. builds on breakthrough
Eric Prindle, Green Party of New York State
In between high-profile autumn elections, Greens in six states kept the partyâs momentum going with 20 victories in local elections this spring.
The Wisconsin Green Party led the pack with 13 wins. Notably, the party's three newest elected officials are all college students.
In Portage County, Philip Peterson and Taniya Fatticci were elected to the Board of Supervisors, joining re-elected incumbent Kevin Ruehl. In Winnebago County, David Machotka was elected to the party's first Board position.
Machotka, who represents the campus of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, told the Oshkosh Northwestern the campus community "gets respect because it does have a seat on the board," but that the person in that seat is somewhat marginalized and not encouraged to work on non-student issues. "Hopefully as soon as possible, I'll be able to have some impact," he said.
In Dane County, Echnaton Vedder and Kyle Richmond were re-elected to the county Board, and Shwaw Vang was re-elected to the Madison Metropolitan School Board. Jeanne Behrend and Steve Cowan also ran competitive races for Board seats, nearly defeating conservative opponents. "Although it is small and one of several progressive parties/electoral organizations here, [the Green Party] is an educational and activist voice in the community," Richmond said.
In Douglas County, Bob Browne, David Conley and Kathryn McKenzie were re-elected to the county Board, while Bruce Ciskie, who was a Supervisor from 1994 to 2002, was narrowly defeated in his attempt at a comeback. Conley, who now starts his eighth term, has the most seniority among Green elected officials in the country.
Rounding out the re-elected incumbents were Supervisor John Hardin and Columbia School Board member Scott Tice in Barron County and Somers Town Supervisor Larry Harding in Kenosha County.
In New York, the party followed up on its 2003 victories in New Paltz by electing two more Greens to office. Rome Celli of Brighton, Monroe County came in first for one of two school board positions up for election.
In Ellenville, Ulster County Green Party secretary Steve Krulick was elected village trustee running as a "Clean Sweep" candidate with support from the Democratic Party. "I'm proud to be among the first Greens to win election in New York State, and this has allowed us to forge cooperative alliances with progressive Democrats and others," Krulick said after the election.
Amherst, Massachusetts also saw two Green victories. Tom Flittie, formerly elected as a member of the Town Meeting, was elected to the School Committee, while Frank Gatti won a Meeting seat.
In Maine, Charlie Wiggins was elected to the select board in the town of Sedgwick, Hancock County.
In a bit of dŽjˆ vu for the Pacific Green Party of Oregon, voters in Clackamas County chose not to create a People's Utility District to take over the county's electric utilities, but if the district had been formed, two Greens--Joy Kent and Lloyd Marbet--would have been elected to its five-member board. In 2003, voters in Multnomah County made a similar decision, choosing two Greens but declining to form a district.
Also in Oregon, Mark Lakeman nearly pushed an incumbent City Commissioner into a runoff in Portland. Lakeman, one of eight candidates who teamed up to rally neighborhood groups against incumbent Randy Leonard in the hopes of uniting behind one candidate in the general election, ended up coming in second with 8 percent of the vote, but he will not be able to carry the challenge forward to November because Leonard narrowly pulled out a victory with 53 percent.
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