Adam Eidinger received more votes in Washington, D.C., than George W. Bush did.

Photo Credit: D.C. Statehood Green Party

By Starlene Rankin and Mike Feinstein
Green Party of California

After the closeness (and controversy) of the 2000 presidential election and the Greens' role in it, 2004 presented the most difficult organizing climate yet for the Green Party in the United States. But despite this challenge, Greens by the end of 2004 had garnered record numbers of elected officials and registered party members across the United States.

Evidencing this success, 14 states ran the most Green candidates ever, and overall at least 429 Greens ran for office in 41 states, including the presidential campaign of David Cobb and Pat LaMarche.

Sixty-seven Greens won their races in 2004, including 12 city council seats and 19 victories overall in California. There are now a record 223 Greens holding elected office across the United States, including 68 in California, where Greens now have the majority on city councils in Arcata and Sebastopol. In Maine, State Representative John Eder became the first Green holding state legislative office to be re-elected, holding on to his seat in Portland against heavy Democratic opposition. And in Mississippi, John Lee became the first Green to hold elected office after winning a seat on the Lee County Board of Elections. Twenty-one percent of all Green candidates and 26 percent of all winning Green candidates were women -- including 50 percent in California. The second-youngest Green to win in the nation, Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, 24 (Humboldt, Ca., water district), was also a woman, followed by two more -- 26-year-old Harmony Groves (Arcata, Ca., city council) and 27-year-old Holly Madrigal (Willits, Ca., city council).

In the absence of significant Democratic Party opposition to the invasion of Iraq, Greens also helped provide electoral expression for the peace movement. Dozens of Green anti-war congressional and state legislative candidates ran in 2004, including the San Francisco Bay Area's Pat Gray, who was endorsed by filmaker Michael Moore, creator of the 2004 anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11.

The states that ran record numbers of candidates - California, D.C., Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington - were in every region of the nation, demonstrating the breadth of Green growth.
And despite the agressive efforts of the Dean, Kerry and Kucinich campaigns to reregister Greens as Democrats to vote in the Democratic Party's presidential primaries, Green registration grew by 10 percent in 2004, to an all-time high of 313,186 in 22 states. (This number omits Greens in states where the Green Party has not yet achieved ballot status and/or in states that don't permit party registration.)

The day after the Nov. 2 election, hundreds of requests for information and volunteer opportunities came into the national Green Party website (www.gp.org), revealing a longing for political alternatives in the United States. Soon afterward, the Cobb/LaMarche campaign made national news by joining with the Libertarians to raise the $113,600 needed to force a recount of the presidential vote in Ohio.

Earlier in the campaign, it wasn't the disenfranchised on Election Day, but the disenfranchised every day that the Cobb/LaMarche's campaign brought visibility to, as LaMarche's "Left Out Tour" of homeless shelters across the country gave unique attention to the issue of poverty and injustice in America.

For more election coverage, go to www.greens.org/elections.