Greens spring forward in April and May elections
By Mike Feinstein and Brent McMillan
Green Party of California and GP-US Political Director

Twenty-nine Greens in 10 states ran in municipal, county and school district races in spring 2005, bringing 2005 totals to 38 in 11 states. Ten Greens were elected in spring elections in Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and Wisconsin, bringing the yearly total to 12 to date.

Brenda Konkel, right, alderwoman representing District 2 on the  Madison, Wisc., Common Council, speaking at a demonstration against the corporate sponsorship of the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, held in Madison June 2002. To the left is former GP-US Steering Committee member Ben Manski. Mike Feinstein/Green Party of California

Illinois

Over 47,000 votes were cast for Green candidates in Illinois municipal general elections on April 5, with two of seven Green candidates winning their races. Anna Lempart, a 19-year-old student from Urbana, was elected to the Champaign-Ford Regional Board of School Trustees, finishing second out of three candidates for two seats. A political science major at the University of Illinois and a long-time volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, she becomes the youngest current-and second youngest-ever-Green officeholder in the U.S.

	19-year-old Anna Lempart, trustee on the Champaign-Ford Regional Board of School Trustees, and the youngest current Green officeholder. Courtesy Anna Lempart

Lempart opposed the federal No Child Left Behind Act, citing the disastrous consequences on school funding it has had, as a result of its mandated frequent standardized testing. When a school's test scores don't improve, Lempart maintained, students are allowed to attend other schools in the area on vouchers, taking money away from already cash-strapped public schools.

With Illinois already 48th out of the 50 states in education funding, Lempart advocated a more income tax-based system for the state, where deficits under Illinois' current property tax system already range from $4,300/year per student in many rural and urban areas to $18,000/year in the suburbs. In cash-strapped rental areas in the cities and in rural areas with low population densities and lower property tax rates, schools receive very little funding because of the insufficient property tax base.

A system based on state income tax and distributed more evenly by the state, Lempart argued, would assure better, more equitable funding of schools. This issue is particularly important to her office, as regional school trustees decide whether school districts may consolidate. The need for such consolidation often stems from budget deficits.

Up north in McHenry County, northwest of Chicago, Scott Summers, an attorney from Harvard, was elected to the McHenry Community College (CC) Board of School Trustees, finishing second out of four candidates for two seats.

Summers campaigned on the premise that McHenry County needed to fundamentally change the way it promoted economic development. Specifically, McHenry CC should take its business coursework to the next logical step and (in partnership with the community) actually help people set up small businesses-not merely graduate them and cast them to the figurative winds.

Under Summers' plan, McHenry CC would provide mentoring programs and business incubators, as well as work with the local financial community to create a microloan/microgrant program to provide the start-up capital new small entrepreneurs would need. Summers feels this is consistent with a Green commitment to decentralized economies and a positive approach to economic development compared to giving tax breaks and other perks to large corporations.

New Jersey

In a school board election in Rutherford on April 19, incumbent Gary Novosielski, a founding member and past co-chair of the Green Party of New Jersey, was re-elected to a third term on the Board of Education, coming in second among five candidates for three seats.

A physics teacher at local Fort Lee High School and a Master Board Member honoree of the New Jersey School Boards Association, Novosielski supported bringing special education students back into the district, while keeping commercialism (from vending machines to corporate-sponsored scoreboards) out. On restoring public trust in the budget process, Novosielski said, "When handling the [district's] $33 million budget, people need to feel like you're treating the money like it's your own money."

Oregon

In the southern Oregon town of Ashland, just north of the California border, 24-year-old Mat Marr pulled off perhaps the greatest Green upset of 2005, winning a seat on the local school board in dramatic fashion. Marr defeated an incumbent who was also chair of the Jackson County Democratic Party Coordinating Committee, winning with 67.5 percent of the vote.

A history/economics double major at local Southern Oregon University who had attended Ashland schools, Marr was part of a progressive slate of three candidates who campaigned on better dialogue between school district staff, the school board and community members. The Jackson County Pacific Green Party endorsed all three in April.

"I'm pretty happy about it," said Pam Vavra, local Green co-chair and member of the Pacific Green Party Coordinating Committee, after the election. "I believe that the majority of Ashland voters subscribe very heavily to the Ten Key Values of the Green Party, as do most people once they understand them."

Vavra cites community focus, grass-roots democracy, and "listening and the involvement of the community" as strong Green Party ideals. The local Jackson County Greens made an internal decision in 2003 to endorse candidates who promoted Green values, regardless of their political affiliation. Green Party-backed candidates also swept the November Ashland City Council election, and one of them, Jack Hardesty, re-registered Green after the election as a result. There are also six Greens appointed to Ashland city advisory boards and commissions.

In Marr's grassroots campaign, he and his supporters met and phone-banked directly with more than 1,000 voters and claimed 300 endorsements from community members. He also demonstrated a composure and charisma during the televised candidate debates that has local Greens seeing a bright, long-term political future for this first-time candidate.

While Marr was enjoying his success, 220 miles north up the I-5 in Corvallis, long-time local Green leader Matt Donohue won a second school board seat for Oregon Greens. He defeated a well-funded right-wing candidate in a clearly liberal vs. conservative two-way race.

Donohue's 10-week down-to-earth campaign featured a budget of $2,000, combined with an aggressive visibility, voter/issue identification and Get Out the Vote strategy. Volunteers placed 50 lawn signs in highly visible locations. Donohue's campaign manager, Corvallis City Councilmember George Grosch, strategically targeted previous high-propensity voters, giving Donohue the best chance in what was predicted to be a low turnout, low visibility election.

As Oregon's elections are conducted by postal mail ballot, Donohue sent direct mail to a target list of 3,500 voters and timed his literature pieces to arrive on the same day as the ballots. Donohue and supporters had knocked on over 1,000 doors of pre-identified voters and called at least that many by phone in the week before postal mail ballots were due.

To prepare for his three well attended candidate debates, Donohue trained with key advisors on issues and technique. It paid off, including with endorsements by many members of the local teachers' union, who provided their office as a phone bank center, building a community buzz around the campaign in the process. Donohue did newspaper ads featuring the teachers' endorsements, as well as those of city council members and other community leaders.

An attorney with the Oregon Department of Justice and a former clerk for the Oregon Supreme Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals, Donohue's values-based campaign emphasized his experience as a negotiator-mediator, with a special focus on bringing together polarized groups. Campaigning on a platform of Fairness, Equity and Vision, he promised to work to rebuild trust between teachers, administration and parents, by bringing more open communication and accountability to the district.

Donohue won with 50 percent of the vote vs. 39 percent for his opponent. His victory was the fourth for Greens in Benton County, home of Corvallis and Oregon State University. Emily Hagen sits with Grosch on the Corvallis City Council and Tim Dehne is on the Benton County Soil & Water Board. Twelve Oregon Greens hold elected office overall.

Wisconsin

	Austin King, alderman representing District 8 on the Madison, Wisc., Common Council Courtesy Madison Common Council

In the Madison Common Council general election April 5, three Green incumbents won re-election, despite an unprecedented negative campaign funded by the county Democratic Party, leaders of the Chamber of Commerce and elements of the real estate community. Green Alderman Austin King was re-elected with 78 percent of the vote, Alderman Brian Benford won with 55 percent, and popular Madison Council President and affordable housing advocate Brenda Konkel ran unopposed in her re-election bid.

However, the negative campaign did claim several victims, preventing the Greens from expanding their number of seats, as Green contenders Lori Nitzel and Sarah King, despite spirited grassroots efforts, lost their races with 43 and 45 percent of the vote, respectively.

The Democrat-funded automated phoning and direct-mail campaign suggested that an "ultra-liberal" political party was about to "seize control" of Madison, and also made thinly veiled references to one candidate's sexual orientation in urging voters to support candidates who "share our values."

As part of this process, the Dane County Democratic Party funded a new group, Citizens for Madison's Future, which distributed two negative mailings targeted at candidates endorsed by the Greens and by Progressive Dane (a Madison-based, local independent party) who had Democratic opponents.

In its election coverage, Madison's local Capital Times observed that the main purpose and effect of the last-minute campaigning was to suppress progressive voter turnout. Indeed, Madison turnout was at an all-time low for a city council election. Not coincidentally, local Green membership has seen an upsurge since the election, and some local Democratic Party activists quit their party in disgust.

All Green Party candidates in Madison received endorsements from the American Federation of Teachers, and in some cases from other unions. Most also received the backing of the Sierra Club and the Affordable Housing Action Alliance.
No Democrat running against a Green received an endorsement from any of those organizations, or from the local labor council. The Capital Times also endorsed all five Greens.

With the re-election of King, Benford and Konkel, Madison has had at least three Greens on the twenty-member Common Council since 2001. This is also one Green on both the Madison School Board (Shwaw Vang) and Dane County Board of Supervisors (Echnaton Vedder).

An hour and a half to the southeast on Interstate 94, incumbent Alderman Pete Karas of Racine was easily re-elected, fending off a Democratic challenger and winning with 73 percent of the vote, the highest margin of all eight races in Racine on Election Day.

When asked about his strong showing, Karas replied: "It's because of my philosophy of running a city like a community, not a business, so that it better benefits the people."

In keeping with this approach, Karas campaigned on an initiative to form a Public Electric Utility, the Greater Racine Bright Public Power Initiative. Having opposed a local coal-fired plant expansion in his first term, Karas argued for the environmental and socio-economic benefits of a move to public power. (See his opinion piece on this subject, page 12.)

"Instead of coal, Racine could build wind farms on Lake Michigan or small natural gas-burners," Karas said. "Public power would also be an economic development tool, generating new jobs for our city, where we have over 10 percent local unemployment. A lot of old manufacturing jobs have left and some are never coming back. We must look forward and take control of our own destiny, spurring the right kind of economic development and creating good living-wage jobs for our residents. The lower cost of doing business in our area will also attract other new businesses, creating even more jobs in the process."

The more environmentally friendly energy could be used by city government, Karas added, as well as offered to all city residents and even residents of other municipalities in Racine County, potentially boosting the city's General Fund by $5 million a year.

Karas and supporters plan a full public campaign to help raise $100,000 for a feasibility study, which would be the first step, followed by a public referendum, which is required by state law. Power to the people!

Back to Summer 2005