[statecom] co-chairs report for 27 Jan 2008 State Com meeting

[Nat Fortune]

Co-Chairs Report for 27 January 2008 State Committee Meeting

The most time consuming aspect of our activities since the last state  
committee meeting has been the efforts required to contact potential  
candidates for our presidential primary and the paperwork and  
communications needed to place them on the ballot. In the end, we  
succeeded in placing six individuals on the Green-Rainbow party  
presidential party ballot. (A seventh individual currently listed as  
a candidate by the GPUS ---  Jesse Johnson --- was also contacted but  
failed to indicate his desire to be placed on our ballot).

All six individuals were either Green Party members or independents  
not enrolled in any party, all six are on record as supporting our 10  
key values, and all six agreed to have their names be placed on our  
ballot with the understanding that in so doing, they were placing  
their name in nomination for president on the Green Party of the US  
ticket. In the case of Ralph Nader, because he was (and remains) a  
draft candidate, the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office  
independently verified that Mr. Nader knew his name was being placed  
on the ballot and that he had the option to refuse if he so wished.

These actions have not gone without criticism. The crux of the  
criticism is the (mistaken) assumption that any individual placed on  
our ballot was to have declared their candidacy in writing prior to  
being placed on our ballot.  We understand the desire of those in our  
party who wish everyone who will appear on our ballot was a declared  
candidate ---indeed, we share that desire --- but this was not a  
requirement, and enforcing such a requirement would have been  
contrary to the express instructions of the party.

The Green Party Presidential Plan we used as reference states (with  
edited language supplied by Grace Ross to Larry Ely at the 11/2007  
State Com meeting in italics)
2.0           Placing Candidates on the Presidential Primary Ballot

2.1           Requirements



The only requirements for a candidate to be placed on the  
presidential primary ballot are:

(A) That the candidate be either a Green Party member in their home  
state (provided their home state has an active state Green Party that  
has membership criteria) or, in lieu of a state Green Party  
membership criteria, be a declared Green Party member according to  
their state’s regular process, or be an independent, i.e. a member of  
no other political party who indicate their intent to be placed on  
our presidential primary ballot and their support of the Green  
Party’s 10 Key values.  Proof of being a Green Party member is based  
on the membership requirements of the candidate’s home state party.



(B) That the candidate declare support of the Green Party’s “10 Key  
Values.”



2.2   Contacting candidates to be on the presidential primary ballot


Simply put, we did not have the authority to arbitrarily exclude  
those who had indicated their intent to be placed on our presidential  
primary ballot, simply because, by virtue of being draft or  
exploratory candidates, they had not officially declared their  
candidacies. Had we done so, we would have had to exclude three of  
the individuals appearing on our ballot: Elaine Brown (former draft  
candidate), Cynthia McKinney (former exploratory candidate, who  
officially declared her candidacy Dec 11th), and Ralph Nader (still a  
draft candidate). We do not believe we would have been within our  
rights to exclude any of these three from our ballot.

What we hereby attest is that we acted conscientiously and ethically  
to the best of our ability, and did so on an extremely tight  
deadline. With the able help from Elie Yarden filing in for CDLC, we  
placed six excellent individuals on the Feb. 5 presidential primary  
ballot and fulfilling what we believe was the intent of the state  
convention to allow both Greens and qualified independents a spot on  
our ballot.

In other presidential primary related actions, we wrote and published  
op-eds and letters to the regarding the primary , we  lent our  
support to getting out the newsletter (for which profuse Eli  
Beckerman and Dan Melnechuk deserve profuse thanks), and, with the  
aid of Grace Ross, prepared and submitted a formal complaint and  
request for remediation to Secretary Galvin regarding his Public  
Service Announcement on TV that omitted mention of the availability  
of the Green-Rainbow Party ballot for “unenrolled” voters.

Working around the holidays in the two months since the last StateCom  
meeting, we have convened and planned agendas for two in-person AdCom  
meetings and one teleconference meeting. We have not yet made  
progress on ways to video-conference our meetings to reduce travel time.

AdCom has made progress on some of the actions mandated at the last  
StateCom meeting, but has not yet fulfilled begun to review and  
revise the Standing Rules and to evaluate the Party’s decision-making  
process. We are pleased to report that working committees are  
gradually re-activating. This will facilitate making progress on  
these and other goals.

We welcome Wanda Boeke to the Administrative Committee. With an  
experienced and committed Fundraising Director now on board, we look  
forward to putting the party on a strong and healthy financial  
footing. You will hear about activities to date from the Treasurer  
and Fundraising Director.

We are asking all working committees and local chapters to help  
compile an annual (and multiyear) calendar that will enable the party  
to plan ahead more effectively and not be in constant emergency mode.

We also encourage working committees and local chapters to  
consciously work toward attracting greater diversity among their  
participants so as to develop future interest in participating at the  
StateCom and AdCom levels.

Respectfully submitted,

Nat Fortune
Merelice
2007-2008 Green-Rainbow Party co-chairs