Cam Gordon!
The Democrats can’t shut the Greens out of Minneapolis politics. Dean Zimmerman and Natalie Johnson Lee lost their council seats after the majority redistricted them to face other incumbents and the FBI raided Zimmerman’s home based on secret recordings made at a public event. Zimmerman mounted an impressive radio campaign on the local Air America affiliate, but was unable to overcome the damage, reminiscent of the 1996 Richard Jewell Olympic park bombing smear. All was not lost, however. Cam Gordon picked one up for the Greens!
In 1993, Cam and I worked as volunteers for the Citizens Reform Network, lobbying to help pass John Marty’s landmark campaign reform bill. After Cam saw what the Dems did to Marty’s gubernatorial campaign in 1994, he joined the Greens. In 2001, the council election outcomes were reversed, with Dean and Natalie winning, and Cam losing by the narrowest of margins (Dean lost by 46 votes). Cam has served well as a spokesperson and party chair, and I am confident he will make a great Minneapolis City Council member!
posted by Tom Cleland @ 11/09/2005 05:16:00 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
If the Greens would stick to local politcs till they were politically viable, then we democrats would be a lot more tolerant. At least I would.
But that's not the way the Greens work, so they are a not the constructive force they could be.
In fact, I might even vote for Greens if they had a nationwide incremental strategy that required proof of viability before they run. Start off locally, once you have X amount of local support across the state, then you take on statewide offices. Once you have state support nationally, then you move on to national offices. But don't run if all you do is sabatoge the chance of a progressive victory.
I don't give a shit what the name of the party is that wins, so long as it represents my values. But I won't support anyone who aids and abets, even indirectly, bad policymakers.
In other words, might makes right?
Excuse me...
Excuse me...
What are Greens?
I thought the were the vegitables that my Mom always force fed me when I was young.
Then I became a fighting man for my country, and everywhere I went there were people that called themselves Greens that wanted to preseve nature and stuff (feed the Whales etc...).
In their spare time the campaigned for Lyndon LaRoche.
And now they're HERE demanding access to the ballot - but they aren't about protecting Feeding Whales or Trees or nothin anymore.
And I can't figure out what they are about except they are not the same as them but then they want to be on the ballot everywhere.
Seriously though, Sheryl has a very good point - get a Green council, Mayor, State Rep. Now get a bunh of them, then demand access to the big ticket items because then you (Greens, Turnip, Collard, Spinach whatever you are) will have a real chance to not just make waves, but make a difference.
Toh, and it isn't just Dems that keep Greens off the ballot - it's all up to who wants to hurt who using the Greenies.
Power to the People - and if the Greenies can become people then power to them too - but they have to become more than a person here and a person there before they can demand the power of people.
That's just it. These Greens were trying to start at the local level, but then they got gerrymandered. Dean and his wife needed to buy a new house just to stay in his district, and then the FBI raided it!
http://www.dtilsen.net/blog/archives/00000022.htm
"In other words, might makes right?"
In other words, the Green party has been biting off more than it can chew and in doing so have made a lot of enemies out of people who might otherwise have been their allies.
You can't judge a book by it's cover. And green supporters are so caught up in being elected as "Greens" that they will compromise their ideals for their label. So when they whine about being persecuted by the meany weeny democrats, I really am not inclined to take it all that seroiusly.
Sheryl is angry at the Green Party. Why? Because of their strategy, not their values. The Green Party, at this point in time, is having an intraparty dialogue about just that. Pinpoint local races and lay low on state and national races, or exercise the right of the people who want to run at whatever level they are comfortable with.
My suggestion to Sheryl would be for her to get involved with the Green Party at her local level, speak up and be a voice for a strategy that would benefit her ideals, if they fit with the Green Party. The great thing about the Green party is that through concensus decision-making her voice is heard and she can have an impact on the direction and policy positions without holding a office within the Party.
It is important to support city-wide Greens who will then be viable for higher public office. I partly share Sheryl's criticism of the political party I have been working very hard for, for the past five years. The difference is that I am not just criticizing, but I am involved.
Until IRV is understood and accepted, that may be the best approach. Still, I need somebody I can vote for at the national level. I can't in good conscience condone our corrupt, money-driven campaign system. I can support the lesser of two evils, but I can't vote for it.
Also, Sheryl, how did Greens "compromise their ideals"? Do you think Dean is guilty?
Donovan,
As a democratic precinct chair, I have found that I can do everything you have mentioned that I should do as a Green activist as a Democratic activist, and yet as a Democratic activist I might actually affect policy without undermining my ideals.
Thanks for telling me how I can get involved, but I already am. Cause the democratic party is an open tent. It's got some organizational issues to deal with, but that's what populism is about. Taking back the power from the demagogues.
For example, our democratic county chair was not holding executive meetings here in San Antonio, so a group of precinct chairs hired an attorney and threatened him with legal action. Now we are going to have monthly meetings.
And in terms of Howard Dean, I should mention that the legal action was mostly organized by precinct chairs who got involved in the Dean campaign.
One of the reasons that the local party was able to do that was that we did not have continuing rules locally. We just voted to have continuing rules, so structure of the democratic party is being forced open at the local levels across this country to let people in.
Frankly, people didn't want in before because society is complacent when things are running smoothely. It take someone like Bush to get people away from their personal lives to looking at the big picture. But don't think for a moment that the Green party has the monopoly on grassroots populism. And Tom, that is what Howard Dean is about.
Applause for Sheryl!!!
Even the Republicans parctice grassroots democracy. No one party has a monopoly on grassroots democracy.
Too bad thats not the issue here. It is really about inclusiveness in the system. I may actually vote democratic here and there if they didn't work vary hard at locking up our democracy for their interests, which, sadly enough, hasn't looked much different than the republicans in the past decades. Its great that the democratic party is working at the local level. Maybe they could effect change so that they don't look so much like the republican party.
Before this argument goes into overdrive, I don't have a big beef with the activists, like yourself, within the democratic party. I sincerely appreciate them and hope that you/they can systemetically change your leadership. That is not up for me, as a member of another political party to do. I just hope that what you include when are changing policy is to look at election and voting reform that can allow our two parties (Green and Dem) to work together. If we had a parliamentary-like system for example, we would be talking strategy on how we could effectively make change and reform together, since we hold many of the same values and progressives and liberals and greens together share a majority. However, in the system without a ranked ballot or and IRV system, or proportional representation, or other needed reforms, we will have to work as competitor for the votes that will get us "first-past-the-post for a win.
It is in both of our interests for the democratic party to, once they are removed from opposition into the ruling party, that they seriously consider reforms tat make our particular democracy more democratic. I expect nothing less and I hope that I am not let down again....
I was talking about Dean Zimmerman, not Howard Dean. I think Z has a lot of good ideals like PRT, and the rest of the party does, too. I hope Cam will carry on the PRT effort.
Hello Donovan and Tom,
Like I say, I would not have a problem with the Green party if they would stick to races they can win. But since they do not stick to races that they can win, then whereas I would not personally do things to discourage them locally, I can certainly understand the inclination to.
Cause the bottom line is that I don't right wing losers in power because of a split vote on the sane of the spectrum. That's why I say the Greens take their label more seriously than their ideals.
This is my recent post to the Minnesota State GP listserv regarding what Sheryl is talking about. "I think it would be more prudent to endorse a state auditor candidate than a gubernatorial candidate. I don't know if I would say that Lourey is virtually a Green. I would need evidence of that and I don't follow her closely. The only GP guv candidate that I would personally "get behind," meaning a vote for endorsement, would be someone who has the skills and experience to run the state and win the election, and that would be Winona LaDuke.
I know this post may open a can of worms, but I just wanted to throw my early opinion out there. It has nothing to do with cowtailing to Democrats or anything like that. It has more to do with electing candidates as local as possible."
I just want to point out something to Sheryl that she may not know. Sheryl is from Texas. A state that recently experienced an assault on the Democratic Party by way of a Republican dedistricting scheme that effectively cut out Democratic congressional delegates. I am sure that has fueled the fire between the two parties in that state.
That same scenerio has been played out here in Minneapolis, except the assault was on the Green party and the perpetrators were the Democratic Party which efectively ousted two Green Party city councilpersons, and left the Green party with one - Cam Gordon, which Tom mentions in his original post. It makes one think.....
Yeah, don't be like Tom DeLay.
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