Bright sides
One small piece of good news for the Cavlan campaign is that we were able to build upon the foundation set by Brother Ray Tricomo in 2002. Ray got 0.45%, and this year we got 0.49%, adding 603 people to the base. And we did it without major party status and while being shut out of most of the debates. Also, note that Kennedy and Klobuchar each outspent us by about 1000 to 1.
The Pentel campaign cannot be blamed for spoiling Hatch's election. He lost by 21,130 votes, while our team got 10,854 (0.49%). However, Hatch could have won if he had the Pentel and Davis votes plus a small fraction of the Hutchinson votes.
Sometimes we spoil elections, but that's only because we're so much better on the issues. Like Pawlenty, Hatch would have signed the Twins stadium bill. Ken's plan for reducing consumption is second to none.
Meanwhile, Jay Pond gave a classy concession speech, talking about how we leverage the system, and he had some good things to say about Keith Ellison. The main lesson learned for the DFL should be that if you want to win, nominate candidates like Ellison, and if you want to lose, nominate candidates like Hatch.
posted by Tom Cleland @ 11/08/2006 07:17:00 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
A post-election message from Dave Berger, Green Party Candidate for State
Auditor:
I want to thank everyone who helped with our campaign this election cycle.
A lot of great people gave my campaign incredible support. Thank you all!
While I did not win the election nor did I achieve the 5 percent that was
necessary for the Green Party to regain major party status in Minnesota, over-all
the Greens did have some significant successes this election cycle.
Instant Run-off Voting (IRV) passed in Minneapolis with 65 percent of the
people voting in favor of changing the city charter to allow for a more
democratic way to vote. The Green Party has been supporting this change for years.
Unlike electing a candidate, getting IRV passed in Minneapolis changes the
very structure of the voting system. This bodes well for the future for the
Green Party in Minneapolis. No longer will citizens be afraid to vote their
beliefs because of the spoiler argument. For more information on how IRV works…
go to
http://betterballotcampaign.org OR www.fairvotemn.org.
Another positive electoral result this year was the election of Mark Ritchie
to the position of Secretary of State. Unlike his predecessor, Ritchie
supports IRV on the statewide level. By working with him, the Greens should be
able to transform the entire structure of voting in the state of Minnesota!
In addition to the success with IRV this year, I did receive 2.33 percent of
the statewide vote. I want to thank all 49,072 people who voted for me. You
made it possible for the Green Party to remain a minor party since I
received more than 1 percent of the statewide votes cast. We will be able to
continue to receive PCRP funds (Political Contribution Refund Program) and are
still recognized by the state of Minnesota as a political party. Note that the
magic 1 percent was also achieved by our own Attorney General candidate Papa
John Kolstad.
Retaining minor party status this year was no small feat. In fact, given
the results of this election, we are now the only minor political party
recognized by the state of Minnesota. The Constitution Party (0.25 percent),
American Party (0.17 percent), and the Quit Raising Taxes Party (0.44 percent) all
failed to gain minor party status.
There are still three major parties in Minnesota: the Independence Party,
The DFL, and the Republicans. However, only ONE of the Independence Party
candidates for statewide office received more than 5 percent of the vote (Peter
Hutchinson with only 6.43 percent of the vote). No other third party candidate
in a statewide race received more than 5 percent.
Given this trend against third parties, the Green Party was quite fortunate
to retain minor party status. This fact combined with the IRV success in
Minneapolis and the potential IRV success statewide bodes well for our political
movement. We are still standing and now ready to take off under IRV!!
Thanks again for your votes and your continued support of the Green Party of
Minnesota. If you are interested in volunteering with the Green Party and
making a Green future a reality, please go to www.mngreens.org and check out
what we have to offer!! Let’s work together to make our world more livable
and nonviolent.
Peace.
Dave Berger
GPMN Election night blog:
http://mngreens.org/news.php?action=fullnews&id=598
Actually, the bright side is that the US is no longer a one party state. And that if the moderate republicans who just got elected out of office caucus with the democrats on more issues than just opposing select nominations before term ends, then Bush won't get a chance to sign the bill that would legalize domestic spying, which would have retroactively excused him from breaking the law.
Now it's time to prove that your progressive. You have both houses of Congress. There's a long list of things to do. For starters, I'll want to see if the Dems can cut the war funding. If not, maybe they can Impeach for Peace. Bush already signed the Military Commissions Act, I'm not sure if there's any way to undo that except by the courts.
I noticed the Independance Party, made an effort to get progressive votes. They are so all over the place, they have no track record with any constituency.
They didn't do anything from what I can tell, to ask for inclusion of your party in debates and other events. I might be wrong about that.
You are correct. One big difference is single payer. We have a better plan for reducing consumption. And Robert Fitzgerald, interestingly, was to the right of Mark Kennedy on ANWR drilling.
If I remember correctly, the Independence Party has only one platform issue and that is Instant Runoff Voting. It is insane to have a political party without a platform...what is more insane is that people vote for them. I can see the "Independents" aspect of the IP but I don;t understand the "independence" thing....can anyone explain that?
With all my criticisms, I am very glad that they are alive and well as a third party....they have a right to come together as a political unit in whatever form they want.
The IP candidates I have seen are very weak on heathcare reform, which is a shame. On many issues, they are just all over the place.
I do believe that without the IP, the GP would still be a major party in Minnesota...
On Mike Cavlan - I voted for him, but I was turned off by the conspiracy theory talk, which should've been switched off during his campaign. I am glad to see that you were out there stumping and volunteering Tom!
Now, its time to see if the Democrats have any backbone, or if they represent their Progressive base!! I think we already know the answer....
Thanks, Will. Yes, we were calling for independent investigations. We didn't emphasize it much, but made mention of "9/11 truth" in the radio ad. We recommend the movies "Loose Change" and "9/11 Press for Truth". They raise a lot of questions that deserve to be answered.
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