There's a lot of talk in the news about how certain elections across the country show, or don't show, how Obama is doing and whether the Democratic Party is losing ground. Here in Cook County, we have some other data we can parse to see if there are signs of change.
The filings for Cook County Committeemen positions in the three parties that appear on Illinois ballots show some interesting things about the stability and robustness of the parties. I started looking into this when I noticed that not all the seats were filled, meaning that some of these committeeman positions will almost certainly not be filled through upcoming elections.
I caught (on TV) only a part of Cynthia McKinney's speech on Cspan's Road to the White House. She gave me a good reason to vote for her rather than Obama.
When this blog first started we were very careful to be respectful of the Green Party and their supporters when they blogged here. That's not so say that we did not criticize them. On the contrary we made sure that our criticism was from an allied position not one of opposition.
The MIA of the title refers to Green Party and supporter participation here at PSB. I think of them because of a David Sirota piece at OpenLeft.
He reminds us of a history of the cause that effectively relagated Third Parties to their woeful state today. Namely the demise of "fusion voting". In the process he says very cogently what the role of third parties should be.
If the goal is turning today's populist uprising into a full-fledged social movement, then first thing's first: the third party movement has to focus on re-legalizing fusion voting in all states like it was 100 years ago. As THE UPRISING, shows, it was the early 20th century's very own Karl Rove - a guy named Mark Hanna - who orchestrated the campaign to ban fusion in most states, because he knew it was empowering progressives. Fusion - though allowing for the "spoiler" - allows minor parties to wield power without making every choice one between spoiling or not spoiling (for more on how fusion creates power for third parties, see this earlier column I wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle).
Short of re-legalizing fusion, third parties have to strategically use the "spoiler" threat as their nuclear weapon - the weapon only used very rarely, but at times when they can actually make Democrats the true spoilers. That brings us to Senator Bernie Sanders.
Back in 1988 when he was mayor of Burlington and first ran for the U.S. House, Democrats billed him as the "spoiler," but when the election results came in, he ran ahead of the Democratic candidate in the losing race to the Republican, Peter Smith. The next time around, Sanders leveraged the run to make the Democrats look like the spoiler - and he won the U.S. House seat, and ultimately moved onto the Senate.
Sanders made a strategic gamble - he bet he could overcome the "spoiler" charge. It was a pretty safe bet at the time - he was a well-liked leader of his state's biggest population center and had a fabled field operation.
For me there is no better example for third partiers to emulate than Bernie Sanders. He knew how to build a cart and he knew how to raise a horse and when the cart was ready and the horse strong enough he knew in what order to place them. And here is the best summation of Ralph Nader that I've seen in a while:
Though many liberals blame Ralph Nader for giving us President George W. Bush (an attack that I think is rather silly - Al Gore should have won outright and never let it be that close)
I miss Green participation here. When the Obama regime takes power we are going to need many of their points of view.
In a rare shift in party affiliation, the entire membership of the all-Republican governing body in Lyndhurst will switch from Republican to Democrat tomorrow. Nearly 60% of Lyndhurst's Republican County Committee will become Democrats too.
The party realignment, first reported in PoliticsNJ.com last summer, is far greater in scope than speculated. It represents, perhaps, the most massive shift in Party affiliation of elected and Party officials in a single community in one day. "It's safe to say something like this certainly doesn't happen in politics everyday," said Lyndhurst Mayor Richard DiLascio.
Phil Huckelberry, Chicago resident and Co-Chair of the Ballot Access Committee of the Green Party of the United States, took Governor Blagojevich and the Democratic Party of Illinois to task before a national audience at the 2007 Green Party National Meeting in Reading, Pennsylvania this week. Also presenting at the meeting were former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, the Secretary General of the European Green Party, several presidential candidate hopefuls, and others. Video coverage.
Elections in Illinois could get a little more interesting next year now that the Green Party has a guaranteed line on the general election ballot. I'm one of those odd people who daydreams about political strategies so I asked myself what I would advise the Illinois Green Party to do in the upcoming election.
The Daily Southtown today published an interview with Carol Larson, a Green Party member recently elected to the Oak Lawn-Hometown District 123 Board of Education.
The Green Party of the United States will hold its Annual National Meeting in Reading, PA, Thursday, July 12th through Sunday, July 15th, 2007. The now legally established Illinois Green Party will be sending delegates to this meeting. The linked website contains survey results showing topics likely to be covered at the meeting.
It looks like Obama may have some new competition. Insight Magazine is reporting that Al Gore is considering running for President on the Green Party ticket in 2008. Ralph Nader has been active in trying to recruit him; and Gore has not rejected the offer, according to sources close to Gore.
From Phil Huckelberry, phone: 309-268-9974, email: phil.huckelberry@gmail.com: It turns out that Carol Larson is not only running unopposed for Oak Lawn-Hometown School Board, she's actually one of two candidates on the ballot for three seats. That third seat I'm calling an "empty election".
The Will County Green Party is criticizing the Illinois Department of Transportation's decision to send letters to a number of residents in Eastern Will County, threatening them with Eminent Domain lawsuits if they do not agree to sell their property within 60 days.
The Illinois Green Party's Spring 2007 Membership Meeting is scheduled for March 2, 3 & 4 in Schroeder Hall at Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Theme - Sustainability. The McLean County and Campus Greens are pleased to invite all ILGP members and supporters to attend the meeting. *Cost: $20.00 ($10.00 students and low-income).
Nan Garrett, co-chair of the Georgia Green Party, co-chair of the National Women's Caucus of the Green Party: "President Bush opened his State of the Union address with a plea for bipartisanship. Bipartisan blind faith in the White House's dishonest justifications for invading Iraq resulted in more than 3,000 U.S. troop deaths, hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians, and worldwide anger against the U.S. Bipartisanship too often means a conspiracy between two corporate political parties against the partisan interests of the American people, and it's one of the best arguments for multiparty democracy.
Hartford police took full responsibility Tuesday for the arrest of political activist Ken Krayeske at Gov. M. Jodi Rell's inaugural parade, telling legislators that they were not influenced by a state police flier describing Krayeske as someone who might be disruptive.
Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts testified at a legislative hearing that Krayeske was arrested because he "breached the parade route," a claim disputed by Krayeske and witnesses, not because of a threat assessment by state police.
A senior Iranian MP said that insistence of the West and the US on the imposition of sanctions on Iran complicates the situation, and described talks as the only way to end the standoff.
Chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaoddin Boroujerdi made the remarks in a meeting with the chairman of the German parliament's Green Party Fraction, Fritz Cohen, here on Tuesday.
WHO WILL RUN? Illinois' newest official political party needs candidates for 2008.
Wanted: One candidate for the U.S. Senate, 19 for the U.S. House, 118 potential state representatives, dozens more wannabe state senators, hundreds of potential county officials.
And as many as 11,692 precinct committeemen, among other vacancies. Interested applicants should contact the Illinois Green Party.
Visiting German Parliamentarian and Head of Green Party Faction Fritz Kuhan conferred here Tuesday with the Head of Iran-Germany Parliamentary Friendship Group Akbar Alami on the country's nuclear standoff.
A Green Party minister in Prime Minister Romano Prodi's cabinet threatened a revolt in the centre-left coalition on Tuesday over Italian troops in Afghanistan, demanding a timetable for their withdrawal.
The Green Party of the United States has endorsed and will participate in the January 27 'March on Washington' planned by United for Peace & Justice (UFPJ) , as well as related events throughout the weekend.
