The Delegate Hunt

We have recently posted "Rules & Dates for Delegate Selection" and "Presidential Candidate Questionnaires" on gp.org. Click "Elections" and then "Documents" or go to http://gp.org/2008-elections/index.shtml.

Prop 336 Results

Well, we have a way to pick a president, as Prop 336 passed last night, with your Minnesota representatives voting "yes," "abstain," and "abstain." There seems to be consensus within the Minnesota delegation that we need to change the way delegates are apportioned long-term so that there is not such a heavy bias in favor of registration states. We will continue to work on this, and hopefully we've displayed some leadership by compromising for the good of the party in the short-term, and committing to addressing the issues in good faith for the long-term.

Prop 332 Vote

I would support a yes votes.  It seems like the apportionment formula is very complicated, thus could be confusing and cause a whole host of problems.  However, I know the committee worked on it for over 2 years and thus a lot of thought went into it.  

If some of our delegates have talked with people in the past, 1 no vote could possibly be an accurate proportional representation of the MN Green Party.  However, the delegates would have to believe a full 33% of MN Greens hold this opinion.  I don't know myself.

Thank you for all your work and for taking the time to consider this proposal and reach our Members for their opinions,

Becky Kopp

Video From the Debate

Mike Feinstein has once again delivered. Enjoy!

Update: Full audio from the debate from KPFA is now archived and available at their site.

Update: The GPUS is now archiving various presidential debate/forum videos as well.

Coverage of the January 13 Green Party Debate

Here's this morning's media covering the first Green Party Presidential Debate of the year in California. I'll try and post more if it becomes available. I expect full audio and some video of the debate to be available eventually.

San Francisco Chronicle

Democracy Now! (scroll down)

Third Party Watch

Bay Area Indymedia

Minneapolis GP Presidential Forum

On the PCSC we've been encouraging states to host Presidential Candidate Forums. We recently had one here in MN, and Jan. 13 they had a big one in CA.

Voting Begun on Prop 336

GPMN delegates now have the opportunity to ratify the delegate apportion formula for the National Convention in Chicago. Prop 336 is for ratification of Prop 332, in which a proposal from the Green Party of Virginia (GPVA) was chosen via an Instant Runoff Voting vote. In order to meet a 2/3 threshold, the GPVA proposal must now pass a second time on an up-or-down vote. Strange, I know.

If this goes through, the number of delegates for Minnesota will be set at 12. The California delegation will have 168 delegates, or just over 20% of the vote. Despite this disparity, I am inclined to support this proposal for reasons stated earlier.

This will be the first vote for your new GPUS team.

Prop 332 Result

The GPVA delegate apportionment formula won the IRV election. You can see the results here. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that we have a delegate apportionment formula yet. The national committee must now vote again, this time exclusively on whether to adopt the GPVA formula, and must achieve a 2/3 majority vote.

At this point I can live with the GPVA formula and hope that it passes. I agree with Cam Gordon that all of the formulas seem excessively complex. They also all give California a tremendous amount of voting power (the proposal that passed gives them 20% of the vote at the convention). That said, it's time to accept a compromise on this issue. It's been far too debilitating to this party for the past four years (ever since the Nader/Cobb controversy in 2004). Pass the GPVA plan and let's get back to rebuilding the party.

New GPMN Representation

Three new Green Party of the United States (GPUS) representatives were elected at the Winter Membership Meeting this past weekend. I was one of 'em. Initially I was confused as to who all of our representatives were, for how long, and how this all works. I'm still somewhat confused, but for those scoring at home, here's my understanding of where things stand.

There's been some changes to GPMN representation on the national level, namely the resignation of a delegate (Kristen Olson) and the addition of a new seat. The GPMN now has 3 voting delegates on the GPUS National Committee (GNC), paired with three alternates, who can vote in their stead. The delegates and alternates, by GPMN tradition, swap places after one year. Currently the pairings are:

• Bill Oldfather (delegate) and Michael Cavlan (alternate) through June 2008
  
• Farheen Hakeem (delegate) and Dori Ullman (alternate) through June 2009
• Heidi Sheen (delegate) and Andy Hamerlinck (alternate) through January 2010

Note that the term Bill and Michael are serving ends this June, so there will be another election then (presumably at the GPMN endorsing convention). Of the four other GPUS reps, three live in St. Paul (Dori, Heidi, and myself) and Farheen lives in Minneapolis. It would be great to see some Greens from outside of the Twin Cities run for the seats up in June.

Minnesota Presidential Forum Jan. 5

We had a successful candidate forum in Minnesota Jan. 5 with Kat Swift and Jesse Johnson. David Strand and I took them to the state meeting in St. Paul, where they visited with GPMN members. We ate lunch with Lydia Howell from community radio station KFAI. Lydia plans to interview each of the candidates soon by phone. In the afternoon we went back to the meeting and the candidates each spoke for about 7 minutes. There were about 100 members there, who received the candidates well.

There were about 30 in attendance at the forum over in Minneapolis. Danene Provencher said a few words about the Draft Nader campaign, Farheen Hakeem spoke on behalf of the Cynthia McKinney campaign, and David Strand updated us on the other candidates who were unable to attend.

For the forum, we just let the candidates talk and kept track of total accumulated time for each candidate. This tended to result in longer responses, which may have slowed the pace, but allowed the candidates to cover subjects in more depth. A couple things were not anticipated. One was whether to stop the timer if a candidate asks a question of an audience member. Another thing was what to do when one candidate has run out of time and an audience member addresses a question to both candidates. No one seemed to mind that we were a little flexible on time at the end. Jesse spoke for roughly 40 minutes and Kat for 30.

After the forum we stayed in the Midtown Global Market and had some food and drinks at A La Salsa, where interested Greens visited at length with the candidates.

I am currently in contact with the videographer and a photographer to see if we can get the videos up to the web. I cc'd Ian Wilder and Scotty of the GPUS.

Tom Cleland
PCSC-MN

Prop 332 Alternative Nominating Convention Delegate Apportionment Proposals

Hello,

This one is very complicated in my opinion. Help! Give me and other delegates a direction!

Farheen

http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/irvdetail?pid=332

Prop 330 Rules, Policies Procedures for the National Nominating Convention Credentials Committee

Hey all,

This is a really long proposal - please indicate how you would like for us to vote on it:
http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=330

Thanks,

Farheen

PROP 329 TRANS-ATLANTIC GREEN DIALOGUE with Green Parties from the USA, Europe, Canada, and Brasil

Hello all,

Please give your input to on this proposition.

Thanks,

Farheen

Background

This proposal endorses and implements an agreement in principle, developed at the 2007 convention of the Green Party of the United States (GPUS). At a planning meeting in Reading, members of the International Committee and national Staff met with representatives from the European Green Party (EGP), the Green Party of Canada, and the Green Party of Brasil. From that meeting came agreement to propose to our respective parties, a Trans-Atlantic Green Dialogue. The Dialogue would include a New York stopover by our international Green guests, followed by a formal session in Washington, DC.
Proposal

SUMMARY. By approving this proposal, the National Committee of the Green Party of the United States supports the convening of a "Trans-Atlantic Green Dialogue," to include representatives from our own U.S. party and from the European Green Party, the Green Party of Canada/Parti Vert du Canada, and the Partido Verde do Brasil.

DATE. The Dialogue meetings will be held prior to the end of April 2008.

AGENDA. The agenda for the Dialogue will include key areas of joint concern, especially global warming and other ecological questions, as well as problems of international trade, peace, social justice and democratization. The purpose of these discussions will be to promote mutual understanding of political challenges confronting our various parties, and where possible to develop joint positions. For greatest impact, the Dialogue is expected to focus on plans leading to:

- the Global Greens Gathering (May 2008, Sao Paulo, Brasil)
- the U.S. Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention (July 2008, Chicago)
- the U.S. national elections (November 2008)
- the European continental elections (May 2009)

LOGISTICS. The meeting of the Trans-Atlantic Green Dialogue will be held Washington, DC, a U.S. city which is accessible both to international Green Party guests, and U.S. participants.

INTERNATIONAL GREENS. Participating parties from Europe, Canada, and Brasil will send small delegations, perhaps totaling 15-20 representatives, authorized by their respective governing bodies.

U.S. GREENS. The U.S. party will send a delegation comprised of:

* Two members of the Steering Committee, who will convene the
Dialogue sessions

* The Co-Chairs of the International Committee (Julia
Willebrand and Justine McCabe)

* The IC representatives to the Global Green Network (Marnie
Glickman, John Rensenbrink, Bahram Zandi), and Federation of
Green Parties of the Americas (Tony Affigne, Steve Herrick)

* A member of the Presidential Campaign Support Committee (PCSC)

* National political director (McMillan) and operations
director (Emily Citkowski)

* Additional interested U.S. Greens, especially from the
International Committee, Campus Greens, and the Green
National Committee, are expected to attend as observers and
breakout workshop participants
Resources

CONTACTS:

Julia Willebrand
julia.willebrand@verizon.net
212-877-5088

Justine McCabe
justinemccabe@earthlink.net
860-354-9773

TIME LINE

1. U.S. approval process: October - November 2007
2. European/Canadian/Brazilian approval process: November - December 2007
3. Coordination of invitations: January-February 2008
4. Logistics, agenda, and arrangements: January-April 2008
5. TRANSATLANTIC GREEN DIALOGUE: Two day sessions, mid- to late-April 2008

RESOURCES

NOTE: Travel costs for designated U.S. representatives (from SC, IC, and PCSC) will be shared between GNC budget and individual delegates. Staff time to be supported by GNC budget. IC members' and local members' time is donated. Local members' hosting is donated. U.S. participants' other lodging and meal expenses are self-supported. International guests' expenses to be paid by their parties. Registration fees are minimal, to partially cover the cost of GNC's resource commitment.

ACTIVITY RESOURCE COMMITMENT
US approval process Staff time, IC members' time
Invitations/Planning Staff time, IC members' time
NYC Arrangements Staff time, local members' time
Space costs (approx. $500)
DC Arrangements Staff time, local members' time
Space costs (approx. $1800)
Transportation Travel costs (approx. $2500)
Lodging and meals Local members' donations (beds & food)
Participants' self-support