For those concerned about the Green effect in 2004, this *might* help

[0rganism]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 13, 2003

CONTACT: Blair Bobier at 541.752.3322

WILL THE GREEN PARTY PLAY A SPOILER ROLE IN 2004?

Free Lecture by Pacific Green Party founder to address "spoiler" question

Political activist and Corvallis attorney Blair Bobier, who started
Oregon's Pacific Green Party and was the party's first candidate for Governor in 1998, will present a lecture at the Corvallis Public Library on Wednesday, November 5, at 7 p.m. entitled "The Green Party: Spoiler or Savior? How to get George W. Bush out of office and still build a political force for peace, justice and a healthy environment."

"A lot of people are scared witless at the prospect of four more years of the Bush Administration," said Bobier "and many of them blame Ralph Nader and the Green Party for 'causing' Al Gore to lose the 2000 election. So these questions are soon to be on everyone's minds: Did the Democrats lose because of the Greens and, if so, will history repeat itself in '04?"

Bobier's lecture will address these critical question and detail the debate within the national Green Party about whether or not to run a candidate for president in 2004 as well as examine potential candidates and strategies they might employ. "It's not as clear cut as people might imagine. There's a variety of opinions in the party and by no means does Ralph Nader have a lock on the nomination if he chooses to seek it," said Bobier. "Regardless of what the Greens do, we really need to look at how to get Bush out of office and build a grassroots movement at the same time. Progressives of all stripes-Greens, Democrats, Labor activists and anarchists-are going to have to find common ground."

Bobier has a long history of involvement with electoral issues. He was a consultant for the Center for Voting & Democracy and is a contributing author to the forthcoming book, Counting Votes: Lessons from the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida (University Press of Florida). For more information call 541.752.3322 or visit http://www.bobierlaw.com

[Booberdawg]

1. Should be interesting. I hope there will be a transcript.

But I'm more anxious for official news from the Green Party and their intentions for this next election.

[0rganism]

2. The Green party isn't as monolithic as other parties

As I understand it, rather than nominating a single national candidate, what could happen is the various state Green affilliates could go every which way, some nominating a presidential candidate for the ballot and some not.

[Terwilliger]

3. damn democrats...whats wrong with them?

Don't they know they need to be like the republican Democratic party?

[Booberdawg]

4. That's interesting

I guess I don't see what the point of that is or how it helps the Green Party. Perhaps local party building I suppose. If that's the case, it is "possible" that some consideration could be given in swing State's where running a candidate could have a spoiler effect. My fear with that, though, (and I'm admittedly quite sensitive about this topic right now), is that a candidate would be intentionally run in a critical state that could make a difference, as opposed to being a reason not to. I think I would explode.

[Iverson]

5. has the world gone mad?

Why in the world would a political party put a candidate on the ballot without checking with the Democratic Party first? The mind just boggles! And after all the outreach too!

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[onebigbadwulf]

6. one more time...

COALITION FORMING!!!!

SO MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE!

[KG]

7. the dems ought to get dem. voters to vote for the dem. candidate

this time around, instead of the chimp.

seems to be the easy way to win. :eyes:

[rhite5]

8. Some states have a tough requirement to meet ...

Some states require that in order for a party to keep its listing as a recognized party, it must run a candidate for a NATIONAL office every so many years. In some cases it must be a candidate for President, I think. In those states Greens will need to do something or risk having to go through all the steps to qualify the party AGAIN like they did the first time.

If the Green party loses its recognized party status, voters who registered as Greens will just show up on the voter rolls as "Other" along with those who are members of tiny splinter parties of both the Right and the Left. Later, when a Green runs for political office, his or her party affiliation won't show on the ballot.

Being a recognized party is damned important for party-building, obviously.

That might explain why it could happen that different states might show different people running for Prez as Greens. They would not be serious candidates and would get very few votes.

You see this phenomenon happening when you see 4 or 5 different flavors of Socialists all running for Prez on the same ballot in some states. We saw that on the Florida ballots in 2000.

[Ardee]

9. The world hinges upon this decision?

Every democrat waits in breathless anticipation for this decision, even the leaders of nations around the world awaken each morning wondering if the Greens have reached a decision.......NOT

I cannot help but wonder at all this brouhaha about one small (tiny actually)political party when the Democrtatic Party (monolithic)has so many problems and decisions worthy of discussion....could there be some sort of ulterior motive at work?

[0rganism]

11. You'd think so, from some of the Green hatred around here

I do agree, it's a tiny, insignificant movement that barely got off the ground about 10 years ago. It has about as much effect on the outcome of elections as the Libertarians do. There's no reason to pay attention to it, but for those who need some kind of placebo to ease their Greenophobia, I offer this press release to give them a small, tiny actually, ray of hope. Pay it no heed.

[rhite5]

10. Greens want Bush defeated, no question about that.

Many Greens are actively working on campaigns within the Democratic Primary. Some are working for Dean, some for Kucinich, maybe others.