Inside:
Reports from GPNJ committees and county locals:
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2004
State Convention
The Eighth Annual Convention of the Green Party of New
Jersey is being planned for April. If you'd like to help with convention
planning or logistics, please get in touch with Nick Mellis, Chair of the
Membership Committee (votegreen@nickmellis.org). The GPNJ by-laws stipulate
that proposals for the Annual Convention must be published at least one
month prior to the date of the convention (in order to give all members
adequate time to review and discuss the proposals). So there will be a
special pre-convention issue of the GreenGram appearing in early March. If
you have any proposals or discussion material relevant to the convention,
please submit them by March 1 to Steve Welzer, GreenGram editor (SteveWelzer@aol.com).
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WHO'S RUNNING
THIS YEAR?
by Matt Ahearn
Who wants to get elected to a municipal governing body
next Fall (or better yet, this Spring)? There are things you should be doing
NOW! There are things we (as a party) should be doing now if we plan on
winning a few local races.
If you want to govern for real and not just opine online ... If you want to
accept the challenges and sacrifices of public life and lead others to
understand what you can see in your mind's eye as a Green future ... If you
want to help build the Green Party FOR THE FUTURE ... then stop just hanging
out in chat rooms and start DOING SOMETHING real in your hometown today:
Non-partisan council and school board elections this spring! Partisan
Council and County Freeholder seats up for grabs all over the state this
Fall.
A special note to those of you who remain registered as a "D" or "R" for
whatever reason: don't just vote for the progressives off the line in the
primary - run for a major party county committee member as an off line
challenger to your local party boss! Take the party boss's power away one
committee vote at a time. The road to political power starts on your block
IN AN ELECTION YOU CAN WIN WITH 50 VOTES!
We can not survive and grow as a political party without local elected
officials as a power base. Winning local races this Fall should be the
highest priority as an organization. Let's find those among us who really
want to work to change the world - and move to discussions about winning
local races. Who wants to be NJ's first Green MAYOR? If we don't have Spring
candidates yet we are negligent and way behind the power curve to win the
most winnable races in NJ - the spring non-partisan mayor/council races.
The county party organization (which can accept $30-something-K-per
"contributor" - I know one real estate developer with 12 different
corporations which each can legally write maximum checks to favored
candidates) will raise and spend millions (literally) for the local
candidates controlling the local message and media production contracts for
both down-ticket (county and local) and up-ticket (Congress and Presidential
races). The individual accounts and the joint accounts of candidates
throughout the county right down to the bottom and all the way up to the top
of the ticket will report "in-kind" contributions from the county party
organization, laundering the finances with mailings that have ads for the
President and Congressional candidates on one side and county and municipal
candidates on the other. Local field workers for each party (canvassing and
GOTV) will be paid by the central account and work for the coordinated
efforts of each town's County and Congressional candidates depending on what
block they happen to be on at the time. That's a "coordinated campaign" - it
saves a party resources and makes an organized party powerful.
Do the math as to the number of legal accounts for both major parties with
all those candidates in all those 500+ towns, 21 counties, and the
Congressional districts (where county organizations can legally spend
corporate contributions from any US company in NJ on "In-Kind Contributions"
and "direct expenditures" for the Congressional campaigns - see Carl Mayer's
book SHAKEDOWN, page 169) and see how KEY having a county party organization
campaign account is in the "Fleecing of the Garden State" (the subtitle of
Carl's book, for
those who may not know about it).
Understanding the relation of the various ELEC and FEC accounts is key to
this Fall's elections for us to attack this legalized money laundering of
the major party county ELEC-regulated accounts in NJ. Pay-to-play is a hot
media issue (an opportunity for our local candidates) - not only no-bid
state contract issues that the media is focused on, but properly understood
the total picture of the power of the County party bosses in NJ goes way
beyond that limited issue to affect every vote in every town and every
office up to NJ's Congressional reps. and the results of the NJ electoral
college votes!!
We need to build this level of planning in county organizations and take
action to open county party accounts under the same rules as the major
parties (not county PACs) with OUR resources to maximize the value of every
dollar and volunteer-hour spent on Green campaigns in NJ. We need
top-to-bottom-of-the-ticket strategies managed from the county level.
Its been on my mind since November that in my race, given Bergen's use of
the electronic Diebold machines, there was no rational basis under existing
law from what I have seen so far that would have prevented the Bergen County
Clerk from ordering from the printers, as of the deadline for changes to
ballot lines, a ballot that gave us a line in Bergen.
The rationale that local races in the many towns and limited horizontal
space on the ballot machine is a reason for minor parties to be placed under
the "nomination by petition" section did not apply in my race. There would
have been no fiscal impact and no administrative burden at all as to why we
did not have a line in the electronic machines last fall in Bergen.
Rather than a default where minor parties who "bracket" around county-wide
candidates and cannot control all local lines in the county get no line (and
thus can have non-bracketed independent local candidates below us on the
line - which is why we don't have a heading at the top of the ballot, or "a
line" as it is called), I think the courts could be persuaded to place a
burden on the Clerk to give the CAPP plaintiff parties "a line" (i.e. "Green
Party" in the same font as the majors) at the top where no "down-ticket
lottery" conflicts occur (as with us in Bergen last Fall).
Similarly, we should and can, with no undue burden on the County Clerks,
have the right to be in the draw for line 1, 2 - or, now with us, 3 - in
every municipal ballot where no third party local race exists where WE do
not have candidates. (No "lottery conflict" for the third line).
[Note: This is WHY local candidates are SO CRITICAL to our success and
growth this year - we need to get "GREEN PARTY" at the heading wherever we
can with county down-ticket candidates in years we can't get the "10%" (as
no Assembly races exist), and everywhere
we can in legislative districts we run in in the "off year Assembly races"
that control who becomes a major party in NJ.]
At least in counties with "HAVA compliant" evil electronic voting machines
like in Bergen, where the ballot layout is as flexible as bits and bytes on
the printed page, I think we can push an issue in court to make ballot lines
more accessible county by county in New Jersey for CAPP plaintiff minor
parties like us.
Anyone who wants to start working on a local council race that they intend
to win please give me a call. I am at your disposal.
- Matt Ahearn 201-264-9871
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PRESIDENTIAL
ASPIRANT DAVID COBB AT LABOR ED. FEB. 5
David Cobb of California, who is seeking the Green
Party presidential nomination this year, will be appearing at the Labor
Education Center in New Brunswick on the evening of Thursday, February 5
(see calendar). You can read about David's positions at his website:
VoteCobb.org. Steve Welzer will be dialoguing with David about the 2004
presidential campaign. Steve will take the position that the Greens should
support the Ralph Nader campaign (visit: NaderExplore04.org).
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BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE CONFERENCE IN DC
The Third Annual Congress of the U.S. Basic Income
Guarantee Network (USBIGN) will be held in Washington, DC on February 20-22.
It will focus on specific plans for guaranteeing basic economic security,
and how that can help transform our lives, our nation, and our world.
Similar ideas were mainstream in the 1890s, 1930s, and 1960s - USBIGN is
working to put them back into the discourse.
Co-sponsored by the Citizen Policies Institute and the Eastern Economics
Association, the event will feature four keynote speakers: Retired Gov. Jay
Hammond from Alaska, who was the leader in enacting the Permanent Fund
Dividend in 1980; Senator Eduardo Suplicy from
Brazil, the sponsor of a soon-to-be-enacted plan to guarantee a minimum
income for everyone in that country; Dr. Philip Wogaman, retired senior
minister of Foundry United Methodist Church, and author of a book in 1968
that presented the moral arguments for a
guaranteed income; and Stanley Aronowitz, a sociology professor, union
leader, and former Green Party candidate for Governor of New York.
Registration instructions, hotel information, and the full program are
available at www.usbig.net.
Steven Shafarman, President of the Citizen Policies Institute (www.citizenpolicies.org)
will have a major article about the Basic Income Guarantee concept in the
March issue of Green Horizon Quarterly.
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GPNJ
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
The Communications Committee continues to chug along
with projects such as this issue of the GreenGram and updating the Web site.
We're always looking for volunteers, particularly in the following areas:
GPNJ members who will track down activities of interest in their counties
and submit stories about them; proofreading the web site and suggesting
improvements; and finding events of interest to GPNJ members for our
calendar. We also encourage volunteers to chip in at the county level with
web and other communications
work. The committee meets monthly via teleconference. For more information,
please email the chair: Stu Kautsch (skautsch@mindspring.com).
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ATLANTIC
COUNTY
At the local's last meeting steering committee
elections were held, with the following results:
Meredith Slotoroff is now County Coordinator; Carly Massey is Secretary;
Raven Ahmed is Treasurer; Gabe Gabrielsky is Labor Committee Chair; Ray
Higbee is Membership Committee Chair. A decision was made to hold membership
meetings quarterly and to switch from a formal business style of meeting to
a less formal recruitment style of meeting.
A list-serve has been set up to explore the possibility of organizing a
Green Party campaign in the 2nd Congressional District. To join it, go to:
nj2004-2ndCDGreenCampaign-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
In the spirit of "walking on two legs," the Atlantic County Green Party
plans to be working with the Coalition for Peace and Justice and other
activist groups in the area.
- Ray Higbee
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CUMBERLAND COUNTY
On January 15 the Cumberland County Green Party (Lester
R. Brown Branch of GPNJ) met at the South Vineland United Methodist Church
to discuss Green Party presidential campaign prospects and a U.S. Supreme
Court Hatch Act challenge by Roger Merle. Gregory Lane is now the CuCGP
Local's Webmaster (visit: gpnj.vshost.com/cumberland). The next meeting will
be held Feb. 19 at Brenner's Brew in Bridgeton.
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ESSEX COUNTY
The Essex County Greens (Arthur Kinoy Branch of GPNJ)
is now holding meetings twice a month (first and third Wednesday nights). We
met recently with individuals talking about mounting serious local campaigns
for City Council and School Board seats in Irvington, one of New Jersey's
most distressed communities. Our three potential candidates are
African-American, two men and a woman. Ted Glick and I had a follow-up
meeting with two of them and discussed how this might be mutually
beneficial.
We are also considering potential local races in West Orange. And we
continue to "walk on two legs": In the near future we will be involved in
events concerning the issues of police brutality (especially the Santiago
Villenueva death case in Bloomfield) and in a new coalition around the issue
of immigrant detainees' rights. In addition, we have begun the process of
adopting local by-laws.
- Joe Fortunato
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HUDSON
COUNTY
In addition to Congressional candidates, the Hudson
County Green Party is seeking to fill slots for Sheriff, County Surrogate,
and an open Freeholder seat in Union City. There might be another open
Freeholder seat in Jersey City, pending William Braker's federal corruption
trial. Anyone interested in running for these positions should contact
either County Coordinator Greg Giacobe (ggiacobe@optonline.net) or
Secretary/Membership Chair Jonathan Oriole (jonathan@orioleforassembly.org)
as soon as possible in order to begin the vetting and petitioning process.
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MERCER
COUNTY
GPMC's TV show is temporarily suspended until further
notice due to the Director/Editor moving on to a professional career in
video production. A search for a replacement will begin.
By the end of February the GPMC's web site will contain the electoral
results for Green candidates who ran in 2003. This will be in addition to
the 2002 results already posted. Sales of the CD "From the Grassroots"
continue to be steady. The national Green Party purchased another fifty CDs
this past January. GPNJ will be using the CD as a premium for its
fundraising efforts. The CD remains available for fundraising for any Green
Party organization.
GPMC will be holding meetings on the fourth Tuesday of every month for the
2004 year. The Green Party of Hamilton is about to hold its first meeting -
February 14th, 10am, at the Hamilton Public Library. Sue Deckert is leading
the effort to organize a local in New Jersey's sixth largest municipality.
Visit: www.thegreenpartyofhamiltontwp.org
- Nick Mellis
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MIDDLESEX COUNTY
David Hochfelder is now the County Coordinator. We
thank Josephine Giaimo for all her good work helping to get the Middlesex
Greens back up and running.
On January 13 David spoke to about 200 students at J.P. Stevenson High
School in Edison about the Green Party and its policies. The event went very
well and the history teacher who moderates the sponsoring group asked David
to return to speak to two of her classes in the near future. For his
presentation, David received a $300 honorarium, which he turned over to GPNJ!
At a meeting on January 22, the Middlesex local discussed: organizing a
conference on electronic voting; getting municipalities and the county to
adopt voluntary Kyoto-style greenhouse gas reductions; and participation
with the Central Jersey Coalition Against
Endless War. The latter is sponsoring an anti-Patriot Act resolution to be
presented to the Highland Park Borough Council at its meeting on February 3.
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MORRIS COUNTY
At our December 16 meeting we viewed the videotape
provided by Steve Welzer of the Global Green Gathering in Australia and the
2001 press conference in Santa Barbara establishing the national Green
Party. It was very informative [a copy of this tape can be provided to any
local interested in screening it - contact Steve]. We were joined by Joe
Fortunato, Coordinator of the Essex County local, who provided us with
information on the 2004 presidential election and congressional races. We
want to thank Joe and Steve for their participation and help in getting the
Morris Greens up and running. Future meetings will be held on the second
Monday of each month at the Morris County Library, 30 East Hanover Road in
Whippany.
- David Schwartz
