Green Party Candidate for Illinois governor, Rich Whitney is surging in the polls. In the most recent Survey USA poll, conducted from 10/20/06 to 10/22/06, Whitney wins 14% of the vote. Democratic candidate Rod Blagojevich is ahead with 44%, and Republican Candidate Judy Baar Topinka has 34%.

Most impressive is Whitney's breakout among independent voters. Topinka leads among independents with 31%. Whitney is second with 29% and Blagojevich has 27%.

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There are 14 Green Party campaigns for governor this year. There would have been more except for some prohibitive ballot access laws.

Let's get behind our candidates. Visit their sites. Donate something. Let the candidates start seeing $10, $15, $25 coming in from out of state. If 100 people donate it could make a real difference to a campaign.

Vote your hopes; not your fears!

California: Peter Miguel Camejo

Connecticut: Cliff Thorton

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It's time to get a little internet buzz going! As Greens we need to use every resource available. Here's a list of Green candidates for U.S. Senate. We have 14 candidates for Senate this year--an all time high.

The voters need a true vote for peace, a true vote for change. But they won't know about the alternative without your support.

Look at their webpages, give some money, some time ... some money ....

We can't make a difference without everyone's help!

Candidate links are listed after the break. Please distribute this widely.

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The Maryland Green Party's largest ever slate of candidates is gaining public support for it's program to Take Back BG&E.

The issue, growing out of the deregulation of electricity by Maryland's Democratic controlled Assembly in 1999, would have gone into effect this summer, resulting in huge rate increases. The worst hit by these rate increases would have been the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company customers who would have seen a 72% increases in their rates--making a mockery of the claim made by Democratic Senate President Mike Miller after passage of deregulation that "Prices will go down, no ifs, ands or buts."

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Last night, BP Exploration Alaska, Inc. announced that it was shutting down Prudho Bay due to extensive corrosion of the pipelines and oil leaks. This move will shut in some 400,000 barrels per day of production, roughly half of what Hurrican Katrina took offline last year. It will take several days just to shut down production completely. Some have speculated that prices could rise $10 a barrel as a result. In early trading this morning, prices are up nearly $2 a barrel.

Aggravating matters is the fact that the world is starting from a weaker postion than last year. Worldwide oil production is down about half a million barrels a day from last year. Mexico's production has rolled over into decline since last year, as well as Kuwait's largest oil field. Nigeria has lost about 300,000 bpd due to unrest in the country, Iran's production is in decline and most ominously of all, Saudi production has dropped by half a million bpd in the last year. Overall, total OPEC production is down by over a million bpd in a year, despite the fact that Iraq has regained something close to prewar production.

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According to Ballot Access News Maine state Representative John Eder has received the endorsement of the Maine AFL-CIO in his race for re-election, the first time the AFL-CIO has endorsed a Green Party candidate. Local AFL-CIO organizations have also given official support to the Working Families Party in several states and the Labor Party in South Carolina.

We trust that the labor organization realizes that they still won't be able to donate money to Eder's campaign.

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During the month of May, the Maryland Green Party locals conducted primary votes for the state's Governor/Lieutenant Governor, and U.S. Senator races. The results were announced at the State Assembly on Saturday, June 3.

Ed Boyd was nominated for Governor. Ed is a veteran who served in the Navy from 1979 to 1987. After he left the service he did outreach work for homeless veterans in Washington, D.C., working with the Community for Creative Non-Violence. He subsequently worked at the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training, and at Volunteers for Peace in Vermont.

The Boyd campaign is focusing on the 70% rate increase that has been proposed by the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., calling for the conversion of BGE into a publicly owned utility. Public utilities are a growing phenomenon, with over 2,000 now existing in the U.S. But the Democrats and Republicans, whose campaign chests are stuffed with utility company money, won't talk about the issue.

Kevin Zeese was nominated for U.S. Senate. Kevin is running a unity campaign, having already received the nomination of the Libertarian Party, and expecting to win the nomination of the Populist Party. Kevin will only appear on the Green Party ballot line, however.

Kevin is running because the two major parties no longer represent the interests of most Americans, citing a recent poll that showed that only 17% of voters felt that their elected officials represented their priorities. Kevin is the only candidate in the race who is clearly against the war in Iraq. A longtime opponent of the war on drugs, Kevin supports the decriminalization of most drugs. And he has been in the forefront of the effort to ensure a paper trail for all election machines."

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HR 4694, ironicly called the "Let the People Decide Clean Campaign Act", is a bipartisan bill that would effectively bar third party congressional candidates from spending any money on their campaigns.

The bill would grant nominees of parties that had averaged 25% of the vote for House races in a given district in the last two elections full public funding. All others would be required to submit petitions signed by 10% of the last vote cast for partial funding, and 20% petitions for full funding, a prohibitively large number.

While third parties have raised the alarm about this bill, what has gone unnoticed is that it would effectively institutionalize incumbancy in the House. The 2004 election was the least competitive in history. The average margin of victory was 40%--meaning 70% to 30% in a two way race. Scores of races were uncontested.

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France's top anti-terrorist judge is warning that Iraq has become a training ground for Muslim terrorists who then return to Europe to carry out Jihad.

It's quite a black hole sucking up all the elements located in Europe, and pushing them to leave Europe and go to Iraq.

Some of them come back to Europe with the need and the intention of committing jihad... in their home country in England, France, Spain, other country in Europe.

Some of them have training for non-conventional weapons such as chemical and biological weapons and that were quite new in 2002, 2003.

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The city of Takoma Park, Maryland will have the chance to vote on instant runoff voting this November after the city council voted unanimously to place the issue on the ballot. If passed, IRV would be used for electing the city council as well as the mayor, replacing the current plurality voting method.

Takoma Park would join San Francisco, Burlington, VT, and Ferndale MI as one in a recent nationwide series of victories for IRV.

Instant runoff voting was also endorsed recently by the Democratic Party of both Iowa and California.

The Montgomery County Green Party has been lobbying to get the measure on the ballot while the group TrueVoteMd, organized by GP member Linda Schade, has been working on a state and local level to advance IRV and other ballot reform measures.

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Information from OPEC's August monthly report indicates that world wide production of light sweet crude, the most sought after kind because it can be easily refined and because it is low in sulfer, is now in decline. Although overall production of oil is still rising, the shift to heavier grades is helping cause bottlenecks that are driving up gas prices because there is limited refinery capacity for these heavier grades of crude.

Chris Vernon's webpage, Vital Trivia ferreted out this conclusion from the OPEC report;

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Jeanette Fitzsimons, the New Zealand Green Party's Energy Spokesperson has oulined the party's peak oil plan. The plan calls for a public information programme on likely timeframes and impacts of the end of cheap oil – printed information, a road show, and meetings with discussion; a Fuel Savers Reward – a "feebate" system for fuel efficiency; prioritising investment in public transport, walking and cycling by shifting an additional $300m per year into these areas; implement the Green Transport plans for Auckland and Wellington; and an industry and government team for each sector of the economy (farming, tourism, forestry, fishing, manufacturing) to analyse key vulnerabilities and strengths and plan to reduce dependence on oil.

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Green Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons will announce on Monday the Party's plan to prepare for 'Peak Oil', the end of cheap oil.

Peak oil production occurs when roughly half of all recoverable supplies have been used up. After peak, production rolls over into a steady decline. The U.S. was the first country to exploit it's oil resources (as late as 1940 we were pumping more than half of all the oil in the world), and the first to peak (in 1970), but is among the last to recognize the problem of world-wide peak, which could come anytime from later this year to a few decades from now--depending on if you're an optimist or a pessimist.

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One interesting fact I picked up while I was recently in Ireland was that the Irish already use IRV in their elections for President and Dail (parliament). This site describes the process for casting a vote for president.

The elector votes in secret in a voting compartment. The voter indicates the order of his/her choice by writing 1 opposite the name of his/her first choice and, if he/she so wishes, 2 opposite the name of his/her second choice, 3 opposite the name of his/her third choice and so on. In this way the voter instructs the returning officer to transfer the vote to the second choice candidate if the first choice is eliminated. If the same situation applies to the second choice, the vote may be transferred to the third choice and so on.

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What does it mean to be green?

The essential problem for the party, in my opinion, is to define what "green" is and to communicate it with the public. The 10 key values are a wonderful tool, but they need to be filled in, especially as they relate to the economy.

There have been a number of good books on green economics lately, and one of the best summaries comes from Brian Milani's " DESIGNING THE GREEN ECONOMY." A basic summary can be found here.

I offer this as a beginning, as a way of stimulating discussion:

Green economics is not just about the environment. Certainly we must move to harmonize with natural systems, to make our economies flow benignly like sailboats in the wind of ecosystem processes. But doing this requires great human creativity, tremendous knowledge, and the widespread participation of everyone. Human beings and human workers can no longer serve as cogs in the machine of accumulation, be it capitalistic or socialistic. Ecological development requires an unleashing of human development and an extension of democracy. Social and ecological transformation go hand-in-hand.

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