I did not catch this announcement until just now, and there does not appear to be any American contacts as of yet, but the second Global Greens conference is set for 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference will be co-hosted by Nobel Peace Prize winner and Kenyan Greens co-founder Wangari Maathai. It will be preceded by meetings of the African Greens and Global Young Greens in 2007. For more information: http://www.globalgreens.info/nairobi/announce.htm

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Austin Cassidy at Third Party Watch reported on the first Green Party victory of 2006 in Florida this morning. Cara Jennings, a first-time candidate, won a seat on the Lake Worth City Commission in Florida, earning more than 60 percent of the vote in a two-way race. The full story is here.

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For those unaware, longtime Congressman Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN) announced his impending retirement this past weekend. Sabo has represented Minneapolis in the Congress for twenty-eight years. Jay Pond, a Green who ran for the seat in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District in 2004, is running again this year.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 19, 2006

For more information: Press@JayPond.com
(612) 220-5050

Green Candidate for Congress
Wants Race Defined by Issues, Not Money Raised

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A press release from the campaigns of Dave Berger, Jay Pond, and Julie Risser:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 15, 2006
For more information:
612-220-5050

Three Greens Announce Candidacies -
Call for a "Back to Basics" Political Focus

Minneapolis, MN - Three more Green Party members are announcing their candidacies for office in Minnesota - Jay Pond, for 5th District U.S House of Representatives, Dave Berger for Minnesota State Auditor and Julie Risser for State Senate District 41. Their candidacies ensure a Green Party perspective in Minnesota's political discussion this year on the federal and state levels. "All three of us want to see responsible long-term investment strategies that encourage sustainable energy and a political shift to local control," says Pond.

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After a highly successful kickoff party last month, Green Jesse Mortenson, running for MN State House District 64A, squared off against 7 other challengers for the open seat last night in St. Paul. Mortenson highlighted his work in promoting locally-owned independent businesses, single-payer health care, and demanding a return of MN National Guard Troops from Iraq & Afghanistan.

The conservative St. Paul Pioneer Press covered the race and chose to focus on one of Mortenson's more controversial stances:

Mortenson said that he thought undocumented immigrants ought to be granted the right to vote in the state and said he might move to restrict big-box retail development as a legislator.

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There are numerous obituaries today for former Green Party candidate for NY Governor, "Grandpa" Al Lewis, who died at the age of 95 on Friday. Lewis was a lifelong political activist, and his candidacy in 1998 helped the Green Party achieve ballot status. From the New York Times piece:

In 1998, just two years short of his 90th birthday, Mr. Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against Gov. George E. Pataki.

Mr. Lewis campaigned against the death penalty and called for reforming drug laws, while fighting an ultimately unsuccessful legal battle to have his name appear on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis." Though he did not defeat Mr. Pataki, he did collect more than 52,000 votes.

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Rose Nader, mother of two-time Green Party candidate for President Ralph Nader, has passed away at the age of 100. The cause was congestive heart failure. Like Ralph, her list of accomplishments to better humanity is many. Perhaps most interestingly is the story of one of her earliest lobbying efforts:

In the nineteen fifties, after the destructive hurricane and flood of Winsted in 1955 – the third disastrous flood there in thirty years- she famously pressed then Senator Prescott Bush in a public gathering to pledge to push for a dry dam by not letting go of his handshake until he had promised to do so. And it was built. No more floods since.

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The Winter 2006 issue of Green Pages is now available from the national office or online. The issue features some of the 2005 electoral successes for the Greens. A sampling:

• In New York, Greens had their best showing ever, including electing their fifth and sixth officials, Mary Jo Long to Afton Town Board and Mike Sellers mayor of Cobleskill Village.

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You may recall the gruesome murder two years ago of American businessman Nick Berg. He was captured and beheaded by Islamist extremists, an act that was filmed and sent around the world via the web.

Now Berg's father Michael, a peace activist, is running as a Green for Congress in Delware on an antiwar platform, a race apparently being targeted by the national party:

Scott McLarty, national media coordinator for the Green Party, called the Delaware race the Greens' "flagship" campaign in 2006. The liberal grass-roots party supports the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

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The Sierra Student Coalition recently named the Whitman College (WA) Greens its Group of the Month. Here's the reason why (from the Sierra Student Coalition Announcement list):

This month’s amazing activism and achievement award goes to the Whitman College Campus Greens. They have been tirelessly working since spring semester 2004 on a Campus Climate Challenge campaign to get their school to purchase renewable energy. Now over a year and many sleepless nights later, they have made Whitman Washington State’s first SSC school to purchase clean power. But that wasn’t good enough for the Greens. They were aiming for a 4% purchase, because at that time that was the requirement for recognition from the EPA's Green Power Partnership. In April 2005 they convinced 80% of their campus to support a $5 increase in tuition for the purpose of buying renewable energy. In response to the Greens high profile campaign, their school drafted a plan to spend $15,000 a year on renewable energy. As soon as this proposal is rubber-stamped by the school’s Board of Trustees Whitman will purchase approximately 20% of their energy from renewable sources. Congratulations to the Whitman Campus Greens. Your victory is a model for the Climate Challenge to follow! A box of SSC goodies is on its way.

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New York Green David Baldwin's article on what it will take for the Greens to come into more prominence has been widely circulated on the internet over the past month. That article has now been reprinted in the Pulse of the Twin Cities, a weekly alternative paper in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN that has given much friendly coverage to the Green Party over the past year.

Baldwin's article suggests that the Greens still have the potential to become an "electorally viable force":

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The Green Party of Minnesota will hold its annual Winter Membership Meeting this weekend in Roseville, MN. Greens from all over the state will head to the Twin Cities Metro Area, where Greens found some success in 2005 in electing Cam Gordon to the city council, and in running two surprisingly strong mayoral candidates in both Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The Winter Meeting, as is tradition in Minnesota, will be used primarily for workshops on issues and organizing, with an emphasis on upcoming March Caucuses in Minnesota.

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Jesse Mortenson, running for state house in St. Paul, Minnesota, was featured this past weekend in the Minneapolis Star Tribune because of his unique campaign kickoff menu:

Next month, Jesse Mortensen [sic], a Green Party member, will kick off his campaign for state representative with a vegan fundraising banquet...His campaign will be serving up an East Indian menu of chickpea and potato appetizer; a yellow lentil curry, rice, coconut spinach curry and puri, a bread used for dipping into curry.

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Elizabeth Dickinson and Farheen Hakeem - Green endorsed candidates for mayor in St. Paul and Minneapolis respectively - finished off a surprisingly successful year with a writeup in the Minnesota Women's Press, a widely circulated feminist newspaper. Both were named "Changemakers," an annual award of sorts given out by the paper to women who made a difference that year:

Dickinson’s and Hakeem’s campaigns showcased Minnesota’s Green Party as a valuable organization for progressive women candidates...The Green Party is great at promoting women, said Hakeem. “It was a great risk to nominate me. The Democrats wouldn’t do it. [The government] is bombing people who look like me. And the Republicans want to deport me,” she joked.

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