By Joseph Patrick Bulko
September 2006

Excerpt:

The plight of the Green politician, a David versus Goliath struggle, is perhaps best characterized by the U.S. Senate campaign of Kevin Zeese, Green candidate for U.S. Senate, who also received the nominations of both the Libertarian and Populist parties.

At 51 years of age and a 1980 graduate of the George Washington Law School, Zeese's professional life involves advocacy work for nonprofits. He embraced the Green Party back in 1996, when he became frustrated with the Democratic Party, which seemed intent on acting like Republicans.

Zeese has participated in three prior elections working on behalf of the Green Party: the 2002 Maryland House of Delegates race; the California gubernatorial circus eventually won by Arnold Schwarzenegger; and as press secretary and chief policy writer for Ralph Nader's 2004 presidential bid.

"While I am most known as a democracy and anti-war candidate because I co-founded TrueVoteMD.org, which advocates for a paper ballot with electronic voting, and lead a national anti-war group, DemocracyRising.US, and am a co-founder of VotersForPeace.org, I am also putting forward ideas that none of the leading Democrat or Republican candidates are discussing," he said.

Included is a tax plan where the first $100,000 in income is federal income tax free, and the $380 billion cost to the U.S. Treasury is made up by a tiny micro tax of one-tenth of 1% on the purchase of stocks, bonds, currency and derivatives.

"This raises $1.3 trillion which could be used to buy our country back from China, pay off our deficit and fund a transition to a 21st century economy where we are no longer dependent on fossil fuels, invest in U.S. infrastructure and provide free post-high school education to compete in the world economy," he explained.

"The Democrats and Republicans are two heads of the same party," declared Ed Boyd, Green Party nominee for Maryland Governor. "Elected officials are lazy and complacent, drunk with greed and big business money."

After serving his country for eight years in the United States Navy, Boyd was drawn to the plight of the homeless, many of whom were veterans. He worked with Mitch Snyder's Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) in Washington, D.C. "There was no money for coordinators for helping vets at home," he said. "That got me fired up."

The Baltimore resident, who works as a recruiter for a temporary employment agency, said the lack of support for "the working poor and vets got me involved in politics. I'm just a frustrated guy sick and tired of listening to politicians talking nonsense."

Boyd describes BGE's attempt to jack rates by 72% as "strong-arm robbery. Elected officials should do everything in their power to stop them. We need to kick them out of office because they aren't representing citizens' needs."

He calls for the conversion of BGE into a publicly owned utility, an issue neither of the two major parties will discuss, he said. Boyd advocates creating a single-payer health care system as an antidote to the constant rise of health care costs and the millions without health insurance.

The Importance of Green

They stand on principle, undeterred by the argument that they throw away their votes each election. Under-represented and out-financed, with merely 800 registered Greens in Anne Arundel County and about 450 in Howard, the Maryland Green Party offers an alternative to a two-party system the membership views as corrupt and co-opted by the interests of corporations.

Greens believe the current system, a money-controlled political duopoly, deprives ordinary citizens of their constitutionally guaranteed rights to representative government. Ecological wisdom, social justice and equal opportunity, grassroots democracy, nonviolence, decentralization of power and responsibility back to the local community, personal and global responsibility, and respect for diversity are some of the key principles underlying their policies.

Specifically, they seek a living wage for everyone, universal health care, redirecting billions of dollars in corporate welfare and excessive military spending to provide citizens and their communities with greater economic security and dignity, affordable housing for all, affirmative action, ending the brutal war on drugs and the racial violence our judicial system inflicts, and more.

On Being and Greenness

"In the Green Party, ideas come in at the local level and filter up," said Lise Mendel, who manages the Howard County Greens' web site and whose husband is Steve Kramer, co-chair of the national Green Party.

"There's a lot of stuff built into the system that doesn't work the way we expect," she said. Mendel offered Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), "an effort to make every vote count," as a means to allow more candidates, including independents and third parties, to get involved in a race without being accused of "spoiling" the elections.

IRV allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, providing an instant runoff recount in the case where there is no candidate with a majority of the vote. Also, because candidates would need to accumulate second and third place votes in order to win, they would have incentive to campaign less negatively to gain some of their opponents' voters.

"The two-party system makes it extremely difficult to have a voice in the states," said Myles Hoenig, Boyd's campaign manager. "Green Party values represent majority views. In Maryland, the vast majority opposes the Inter-County Connector, but both parties support it."

He explained that they have ties to developers and the labor unions see jobs resulting from the project. An alternative, which also creates jobs, is to "improve mass transit, add more buses and create a better shuttle system," he said. "Highways always create congestion."

What prevents Greens from being controlled by corporations? "We have a policy: no corporate money and no union money," Hoenig said. "We are not for sale. If the Green Party had elective say, there would be a halt [to development]. The two parties are too tied financially to developers. People are hungry for an alternative in Maryland. People are extremely angry."

The Greenness of Being

Nearly 25 Green Party candidates will appear on ballots across the state in November, said Karen Jennings, co-chair of the Anne Arundel Green Party. "People are feeling discouraged with the two major parties and they want to run [for office]." Many of them are running for the House of Delegates, with a few running for county council positions and congressional seats.

A geologist whose involvement in humanitarian and environmental activism began more than 10 years ago while in college, Jennings was drawn to the Green Party because of its principled commitment to such causes. "Greens accept no corporate or PAC money," she said. "We rely more on volunteers and door-knocking."

Some folks do not vote Green, despite believing in the party's platform, because they fear that they are throwing away their vote. Instituting IRV is a "much more democratic way to hold an election," she said. "This ensures that the winner has a majority of the vote."

Instead of limiting the number of parties on the ballot, Jennings said, "We should have a more democratic system by adding parties with IRV. We shouldn't be excluding parties and spoiling elections." The city of Takoma Park is using the method this year.

It's Not Easy Being Green

The plight of the Green politician, a David versus Goliath struggle, is perhaps best characterized by the U.S. Senate campaign of Kevin Zeese, Green candidate for U.S. Senate, who also received the nominations of both the Libertarian and Populist parties.

At 51 years of age and a 1980 graduate of the George Washington Law School, Zeese's professional life involves advocacy work for nonprofits. He embraced the Green Party back in 1996, when he became frustrated with the Democratic Party, which seemed intent on acting like Republicans.

Zeese has participated in three prior elections working on behalf of the Green Party: the 2002 Maryland House of Delegates race; the California gubernatorial circus eventually won by Arnold Schwarzenegger; and as press secretary and chief policy writer for Ralph Nader's 2004 presidential bid.

"While I am most known as a democracy and anti-war candidate because I co-founded TrueVoteMD.org, which advocates for a paper ballot with electronic voting, and lead a national anti-war group, DemocracyRising.US, and am a co-founder of VotersForPeace.org, I am also putting forward ideas that none of the leading Democrat or Republican candidates are discussing," he said.

Included is a tax plan where the first $100,000 in income is federal income tax free, and the $380 billion cost to the U.S. Treasury is made up by a tiny micro tax of one-tenth of 1% on the purchase of stocks, bonds, currency and derivatives.

"This raises $1.3 trillion which could be used to buy our country back from China, pay off our deficit and fund a transition to a 21st century economy where we are no longer dependent on fossil fuels, invest in U.S. infrastructure and provide free post-high school education to compete in the world economy," he explained.