Sunday, November 30, 2014

On Local Level, Greens Score Victories and Strong Showings

To follow up on the entry from November 7, here is an incomplete list of contenders of the Green Party who garnered 5% of the vote or more in races that ended on Nov. 4 for county, city and town offices(Because many counts have not concluded, some of these percentages might not be final.)

Green candidates in nonpartisan elections
Dan Hamburg re-elected to Board of Supervisors of Mendocino County, CA*
Bruce Delgado re-elected mayor of Marina, CA
The sunflower is a symbol
of the Green Party.
(Jim Pisarowicz / NPS)
Gayle McLaughlin re-elected to Council of Richmond, CA
Michael Beilstein re-elected to Council of Corvallis, OR
John Keener re-elected to Council of Pacifica, CA 
Paul Pitino elected to Council of Arcata, CA
Jonathan Ault elected to Council of Gardiner, ME
Deborah Heatherstone elected to Council of Point Arena, CA
John Eder elected to Bd. of Education of Portland, ME
Eric Petersen: 35% for Council of Salinas, CA
Mark Iacuaniello: 18% for Council of Fort Bragg, CA ‡
Chrystal Coleman: 17% for Council of Vista, CA
Jane Rands: 13% for Council of Fullerton, CA §
Juan Fernandez: 13% for Council of Arcata
James Brown: 12% for Bd. of Supvrs. of Lake County, CA*
John Johns: 8% for Council of Ukiah, CA #
Jack Wagner: 7% for Council of Sonoma, CA #
Michael Feinstein: 6% for Council of Santa Monica, CA~
Eddie Pfau: 5% for Court of Common Pleas of Franklin County, OH

Green nominees
Thomas Mair: 44% for Bd. of Commissioners of Grand Traverse County, MI
Erika Martinez: 43% for commissioner of Webb County, TX
Wayne Vermilya: 42% for Bd. of Comrs. of Presque Isle County, MI
Sarah Molenaar: 21% for Bd. of Comrs. of Kalamazoo County, MI
Douglas Lary^: 18% for registrar of voters of Windham, CT
David Collins: 17% for Court of Harris County, TX
Schyler Butler: 17% for clerk of Denton County, TX
Luis Decker: 15% for commissioner of Webb County
Jesus Quiroz: 15% for treasurer of Webb County
Frank Cortez: 13% for Court of Webb County
Thaddeus Hanser: 12% for Probate Court of Stamford, CT
Matthew Hanson: 10% for clerk of Comal County, TX
Dianna Strickland: 8% for Commission of Kanawha County, WV

*In primary held June 3
^Ran also on the Bottom Line slate
Five-way race for two seats
Five-way, three seats
§Seven-way, two seats
#Eight-way, three seats
~Fourteen-way, three seats

Monday, November 17, 2014

Dems Stay So Conservative, or Become Moreso, at Their Peril

As President Obama has headed the Democratic Party for over six years, some of his defenders have helped to shore up his support among liberals by falsely arguing this nation would not tolerate an agenda that is any further to the left than his.  That argument is easily disproved by polling, yet now bolsters the notion that the party should react to their failure in this month's midterm elections by moving even closer toward the Republicans' conservative policies instead of, for the first time in several cycles, offering a clear alternative to them.

Although Obama, since 2012, has caught up with the public on marriage equality, on certain proposed regulations of guns, and on George W. Bush's tax cuts for households that have an income of over $450,000 per year, the current chief executive remains to the right of most of the people of the US on numerous critical issues, as the following graphic shows.  Democrats should consider this before continuing to follow his lead as their party decides how to move onward.


Sunday, November 9, 2014

Why the Discrepancy?

The re-election of Rep. Scott DesJarlais MD (R-TN) -- who is anti-choice -- after he was fined for (extramarital) sexual relationships with his patients, one of whom he encouraged to have an abortion, demonstrates continuation of the...

Photo Credits - Condit, Vitter, Weiner, Sanford: Congressional Pictorial Directory; Massa, Wu:
Collection of the US House of Representatives; Schwarzenegger, Spitzer: Dept. of State;
Craig, Edwards: US Senate Historical Office; Gingrich: Dept. of Education

Friday, November 7, 2014

On Election Day, Greens Continued to Prove Viable

In the general election cycle of 2014, the candidacy I watched most closely was of Howie Hawkins for governor of New York.  He drew nearly quadruple the percentage he did when he sought said office in 2010.  In both contests, he ran on the slate of the Green Party and finished third among the gubernatorial nominees.  This time, eight lines on the ballot had a ticket for governor and lieutenant governor that received enough votes to secure, for its line, a row on the ballot for every partisan election in NY over the next four years.  Because the Green ticket placed fourth, its line rose from Row F to Row D.  (The Conservative Party cross-nominated the Republican ticket and placed third.)

Numerous Greens did well in and, in some cases, won local elections this year.  But for now, I pieced together this possibly incomplete list of Green nominees for federal and state office who garnered 5% of the vote or more in races that ended on Tuesday.  Some percentages may not be final, as counts often take weeks or months to complete.

Hawkins (gp.org)
For Congress
Paul Blair: 18% in TX3
Antonio Diaz: 15% in TX21
Daniel Vila Rivera: 13% in NY13 
Matthew Funiciello: 11% in NY21 
Robert Smith: 7% in TN1 
Nancy Wade: 6% in IL5 
Paula Bradshaw: 6% in IL12
Barry Hermanson: 6% in CA12* 
Michael Cary: 5% in TX28

For State Judicial or State Executive Office
Matthew Donohue elected to Circuit Court for Dist. 21 of OR
Judith Sanders-Castro: 10% for Criminal Appeals Court of TX
George Altgelt: 9% for Criminal Appeals Court of TX
Jim Chisolm: 9% for Supreme Court of TX
Ellen Brown*: 7% for treasurer of CA
Laura Wells*: 6% for controller of CA
Howie Hawkins: 5% for governor of NY 
Catherine Damavandi: 5% for attorney general of DE

For State Legislature - SD: Senate District, HD: House (of Reps./Dels.) Dist., AD: Assembly Dist.
Lauren Besanko: 28% for HD39 in ME
Owen Hill: 27% for SD28 in ME
Martin Wirth: 25% for SD2 in CO
Paige Brown: 24% for HD97 in ME
Keiko Bonk: 23% for HD20 in HI
Daniel Lutz: 22% for HD66 in WV
Cedric Gates: 22% for HD44 in HI
Mark Myers: 19% for HD11 in WV
Bonnie Troy: 19% for HD135 in CT
David McCorquodale: 19% for HD21 in DE
Frederick Horch: 18% for SD24 in ME
Asher Platts: 18% for SD27 in ME
Amy Balderrama: 17% for SD23 in TN
David Courard-Hauri: 17% for HD41 in IA
Samuel Chandler: 17% for HD36 in ME
Wells
("Democracy Now!")
Sue Edward: 15% for HD114 in SC
Lisa Willey: 15% for HD66 in ME
Paul Ingmundson: 14% for HD123 in TX
Lena Buggs: 14% for HD65A in MN
Matthew Went: 14% for HD84 in CT
Edward Heflin: 13% for SD36 in CT
Nicolas Serna III: 12% for HD42 in TX
David Bedell: 12% for HD125 in CT
Alice Knapp: 12% for SD23 in ME
Mark Diehl: 11% for SD29 in ME
Daniel Stromgren: 11% for HD54 in ME
Marco Buentello: 10% for HD80 in TX
Kelly Hanna: 10% for HD122 in CT
Andrew Reddy: 10% for HD33 in ME
Arthur Browning: 9% for HD130 in TX
Mark Holsinger: 9% for HD54 in TN
Daniel Robinson: 9% for HD20 in MD
Pamela Elizondo*: 9% for AD2 in CA
John Lindblad*: 8% for SD18 in CA
Paul Gilman: 8% for SD11 in NY 
Morgan Bradford: 8% for HD146 in TX
Michael Wakefield: 8% for HD23 in ME
Elaine Mastromatteo: 6% for HD64 in OH
Randall Parr: 6% for HD95 in ME
Alexander Polikoff: 5% for HD23 in OR

*Green candidate in nonpartisan primary held June 3

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Review of the Gubernatorial Debate in New York

Election Day is this Tuesday.  In the race for governor of the Empire State, Republican Democratic nominee Status-Quomo -- I mean Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Robert Astorino jointly agreed to only one debate.  Included were Green nominee Howie Hawkins and Libertarian nominee Michael McDermott.  Because Cuomo is the incumbent and I back Hawkins, this recap of the event focuses on those two contenders.

Cuomo proclaimed in his opening statement, "[W]e have Democrats and Republicans working together again."  However, his conspiracy has helped give to the Democrats in the state legislature no choice but to compromise with their Republican colleagues in order to pass legislation.

The flag of NY in front of the State Capitol.
(nysenate.gov)
Hawkins remarked in his opening statement, "I call for a Green New Deal for New York...  Real solutions cannot wait.  The time for real change has come."

Cuomo soon touted some of his right-wing credentials, bragging that he has brought about the lowest corporate tax rate since 1968 and that, "We just won an award because, from a business point of view, NY went from #25 to #4 according to a conservative organization that studies taxes."  In an embrace of long-discredited propaganda of Reaganomics, he added, "So we've brought down taxes and that has brought up jobs -- 511,000 new jobs.  This state has more jobs than it has ever had."

Given the growth in population, growth in the mere number of jobs is unimpressive when one considers that the state's unemployment rate exceeds the national average.

Hawkins responded, "Trickle-down corporate welfare does not trickle down to workers and small businesses.  What we need is a bottom-up, full-employment, wage-led economic development policy that raises demand, [which] gives real incentive to business to invest and hire."  The Marine Corps veteran continued, "[T]he best way we can do that is to commit to 100% clean energy over the next 15 years...  [A] peer-reviewed study from researchers at Cornell and Stanford says if we were to do that, we would create 4.5 million... middle-income jobs in construction and manufacturing and would cut electric rates in half."

The Teamster further added, "Take healthcare off the business budget via a single-payer system for the state.  And... restor[e] the progressive taxes we had in the 1970s and the revenue sharing we had then.  Local governments would receive eight times as much [state aid] as they do now.  They could lower their property taxes and still pay for their schools and services."

Cuomo, although he accused Astorino of hypocrisy on hydrofracking, again refused to take a position on it until after the election.  Cuomo insulted our intelligence when he said, "Academic studies come out all different ways.  Let the experts decide."

Hawkins
("Democracy Now!")
His feigned ignorance was rebutted in Hawkins's next statement: "[W]e should ban fracking because it endangers the climate.  Burned gas heats up the planet because of the release of carbon and of methane, and pollutes water and land.  We already know that...  Five percent of fracking wells fail as soon as they're drilled, 50% within 15 years, according to a study of 41,000 wells drilled in southwest Pennsylvania recently.  Mr. Cuomo says he is waiting for the science.  But when some science came back from the US Geological Survey, his administration wanted to change the results."

McDermott espoused the idea of legalization of industrial hemp.  He explained that it "can't be smoked but can create jobs.  It has four crops a year, ...[and] needs no pesticides.  The cotton industry dislikes industrial hemp because it can be made into cheaper and better clothes."  (Hawkins's platform includes the same measure.)

Despite a request by Astorino, Cuomo did not disclose whether he has been subpoenaed as part of the federal investigation into his conduct with regard to the anti-corruption Moreland Commission.

Hawkins pledged to re-impanel it and to push for a system of clean financing of election campaigns, and argued that in order to reduce conflicts of interest, state "legislators should be banned from outside income.  They should work full-time for us."  He later stated, "Mr. Cuomo has sometimes said the Moreland panel was independent.  At other times, he said because he created it, he had the right to shut it down...  You have to wonder why he did..."

With the endorsement of the Buffalo Teachers Federation, the Plainview - Old Bethpage Congress of Teachers, the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Assoc., the Valley Central Teachers Assoc., the Lakeland Federation of Teachers, the East Williston Teachers Assoc. and fmr. US asst. secy. of Education Diane Ravitch PhD, Hawkins told us he, unlike Cuomo, opposes Common Core.  Hawkins explained, "I hear from a lot of teachers, students and parents that... this whole package is a regime of tests and punishment, not of support and improvement, narrows the curriculum, dumbs down to filling in bubbles, and ignores a lot of other things about education: ...questioning, collaboration, cooperative projects.  I want for local parents, teachers and school boards to make the decisions about curriculum."

Hawkins's running mate
is educator Brian Jones.
("Democracy Now!")
Astorino pointed out that Cuomo "tried to swipe $5[11]M from a... clean-water fund" in order to finance construction on the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Hawkins noted, "Rather than go to Wall St. and pay huge finance charges, a way to more economically finance infrastructure would be to have a state bank like North Dakota does.  The interest and principal would go back into the public treasury."

Astorino reminded us that Cuomo, although he claims to be a champion of women's rights, "disrespects women by supporting [Speaker] Shelly Silver, who used $500,000 in state money as a hush-money coverup for sexual assaults in the Assembly."  The county executive of Westchester added that "as attorney general, Cuomo signed off [on] and defended Silver's right to do that."

Hawkins articulated his stance against expansion of charter schools, elaborating, "Public schools fail because we're the most segregated state in the US, ...we have concentrated poverty, ...those problems come into the schools, ...they don't get the resources they need, ...then they're defined as failed by this high-stakes testing, ...then they're turned over to charters, where... there are a bunch of hedge-fund investors who take advantage of federal tax credits and make money even though those charters are nominally nonprofit.  This is a cannibalization of our public school system.  I'm for full and equitable funds for public schools."

McDermott observed, "Charter schools," which are supported by Cuomo, "are publicly-funded schools that have no local control."

Cuomo gave a non-answer to the question about this issue, then maintained his opposition to legalization of recreational marijuana, but Hawkins made the case "for the legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana like Washington State and Colorado now have," explaining, "We have an enormous problem of tens of thousands of people imprisoned irrationally for nonviolent possession of and use of marijuana.  That imprisonment has destroyed communities, families, and individuals' opportunities in life, and is targeted at black and Latino communities so that -- while blacks, whites and Latinos use drugs at the same levels -- 94% of prisoners in the state penitentiaries who are there because of drug offenses are black or Latino.  For nonviolent drug offenders... and those who have gone through the system, I would provide clemency so they would not be branded when they go for housing, jobs and education.  I also call for a truth, justice and reconciliation commission to examine the damages and then make recommendations for how we can put these communities and families back together."

Hawkins, in his closing statement, pitched a living minimum wage of $15 per hour and a tax plan that would mean relief for 95% of the state's taxpayers but a 20% increase in revenue.  "I'm polling at 9%.  That's a record for a... progressive third-party candidate in NY history in a statewide election.  But we can go much higher," he said.  "If we get out the vote, and vote for what we want, we can win this election.  Vote Green."