> The Green Party in 2000 didn't do as well as many Green voters hoped,
> but it did receive nearly 3 million votes for its presidential ticket
> -- that's an impressive number for the second presidential campaign.
> The question that we should be asking is what we can do with *the
> power of 3 million people* who are opposed to the system that puts
> profit before people.
>
> ***** Green Party
> Year Pres. Candidate VP Candidate Total Votes
> 1996 Ralph Nader Winona LaDuke 684,872
> 2000 Ralph Nader Winona LaDuke 2,882,955
I'm all for the Greens running a candidate. It's Ralph Nader running as an independent for no good reason that I oppose.
The results of that election will give us some idea of whether the Green strategy of running a celebrity candidate actually helped build the party. It's not the only measure, but it's a measure nonetheless. I expect it'll be a disappointing one--certainly below the 2000 number, but possibly above the 1996 number. Over a million would surprise me pleasantly.
The count of elected Green officials is another measure, but much harder to use. My experience with such counts is that they're used as propaganda tools, not actual metrics. I know two of the three "elected Green officials" from Arkansas, and neither of them ran as Green candidates. Counting them is good propaganda, maybe, but bad measurement.
Equally, John Halle's characterization of Matt Gonzales in this sentence is problematic: "There are also now over 200 local officeholders, one of whom, the second highest elected official in San Francisco nearly became mayor." Keep in mind that Gonzales wasn't elected to be "the second highest elected official" in San Francisco, but to be one of the eleven members of the Board of Supervisors. Getting elected president of the board was a matter of politicking the other ten members and Willie Brown. Good for him for doing so, but it's not quite what that sentence makes it out to be.
I'm not keeping up with SF politics closely, but I do have a question: Did Gonzales last-minute entry into the race burn any of his bridges on the left? I know it pissed off his allies in the Democratic Party, but that's part of party politics. What did his candidacy do for the Greens in relation to others who are not aligned with the Democrats?
All the best,
John A