State Reports

Alaska
During a painful and slow slide into somnolence, the Green Party of Alaska (GPAK) lost ballot access when the verdict went against it in the court case vs. the state of Alaska. An injunction issued by the Hon. Stephanie Joannides had allowed GPAK to remain on the ballot for fall 2007’s elections.

GPAK’s website was reduced to a placeholder. Burnout was rampant throughout the party. However, GPAK has found a new Webmaster, revived its website, and with it, the party has found new life.

GPAK is concentrating on increasing its public presence in the hope of attracting members and reminding Alaskans there is a true progressive alternative in the state, with some success: The statewide list-serve is acquiring new members and has doubled its activity within the last few months. Blogs have been set up for the three major bioregions, and posting, while still irregular, has also increased.

Arizona
Come to Arizona before March 6th and the Green Party wins! Like the University of Arizona women’s basketball team, which played on Jan. 4 with only six players available, the Arizona Green Party is making a heroic effort toward ballot status. Party members have been putting themselves out there to get petition signatures. Rein forcements are needed. If you can’t come, send money, so we can pull some professional circulators off the bench and make the three point shots. Contact us at azgp.org. Send donations to Arizona Green Party P.O. Box 60173 Phoenix, AZ 85082

In addition to the ballot status efforts, Arizona Greens hosted Cynthia McKinney in an October shared fundraiser and they have invited other candidates. Members are working to sustain and revitalize county parties in rural counties. The party ran candidates for mayor Dave Croteau and council Beryl Baker in the November Tucson elections, who respectively captured 28 percent and 27 percent of the vote.

Greens who come to Arizona to help us with gaining ballot status will be housed and provided with transportation. You may have been the one to score that final point that ends the game victoriously. And with your help to succeed, then our Green Party presidential candidate gets on the ballot, as well as, our legislative candidates, congressional candidates, and statewide candidates.

Nebraska Green Party
The Green Party is spearheading coordination of a new Coalition for the Environment in Nebraska. The first project, organizing Earth Day 2008, will celebrate living on this planet. Environ mental organizations, private businesses, visual and performing artists, and ìgreenî advocacy groups are working together to create the April 20th event in Lincoln’s Antelope Park.

Nebraska Greens realize that, in order for people to start thinking about an alternative to Republicans and Democrats, they must be visible in many community and statewide peace, environmental, social justice, and pro-democracy groups. Greens wear Nebraska Green Party (NGP) shirts whenever possible and bring recycled cotton NGP grocery bags for shopping. It is important to create new patterns of thinking and acting as a simple reminder to others that there is an alternative to Washington insider political parties.

With the Steve Larrick campaign for U.S. Senate underway, the NGP recognizes it must use all forms of communication to get the word out about candidates and issues. Here is a partial list of ways NGP promotes itself and its candidates: a revised NGP website with sites on MySpace and Facebook; the ìGreen Focusî newsletter distributed in coffee houses and cooperating businesses in District 1 (Lincoln area); attending meetings and discussions at many community groups; conveying the Green spirit in personal communications with individuals; organizing specific events to energize voters and promote the idea there IS something people can actually DO to begin thinking about alternatives to violence, social injustice, discrimination, destruction of our environment, and corruption in the election process.

Desert Greens
It has been a busy fall for the Desert Greens Green Party of Utah. Co-Chair Deanna Taylor was a featured speaker at the Sep tember 29 Coalition anti-war event in Los Angeles, Troops Out Now! Her speech was well received by participants who wanted to learn more about the Green Party. See: http://gpuspeace.wordpress.com/page/9/

Desert Greens members also traveled to the School of the Americas Watch, annual Close the School of the Americas event in mid-November. Utah greens joined other greens at the event and helped with the Green Party table. See: http://www.desertgreens.org/soaw.html

Also the Desert Greens Green Party of Utah held its second annual Buy Nothing Day Winter Coat Drive in downtown Salt Lake City on November 23rd. The event doubled in size over the 2006 event with approximately 350 coats being donated and about 200 given away. Participants enjoyed live music and fellowship while learning the value of reducing consumerism, recycling and reusing. Left over coats were taken to Crossroads Urban Center Thrift Store, an advocacy organization for poverty issues. Two venues have already been secured for next year’s winter coat exchange, due to the growth of this year’s event. A special thanks to the Green Party of Rhode Island for the inspiration to do this!

Utah Greens continue to work on ballot access as of this writing and hope to be able to achieve the required status to run green candidates in 2008.

West Virginia Greens
The Mountain Party of West Virginia (WVMP) voted to officially join the Green Party of the United States at its state convention in July 2007. The first WVMP delegates to the GPUS, Karen Grubb and Jesse Johnson, attended the national Green Party convention July 2007 in Reading, PA.

WVMP chair Johnson is a GPUS candidate for president of the United States and formerly ran for West Virginia governor and U.S. senator. WVMP secretary Grubb is active in wilderness and energy-related issues with the West Virginia Environ mental Council (WVEC) and Sierra Club.

The Mountain Party first gained ballot status after 18 months of effort by hundreds of volunteers to place their first candidate for governor on the state ballot in 2000. The party surpassed the one percent requirement for party status when 1.6 percent of the total vote for governor went to novelist Denise Giardina. Jesse Johnson, using the ballot line won by Giardina, polled 2.5 percent for governor in 2004, preserving Mountain Party ballot access.

WVMP vice-chair Bob Henry Baber, poet, artist, and former candidate for governor, was the first Mountain Party member elected to public office when he became mayor of Richwood, WV in 2004. Former WVMP chair Gary Zuckett and WVMP treasurer Frank Young, also GPUS alternate delegate, are counted among those most responsible for the continuation of the Mountain Party as the only official third party in West Virginia. They both have a long history of involvement with a number of organizations that promote social and environmental issues in West Virginia.

In December 2004, when the WV Mountain Party endorsed the national Voter’s Bill of Rights, which called for a fair and accurate recount of the presidential race in Ohio and other states, Zuckett stated, ìVoting is the bedrock of our democracy. When the accuracy and accessibility of our voting is in question, it rocks the foundation of our nation.î Zuckett currently works to represent the public interest before the state legislature as the executive director of the WV Citizens Action Group.

In 2006 Young was presented with the WVEC Mother Jones Award for two decades of environmental activism with the WV Highlands Conservancy. Recently Young has been working in support of wind turbines and net metering to reduce West Virginia’s reliance on coal.