[Sosfbay-discuss] GPCA Voter Registration falls yet again

[Wes Rolley]

The data at the end of this was posted today to the grns-cal-forum by Mike 
Feinstein.

I have not responded there, but I want to put in my .02 here about the reasons 
why this happens.

I believe that one primary reason for declining numbers is the fact that Green 
Activists continue to focus on the major national issues and are often 
disconnected with local politics and local issue.  Every single Green that I 
know of who has been elected or who has made a major difference in their 
district has done it by being responsive to local needs and finding Green 
Solutions to those needs.

- The local ramification is that we need to take on some of the local, in the 
pockets of the developers, politicians if we want to keep the public aware of 
the party.  My prime candidates for 2006 might be Assemblyman Coto or County 
Supervisor Don Gage.  I would have put Ron Gonzalez in the list of "in the 
pockets of the developers" targets if he were not going to be term limited out.

- The best recent example is that of Gloria Mattera, running for Brooklyn 
Borough President.  Basing her campaign on the local issue of neighborhood 
busting development, funded by public giveaways and back door payments to 
politicians, she made a major impact, garnered support from other candidates and 
while Gloria did not win against the Democratic Party machine, every one of 
those other candidates was elected to City Council offices by large majorities.

The second reason we are falling is the lack of a well known, always good for a 
sound bite, public spokesperson.  In the past, Camejo and Medea Benjamin have 
been those people.  You see how the major media flock to celebrity.  However 
dedicated they are, however hard they work, however much good they do, Beth 
Moore Haines and Sara Amir can not compete with Rob Reiner and William Beaty or 
even Republican  Duff Sundheim as spokespersons for this party.

The third reason we are failing is that the effort to become the political voice 
of all progressives will doom us to failure.  The proper strategy is not to 
out-progressive the Democrats but rather the strictly adhere to the 10 key 
values of this party and let the chips fall wherever they may. That may mean 
siding with Republicans, as Medea did with Tom Campbell.

I read yesterday of a Republican calling for the return of his party to their 
original (I almost said traditional) values, those values were:
- fiscal responsibility with the goal of balanced budgets,
- progressive taxation,
- environmental protection,
- freedom of individual choices,
- limited powers of the federal government,
- paper-verification of voting results,
- judicial independence,
- prohibition of torture of prisoners and
- separation of church and state.

They sound mildly Green.  If the Republican Party had stayed with those values 
that I remember from my youth, I would probably still be a Republican.  They did 
not and I am not.

-- 

The October 24th voter registation totals are out

http://ss.ca.gov/elections/ror_10242005.htm

and we fell another tenth of a percent, down to 0.92%.

For more information on long-term Green voter registration trends, see

http://greens.org/stats

County	Green
	
Alameda	13,956
Percent	1.98%
	
Alpine	15
Percent	1.85%
	
Amador	153
Percent	0.75%
	
Butte	2,198
Percent	1.92%
	
Calaveras	316
Percent	1.19%
	
Colusa	22
Percent	0.28%
	
Contra Costa	4,386
Percent	0.89%
	
Del Norte	122
Percent	0.95%
	
El Dorado	1,187
Percent	1.13%
	
Fresno	1,592
Percent	0.49%
	
Glenn	43
Percent	0.36%
	
Humboldt	4,392
Percent	5.37%
	
Imperial	123
Percent	0.23%
	
Inyo	113
Percent	1.06%
	
Kern	810
Percent	0.27%
	
Kings	120
Percent	0.25%
	
Lake	464
Percent	1.39%
	
Lassen	63
Percent	0.44%
	
Los Angeles	25,507
Percent	0.66%
	
Madera	222
Percent	0.45%
	
Marin	3,522
Percent	2.41%
	
Mariposa	164
Percent	1.44%
	
Mendocino	2,390
Percent	4.89%
	
Merced	297
Percent	0.33%
	
Modoc	30
Percent	0.54%
	
Mono	131
Percent	1.91%
	
Monterey	1,429
Percent	0.90%
	
Napa	959
Percent	1.41%
	
Nevada	1,642
Percent	2.56%
	
Orange	8,243
Percent	0.55%
	
Placer	1,279
Percent	0.72%
	
Plumas	128
Percent	0.91%
	
Riverside	2,931
Percent	0.38%
	
Sacramento	5,950
Percent	0.94%
	
San Benito	154
Percent	0.62%
	
San Bernardino	3,036
Percent	0.40%
	
San Diego	9,810
Percent	0.71%
	
San Francisco	13,146
Percent	3.07%
	
San Joaquin	934
Percent	0.34%
	
San Luis Obispo	2,173
Percent	1.40%
	
San Mateo	3,800
Percent	1.08%
	
Santa Barbara	2,469
Percent	1.33%
	
Santa Clara	6,211
Percent	0.81%
	
Santa Cruz	4,742
Percent	3.32%
	
Shasta	550
Percent	0.60%
	
Sierra	21
Percent	0.95%
	
Siskiyou	261
Percent	1.00%
	
Solano	921
Percent	0.55%
	
Sonoma	6,656
Percent	2.76%
	
Stanislaus	879
Percent	0.40%
	
Sutter	142
Percent	0.34%
	
Tehama	132
Percent	0.44%
	
Trinity	138
Percent	1.83%
	
Tulare	522
Percent	0.39%
	
Tuolumne	316
Percent	0.96%
	
Ventura	3,044
Percent	0.80%
	
Yolo	1,719
Percent	1.89%
	
Yuba	190
Percent	0.67%
	
	
State Total	146,865
Percent	0.92%
_______________________________________________
cal-forum mailing list
cal-forum at marla.cagreens.org
http://marla.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/cal-forum



-- 
"I find I have a great lot to learn – or unlearn. I seem to know far too much 
and this knowledge obscures the really significant facts, but I am getting on." 
-- Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Wesley C. Rolley
17211 Quail Court
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408)778-3024
http://www.refpub.com/