[Sosfbay-discuss] Greens hope anger over war opens doors (SF Chronicle)

[JamBoi]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/28/BAG9IM1UTI1.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea
Greens hope anger over war opens doors (SF Chronicle)

San Francisco Chronicle
CALIFORNIA 
Saturday, October 28, 2006 Greens hope anger over war opens doors Party
urges voters to use ballot to send 'powerful message'
John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer

For California's Green Party, the new radio ad for their candidate for
governor, Peter Camejo, says it all. 

"The polls show that the race for governor is over," Camejo says in the
30-second commercial. "A vote for the Democrat will send no message,
but a vote for the Green Party, which opposes war, the Patriot Act ...
would be a powerful message to vote for peace.'' 

Up and down the Green Party ticket, candidates are scrambling to use
Californians' growing disaffection with the war in Iraq to draw
progressive Democrats and independent liberals to their party 
in November. 

"I'm running for Congress to impeach the president,'' said Krissy
Keefer, who's challenging Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi for her San
Francisco congressional seat. "People are very, very unhappy with
(Pelosi's) leadership in this town." 

Todd Chretien, the Green candidate for U.S. Senate, wants to
immediately pull U.S. troops out of Iraq and argues that a vote for him
instead of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein would "send a shot across
the bows of the Democratic Party'' and let them know how serious the
anti-war effort is. 

But the ad also shows that in the governor's race, like all state and
national Green Party campaigns, the emphasis continues to be more about
fighting the good ideological fight than actually winning an election. 

"We could draw between 40 percent and 60 percent of the Democrats who
agree more with us than they do with Phil Angelides," the Democratic
candidate for governor, Camejo said. "But we're not in a position to
win, so we don't get that support.'' 

Despite the anti-war feeling in the state, it has been tougher than
ever for the Greens to get their message out, said Camejo, who ran for
governor in 2002 and in the 2003 recall election. 

In 2003, when Camejo turned in a strong performance in a televised
debate with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger and three other rivals in
the recall, "the attention poured in,'' the 66-year-old Folsom resident
said. But this year, "our voice cannot be heard,'' especially after
Camejo was not allowed to join Schwarzenegger and Angelides in the lone
governor's debate. 

Camejo's disappointment isn't unusual for the Green Party. In its 24
years on the California ballot, the party's only win in a partisan
election came in 1999, when Audie Bock shocked Democrat Elihu Harris to
win the special election for an Oakland Assembly seat. 

The joy was short lived, though. Within months, Bock left the Green
Party to run for re-election as an independent, lost to Democrat Wilma
Chan in 2000, and reregistered as a Democrat. 

The party has had more success at the local level. San Francisco
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi is the highest ranking of the 62 Green Party
members holding office in California, and there are party members on
city councils in Sonoma, Fairfax, Moraga, Martinez, Napa, Richmond,
Berkeley and Sebastopol. 

But in state races, the party can do little more than talk about good
efforts. In June, for example, Sarah Knopp, a Los Angeles high school
teacher and Green Party member, finished second in the nonpartisan race
for superintendent of public instruction, pulling a record 695,000
votes for the party. But because incumbent Jack O'Connell, a Democrat,
took 52 percent of the vote, he won re-election without a November
runoff with Knopp. 

With 140,085 registered voters, the Greens represent less than 1
percent of the California electorate. They have fewer than half the
members of the American Independent Party, which was formed as part of
former Alabama Gov. George Wallace's run for president in 1968,
although more than the Libertarian, Natural Law and Peace and Freedom
parties, which also are qualified for the state 
ballot. 

Camejo ran ahead of the party registration with 5.3 percent of the vote
in 2002 and 2.8 percent in 2003. In the 2002 governor's race, he pulled
more votes than Republican Bill Simon in San Francisco, Oakland,
Berkeley, Fairfax, Santa Cruz and Sebastopol. 

"Progressives have to feel it's safe to vote for a Green candidate,"
Camejo said. "If the Green vote went to 10 percent, it would shock the
Democrats." 

That's why Camejo's ad, which will also show up in a 15-second TV
version, is aimed at convincing Democrats and other liberal voters that
they can back a Green candidate for governor without changing the final
outcome. 

Camejo's support might not make a dent in the governor's race, which
has two well-known candidates, but Green candidate Chretien could make
some ripples in the Senate race, in which Feinstein is expected to romp
to victory over former GOP state Sen. Dick Mountjoy of Monrovia (Los
Angeles County), who has little visibility and less money. But the
former San Francisco mayor's original votes for the war in Iraq and the
Patriot Act, along with her support of the death penalty, have some
progressive voters looking for an alternative on the left. 

Cres Vellucci, a Green Party spokesman, described Camejo's TV and radio
buy as "below modest," but he argued that the visibility provided by
the ads and others being run in state and legislative races is
important to the party. 

"It says that our candidates are running serious campaigns and that
they're in it to win," he said. "Chances are they're not going to, but
they act that way." 

Camejo described the process as "planting seeds: You're trying to reach
young people, create momentum, and get local people elected." 

The Green Party hopes those efforts can reach the people who are
looking for an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans, said
Forrest Hill, the Greens' candidate for secretary of state. 

"With many groups I talk to, they're not ready to vote Green," he said.
"But when you say that we need a viable third party, you get a standing
ovation." 

E-mail John Wildermuth at jwildermuth at sfchronicle.com

JamBoi
Jammy The Sacred Cow Slayer

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com


 
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