PGIC December Meeting: 12/2/07

Hello All,

There will be a Portland Greens business meetings on December 2nd- and there is a lot of business.
Meeting: Sunday Dec. 2nd, 5 PM, 103 Grant St. #1. (My apartment)
Tentative Agenda:

07 Election: Wins, Loses, what worked and what did not.

08 Elections: We have plenty of seats that we should field candidates for. Just a few to think over as to whether to contest of not, and if so who:
House seats: 113 (Braughtigam) 114 (Marley), 115 (Cummings *TERMED OUT*), 116 (Harlow), 117(Haskell), 118 (Hinck), 119 (Adams), 120 (Rand)

Senate: 8 (Strimling- open) 9. (Brannigan)

City Council: Suslovic's At Large seat, Leeman District 4, Cohen District 5

School Committee: Susan Hopkins At Large (Green, has stated she will not run for re-elect), District 4 (Gramlich) District 5 Coyne

Water district Trustee: Erek Gaines: Green has stated he would like to run again.

There may be more seats we want to discuss.

As Per the change in the bylaws in the spring, my term as chairman will expire with the commencement of this meeting, so we will need to decide who should take over as chair of the Portland greens. I will not seek another term as I intend to run for office in November.

Please tell any and all registered Greens about this meeting, I will attempt to call folks who have come to meetings in the past, although I unfortunately do not have a comprehensive phone list.

Dan Jenkins
Chair
233-9476
dajenkin@gmail.com

MAINE GREENS HOST CYNTHIA McKINNEY DAY AFTER ELECTIONS

MAINE GREEN INDEPENDENT PARTY
http://www.mainegreens.org

For Immediate Release

November 15, 2007

Contact:
Jane Meisenbach, Chair, (207) 883-0509, (207) 841-9138 (cell);
mainejane@suscom-maine.net
Pat LaMarche, Delegate (207) 671-0190 (cell); patlamarche@hotmail.com


Cynthia McKinney Files to Run for President as a Green

McKinney in Maine raising awareness and funds in the Nation's Green
Party stronghold.

Harpswell, Maine - Cynthia McKinney, former six-term Democrat
Congresswoman from Georgia and first African-American woman to
represent Georgia in the U.S. House, was a guest at a breakfast
gathering of mostly Greens at the home of Green Independent Party
Chair, Jane Meisenbach. It was one of the first stops on McKinney's
campaign tour since filing with the Federal Elections Commission
declaring her run for president on the Green Party ticket.

McKinney, who had recently moved to California, changing her party
affiliation from Democrat to Green Party, explained to those gathered
that with the critical issues facing the country, the values and the
platform of the Green Party made the most sense and were most aligned
with her own values and platform.

"It is high time that we get down to the work that will make all
people feel included in an American society that benefits everyone,"
said McKinney. "There is so much we can do to significantly reduce
poverty, address this country's crumbling infrastructure, create
meaningful jobs, provide quality health care for all, mend foreign
relations, deal with climate change and re-prioritize dynamics of war
and conflict."

"My campaign will draw many women, people of color and disaffected
voters from every party into the Green Party," McKinney continued. "I
don't care if someone is red, black, white, brown, yellow or polka
dot," she exclaimed. "I will work with anyone."

McKinney said she had recently returned from a visit to the Austrian
Green Party where they have transformed a city into a model green
society with zero global warming. She described several primary
issues of her campaign, including creating a greatly expanded job
market to repair the infrastructure that is dangerously declining
coast to coast, rehabilitating and building new structures with green
materials and technology and developing other sustainable
technologies. Reducing war budgets and allocating funds to these and
other projects would result in a swing upward for America.

Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of Global Network Against Weapons and
Nuclear Power in Space, attended the event. Gagnon, not a Green,
addressed the gathering and declared that he was switching to the
Green Party so he could support McKinney's campaign.

"Cynthia defines winning as helping to build the Green Party into a
viable party," said Gagnon. "That gives future generations a place to
go for political expression and change. Her ability to attract women,
people of color and disaffected Democrats and Republicans will surely
provide the Green Party the kind of boost they have long needed," he
said. "How many times have I heard activists ask, 'How do we develop
connections to the Black community so we can work together?,'" Gagnon
asked. "Now is our chance."

McKinney spent election day helping Green candidates in Portland and
attended their election night victory celebration. Green, John Anton,
won his campaign for Portland City Council, defeating long-time
incumbent, Jim Cloutier and coming in first, ahead of another
incumbent, Jill Dusan. Anton joins Greens David Marshall and Kevin
Donoghue on the City Council.

For more information:

http://www.mainegreens.org

http://www.runcynthiarun.org


* * * *

Election Returns: Big Win on Council, Lose seat on School Committee

Portland Greens raised their number of elected city councilors to three in the non-partisan city council. John Anton came in first for two seats with 29% of the total vote, incumbent Jill Duson was returned to the council as well. John Anton will join district 1 Councilor Kevin Donoghue and district 2 Councilor Dave Marshall on the council. While the council is technically non partisan, party affiliation is well known. On December third, when Mr. Anton is sworn in the board will be made up of five Democrats, three Greens, and one Republican. Before the election in 2006 the board was made up of eight Democrats and one Republican.
A second Green candidate, Captain Bill Linnell, came in second of four for the open district three council seat. Bill ran a good competitive campaign garnering 24.1% to winner Dan Skolnik's 33.5%, also running was Tony Donovan (24%) and Richard Farnsworth (18.4%). Skolnik, Donovan and Farnsworth are Democrats.

School Committee races were not as kind to the Portland Green Party. Two Term incumbent Ben Meiklejohn was turned out in a race for two seats. Ben came in fifth out of five with 13% of the total vote. A second registered Green came in fourth with 14%. Greens stake on the committee, with this election has been decreased from 3 to 2 of the nine member non-partisan board. Greens Rebecca Minnick and Susan Hopkins remain on the School Committee.

Portland Greens: Competitive Elections are not Chaos

11/1/07

As chair of the Portland Green Independent Committee I am proud of the Green candidates who are running for office. I reject the negative direction the campaign has taken due to the large independent expenditures of some big-name Democrats. Further I disagree with the premise of his argument: Greens do not cause chaos, we help foster democracy and competition.

Portland Greens are a diverse group, and as such often do not agree among themselves. This can be seen in any given board where there is more than one Green. Councilors Kevin Donoghue and Dave Marshall do not simply vote in lockstep, they often disagree and are sometimes quite vocal about it. A perfect example of such was the resolution for impeachment of President George W. Bush- Dave Co-Sponsored the resolution (with Democrat Jill Duson) in what he thought was a proper venue to call for impeachment, Kevin voted nay due to his belief that the people of Portland should make this known through referendum rather than a resolution. This is natural and normal, disagreement is good, debate is better, and collaboration to consensus is best. Disagreement within a party only helps that party to address issues that are important, allows for more open and honest debate and will ultimately lead to better policy decisions than fear and party line voting will. Greens are not browbeaten when they take principled stands that other Greens disagree with.

This year’s crop of municipal Greens are focused on winning due to their ideas, their enthusiasm and their vision of Portland for the future. There is nothing wrong with pointing out your differences candidly; there is everything wrong with baseless smear ads. It is a sad day when the Democratic machine can find no positive way to support their candidates. I believe, and I’d wager that most Portlanders believe that negative campaigns hinder the democratic process and fail to further a positive discourse that is healthy for our city and in the best interest of Portland’s citizens.

Perhaps the least important argument I will make here is that These Greens do not cause chaos. Greens contribute to a relatively new phenomenon in Portland- competitive elections. If that is chaos to some, perhaps it is the best kind- democracy. Democrats have nothing to fear from an open and honest dialogue. If people like what they say they will win, if people don’t they will lose, but there will always be another election, this is a city with far more registered Democrats than Greens. People in Portland are voting for Greens because they want a school committee and a city council that is not just a political rubberstamp. Further, any policies that have been advocated by Greens here in Portland have had at least some support from Democrats. Why is this? Because Democrats have held a majority (a super-majority in most cases) on every elected board in the city! With military recruitment- Greens earned the support of Democrats, using metro busses for high school students- Democrats also supported it. Creation of a business diversity task force- Tri partisan support! In that case the two Council Greens formed a voting bloc with two Democrats and the lone Republican. Instead of calling this chaos this should be called a blueprint for making good public policy- inclusion of all political opinions to create the best ordinance that suits the most people.

Portland Greens: Bringing Portland Competitive Elections since 2001

Dan Jenkins

Chair

Portland Green Independent Committee

207 233 9476