San Jose Mercury News Misrepresents Prop 14's affect on Green Party

This is a letter I sent to the Editorial Board of the San Jose Mercury News.

Subject: Concern with your misrepresentation of Green Party in your Prop 14 endorsement

April 25th, 2010

Dear Ed Clendaniel and Randall Keith, San Jose Mercury News Editorial Board

I am a former Mayor and City Councilmember in Santa Monica and a current co-chair of the Green Party of the US. I want to express deep concern from a journalistic standpoint about how your paper portrayed the Green Party in your endorsement of Proposition 14.

As you may know, Green Parties all over the world thrive where they operate under more fair and representative electoral systems than we have in California (and the US.) If California Greens believed that operating under Prop 14 would more accurately reflect the real support in the electorate for green policies and positions than our the current system, we would likely support it.

However, the Green Party of California unconditionally opposes Prop 14, both because it discriminates against green minded voters and because it reduces choice and voice for California voters as a whole. Many of our party's members find it distasteful at best that supporters and endorsers of Prop 14 (like your paper) feel they can tell California's smaller independent parties that Prop 14 is good for them, when Prop 14 is designed to eliminate our voice and knock us off the ballot.

Specifically your editorial stated: "The top-two primary system is opposed by both major parties, since it would diminish their power. They also say it would exclude third parties from the general election — but the only member of the Green Party ever sent to the Assembly, Audie Bock of Oakland, was elected after an open primary."

This is deceptively misleading. It not just that the Democrats and Republicans say that Prop 14 would exclude California's smaller independent parties - it is those parties themselves that say this. The Libertarians, Greens and Peace & Freedom Party all oppose Prop 14.

If you want to advocate for Prop 14 that is your right. But when you state what you believe its likely impact will be on parties like the Greens, you have a responsibility as editors to say that the Green Party does not share that view. Instead you conveniently omitted this fact and tried to discredit this concern about Prop 14 by playing upon a faux anti-establishment populism against Democrats and Republicans.

Furthermore, your Audie Bock reference is neither accurate nor forthcoming. Green State Assembly candidate Bock was elected in a March 1999 election under blanket primary rules, not Prop 14 rules. In the first round of that election, she received only 8.5% in the first round, coming in 3rd. Had Prop 14 been in effect, that would have been the end of her campaign. But because the blanket primary provided for the top vote-getter from each ballot qualified party to advance to the run-off, she had a chance and won.

Perhaps most importantly in your editorial, you failed to mention that Prop 14 specifically eliminates one of the only ways California's smaller independent parties retain their ballot status - by appearing on the general election ballot and receiving at least 2% of the vote for a statewide constitutional office. How you can say these parties would benefit under Prop 14 without even mentioning this incredible negative for them is remarkable to say the least.

By your misstating and/or omitting these key facts, its hard to see your editorial in favor of Prop 14 as an honest attempt to influence voters. As such, it speaks of an abuse of the public trust we the people place in journalists and editors like yourself.

Sincerely,

Mike Feinstein, Co-Chair, Green Party of the United States
Santa Monica, CA
www.gp.org/committees/steering/sc-bios/Mike-Feinstein.php
www.cagreens.org/greenfocus/spring_10/oppose_prop_14.html

European Green Council meeting to go on live streaming video this weekend in Berlin

This weekend, the European Green Party is holding its Council meeting in Berlin, and is doing an exciting experiment, by putting their meeting on live streaming video for all to see. Click here to find out how to view the meeting in English and in German.

I've been attending their Council meetings on and off since June 1990, and at times have found the political debate very interesting and sophisticated. But I have lamented that only those of us in the room have heard or seen it and so many other Greens would benefit by observing such proceedings.

To follow along with what is going on, here is a copy of the agenda for the Council meeting, as well as a list of the participating delegates and their weighted votes (for all of you who love Green structure.)

Also of note is that Friday evening's program will feature former German Green Foreign Minister Joschka Fisher. Fisher served in that position between 1998 and 2005 when the German Greens were in coalition government with the Social Democratic Party.

For many Greens, Fisher usually has interesting and controversial things to say, as he has held arguably the highest position a Green on this planet has held, which means he has had to deal with the conjunction of Green values and real world political power more up front than any of the rest of us.

The times for streaming are:

- Friday, March 16th, from 18:00 to 22:00 Berlin time (welcome and Joschka Fisher Session, English and German streaming available).

- Saturday, March 17th, from 9:00 to 17:00 Berlin time (see program here)

To calibrate your local time zone with that of Berlin, I find this world clock web page to be useful.

Note - the announcement for this video streaming came from Juan Behrend, Secretary General of the European Greens. Juan has long been an active Green on the international level going back to the 1980s, including serving as Secretary General to the Green Group in the European Parliament. You can read about his background here. Today in addition to his work within Europe, Juan is integrally involved in the planning process for Global Greens 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya, May 1st-4th, 2008. Juan is usually working quietly behind the scenes and doesn't seek a lot of recognition. But I'm giving him some here, for being part of a team making Green activity on the European level more accessible to the rest of us.

Northern Ireland Greens merge with Green Party of Ireland

The Green Party in Northern Ireland anounced its merger with the Green Party in the Republic of Ireland, (called Comhaontas Glas in Gaelic) today at a press conference held in Belfast, where a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to promote cooperative relations among the Greens in Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic, Scotland and England & Wales parties. Northern Ireland Greens will now achieve recognition as a Regional Council of Comhaontas Glas, with voting rights on its National Executive Committee.

According to Trevor Sargent, Irish Green Party Leader and one of six Green members of the Dáil (the lower house of Irish parliament), "Today's development means that people throughout the island of Ireland will now have the opportunity to vote for an inclusive and progressive political party with a great record of representation and achievement in local and town councils across the UK and Ireland, in the Scottish Assembly, in the Irish Parliament and in the European Parliament."

Northern Irish Green Leader Dr. John Barry added, "The Motion is a significant political signal that we aim to be a genuinely inclusive and progressive party, embodying and celebrating all identities and accommodating political aspirations in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement." Barry and colleagues claim that in this way, this North-South and East-West organization makes them the only party in Northern Ireland to not only support the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, but also to live it through their organizational arrangements.

I visited Northern Ireland in December 2004 and met with Barry and other local Greens, and was reminded of the difficulty of establishing a viable Green identity in a place where ethnic and/or religious divide are paramount. Despite this, the Northern Irish Greens have been slowly growing, including winning three city council seats in 2005. Now they are shooting for seats in the Northern Irish Assembly - in north Down, south Down and south Belfast. Here is their election platform, called "Greens Into Government."

How will they do? It may seem like a long shot today for them to elect members to the Assembly. But I am reminded of a similar situation of the Scottish Greens in the early 1990s, when they were struggling for a Green identity amidst the desire for Scottish regional autonomy from England and the central government in London.

Then Scotland got proportional representation and in May 1999, Robin Harper became the first Scottish Green to be elected to the Scottish Parliament. Four years later in 2003, he was joined by six other Greens to give the Scottish Greens seven parliamentary seats.

Who knows? Maybe we'll see the same thing in Northern Ireland - maybe even with the next election.

Mexico - Calderon assumes office amidst protests

Anyone who followed the news yesterday saw film of the protests in the chamber of the Mexican Federal Legislature - La Camara de Diputados - against the swearing in of Felipe Calderon as El Presidente of the nation. Opponents tried to prevent Calderon from reaching the podium to take the oath of office. And this was all broadcast en vivo for the world to see.

As I am often want to do, I watched the newscast last night on Univision, one of the many Spanish-language newscasts available here in Los Angeles. (This not only helps me improve my Spanish, but its amazing to see the difference in what is covered between the Spanish and English language media.)

During one moment I saw someone I knew in the crowd on the floor -- the president of the Mexican Green Party El Partido Verde Ecologista de Mexico (PVEM), Jorge Emilio Gonzalez. This made me think I wanted to know what was going on with the Mexican Greens.

Currently on the PVEM web site, there is a polite press release about moving ahead for the good of the country. There is always 'backstory' of course, so I'm making inquiries and hope to have more in a few days. Stay tuned.

May Oui - Elizabeth May places 2nd for the House of Commons

Great news from across the border - last night Elizabeth May, the Party Leader of the Green Party of Canada, finished an impressive second among the four major parties, in a special election for Canada's House of Commons.

May was elected Party Leader at a national Green Party convention in late August in Ottawa. As her own blog indicates, since then she's been shifting the focus of Canadian political debate around issues of around environment and economy. With Stephen Harper's minority Tory government abandoning Canada's committment to the Kyoto Protocol, May has been constantly in the news, demonstrating to political friend and foe alike that she knows her issues and is capable of governing (for some reason you have to reload that last link twice to see it.)

Then came an open seat and a special election in London, Ontario with the resignation of the sitting Liberal Party MP there. The election was called for November 27th (the Canadians call these 'by-elections'.) Elizabeth dove right into the fray, without a worry that a poor finish would undercut the momentum her election as Party Leader created.

In Canada's January Federal election, the Canadian Greens received 4.5% nationally. Now polls have them at 10%, in no small part to Elizabeth's impact -- and may I add, the impact of the GPC's convention being broadcast live over three days by CPAC, the Canadian C-SPAN. Kudos to Jim Harris, national Party Leader from 2002-2006, whose acumen and foresight helped the party leap forward in the 2002 and 2004 Federal Elections, to position themselves for this moment.

Elizabeth is gifted with ability to express herself brillianty, and with the savvy to swim among sharks when necessary. It was a bold move to run in this race, the kind of move a winner makes.

In a classic quote after her impressive result, Elizabeth said "Mark this down and mark it well: when someone in a future election says that we will split the vote so the worst party (whichever) can get in, point out we are not vote splitters. We are vote unifiers under a new banner."

In comparing her result with the party's numbers in same district in January Federal Election, the Green increase came from across the political spectrum - 6% from the Liberals, 6% from the Conservatives and 9% from the NDP - the latter especially significant with the potential to help the Greens pass the NDP.

"May Oui" was the chant of Elizabeth's supporters at the August Green convention, playing upon the double entendre in this English and often French-speaking country. One can just imagine what she and the Canadian Greens can accomplish with the platform of seats in the House of Commons. Here is an example of her Green Economic Development Strategy for London from her campaign.

Post-election coverage has been very positive, including

- "Green Party's showing in London's by-election hints at something big",
- "Green Party confidence grows",
- "Green machine: In light of the by-election in London, is it time to start taking the Green Party seriously?",
- "Green party 'has arrived' after finishing 2nd in byelection",
- "May won many hearts, but not enough minds",
- "Greens claim moral victory",
- "Election Results Bouy May"
- "Green Party Growing" and this pre-election piece
- "Tall Poppy Interview" in the Torontoist

For insightful post-election analysis, see Jim Harris' blog "Greens Come of Age: London Result shows we'll win seats. Liberal Strategy: Pretend to be Green."