Greens for Greens ™

[From Independent Political Report]

Today is the day for the Green Party in Chicago – the special primary taking place to fill the fifth district congressional seat vacated by current White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel includes four Green candidates. Turnout is expected to be very low, probably not topping ten percent, with only about 4,400 voters taking advantage of early voting, according to Congressional Quarterly. There are over 300,000 registered voters in the district.

In the past few days the Green Party primary has received considerable coverage in the local press, and Greens have attended a few candidate forums alongside the heavily favored Democrats and the Republicans. On television, the local ABC affiliate took a look at the Green Party field last night. The Chicago Sun-Times focused on the “oustider” Republicans and Greens here and they wrote a piece about a recent candidate forum here. In the latter piece, the Sun-Times mistakes Jon Stewart for a Green; he is actually a Republican candidate. CBS2 Chicago has an online article about all of the candidates in the race, including links to their websites, here. The Chicago Journal has responses to a number of questions from a number of candidates. The Greens that responded were Matt Reichel and Deb Gordils.

For those of you in the Chicago area, Matt Reichel is hosting an election night party:

Then, come and celebrate with us at our Election Night Party this evening, beginning at 6:30 PM at the Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark. We will be collecting $20 per person to go towards covering the open bar for the evening.

[From Nola.com]

[Well it is nice that that is finally clarified. -RS]

By ANN SANNER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader selected Matt Gonzalez, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, to be his running mate.

“I want someone who shares my sense of justice and opposition to corporate state control over our society,” Nader said Thursday at a news conference announcing his choice. Nader launched his White House bid last weekend.

The Texas-born Gonzalez ran for mayor of San Francisco as a Green Party candidate in 2003 but lost to Gavin Newsom.

Gonzalez said he recognized the difficulties of winning the presidential election.

“I have no illusions about what’s happening here today,” Gonzalez said. “But let me also say that I’ve never entered a political contest with the idea that it couldn’t be won.”

Nader, the longtime consumer advocate, sought the White House in each of the last three presidential elections: He ran on the Green Party ticket in 1996 and 2000, and as an independent in 2004.

On Thursday, he said he would not be seeking the Green Party nomination, noting that the party has four announced candidates.

“We think that there is plenty of room in this country for parallel progressive candidates,” he said.

Nader is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost Democrats the election by siphoning votes from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida. Nader has vociferously disputed the spoiler claim, saying only Democrats are to blame for losing the race to George W. Bush.

Though he won 2.7 percent of the national vote as the Green Party candidate in 2000, Nader won just 0.3 percent as an independent in 2004, when he appeared on the ballot in only 34 states.