Register now for the Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention in Chicago, July 10-13
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The 2008 Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention is coming to Chicago, July 10-13, and you're invited! Register by June 30 at the following rates. Please visit http://www.greenparty2008.org for registration and hotel information.
| Delegate ($225) | Full access to all workshops, the presidential debate, the nominating convention. Click here to register |
| Same as Delegate package, but for students and low-income attendees. Click here to register |
| Observer ($30) | Access to the main event presidential nominating convention on Saturday, July 12. Great option for those who want to come and see what the Green Party is all about! See speakers below. Click here to register |
ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATING CONVENTION
The actual vote to determine our presidential candidate will take place on Saturday, July 12 at the Symphony Center. As part of the Nominating Convention day, the Green Party will host keynote speeches from Malik Rahim, Kathy Kelly, and Cliff Thornton. Don't miss this exciting event!
Malik Rahim is a long-time community activist from New Orleans, a former Black Panther, and in the last election was the Green Party candidate for Mayor of New Orleans. Malik co-founded the Common Ground Collective/Relief, an organization that provides short term relief to victims of hurricane disasters in the Gulf region. Please visit http://www.commongroundrelief.org for more information.
Kathy Kelly Is a familiar name to many Greens. Kathy co-founded Voices in the Wilderness in 1996, an organization that worked to end the sanctions on Iraq. She has visited Iraq and other locations in the Middle East on several occasions. Voices in the Wilderness has since become Voices for Creative Non-Violence, and you can read more about Kathy's recent work at http://www.vcnv.org.
Cliff Thornton Jr. is a long-time social justice activist who has done much work on drug policy reform, recently receiving the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action from the Drug Policy Alliance. Cliff was the Green Party's candidate for Governor of Connecticut in 2006, and is currently co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Read more about Cliff's organization Efficacy, Inc. at http://www.efficacy-online.org.
OTHER EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE CONVENTION
Numerous workshops will be held across the days of the convention, with expert activists from across the country discussing an array of
issues, including foreign policy (especially Iran and the Middle East), immigrant rights, GLBTIQ rights, campaign school workshops, and
much more. Attendees will have the ability for much education and continued learning.
More speakers, workshops, and events will be announced in upcoming weeks. Also visit http://www.greenparty2008.org for new information as it becomes available, as well as for registration, room reservation, and other general questions.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing you there!
Green Party of the United States Annual National Meeting Committee
Illinois Green Party Convention Host Committee
Illinois Green Party Files Record Number of Candidates
By the end of the slating deadline (Apr. 7), the Illinois Green Party expects to have some 60 candidates for offices across the state, concluding a major statewide recruiting effort for candidates at federal, state and county levels.
Since the slating period began in early March, the party has added 7 candidates for U.S. Congress and 1 candidate for U.S. Senate for a total of 15 federal legislative offices. Sixteen state legislative candidates were added for a total of 19. At the county level, the
party recruited 10 new candidates, including 5 in Cook County, to bring the total to 26 county candidates across the state.
Illinois ballots will also feature a presidential candidate chosen at the Green Party National Convention in Chicago, July 10-13, 2008.
"Our hard work to establish the party in 2006 has led to the Green Party becoming more competitive in 2008," said Rich Whitney, the 2006 Green Party candidate for governor, who received more 10% of the vote. "I'm encouraged by not only the number of candidates, but the high caliber of candidates for offices at all levels of government."
FULL LIST OF CANDIDATES
Senate Candidate Named, Delegates Chosen
Over 90 members of the Illinois Green Party (ILGP) converged on the campus of Bradley University in Peoria for the organization’s Spring Membership Meeting and State Convention, March 28-30.
During the weekend, a candidate for U.S. Senate was nominated, Delegates and Alternates to the national Green Party convention were named, and steps were taken toward agreement on revisions to the party's Bylaws and Platform.
On Saturday the party’s State Central Committee nominated Kathy Cummings to be the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate. The SCC is the statutory body designated to fill "vacancies in nomination" — that is, to slate candidates on the November ballot where none were elected in the primary. In nominating Kathy, the Committee acted on the basis of an advisory poll taken among the assembled ILGP members.
The SCC also appointed 13 precinct committeepersons in counties where none were elected in the February 5 primary.
Members of the SCC, along with delegates chosen by county central committees, convened on Sunday for the "State Convention," a meeting designated by law to name people to roles in the presidential election: Delegates and Alternates to the national nominating convention (Chicago, July 10-13), and Electors to carry Illinois’s 21 electoral votes to the Electoral College after the Green Party candidate for president wins the state’s popular vote on November 4.
Illinois is allotted 44 Delegates at the Green Party’s national convention. These are distributed among the four candidates for president who appeared on the primary ballot, in proportion to their shares of the popular vote: Cynthia McKinney 25, Howie Hawkins 8, Kent Mesplay 6, and Jared Ball 5. Each candidate is also assigned a number of Alternates equal to half his/her number of Delegates.
Aside from these nominations and appointments, the Bylaws Committee and the Platform Committee presented proposals for revisions to their respective documents, and the assembled members held fruitful discussions of those revisions, which are subject to official approval by the Membership at a later date.
The Saturday night fund-raising dinner at Barracks Cater Inn was a “poverty meal” consisting of only soups and breads, to underline poverty awareness. After dinner, a silent auction was held, followed by a talent show featuring stories, poems, songs, and other musical performances by Illinois Green Party members.
McKinney Wins Illinois Primary
Former Congresswoman (D-Georgia) CYNTHIA MCKINNEY has won majority support for President in the Green Party's statewide primary election in Illinois, which was held February 5.
With 57% of the vote, McKinney did more than three times as well as her next-ranking competitor, Howie Hawkins, who got 17%. Hawkins, a co-founder of the Green Party of the United States, ran openly as a place-holder for Ralph Nader, in case Nader should choose to run.
The other two candidates for President on the Green Party ballot in Illinois — California air quality inspector Kent Mesplay and Morgan State University professor Jared Ball (who dropped out of the race to support McKinney) — received 14% and 12% of the vote respectively.
McKinney was the first African-American Congresswoman to be elected from Georgia, serving in Congress from 1993-2003 and 2005-2007. She has been an advocate for Hurricane Katrina victims and voters disenfranchised in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Her campaign website is www.runcynthiarun.org
Primary Election Places Dozens of Green Party Candidates on November Ballot
Thanks to the February 5 primary election, at least 32 Green Party candidates will run for public office on the ballot of the general election in November, a new record for the rapidly growing state political party. Also in the primary, more than 80 Green Party committeepersons were elected.
Nine Green candidates will be running for U.S. Congress, six for state legislature, and several running for county and other local offices across the state.
"This truly is a monumental moment for the Green Party," says congressional campaign coordinator Walter Pituc. "Previously, we'd only had one congressional candidate ever in Illinois Green Party history. This year, we have congressional candidates in nine districts. That's pretty remarkable growth, and we're only going to continue to grow beyond this election."
