The following is the official statement from the Illinois Green Party on the arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich:

We in the Illinois Green Party are deeply troubled by the arrest of Governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief-of-staff John Harris. The Governor is charged with attempting to personally profit from his power to appoint a person to the U.S. Senate. While we recognize that the accused are innocent until proven guilty, we must also admit that we are not surprised by these allegations. We have seen a long pattern of pay-to-play from Blagojevich, and indeed, a long pattern of pay-to-play throughout Illinois politics for years. The long sordid history of corruption in Illinois must finally come to an end.

The Green Party has always stood for accountability, transparency, and clean government through clean elections. We reject all corporate campaign contributions, advocate for public financing, and have long pushed for at least caps on individual contributions, so that our elections will no longer be pay-to-play.

We call on the Illinois General Assembly to hold an emergency session to:

1) Develop legislation to give the people of Illinois the ability to recall their public officials;

2) Consider the impeachment of Governor Blagojevich;

3) Amend Illinois statute to provide for an open process for filling this and future U.S. Senate seats, preferably through a special election, as the process for filling the current vacancy has been irrevocably tainted;

4) Reform the campaign finance system, banning all corporate campaign contributions, and installing caps on individual contributions;

5) Further reform the campaign finance system to eliminate pay-for-play, by barring or severely limiting contributions from political appointees, and mandating that political committees return donations made from individuals subsequently appointed to public office, boards, or commissions.

These are the first steps which need to be taken to help instill integrity, transparency, and accountability to our state government.

Phil Huckelberry
Chair, Illinois Green Party

Thousands Vote Green Throughout State!

In March 2008 the Illinois Green Party met in Peoria for its Spring Membership Meeting, marking the kickoff of dozens of campaigns for public office.  Since then, the 56 Green candidates who were running for all levels of government in Illinois gave a great performance that yielded its final payoff on Tuesday, November 4.

True, at the top of the ticket, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney's 11,555 votes in Illinois (0.22% of the total) were fewer than we had hoped for.  However, this is almost twice the percentage she got nationally (141,364 votes, 0.12%).  And McKinney's showing improved considerably over that of David Cobb (Green candidate for president in 2004), who received some 118,000 votes nationally (0.096%).  But this year it may be that the media hype about Obama vs. McCain sucked away votes at the presidential level.

Ralph Nader, the Green Party's presidential candidate in 2000, running this year as an independent, came in third for president, both in Illinois (with 30,311 votes or 0.57%) and nationally (654,035 votes,  0.54%) — a mere shadow of his 2.7% showing eight years ago.  Clearly "third" candidates for president faced an uphill battle this year.

For U.S. Senate, Kathy Cummings got 115,621 votes, 2.6% of the total.

Green candidates for U.S. Congress — each running against opponents from both major parties — garnered shares of the vote ranging from just above 2% up to over 7% in the case of Jason Wallace and Omar López.  (See Table 1 below.)

One of our State Senate candidates, Tom Durkin, got over 19% (with only one opponent).  Meanwhile, John Basco, also running for State Senate, with two opponents, got nearly 7% (Table 2).

Candidates for State Representative also did well against a single opponent, ranging from 15% up to 33% in the case of Kevin O'Connor.  (See Table 3.)

Those running for State Rep against two opponents generally ranged from 3% to 9%, while Heather Benno broke into double digits with 10% (Table 4).

At the county level, the Green candidates for State's Attorney in Coles and Iroquois counties — Todd Reardon and Dale Strough respectively — took impressive shares of the votes:  24% and 35% respectively.

And our candidates for county boards won percentages ranging from 6% to above 30%.  Joe Futrelle and Mike Lehman, both of Champaign County, both surpassed 30%, and Don Crawford earned 37% of the vote in Fayette County!

Green Candidates Receive Endorsements

The Illinois Green Party in 2008 has more candidates endorsed by news and civic organizations than any other new party has had in modern Illinois history.

Congress

Jerome Pohlen (3rd district) - http://www.peopleforpohlen.com/
Greater Chicago Caucus
IVI-IPO

Omar Lopez (4th district) - http://omarlopez2008.org/
Greater Chicago Caucus
IVI-IPO

Jason Wallace (11th district) - http://www.electwallace.us/
Greater Chicago Caucus

Alan Augustson (5th district) - http://augustson2008.us/
IVI-IPO

Sheldon Schafer (18th district) - http://www.SchaferForCongress.info
IVI-IPO

State Representative

Ante "Tony" Marijan (2nd district) - www.11thwardgreens.org
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sun-Times

Rita Maniotis (21st district) - http://www.ritamaniotis.com
IVI-IPO

Jeremy Karpen (39th district) - http://www.jeremykarpen.org/
Chicago Sun-Times
IVI-IPO

Gerry Woods (68th district) - http://gerrywoods.wordpress.com
Chicago Tribune

Other Offices

Nadine Bopp (Metropolitan Water Reclamation District) - http://greens4mwrd.org
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sun-Times
IVI-IPO

Walter Pituc (Champaign County Board, District 7) - http://www.votewalter.org/
AFL-CIO*

Joe Futrelle (Champaign County Board, District 8) - http://www.joefutrelle.org
The News-Gazette
AFSCME
AFL-CIO*

Mike Lehman (Champaign County Board, District 9) - http://lehmanforagreencounty.org/
AFSCME
AFL-CIO*

*The AFL-CIO does not endorse candidates, but has provided financial support

Todd Reardon (Coles County States Attorney) - http://www.toddreardon.com/
Teamsters Local 26

FULL LIST OF CANDIDATES

Power to the People

The Green Party rocked Chicago with its 2008 Presidential Nominating Convention, and now the Green Party nominee, Cynthia McKinney, and her running mate, hip hop activist Rosa Clemente, are set to rock the status quo of national politics and return the Power to the People.

McKinney, a six-term congresswoman from Georgia who recently relocated to California, received the nomination on the first round of voting. She received 313 of 532 votes from party delegates. Clemente was nominated with overwhelming support in a show of hands.

Join the McKinney-Clemente campaign today! Visit www.runcynthiarun.org.

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