Maine Green Independent Party

Maine Green Independent Party
Chairman	Nathan Shea
Ideology	Green politics
National affiliation	Green Party of the U.S.
Website
mainegreens.org
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John Rensenbrink, party co-founder and Bowdoin College political scientist.

The Maine Green Independent Party is the oldest state Green party in the United States.^[1] It was founded following an informal meeting of 18 environmental advocates, including Bowdoin College professor John Rensenbrink and others in Augusta, Maine in January 1984.^[2]

Ten Key Values

The party is based on the 10 Key Values of:

1. Grassroots Democracy,

2. Social Justice and Equal Opportunity,

3. Ecological Wisdom,

4. Non-Violence,

5. Decentralization,

6. Community-Based Economics and Economic Justice

7. Feminism and Gender Equity,

8. Respect for Diversity,

9. Personal and Global Responsibility;

10. Future Focus and Sustainability

Party qualification

The party achieved its current ballot status in 1998. Previously the Maine Green Party achieved ballot status in 1994 with the Jonathan Carter gubernatorial campaign, but lost it in 1997 after Ralph Nader failed to get 5% of the vote for President in 1996, a requirement of state law that has since changed.

In 1998, Pat LaMarche requalified the political party with her campaign for governor, but under the a new name, the Maine Green Independent Party. LaMarche ran again in 2006 capturing almost 10% of the vote in a five-way race. The campaign's website was indexed by the Library of Congress and won a Golden Dot Award, because of the site's use of new ways to interact with voters.

The party (in terms of registered votes) is currently in a period of continuous growth stretching back to 1998 according to state records,.^[3][4] As of December 4, 2008 there were 31,676 greens in the state comprising 3.19% of the electorate.^[5]

Portland Greens

The party realizes its greatest successes in the state's largest city, Portland. From 2002 to 2006, the highest-ranking elected Green in the United States was John Eder, who served in the Maine House of Representatives for Portland's West End neighborhood.^[6][7][8] Seven of the state's elected Greens are Portland officeholders, including two School Committee members, three City Councilors and two Water Trustees.

The School Committee was once the second "Greenest" governing body in the United States,^[9] and from 2004–2006, significant media attention was attributed to conflicts between the Committee's Greens and Democrats.^[10] The Greens successfully passed precedent-setting policy limiting military recruiters' access to city high schools, and were recognized by the National School Board Association.^[11]

The 2006 election of two under-30 Green councilors (David A. Marshall and Kevin Donoghue) in Portland's high profile West End and East End districts. In 2007, John Anton was elected at-large, which brought the number of Greens on the Portland City Council to 3.^[12] During the 2010 rewriting of the Portland Charter, Greens Anna Trevorrow and Ben Chipman won seats on the commission. The two successfully pushed to include instant run-off voting in the new charter. They also supported extending voting rights in municipal elections to legal non-citizens.^[13] Trevorrow lead in the 2010 campaign while also running for the East End seat in the Maine House of Representatives. Non-citizen voting was narrowly defeated as was Trevorrow. In the 2011 mayoral election, two Greens, (Eder and Marshall) ran for the expanded mayoral position.

2010 governor's election

Lynne Williams, a former chair of the Party, announced that she intended to seek the Green Party nomination for Governor of Maine in the June 2010 primary.^[14] Williams served on the planning board in Bar Harbor, Maine and was a 2004 candidate for the Maine House of Representatives. She dropped out of the race after failing to receive enough signatures to qualify for the MGIP primary ballot for governor. Patrick Quinlan also filed the paperwork to run for the nomination ^[15] but eventually withdrew.

Elected officials

John Eder, elected state representative with MGIP from 2002-2006.

There are 18 elected Green officeholders in Maine.

• John Anton, City Council, At-Large, Portland (Cumberland County)
• Kevin Donoghue, City Council, Portland District 1 (Cumberland County)
• David Marshall, City Council, Portland District 2 (Cumberland County)
• Jane Meisenbach, Board of Directors, School Administrative District #75 Harpswell, (Cumberland County)
• Antonio Blasi, Planning Board, Hancock (Hancock County)

Cumberland County of Maine has the highest number of Green elected officials of any county in the nation [2].

Formerly elected Maine Greens:

• John Eder, Maine State House of Representatives, Portland (Cumberland County), 2002–2006; Cumberland County Charter Commission
• Ben Meiklejohn, School Committee At-Large, Portland (Cumberland County), 2001–2007
• Stephen Spring, School Committee (District 2), Portland (Cumberland County), 2003–2006
• Jason Toothaker, School Committee (District 3), Portland (Cumberland County), 2004–2007
• Susan Hopkins, School Committee At-Large, Portland (Cumberland County), 2005–2008
• David Margolis-Pineo, Water District, Portland (Cumberland County)
• Karen Mayo, Select Board, Bowdoinham (Sagadahoc County)
• Rebecca Minnick, School Committee, Portland District 1, (Cumberland County)
• Erek Gaines, Water District, Portland (Cumberland County)
• Andrea Narajian, Board of Directors, School Administrative District #75 (Cumberland County)
• Jo Josephson, School Board, Temple (Franklin County)
• John Fillmore-Patrick, School Board. SAD 61, Bridgton (Cumberland County)
• Denis Howard, City Council, Belfast (Waldo County)
• George Sullivan, Town Council, Yarmouth (Cumberland County) ^[16]
• Charlie Wiggins, Select Board, Sedgwick (Hancock County)
• Jerry Hoag, Select Board, Beaver Cove (Piscataquis County)
• Robert LaVangie, School Board, Penobscot (Hancock County)
• Matthew Shea, School Board, Maine School Administrative District #11, Gardiner

See also

• Jonathan Carter
• John Eder
• Pat LaMarche
• Ben Meiklejohn
• Lynne Williams
• Patrick Quinlan

References

1. ^ Rensenbrink, John. The Greens and the Politics of Transformation, 1992, R & E Miles
2. ^ "The Ellsworth American - Offline". Ellsworthmaine.com. http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11995&Itemid=1. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
3. ^ "Enrolled & Registered Voters, 1994-2002 (USA, Secretary of State, State of Maine)". Maine.gov. http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/votregol.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
4. ^ "Voter Registration - Maine - USA". Maine.gov. http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/votreg.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
5. ^ http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2008/20081204-RE-active.pdf
6. ^ "General Election, November 5, 2002 - Tabulations - State Representative (Secretary of State, State of Maine, U.S.A.)". Maine.gov. 2002-11-05. http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2002g/gen02sr.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
7. ^ "General Election, November 2, 2004 - Tabulations - State Representative (Secretary of State, State of Maine, U.S.A.)". Maine.gov. 2004-11-02. http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2004n/sr.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
8. ^ "Bureau of Corporations, Elections & Commissions, Elections Division". Maine.gov. 2006-11-07. http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2006g/gen06sr.html. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
9. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
10. ^ "Green Pages ||". Gp.org. http://www.gp.org/greenpages/content/volume10/issue1/elections5.php. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
11. ^ http://www.nsba.org/site/doc_sbn.asp?TrackID=&SID=1&DID=36815&CID=1735&VID=58
12. ^ Too Green to Lead? The Bollard, January 10, 2010
13. ^ Take this to the polls Portland Phoenix, June 3, 2010
14. ^ "Maine Green party chairwoman to run for governor - Bangor Daily News". Bangornews.com. http://bangornews.com/detail/94921.html. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
15. ^ "Welcome to the Public Campaign Finance Page for the State of Maine". Mainecampaignfinance.com. 2009-01-20. http://www.mainecampaignfinance.com/public/report_list.asp?TYPE=CAN&ID=4342&LIMIT=&YEAR=2010&LINK=OS. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
16. ^ http://216.92.191.78/elections/candidates.php?candidateId=2720&electionId=&year=2007

External links

• Maine Greens