Maryland Green Party members will be in attendance at the Maryland Court of Appeals in Annapolis on Friday, March 2, 2012 as their ballot access lawsuit goes before the state’s high court. The case of Libertarian Party of Maryland and Maryland Green Party v. State Board of Elections will be heard by the court that morning.

The Green Party filed suit in conjunction with the Libertarian Party in March 2011 after the State Board of Elections rejected thousands of signatures intended to extend the party’s status as a recognized political party. An Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge decided in favor of the parties in June 2011 and ordered them placed on the ballot. The Court of Appeals will hear the Board of Elections’ appeal next Friday.

Green Party members are prepared to begin circulating new petitions to meet the 10,000 signature requirement to extend the party’s ballot status. The Green Party is currently ballot-qualified but will have to collect approximately four thousand new valid signatures if the Court of Appeals rules against the two parties.

“We worked for over a year to collect nearly 15,000 signatures,” notes party co-chair Brian Bittner, “and although the Board of Elections was able to identify significantly more than ten thousand voters who had signed the petition, the majority of them were rejected because they had signed without their middle initial or used a nickname like Bill or Betty. We went to court to win Marylanders’ right to place a new political party on the ballot and eventually vote for those candidates. It will be a major disappointment if that win is overturned and we have to go back out on the streets for more signatures, but we are willing to do that to keep what we have struggled for over the last decade.”

The Maryland Green Party was established as a political party in 2000 and successfully petitioned to maintain its ballot access in 2002 and 2006. Its 2010 petition drive is currently being litigated. The party nominated candidates for U.S. Senate in 2004, 2006, and 2010 and Governor in 2006 and 2010, as well as dozens of other local, state and federal offices. Five members of the party have been elected to city or town councils in Maryland.

“We are preparing to collect signatures once again if the court says we must,” said George Gluck of Rockville, who is seeking the Green Party’s nomination for the U.S. House in the 8th District. “Having more than two candidates to choose from – and more than one in many districts that have been redistricted as safe seats for the incumbents currently in office – is a right too important to lose. We look forward to the day when the right to organize a political party and have access to the ballot is recognized by the Maryland General Assembly and barriers to running for public office are removed.”

The Maryland Green Party is hosting this year’s Green Party Annual National Meeting in Baltimore from July 12-15. The party’s Presidential Nominating Convention will be held July 14th.

For more information, contact info@mdgreens.org or 443-449-4159.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said today that President Obama’s recent populist rhetoric cannot mask the reality that his White House is continuing policies that benefit big corporations and the very rich at the expense of working people.

“President Obama is touting the robo-signing deal with the big six banks, the tax deal sold as job creation, and his budget proposal as populist measures. But in fact these policies impose austerity on the 99% to pay for the luxuries of the 1%,” Stein said.

Stein criticized the bank settlement announced by the Obama administration in early February as “another bailout for the big banks. It shows once again why Obamanomics is a phony populism, and how his rhetoric masks the same old trickle-down policies.” Of the $25 billion in relief for underwater homeowners, only $5 billion split among six giant banks, will be in the form of hard cash payments to foreclosed homeowners, Stein said. The $25b claimed by the Obama Admnistration is “deceptive” according to Stein since it misleadingly gives banks credit for making a sacrifice when they give up on uncollectable loans.

“Furthermore, the claimed $25 billion pales in comparison to the $144 billion in bonuses that top management paid itself in these six banks in 2011,” Stein said.

Stein noted that $25 billion is insignificant compared to the scale of the problem. “We have a $700 billion problem – in which 14 million homeowners are underwater on their mortgages. Now with this deal, millions more homes will be fast-tracked for foreclosure this year, which will further depress the housing market as these homes flood the market,” Stein said.

“In essence, the Obama Administration is allowing the big banks to pay a small fee to buy protection from prosecution,” Stein said. She said that the maximum $2000 per loan compensation for illegally foreclosed homes is only about 1% of the average $180,000 mortgage. “Families are on the streets and none of the robo-signing bank servicers are going to jail for forgery and fraud. The penalty is so trivial that the banks have every incentive to continue similar profitable criminal activities.”

Stein said that “a real solution to the housing crisis and the larger failure of the big banks to invest in the real economy of production is to break up the too-big-to-fail banks and reorganize them as nonprofit public utilities whose purpose is to safely take in savings as interest-bearing deposits and prudently lend them to consumers and productive enterprises on reasonable terms.”

Resolving the housing crisis, Stein said, requires a public bank like the New Deal’s Home Owners Loan Corporation. Established in 1933, this bank made direct loans to one homeowner in five to refinance home mortgages then in default to prevent foreclosure. This approach would reduce the principal to current market value and refinance the mortgage on long-term, fixed-rate terms. For people who could not afford such mortgages, the bank would take ownership and rent the property at market rates to keep people in their homes.

Stein also criticized so-called tax cut deal inked last week and hailed by Obama and the Democrats, with Republican acceptance, as a job creator. She said the reduction of the maximum duration of extended jobless benefits from the current 99 weeks to 73 weeks in the 14 highest unemployment states and to 63 weeks in the other 36 states imposed hardship on the long-term unemployed and worked at cross purposes to the Social Security tax cut that was supposed to raise consumer demand to stimulate the economy.

Stein observed that the Social Security tax cut would encourage the ongoing attempts to undermine the Social Security system. “Not one penny of Social Security benefits have contributed to the national debt. In fact, the federal government has used Social Security surpluses to cover its deficits for decades. But now, with the shortfall in Social Security revenues caused by this tax cut, Wall Street interests that want to privatize Social Security can more credibly argue that Social Security is contributing to the federal fiscal crisis and requires benefit cuts and privatization,” Stein said.

The Obama budget proposal in mid-February was another example of Obama’s trickle-down policies wrapped in populist rhetoric, according to Stein.

“This misguided budget began to take shape last August when Obama and the Democrats agreed with the Republicans to a $1.2 trillion spending cut over 10 years. Now the President is proposing an austerity budget just when the economy needs a boost in public spending to raise demand and stimulate the economy. Since the big banks and corporations are not investing in America – despite their taxpayer bailouts and record profits – it is time for government to spend and invest in a Green New Deal to tackle the twin crises of unemployment and climate,” Stein said.

Stein said that the federal deficit is driven by misplaced priorities on military spending, tax cuts for the rich, and corporate welfare boondoggles for agribusiness, bank, fossil fuel, health insurance, and nuclear interests. “A Green New Deal could be financed by reversing these priorities and enacting a Medicare for All program, which is the only health care reform that can control the rising costs that jeopardize Medicare and the affordability of health care,” said Stein, a medical doctor who has long advocated a major overhaul of the health insurance industry.

“There is plenty of work to do building a new infrastructure of clean energy and mass transportation, providing first-rate public schools and health care, putting regulators, investigators, and prosecutors on the beat to stem the corporate crime wave, and addressing our many other pressing social needs. The old trickle-down policies have failed. By investing in public works and public services, we can stimulate a bottom-up recovery for the working and middle classes,” Stein said.

“Today’s New Democrats bear no relation to the New Deal Democrats who once enacted policies to regulate the banks, bust up monopolies, prosecute corporate criminals, employ the unemployed in public jobs, enable workers to organize unions, and secure a safety net for the poor and elderly. The Democrats in the White House today practice the same kind of trickle down economics that has long been advocated by the Republican Party; the difference is one of degree.”

“They both enact policies to shore up the financial elite – especially the big banks – on the theory that this will lead to new investments, more jobs and economic recovery. But it’s not working. The big banks and corporations are hoarding record levels of cash and speculating with it to further concentrate the ownership of productive assets rather than investing in new productive enterprises. Unemployment remains high and the recovery anemic at best. It is time for progressive voters to realize that the Obama White House is imposing austerity in partnership with the more extreme Republicans, not offering an alternative to them,” Stein added.

“I am campaigning for a Green New Deal that will restore the old New Deal vision of an economy designed to work for ordinary people, not just for the economic elite. This involves policies of full employment, labor laws that enable union organization, an economic safety net, public-interest regulation, and letting voters hold politicians accountable. It involves simultaneously resolving the climate crisis and oil supply crisis through massive investments in the conversion to renewable energy and clean production systems. This builds a solid foundation for a sustainable prosperity and the restoration of trust in our future.”

STEIN WINS IL GREEN PARTY PRIMARY; BARR HAS STRONG WRITE-IN SHOWING

Results are in from the Illinois Green Party’s first ever online primary. With a total of 153 ballots cast, Harvard-educated physician Jill Stein of Massachusetts has won the primary with 71% of the vote. Legendary sitcom actress Roseanne Barr, whose name was not on the official ballot but became an officially recognized candidate by the GPUS after the ILGP’s registration deadline, earned 18% of the vote as a write in. San Diego air quality inspector Kent Mesplay received 5% of the vote. Nearly 5% of the votes were cast as “Undecided” and three unrecognized write-in candidates received less than 1%.

Unlike the taxpayer-funded Republican and Democratic primaries, the Illinois Green Party cost very little and allowed any Illinois resident age 13 years or older to participate. Participants were allowed to join the party and cast their vote at the same time. Caucuses were held throughout the state to serve as a polling place for those without Internet access, and mail-in ballots were available by request.

Dr. Stein, a native of Highland Park, Ill., established a strong campaign presence in her home state. Following her campaign kick-off, Stein made several appearances in the Chicago area and at a mock election at Western Illinois University in Macomb. Her campaign also sent out several e-blasts to supporters during the course of the voting, including an e-mail endorsement from Rich Whitney, a two-time Illinois gubernatorial candidate who is well-respected within the party.

The Barr campaigned was helped by a media splash from her campaign kick-off, which happened at the beginning of the ILGP’s primary voting period. Though still in its early stages, her campaign has already brought in several members who are new to the Illinois Green Party.

“From the standpoint of party building, the primary was very successful,” said Election Administrator Patrick Kelly. “Thanks to the efforts of our candidates to reach voters, were able to grow our membership and by giving any Illinoisan who wanted to participate a chance.”

Playing off Stein’s success in the WIU mock election, the Illinois Green Party will convene it state membership meeting, March 2-4, at WIU in Macomb to select delegates to the Green Party’s Presidential Nominating Convention in Baltimore, Md. in July. If an apportionment plan is approved by the Green Party of the United States, Illinois would be awarded 31 delegates to the national convention who would be pledged accordingly: Stein would receive 22 delegates, Barr 5, Mesplay 2, and 2 would be unbound.

These results are unofficial pending approval of the Illinois Green Party Executive Committee.

FULL RESULTS
Candidate Percentage Delegates
Stein 71% 22
Barr 18% 5
Mesplay 5% 2
Undecided 5% 2

Minnesota:

State Rep.:

Dan Craigie District 59B: http://dancraigie.tumblr.com/

New York:

US Senate:

Colia Clark: http://coliaclark.org/

US House:

Anthony Gronowicz District 7: http://www.newmenu.org/anthonygronowicz
Evergreen Chou District 5: http://www.myspace.com/evergreen_chou

State Assembly:

Carl Lundgren District 82: http://www.newmenu.org/carllundgren
Trevor Archer: District 83: http://www.newmenu.org/trevorarcher

Ohio:

US Senate:

Anita Rios: http://www.newmenu.org/anitarios
Joe Demare: http://www.newmenu.org/joedemare

US House:

Bob Fitrakis District 3: http://www.newmenu.org/bobfitrakis
Elaine Mastromatteo District 14: http://www.newmenu.org/elainemastromatteo
Rich Stevenson District 1: http://www.newmenu.org/richstevenson

County Commissioner:

Howard Market Mahoning Co.: http://www.newmenu.org/howardmarket

South Carolina

State House:

Larry Carter Center District 114: http://www.newmenu.org/larrycartercenter

Texas:

US House:

Ed Lindsay District 26: http://www.newmenu.org/lindsay

Virginia:

County Board:

Audrey Clement Arlington Co.: http://audreyclement.org/

Indiana:

US House:

Andrew Straw District 2: http://www.newmenu.org/andrewstraw

Maine:

State Senate:

Asher Platts: http://bit.ly/VOTEPUNK

Maryland:

US House:

George Gluck District 8: http://www.newmenu.org/georgegluck

Massachusetts

State Rep:

Scott Laugenour–Fourth Berkshire: http://www.scottlaugenour.org/

Michigan:

State Rep:

Cary Neuville-Justice District 51: http://www.newmenu.org/caryneuvillejustice

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