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Number of Green Party candidates continues to grow

Posted November 05, 2007 10:00 pm

Bernard Schoenburg

Given the legal right in Illinois to get on the ballot just as easily as Democrats or Republicans this year, Green Party candidates took advantage of the new rules - but not in great numbers.

As the eight-day filing closed for certain state, federal and party offices Monday at the State Board of Elections, totals showed just 18 Green Party candidates among the 960 candidates who submitted petitions.

Phil Huckelberry of Chicago, chairman of the Illinois Green Party's government and elections committee, said he estimates the number of Green Party county board candidates across the state would be in the low teens. But he also noted that with the party's power to fill ballot vacancies in races where nobody is picked in the Feb. 5 primary, he hopes the party reaches its goal of having 100 to 110 candidates, state and local, on November ballots in Illinois in 2008.

"We're very pleased with our progress," said David Black, an attorney from Belvidere who is secretary of the state party as well as one of its five co-chairs. "There's always some problems with growth, and we hope we're handling them properly. We want to give people a real choice."

According to Huckelberry, the four pillars of the Green Party philosophy are ecological wisdom, which would encompass environmentalism and conservation; non-violence, including being "opposed to the Iraq war since Day 1"; social justice, such as equal rights and civil rights; and grass-roots democracy, including a push to make sure that political minorities get representation in areas dominated by a party.

At the State Board of Elections, 17 of the 18 candidates who filed under the Green Party banner did so Monday - the last day of filing. Earlier, retired coal miner Vic Roberts of Taylorville had filed as a Green candidate for the U.S. House from the 19th Congressional District.

Among four Green Party candidates for president is Cynthia McKinney, now of Sausalito, Calif., and a former Democratic U.S. House member from Georgia.

Others are Howie Hawkins of Syracuse, N.Y., Jared Ball of Washington, D.C., and Kent Philip Mesplay of Encinitas, Calif. Huckelberry said the percentages of the Illinois vote those candidates get in the primary will determine how many delegates they have from Illinois at the Green Party's national convention in Chicago in July.

In addition to Roberts, there are nine other candidates for U.S. House in Illinois districts, including two in the 3rd Congressional District, where the incumbent is U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Chicago. Huckelberry said Jerome Pohlen of Berwyn is the party's endorsed candidate.

There also are four Illinois House candidates running under the Green banner, in districts 9, 21, 41, and 68.

Black characterized the field of Green candidates as a "much larger number … than ever before."

The Green Party became an "established" political party for election purposes because its candidate for governor in 2006, Rich Whitney, got about 10 percent of the vote - double Illinois' 5 percent threshold for a party to get the easier ballot access afforded major parties.

Huckelberry said, for example, that Green candidates for Congress this time had to turn in 600 valid signatures. In a typical congressional district two years ago, he said, that threshold for Greens was about 12,000 signatures.

With the continuing hope that more than 100 candidates get on ballots statewide this year, he said, that's still a quantum leap from the past. In 2006, there were a total of 17 Green candidates statewide, he said, and the number in 2004 was seven.

"There's definitely growing pains," Huckelberry said of building the party and finding candidates, noting that a lot of emphasis before the 2006 election went just into gathering signatures for the slate of statewide candidates. Whitney needed 25,000 valid signatures to run for governor, and submitted more than 39,000.

Huckelberry thinks the party will get stronger as its members learn the intricacies of election procedure, some of which is "a little esoteric to a lot of people."

"A lot more people will be used to it one or two times down the line, and we'll be a lot stronger for it," Huckelberry said.

He said the established party status will last at least until the 2010 election, and it will be extended if a Green Party governor candidate that year gets at least 5 percent of the vote.

Bernard Schoenburg can be reached at (217) 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.

Sidebar

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Election filing for many state, federal and party offices closed Monday afternoon, with 960 people statewide seeking offices from president to judge to alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Of the total, 176 people filed on the final day.

Filing for GOP candidates for presidential preference and delegate and alternate to the Republican National Convention will come Nov. 28- Dec. 5.

Among candidates who filed in the period ending Monday are:

-- President - Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Christopher Dodd and Joe Biden; Green Party candidates Cynthia McKinney, Kent Philip Mesplay, Jared Ball and Howie Hawkins.

-- U.S. Senate - Incumbent Democrat Dick Durbin and Republicans Steve Sauerberg, Andy Martin, Norm Hill and Mike Psak.

-- 5th District Appellate Court, Judy Cates of Swansea and James M. Wexstten of Mount Vernon.

-- 17th Congressional District - Incumbent Democrat Phil Hare.

-- 18th Congressional District - Democrat Dick Versace and Republicans Jim McConoughey, John Morris and Aaron Schock.

-- 19th Congressional District - Incumbent Republican John Shimkus; Democrats Daniel Davis, Joe McMenamin and Shirley Roney; and Green Party candidate Vic Roberts.

-- Convention delegate and alternate candidates for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton filed earlier. Filing to be Richardson delegates Monday were Charles Roberson Jr. of East Moline and Norm Winick of Galesburg in the 17th; Steve Waterworth of Easton and Mike Ziri of Springfield in the 18th; and John Warner of Shelbyville and Freyda Strackeljahn of Highland in the 19th, where Danny Stover of Centralia filed earlier. Glen Evans of Rock Island filed as a Richardson alternate in the 17th Monday.

Among central Illinois members of the General Assembly, unopposed and filing for re-election, were Sens. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington; John Sullivan, D-Rushville; and Larry Bomke; R-Springfield, as well as Reps. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth; Jil Tracy, R-Mount Sterling; Rich Myers, R-Colchester; Jim Watson, R-Jacksonville; Gary Hannig, D-Litchfield; and Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg. The only area contest so far for a legislative seat is in the 99th House District, where incumbent Republican Raymond Poe is being challenged by Democrat Kent DeLay.

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