Outlook 2010

By John Rensenbrink, Green Horizon Foundation

The Maine Green Independent Party entered the year 2010 with high hopes for a strong year, led by Lynne Williams their candidate for governor, a well spoken, widely acclaimed, and down to earth lawyer active on behalf of many grassroots groups in the state. But in January and February their hopes were blunted and at first seemed dashed altogether. Lynne's campaign was not able to qualify for Clean Election Funding and, in spite of heroic efforts on the part of several signature gatherers, with John Olsen in the forefront, did not get enough signatures to put Lynne on the ballot. For the first time in five gubernatorial election cycles, MGIP will not have a candidate on the ballot in November.


But the disappointment soon turned to renewed hope and a resurgence of energy. Party activists, spurred by Ben Chipman and Anna Trevorrow, the Party Chair, were able to recruit and assist 18 Greens around the state to gain qualified ballot status as candidates for the state House and Senate. Not only that, but Lynne Williams was able to shift her sights from the race for governor (a very long shot) to a possibly winning campaign for a Senate seat in Hancock County.

But just as important, the disappointment also led to creative soul searching -- seeking to learn from what happened. The party needs to re-focus its thinking on the grassroots and now turn its attention in a serious way to building the party starting at the town level and on up to the county level. Town committees need to be formed in as many towns as possible, starting with the nucleus of one or two party members in the 93 towns in which ballot signatures for Lynne Williams were gathered -- and moving on from there to other towns and then also the forming of county committees.

It has come to be realized that the party had been depending on gubernatorial campaigns to jump start locals, when what is needed are local committees in many, many towns, these committees then being able to know who and where the Green party members are in town so as to expedite the efficient gathering of signatures. Gubernatorial campaigns do help but are no substitute for active, on the ground, town and county committees. Active town and county committees, up and running when the next gubernatorial campaign takes place in 2014, will make the gathering of signatures for the Green candidate, from year-round Greens, a much more feasible proposition. Their absence was a significant factor in coming up short of the 2000 signatures needed to put Lynne Williams on the ballot.

Another major factor, however, a factor bitterly experienced by Green fund raisers, was the legislation last year, pushed through primarily by leading Democrats, that required candidates for governor to raise $40,000 from private sources in order to qualify for Clean Election funds. For a small party with only a very small number of even reasonably well-to-do people (they, too, being limited to no more than a $100 donation), this was a daunting hurdle. It proved impossible. But the effort in finding this out threw off the timing of the campaign to such a degree that it affected the entire planning and execution of the campaign as a whole, including then as well the gathering of the required 2000 signatures to get on the ballot.

The overturning of this unprincipled hurdle will be a critical priority for Green Party action. It is unprincipled because it violates the fundamental intent and letter of Clean Election law, which is to reduce, if not eliminate, private interest money in elections.

The Maine Green Independent Party can and will go forward with renewed vigor, born of a tough experience and finding strong pathways for action and for deeper, greater, grassroots party organization.