[MGP Newsletter] March 2008 Maryland Green Party Newsletter

[Maryland Green Party Newsletter]

Maryland Green Party News - March 2008

Paper version available for download at www.mdgreens.org/newsletter/.  

Print, copy and distribute widely!




Assembly Planned for May 3rd, 2008

The Maryland Green Party will be holding its Annual Assembly at Towson
University on Saturday, May 3rd.  All Maryland Greens are invited to
hear reports on our activities over the past year, vote for your
2008-2009 Maryland Green Party officers, and cast your Presidential
ballots.  

For more information and to register on-line, visit
mdgreens.org/assembly/.  





Lobby Night is March 10

Don't forget to join Maryland Greens at Lobby Night at the House and
Senate office buildings in Annapolis on Monday, March 10.  We will meet
with key legislators to discuss our support for the Global Warming
Solutions Act,  the Civil Marriage Protection Act, the Public Campaign
Financing Act, the Maryland Universal Health Care Plan, and others.  

For more information and to sign up for Lobby Night, visit the web at
mdgreens.org/legislative/. 





Green Party Primary Begins in March

The Maryland Green Party primary election will take place throughout
March.  All registered Greens are invited to obtain ballots for our
Presidential nomination and Congressional nominations in the 5th and 8th
Congressional Districts.  Presidential ballots can be turned in to local
meetings, returned by mail, or brought in person to the Maryland Green
Party Assembly.  Congressional ballots can be turned into local meetings
or returned by mail.  

For specific instructions, visit mdgreens.org/primary/.   






Needed: Delegates to GPUS National Convention

The 2008 Green Party of the United States Nominating Convention will be
held in Chicago from July 10-13, 2008.

Maryland is entitled to send 16 delegates to the convention to help make
the nomination.  If you are planning to attend the convention, you can
register at 1-866-41-GREEN.  Please also inform the Maryland Green Party
if you are interested in serving as a delegate at 
410-662-8169.





The Candidates:

The Maryland Green Party will finalize its Presidential nomination on
May 3, 2008.  Maryland Green Party News will not endorse any particular
candidate.  The following selections were contributed by readers or
summarized from the candidate's campaign websites.  They appear in
alphabetical order.  



Jesse Johnson
>From www.jesse08.org

Jesse attended North Carolina School for the Arts, Marshall University
and several other universities.  He was the first gubernatorial
candidate in the history of West Virginia to secure his place on the
general election ballot before the primary election in 2002.  He ran for
US Senate in 2006.

In 2007, as Chair of the Mountain Party, he worked to bring the Mountain
Party into the world community of Green Parties, where they belong, as
an affiliate of the GPUS. He continues to work toward that union,
pursuing litigation in his state to allow the GPUS to use the Mountain
Party's ballot line, even as he runs for the Presidential nomination
himself.



Why I Support Cynthia McKinney
by Jeremy Roberts

This election, us Greens actually have something of an exciting race
going on for the presidential nomination. I've been thinking about who
to support and figured I'd share it with other Greens for comment and
discussion.

Cynthia McKinney does not, perhaps, have the national stature of some
politicians, but she is not a no-name candidate either. She has, for
example, already been featured on Democracy Now!  She can reach
constituencies that others cannot, and will not, primarily Black folks. 


How about growing the party? I think here we have a measurable and
achievable goal.  She has already been elected to Congress, and she has
committed to running as a Green. 

Looking beyond the Presidential election, it is not inconceivable that
Ms. McKinney would return to her Georgia base and run for re-election to
her previous congressional seat, this time as a Green.  If she is
successful, which is not an impossibility, that would be huge. 

All in all, I think there is much potential to Ms. McKinney's campaign. 



Kent Mesplay
>From www.mesplay.org.

Kent has studied Western and non-Western medicine, earning a Ph.D. in
Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.  After graduate
school he suffered through a long period of unemployment as he worked to
develop a funded position for himself at the Veterans Affairs Medical
Center, Long Beach, CA, before moving to La Mesa and teaching math in
the Grossmont Union High School District.  He began working as an Air
Quality Inspector at the Air Pollution Control District, San Diego, in
2001.  

Kent's experiences substitute teaching and being an environmental
regulator really taught him to "think on my feet" in challenging
situations.  Kent is committed to affecting change to and through the
political process.



Kat Swift
>From wikipedia.org/Kat_Swift

Kat Swift is a United States political activist, former co-chair of the
Green Party of Texas, and spokesperson for the Green Party's National
Women's Caucus. She announced her intention to seek the 2008
Presidential nomination of the US Green Party at the 2004 Green Party
National Convention in Milwaukee, WI. She is one of the youngest
candidates to seek the office in 2008, and will only just be of age to
serve on Inauguration Day in 2009.  In 2007 Swift ran for City Council,
District 1 in San Antonio, Texas finishing 2nd of 3 with 1,630 votes for
29.48% of the total vote.

Kat Swift's website can be found at www.voteswift.org.