With Green Party delegates poised to select a presidential nominee this morning, NewsBlaze runs down the contenders and their standings, saying that “with 419 votes needed to win the nomination, former George Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney leads the delegate race with 304.5 delegates.” Ralph Nader “sits in second place with 139 total delegates” even though he is not seeking the Green nomination. Kent Mesplay “leads a tightly-bunched second tier with 29.5 delegates,” followed by Jesse Johnson with 27 delegates and Kat Swift with 24. The Chicago Tribune calls McKinney “far and away the leader among four contenders for the party’s presidential nomination.” McKinney has said “achieving 5 percent of the vote, a threshold in many states for gaining status as an established political party,” is “a ‘very concrete goal’ of her candidacy.”
The Indypendent, a New York alternative newspaper, republishes a 2004 interview with Rosa Clemente, whom the paper calls the “likely Green Party vice-presidential nominee.”
Here are the final results as reported at Green Party Watch by Ron Hardy:
Black Caucus – 2 votes – 2 CM;
California – 86 votes – Nader 52; McKinney 23; Elaine Brown 4; Kat Swift 3; Mesplay 2; Johnson 1; Jared Ball 1;
Colorado – 12 votes – 2 KS; 2 KM; 3 CM; 5 Elaine Brown;
Connecticut – 11 votes – 1 Nader; 10 McKinney;
Delaware – 6 votes – all 6 for McKinney;
DC – 16 votes – 1 Ball; 1 Swift; 1 Nader; 13 McKinney
Florida – 16 votes – 11 McKinney, 2 Swift; 2 Nader; 1 Mesplay
Georgia – 8 votes – 1 Swift; 7 McKinney;
Hawaii – 8 votes – 4 Nader; 4 McKinney;
Illinois – 44 votes – 5 Ball; Hawkins 8; Mesplay 6; McKinney 25;
Indiana – 8 votes – 1.5 Mesplay; 6.5 McKinney
Iowa – 8 votes – 1 undecided; 1 Mesplay; 1 Johnson; 2 swift; 3 McKinney
Lavender Caucus – 4 votes – all 4 for McKinney
Louisiana – 6 votes – 5 McKinney; 1 Nader;
Maine – 18 votes – 0.5 Mesplay; 1 Swift; 1.5 Johnson, 15 McKinney
Maryland – 16 votes – 3 Mesplay; 3 Swift; 4 Johnson; 6 McKinney;
Massachusetts – 21 votes – 1 Johnson; 3 Mesplay; 1 swift; 3 Nader; 13 McKinney
Michigan – 24 votes – 1 Johnson; 1 swift; 1 Mesplay; 4 Nader; 17 McKinney;
Minnesota – 12 votes – 1 NOTA; 11 McKinney;
Mississippi – 8 votes – 2 Mesplay; 2 swift; 4 McKinney;
Missouri – 8 votes – 2 Johnson; 1 swift; 5 McKinney
Montana – 2 votes – 1 Mesplay, 1 McKinney
Nebraska – 8 votes – all 8 for McKinney
New Jersey – 10 votes – 1 Nader; 1 NOTA; 1 Johnson; 1 Mesplay; 6 McKinney;
New York – 36 votes – 3 Johnson; 2 Mesplay; 2.5 Nader; 28.5 McKinney;
North Carolina – 8 votes – 2 Johnson; 1 Mesplay; 5 McKinney;
Ohio – 6 votes – 1 Nader; 1 NOTA; 1 Johnson; 3 McKinney;
Oklahoma – missing delegate ???
Oregon – 10 votes – 1 Johnson, 9 McKinney;
Pennsylvania – 18 votes – 2 Nader, 2.5 NOTA; 0.5 swift; 1 Mesplay; 2 Johnson; 10 McKinney
Rhode Island – 6 votes – 1 Johnson, 5 McKinney
South Carolina – 2 votes – 1 swift; 1 McKinney
Tennessee – 8 votes – 1 Johnson; 1 Mesplay, 1 swift; 5 McKinney
Texas – 12 votes – 1 Johnson; 1 McKinney; 10 swift;
Utah – 2 votes – both for McKinney;
Virginia – 8 votes – 2 McKinney, 1 Johnson, 1 swift; 1 NOTA; 3 Nader
Washington – 12 votes – 10 McKinney; 1 Mesplay; 1 swift;
West Virginia – 8 votes – 2 McKinney; 6 Johnson;
Wisconsin – 24 votes – 2 Mesplay, 1 uncommitted; 1 Nader; 1 swift, 19 McKinney;
Women’s caucus – 4 votes – 2 McKinney; 2 swift;
You can see the unofficial state by state breakdown at :
http://pointsbypritt.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/1st-ballot-results-green-party/
McKinney Wins Nomination on 1st ballot with 58%
532 Total Votes
313 Cynthia McKinney
87 Ralph Nader
44 1/2 Votes
39 Kent Mesplay
36 Kat Swift
9 Elaine Brown
7 Jared Ball
7 1/2 UNCOMMITTED
I’m watching CSPAN now. Interesting that they do NOT have the Green convention on. But President Clinton just was speaking quoting & referencing Teddy Roosevelt. NGA National Governors Association centennial in Philadelphia. Live.
Cynthia McKinney received a warm ovation with her running mate.
Kent Mesplay made a speech reespousing the 10 Values of the Green Party. He tells the story of the dog soldier drives a stake in the ground and stands to fight to win or die. We must be the dog soldiers for the Earth, he says.
Kat Swift used her time to emphasize the need to elect Greens to government across the board, local to national, and put REAL Green policies in action.
Jesse Johnson just finished giving his speech. Most blogs say it was a very good speech. Gravel also endorses Johnson and asks delegates to select him.
The Green Party Delegates just rejected the proposed platform. I think that doesn’t bode well for McKinney as the two planks that caused heartache were from McKinney’s rhetoric.
http://pointsbypritt.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/green-party-rejects-platform/
Also :
Green Party REJECTS Proposed 2008 Platform.
July 12, 2008, 4:43 pm | Edit this
Filed under: Uncategorized
In a move that cannot boad well, we learn from our friends over at the Green Party Watch Blog, that the Green Party has rejected the proposed 2008 Platform. It seems as if the contraversy began over two issues that seem in line with the rhetoric of Cynthia McKinney. So the next question is, is this a rejection of the contraversy of McKinney, or just an attempt to distance the Green Party from the McKinney rhetoric?
One passage dealt with the proposed guest worker program, which in the platform was equated with slavery. Also, as this blog predicted, many in the Green Party are uncomfortable with Anti-Israel rhethoric. In the proposed platform, there were portions dealing with the Middle East, which was described as “wishy washy why can’t you get along…â€.
The final vote was :
final vote…
315 present
216 proxy
531 total
Yes: 184
No: 295
Abstain: 52
Peter Orvetti, no. I wish I were. Just like the LP convention I can’t make it. I got cheated out of my mortgage and purchase of a rental income duplex. I maxed out my credit cards just getting by. I have not received much campaign help. I just found out Indymac bank , the one I was approved for a mortgage, has failed. The buyer of the rental duplex is a convict slumlord. What a mess!
It’s amazing to me that people keep quoting the 304.5, presumably because that is the total from the chart on the official delegate page on the convention site. The problem is, if you add up the totals for McKinney on that page, you get 326.5, not 304.5.
The page also has not been updated for a couple of weeks, and several more delegations have been credentialed since then. McKinney still has a decent shot at winning on the first ballot.
I urge the delegates to consider my candidacy. It is not too late to accomplish The Progressive Alliance Strategy. With the nomination I can pursuade a libertarian woman for the complementary vice president position in the fusion ticket. From there we should contact the Indians in Oklahoma for their help in getting on the ballot as the deadline is July 15. The we should conduct polling as a fusion ticket should poll well. I predict the Mckinney ticket will not poll well and McKinney & Barr will do well to get 1%; Nader 2%. But a fusion ticket can call on the huge “upper left” area of Milsted’s theory. I believe that is about 40% possible progressive plurality. Don’t make the same mistake the libertarian delegates did: pursue a newly joined former Congressperson for the name recognition and prestige. That strategy will fail. The LP, BTP, CP & Nader are splitting the inclusive progressive vote on the executive level. We need a ticket that just about every progressive/libertarian can relate to and support. Then coordinate the downticket vote. My candidacy would represent such a ticket.
Does this mean there’s a total of 837 delegates and only about two thirds of them have cast votes so far?