Green Party Watch has started a new series profiling all the state Green Parties. In the first post in the series, Gregg Jocoy writes
Please do not assume that what is written here is complete or even fair, as I will have to depend on what Greens I can find in each state along the way. There is no set time table for these reports so don’t be upset if the state you are most interested in doesn’t get covered as fast as you might like.
The first state profiled is Alabama, with the following report:
According to my contact in Alabama the state party is in serious need of new members and new leadership. The party leadership has, by and large, avoided deep involvement in national GP politics and thereby tried to avoid burn-out. Even so, Alabama has not yet become fertile ground for the Green Party. While apparently a bit worn out from years of trying to carry the banner aloft without much support the state’s leadership is committed to the long tern success of the Green Party and our ideals.
The most vital things the current state party leadership wants are new membership and some indication that their efforts will bear fruit.
I invite any readers who live in Alabama, or who have friends or family who live there, to comment here or write me at [email protected]. I believe that Greens who attend the School of the Americas protest at Fort Benning GA will have a chance to meet folks from Alabama who share our Green Values, and while a protest is not enough to build a foundation for a growing Green Party, it may well give the Alabama Greens the sort of fresh ideas and new people they need to get the ball rolling again.
We tried to get them to at least do Alabama for presidentials. We were already circulating 3 others here, and the Green Party chair/contact has an office in the same building as the LP, so turn-ins would have been easy enough. He probably even could have had the sigs run down to Montgomery along with the LP’s. But the Greens never funded it.
I agree, the series sounds very interesting. The Green Parties in Arkansas and Louisiana have put on great campaigns lately, so the deep South isn’t necessarily a bad place for Green Parties. But the Alabama Green Party suffers from being in a state with terrible ballot access laws.
Excellent idea for a series. I look forward to following it here and/or at Green Party Watch!