The Green National Committee has rejected a proposal to create a new party committee focused on government transparency and accountability, with delegates voting down the measure by a more than two-to-one margin.
Voting on the measure officially closed August 2, roughly a week after the Green Party of the United States’ Annual National Meeting. The proposal met quorum—which has become something of a problem for the organization this year—but failed to receive the support of two-thirds of participating delegates, as required for the creation of a new standing committee. Delegates voted 24-49 against establishing the committee, with nine abstaining.
The Wisconsin Green Party introduced the proposal earlier this summer, arguing that the national party needed a dedicated body to coordinate its work involving government corruption, whistleblower protections, and corporate influence. Delegates were given three weeks to discuss the proposal before voting opened July 27.
The proposal envisioned what the authors called a Government Transparency and Accountability Committee that would be responsible for producing research, recommend relevant platform amendments, and organize educational programs. The group also would have worked with other party committees and handled topics that its sponsors felt required more long-term monitoring, including calls for an independent investigation into the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, public hearings on the development and deployment of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, and matters of monetary reform.
Questions about whether the new body would duplicate work already being done within the party did come up before the proposal reached national delegates. During a June meeting of the party’s Steering Committee, where leadership discussed moving the proposal forward, Co-chair Craig Cayetano questioned whether another national committee was necessary. Kalia Fitzgerald, another co-chair who has since been reelected to another term, responded that those involved in developing the proposal had already been conducting research and providing what she called “un-propagandized information.”
Support for the committee was scattered across the National Committee, though several delegations backed it unanimously. Those included Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, along with the Green Party’s Black Caucus. Other delegations did not participate in the vote at all, including the full state delegations from Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Nebraska, and Ohio.
Additionally, the close of the Annual National Meeting did not impact or otherwise alter who participated in the vote. Green National Committee delegates are selected by the party’s accredited state affiliates and caucuses during their respective conventions, so the same individuals involved in the discussion phase were involved with the vote.
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