Jon Olsen, chair of the Green Independent Party town caucus, speaks to the three other party members assembled for the caucus in the Jefferson town office on Wednesday, Feb. 26. (Evan Houk photo)
During a recent town caucus in Jefferson, local members of the Green Independent Party agreed to support independent U.S. Senate candidate Lisa Savage, but had a three-way tie on which Green presidential candidate to support.
To retain ballot access, the party must hold caucuses in at least one municipality in 14 of Maine’s 16 counties. The caucus at the Jefferson town office on Wednesday, Feb. 26 will serve as one. It was the only Green Independent caucus in Lincoln County.
Four Jefferson residents and party members were in attendance, but only three could participate. Kitty Wilbur only recently changed her enrollment from Democrat to Green Independent. According to state caucus rules, a voter who has switched parties within 15 days of a caucus cannot participate.
The three remaining voters agreed to back Savage for Senate.
Savage, a member of the Green Independent Party until recently, is running as an independent against four-term Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins because this will allow her more time to gather the necessary signatures to make the ballot. It will also allow her to gather signatures from all voters, not just members of the Green Independent Party.
Jon Olsen chaired the meeting, first discussing the six 2020 presidential candidates recognized by the national Green Party, then discussing Savage’s campaign. Kathy Malatesta and Caleb Poland also participated in the caucus.
State rules indicate that in order for Savage to qualify as a Green Independent Senate candidate, she would need 2,000 signatures from registered Green voters, of which there are approximately 43,000 statewide. Savage would have had from Jan. 1 through March 15 to get the signatures.
As an independent, Savage needs 4,000 signatures, but she has until June 1 and signatures can be from voters of any affiliation.
“Virtually every voter we’ve talked to has readily agreed that we need to radically reduce the defense budget, implement Medicare for all, and cancel student debt, and make public higher education free for anyone who wants it,” Savage said in a statement. “However, if they want to vote for (Democratic presidential candidate) Bernie (Sanders) in the primary, they can’t sign our petition. If they value their status as independent, unenrolled voters, they can’t sign our petition.”
Olsen said that because of ranked-choice voting, Savage actually has a chance to win the Senate race, should she qualify for the ballot.
The Maine Green Independent Party was founded in 1984, six months prior to the founding of the national Green Party, making it the oldest state Green party in the country, according to mainegreens.org.
The party’s website lays out 10 guiding principles of the party: decentralization of wealth and power; ecological wisdom; feminism and gender equality; future focus and sustainability; grassroots democracy; nonviolence; personal and global responsibility; respect for diversity; and social justice and equal opportunity.
Olsen said the Green Independent Party is a values-based party that stands by its ideology. He said he prefers the Green Independent Party to the major parties because he opposes the national corporate leadership of both the Republican and Democratic parties.
“I make a distinction between our neighbors, who registered Democrat or Republican, most of whom are very decent, ordinary people. My beef isn’t with them. It’s with the corporate leadership of both,” Olsen said.
Wilbur, who recently switched her enrollment to Green Independent, said she has always felt disenfranchised by both of the major political parties. She said her main concern is climate change.
“I want to live in a world where we’re all focused on saving the planet and treating each other better,” Wilbur said.
Olsen talked about the six recognized presidential candidates vying for the Green Party presidential nomination. The three participating members at the caucus then voted by secret ballot for their choice of presidential candidate.
The candidates are Howie Hawkins, Dario Hunter, Dennis Lambert, Kent Mesplay, Sedinam Moyowasifza-Curry, and David Rolde.
All the candidates have similar platforms based on the Green Party’s 10 principles, some more radical than others.
Each participant in the caucus voted for a different candidate: one for Hawkins, one for Hunter, and one for Mesplay. The votes will count in the party’s nomination process.
Hawkins, an activist and co-founder of the national party, is leading in fundraising with $76,833. Olsen credited him with coining the term “Green New Deal” in 2006.
Hawkins was nominated three times for governor in New York, each time gaining the 50,000 signatures required. Now the state is proposing rule changes that would triple the number of signatures needed, Olsen said.
“Every which way, we’re hamstrung by the rules that the two major parties put in place,” Olsen said.
Olsen read a statement to the caucus from Hawkins about how he would deal with multibillion-dollar banks in the U.S.
“I envision a blend of federal, state, and local public banks, credit unions, and traditional banks, especially locally owned community banks. … I think the biggest national banks should be socialized, with at least the top six with assets approaching a trillion or more, that are all too big to fail or jail when they do wrong,” Hawkins said.
Olsen said North Dakota has a public state bank, one of the reasons the state was not hit as hard as the rest of the country during the Great Recession that began in 2007.
Hunter is a lawyer and former school administrator who fought to ban hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Ohio.
Lambert is a documentary filmmaker who has run for the U.S. House of Representatives in two Ohio congressional districts.
Mesplay is a retired air quality inspector and emergency shelter manager in San Diego. Lambert and Mesplay both focus on combating climate change in their platforms.
Moyowasifza-Curry is an activist who ran unsuccessfully for the Green Party vice presidential nomination in 2008. She also founded the Green Party Black Caucus.
Rolde is an anti-imperialist activist who calls for the elimination of the military budget. He wears a placard with an image of Syrian President Bashar Assad on his shirt as part of his activism, Olsen said.
The Maine Green Independent Party state convention usually takes place in May, according to Olsen. He said there was no need for the caucus to nominate delegates, as everyone is welcome to attend the state convention.
