Showing posts tagged “Ralph Nader”

Day 2: Greens take a hard look at themselves in Durham

Matt Saldaña · 25 Jul 2009, 1:51 PM · 5 Comments

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Day Two of the Green Party’s 2009 National Meeting in Durham featured a forum on single-payer health care (though “forum” may be a stretch; the consensus was that single-payer is the best, and only, option) and press conferences introducing Green Party elected officials, and candidates, to the world.

But the real action happened in workshops, where local Green Party leaders, seated in N.C. Central University classroom chairs, licked the wounds of a contentious 2008 convention in Chicago, and pondered whether the Green Party had lost its relevance in the eyes of the public.

“As I look across this room, we’re old,” said George Martin, former co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party and a founder of the Green Party Black Caucus. “Not to mention [a lack of] people of color.”

Martin said the Green Party had lost its “feeder system” when Campus Greens, a national student organization, folded due to organizational mishaps, including tax trouble and having no official ties to the national party.

“We’ve got to go back to our roots, and we’ve got to go young,” he said. “Let’s get back to our basic organization. We are activists. We are activists because we weren’t satisfied with the political system.” Continue reading »

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Barr, Nader and Baldwin to debate in Cleveland

Matt Saldaña · 30 Oct 2008, 4:27 PM · Comment

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Sad the debates–and with them, the winks, shoulder pats, split-screens and refusals to answer questions–are over? There’s one more left.

Third-party candidates Bob Barr (Libertarian Party), Ralph Nader (independent) and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party) will debate today at 4:30 p.m. at the City Club of Cleveland. Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney was invited, though is not confirmed for the event. (Her campaign Web site is down.) Watch the live stream here, or later tonight on C-Span (time unconfirmed).

An earlier attempt at a debate among the four candidates unraveled, resulting in a last-minute debate (streaming video) between Nader and Baldwin on Oct. 23. In an interview with the Indy, Barr said he did not participate in the debate, organized by Free and Equal, because “it was very poorly organized, and we weren’t given enough notice.”

Barr is the only candidate on the North Carolina ballot. Nader and McKinney secured write-in status; Baldwin did not.

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