The California Peace & Freedom Party state convention will attract a large attendance, since it will be choosing the party’s presidential candidate. The convention is August 1-3 in Sacramento, at the Hawthorn Suites, 321 Bercut Drive, in the northwest corner of the city. The Sutter Room has enough room for 150 people. Presidential candidates are invited to a forum, Friday evening, August 1. The presidential vote is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 2.
One long-time activist in the party estimates that between 35 and 40 members of the State Central Committee are in favor of Ralph Nader; approximately 25 are in favor of Gloria La Riva; approximately 12 are in favor of Brian Moore; approximately 8 are in favor of Cynthia McKinney. There are 100 elected members of the State Central Committee. This is the largest number of elected members of the PFP State Central Committee since 1992. The 1992 state convention had a spirited contest between Ron Daniels and Lenora Fulani, which Daniels won.
Attention all Nader and Barr supporters! Check out the article in the NY Times today by Kate Zernike. A number of veterans groups called the Fort Hood Presidential Town Hall Consortium are organizing a town hall meeting and inviting the presidential candidates. McCain has accepted but so far Obama has not. According to the article, “CBS has agreed to broadcast the meeting live from 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Aug. 11. The candidates would face questions directly from an audience of 6,000 people, made up of veterans, service members and military families from the base.†This would be a great event for Nader and Barr to participate in—irrespective of whether Obama participates. Below is the list of organizers along with their respective websites. I encourage you to contact all of them, in addition to CBS, and to encourage them to invite Nader and Barr to participate in the town hall meeting, too.
American Veterans
Disabled American Veterans
Military Order of the Purple Heart
Veterans for Common Sense
Military Spouse Corporate Career Network
I hope Ralph Nader gets it. Most of his support comes from California and this is his only shot at being in California’s ballot. In 2004 they passed on him and cost Nader at least 100,000 votes
what was the party’s best showing in a presidential election?
1972, Dr. Benjamin Spock, .66% in California.
LaRiva will get Moore’s people. Nader will get McKinney’s.
Richard Says:
July 13th, 2008 at 10:04 am
1972, Dr. Benjamin Spock, .66% in California.
Phil Sawyer adds:
At that time, I was a Democrat. After doing much volunteer work for former senator Eugene J. McCarthy’s Democratic campaign for the presidency during the primary season, I continued on with my efforts in the Donkey Party by working very hard doing volunteer work for Senator George McGovern’s presidential campaign. However, I was also very sympathetic to Dr. Benjamin Spock and certainly would have voted for him if the Democratic Party’s nominee had been Hubert Humphrey instead of George McGovern.
Phil
Philippe Lawrence Sawyer
Member, State and County Central Committee
Peace and Freedom Party of California
Convention Delegate for Nader-Gonzalez 2008!
Trent Hill Says:
July 13th, 2008 at 10:30 am
LaRiva will get Moore’s people. Nader will get McKinney’s.
Phil Sawyer replies:
It is not likely that Gloria LaRiva will get all of Brian Moore’s delegates should Brian be eliminated. There are some people in the Socialist Party USA that simply will not work with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I certainly hope that all of Cynthia McKinney’s people will go for Nader-Gonzalez should Cynthia be eliminated. Cynthia is my second choice; then Brian Moore; then Gloria LaRiva.
I agree, most of the Moore supporters are democratic socialists, and La Riva and the PSL are authoritarian Marxist-Leninists, and that’s a squabble going back 70, 80 years. between democratic socialists and the Leninists who are constantly trying to infiltrate and take over organizations.
If none of the primary winners can pull it together, I wouldn’t be surprised if the PFP nominates a favorite daughter/son instead. They’ve done it before, as a way of keeping the party from splitting or being hijacked.
I forgot to mention; my guess is that if Nader shows up for the PFP’s presidential forum, he will get their nomination?
Phil
Will the party allow unaffiliated observers to the meeting ?
Bob
Yes.
I suspect some Greens are uneasy about Nader getting the nomination. Registered GP voters are declining. Republician & Dems are probably funding voter registration drives. Voter turnout will likely be higher than normal.
The GP will definitely recieve far fewer votes with Nader on the ballot; consequently, the 2% of statewide votes cast or the 1% of registered voters needed to maintain ballot status will be more difficult to achieve.
Those pesky Californians! The state green news paper [full sized tabloid, eight or twelve pages!] had both [forgettable] Cobb/ LaMarche and Nader/Camejo photos on the front page atf [Above The Fold]! The state greens rebelled against the DNC influenced Greens USA but were not able to ‘Naderize’ the state offering.
The PFP [claiming ‘grassroots’ but still controlled by aging pot toking hippies] and the DNC influenced Green Party of California both blew it with Nader in 2004! And many party members AND FORMER PARTY MEMBERS still hold a grudge!
In all fair ness, Naders’ Raiders [with the forgettable slogan ‘Declare Your Independence’!] blew the ballot access in California in 2004! Misinformation and misdirection from out of town experts wrecked the effort from the begining. They even gave up on the write in effort. These write in votes were counted only because Citizens For A Better Veterans Home[s] collected a second [write in catagorey] roll of Electorial College registrants after the ballot access Electors became null.
As I said before, I may vote for the guy again, and I was a federal Elector in both the ballot access and the write in effort, but I will never, ever, ever lift a finger to contribute to the candidacy now or in the future. Try to find a campaign volunteer whom has contributed on more than one abuse, er, ah, effort.
Today Cynthia McKinney’s campaign issued a statement to supporters pointing out that as a candidate for the P&FP nomination she is still raising money for her federal matching funds drive. Donations, if you care to make any, can be made by clicking here.
Considering that Cynthia McKinney is already on the ballot in California, I hope that the PFP line will go to one of the other three candidates seeking it.
BTW, I do not think that is fair to say that PSL is trying to take over the PFP.
I agree if the psl and the pfp get together with pcp and MJ which BTW holds FISA into the DNC then none of the Gp or LP will do the psl or the pfp without pcp ofcourse
Bob Marston Says:
July 13th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Phil
Will the party allow unaffiliated observers to the meeting ?
Bob
Richard Says:
July 13th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Yes.
Phil Sawyer adds:
Richard is correct. I am hoping that there will be a huge amount of good people there – delegates and non-delegates!
Yeah, I agree. Cynthia already has a CA ballot line for free. She should back off of the PFP.
Well, Cynthia McKinney “already has a CA ballot line” unless the California Greens bolt. That is not something that I expect to happen, though. They had a chance to do that in 2004 and really prove something by doing so – but they did not do it. Along with the Natural Law Party and the Peace and Freedom Party, that year, they helped to complete an astounding abdication of responsibility to the voters of the Golden State by not nominating Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo for President and Vice President of the United States.
I’d guess Ms. McKinney is using her potential nomination by the PFP to extend her time for primary matching funds fundraising?
Deran…while I imagine McKinney actually wants the P&FP nomination, seeking it does give her a couple of more weeks to meet the matching funds goals.
Congragulations to Phil and other Nader supporting Central Committee members of Peace and Freedom Party. This is great news indeed and I hope that Nader’s lead will hold and result in a ballot line for him in California.
Anyone have any idea what states Nader will not be on? He claims he can be on the ballot in 45 states but that seems like quite the goal. Georgia, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and North Carolina are clearly not going to happen. But what about Michigan? He was up to 10% according to one poll in MI but the deadline to turn in petitions is in 3 days and there hasn’t been any mention of it on the votenader.org website.
Indiana obviously didn’t happen as well.
# NE Says:
July 13th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
BTW, I do not think that is fair to say that PSL is trying to take over the PFP.
——-Well I can readily think of two responses.
“Facts take a long time to digest, and are open to interpretation to the point of distortion. JFK assignation in 1963 for example.”
“Some one needs to ‘say’ what ‘every one’ else is thinking! Be it the 800 pound garilla stinking up the room, the non existent WMDs, or Harry Bellafontie’s snarkie remarks on Collin Powell in 2003!”
Having said that, I seem to make a lot of people unhappy when I comment. Mister Congeniality of Sacramento [yes he does wear the sash to bed, but not in the shower, oops an other rumour, my bad]. But do ya notice how much of my postings are built on first hand FACTS?
After a decade and a half of dealing with the PFP and the so called reformers, I am just so tired of lies and half truths. I get to the point that I have long been with the Dems and GOP: ‘a pox on all your houses’!
And the 1M Iraqi/ Afganistani dead, 4K Americans killed, and a trillion or so dollars of unnecessary debt, too bad ‘Peace’ Candidates McCain, Hillary Clinton, or John Edwards were not ‘snarkie’ instead of sheeple go-alongs in 2003.
Laine Says:
July 13th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Congragulations to Phil and other Nader supporting Central Committee members of Peace and Freedom Party. This is great news indeed and I hope that Nader’s lead will hold and result in a ballot line for him in California.
Phil Sawyer answers:
Thanks, Laine. If the Nader-Gonzalez ticket is nominated by the Peace and Freedom Party of California next month, it will be cause for jubilation – especially considering what happened to Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo in 2004 in the Golden State (as a result of the moral cowardice of the Green Party, the Natural Law Party, and the Peace and Freedom Party that year).
Dearest Phil: Amen brother, we are on the same paragraph of the same page of that sorry piece of history!