On April 15, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office said that the Green Party’s petition to be a recognized party is valid. The Green Party has had two party petitions validated in the last two weeks, in Arizona and Hawaii. Also, its Tennessee petition to place its gubernatorial candidate on the ballot as an independent was validated earlier this month. Therefore, the party has now qualified either itself, or its candidates, for the November 2010 ballot for statewide office in 20 states.
At this time exactly four years ago, the Green Party also enjoyed that status in 20 states.
Hats off for obtaining so many signatures.
This marks the first time the Green Party has managed to maintain ballot status for two consecutive election cycles. More typically the gubernatorial election is ignored by third parties (not including the Lib’s who have ballot access based on registrations) because (a) it doesn’t draw as much attention and (b) the number of signatures is based off how many people voted in the last statewide election, which is typically much higher when the last statewide election included the election of the president.
If we can find a Green candidate for governor who can get 5% we’ll have it without having to gather a single signature for 2012.
Happily, in 2006 the Constitution Party got a bill through the Arizona legislature saying the party petition is always based on the last gubernatorial vote. So it is no longer true that the number of signatures is way higher for petitioning in gubernatorial years.
The irony is that the Constitution Party did all the work of lobbying, and yet the Constitution Party has never taken advantage of what it achieved. The party has never completed the Arizona party petition and its presidential nominee has never been on in Arizona.
This is great Green Party news…
Thank you for it…
And tonight in Columbia the Green Party candidate for President has climbed to 29 per cent. The Green Party is in second place in a field of 8 candidates. The Green Party candidate trails the incumbent Columbian President’s party by only 5 per cent.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-15/green-party-s-mockus-gaining-in-colombia-race-poll-reveals.html
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