Cynthia McKinney has informed the Green Party that she has decided not to seek their Presidential nomination.
In a letter delivered to the Green Party national steering committee:
To: Steering Committee of the
Green Party of the United States
Fm: Cynthia McKinney, Georgia
Date: September 10th, 2007
As I’m sure you know, I have been approached by many within the Green Party over the preceeding year who have asked that I consider seeking the nomination of the Green Party of the United States as its candidate for President of the United States. In 2003 I was similiarly approached about my potential interest in the 2004 race.
I have seriously weighed the options, travelled extensively holding first private, then more public events with Greens over the preceding year, exploring such a possibility with Greens in at least a dozen state parties, meeting with the chair of your Presidential Campaign Support Committee, with the members of your Steering Committee and speaking at, and entertaining questions from the Party’s Annual Meeting in Reading Pennsylvania this past July. Since the Reading meeting, I have also begun to help Green candidates raise money for their campaigns.
For months I have answered questions about my intentions for this race in 2008 by saying that while I am not yet in, neither am I out of this race.
After careful consideration about the political conditions facing our nation, the level of development within the Party, my own readiness to take on such a daunting task and my own long postponed personal priorities, I write to inform the Party that I must at this time withdraw my name from consideration for the Party’s 2008 Presidential Nominating contest.
I remain committed to our collective work of transforming our nation and to mobilizing peace loving Americans, justice seeking activists and others disfranchised by the powers which currently control our nation toward that end.
Sincerely yours,
Cynthia McKinney
But Ralph Nader has said he will not object to his name being placed on the Green Party of California’s primary ballot even though Ralph is still holding to “too early to tell” regarding his running for President in ’08
The Green Party just missed out on a big opportunity with Cynthia McKinney.
What opportunity? She’s not interested in running, so there isn’t any opportunity.
Third Party Watch points out that the Green Party has recently helped McKinney pay off her $50,000 campaign debt with the expectation that she would run for President. They suggest: “Maybe they should ask for their money back.”
http://thirdpartywatch.com/2007/09/11/mckinney-wont-seek-green-party-nomination/
To be fair, those events were all joint fundraisers that also supported Green Party candidates, and at most of them, McKinney was probably the bigger draw. But it is certainly a big disappointment for it to turn out this way. There is some speculation that she dropped out because the party insisted on pursuing a competitive nomination process. Sounds like Nader in 2004 … who has perhaps learned from his mistake?
Past shelf date, past shelf date…..
and this from a proud Perot, Perot, Nader, Nader voter…..
I do not understand why the Cal GP would be so stupid as to insist on an open primary so every nutter and wacko can get on the ballot. it makes the party look even lamer than it actually is.
McKinney would have been the candidate that could put the GP into a serious political space. lacking her, the party will continue to flonder in it’s hippie ghetto.
time for a new indie progressive party. the Greens are as the fellow said, past shelf date.
“David Gaines Says:
September 12th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
What opportunity? She’s not interested in running, so there isn’t any opportunity.”
I meant that Cynthia McKinney had the potential to be a good candidate for the Greens who could have brought them a lot of publicity.
To those who wonder why CA Greens would establish an “open primary”, I think that this is part of the reason the Green National Committee is considering Proposal 311: Implementation of Standards for Recognizing Presidential Candidates. This after the national meeting in Reading (and by extension Nader and McKinney) had to endure presentations by a candidate who’s main point seemed to be that she had fought against “the man” by filing dozens of law suits, another who is persuaded that vitamins are the cure for what ails ya, even politically, and more than one person who was seeking both the green and other party nominations, none with a prayer, God willing.
The state party is free to do as they choose, and frankly, I’d have done the same. Afterall, if McKinney is on the ballot with these other non-entities, there is NO DOUBT that McKinney would swamp. Only if McKinney faced Nader (please god…please…) would there be a real contest.
McKinney has baggage. Even so, she would have been a terrific fit for we Greens if she were dedicated to growing the number of chapters and helping elect a certain number of Green candidates. Winning could well mean her helping three state legislative candidates win for the first time, or helping a local chapter take full control of local government…these could be victories we all could savor for years to come.
Elaine Brown is hardly a nobody, though I need to hear more about her plans and platform before I could support her; right now her campaign seems pretty dormant. Nader hasn’t made his intentions known yet either. And the lesser-known candidates aren’t all wackos; some of them are active Greens who have run and/or participated in serious campaigns in the past. Given those options, of course there should be an open primary.
Don Lake wrote:
and this from a proud Perot, Perot, Nader, Nader voter…..
Similar to my friend, Don Lake, my record is that of being a proud Perot, Perot, Nader, Kerry voter (I wanted to vote for Ralph Nader in 2004 but we failed to qualify him for the ballot in California).
There is no real shelf date, in my opinion. We all pretty much knew that Rep. Cynthia McKinney was not going to run. I agree with David Gaines: There is and was no opportunity. I hope that the Green Party of California puts Elaine Brown and Ralph Nader on the ballot, among others.