On September 21, Maine representative Ralph Chapman announced that he had changed his registration from independent to Green. He was first elected in 2010 as a Democrat, and was re-elected as a Democrat in 2012, 2014, and 2016. He received 57.6% of the vote as the Democratic nominee in November 2016.
On May 26, 2017, he had changed from Democratic to independent. He graduated from college as a physics major, and is an expert on solar energy.
Chapman is the first Green state legislator anywhere in the U.S. since 2012, when Fred Smith was elected in Arkansas as the Green Party nominee. However, almost immediately after the 2012 election, Smith left the Green Party and became a Democrat.
The web page for the Maine legislature already lists Chapman as a Green. See this page. His district is centered on Brooksville, which is in Hancock County, on the coast.
This is HUGE
That could get 500 or 550/1000? more Mainers to join Green Party with few week, but nice anyway.
He is term-limited in the House in 2018.
To qualify for a segregated House primary in Maine requires 25 signature. In his HD-133 there are 337 Green registered voters. If he were eligible to run for re-election, he would need to get signatures from 7.4% of them.
The district is centered in Blue Hill (Blue Hill and Surry to its north have a majority of the voters). The other small towns to the south are each about 1/3 the population of Blue Hill). Maine identifies its representatives by their home town, so he would be address as the ‘Representative from Brooksville;.