Mike Feinstein, Application for Delegate, Green Party of the United States (2015)

Mike Feinstein

Since then, I have served on a variety of state committee and working groups, including Campaigns & Candidates, Media, Goals & Strategies, Clearinghouse, By-Laws, Electoral Reform and International. I served on the GPCA State Coordinating Committee from 1995-2001, 2006-2008 and 2011-present. In September of 2006, I was elected as Co-Coordinator of the Coordinating Committee. I also served on both of the GPCA's State Party Restructuring Committees (1992-1993, 1999-2000).

From 1994-1998, I was the GPCA's State Clearinghouse Coordinator. I also wrote for the GPCA's first state newsletter (Green Consensus) in the early to mid 1990s and for the second (Green Focus) in the early to mid 2000s. I create a great deal of web content for the GPCA website to this day. I’ve also been one of the GPCA's state spokespeople since 2011 and have appeared quite often on radio and television on behalf of the Green Party, as well as having penned several opinion pieces published in major newspapers.

I organized and hosted the second ever GPCA state meeting (March 1990 @ LA Community College). I authored the successful proposal for the GPCA to join the ASGP (November 1999). I have extensively documented our GPCA state party history (www.cagreens.org/history).

I co-founded the California Green Officeholders network in 2007. I played a key role in recruiting and supporting most of the GPCA's statewide candidates since 1994.

I successfully negotiated on behalf of the GPCA with the state legislature on three bills affecting the Green Party - one to enact a Green Party section of the California elections code; one to ease the negative effects of the Top Two on smaller parties, and another to expand the signature gathering period to make it easier for Greens to quality for the ballot for Green Party county council.

- On the national level, I have been active since 1989. I began by co-coordinating the national Green energy policy formation (1989-1990) for national platform (SPAKA) of the Greens Committees of Correspondence (GCoC), our national Green organization at the time..

I was a founding member of the national Green Party Organizing Committee (1990). I attended the founding meeting of the Association of State Green Parties (1996), which led to the current national Green Party of the United States. I was an invited plenary speaker at the founding of state Green Parties in Minnesota (1994) and Texas (1999), as well as the Campus Green Network (2001) in Chicago.

In planning national meetings, I was on the 1990 national Green Gathering '90 organizing committee (Estes Park, CO). In 1992, I was a member of the Media Committee for Green Gathering '92 (Minneapolis, MN). In 1996, I was co-coordinator (with Lynne Serpe) of the entire 1996 Green Gathering and Presidential Nomination Convention (at UCLA in Los Angeles) and arranged for it to be broadcast live by C-SPAN. In 2000, I was a member of the Media Committee at the ASGP Green Party National Convention (Denver, CO). In 2001 I co-organized (with Stacy Malkan), the press conference to announce GPUS Founding and its application to the FEC for Nat'l Committee Status, July 2001 (Santa Monica, CA) - and was a primary speaker at that press conference, which was broadcast live by C-SPAN owing to my efforts in arranging it. Overall, I’ve attended every annual national Green meeting in the U.S. since 1989 except 1993, 1994 and 2009; and have served as an advisor to the GPUS Annual National Meeting Committee since the early 2000s.

In 1995, I co-negotiated the deal with two others for Ralph Nader to appear on the GPCA March 1996 presidential primary ballot, the first major step to Nader becoming the Green Party's first ever presidential candidate.

I organized both national Green officeholders conferences in the U.S. (1998 and 2003, both in Santa Monica), as well as the first-ever gathering of Green candidates in the U.S. (Green Parties of the West, 1993, also in Santa Monica). I was also a founding member of the national Green Officeholders Network in 2003.

In the early 1990s, I was a correspondent for national Green publications Green Synthesis and Green Letter. I then became the founding editor of the national Green Party newsletter GreenPages from 1997-2001 and continue today as on its Editorial Board today, with a focus on Electoral and International Green Party news.

In 1999-2000, I negotiated 90% of what became to be known as the `Boston Agreement', which led the way to consolidating different factions in the national Green movement into what became the Green Party of the United States. I simultaneously served for several years on the national (ASGP) Transition Committee, which established the structure on how state Green Parties are represented on the national level.

I  maintained national candidate and officeholder lists for U.S. Greens from 1994 to 2003, co-created the original web-based data base of all Green candidates, and documented the party's definitive election history back to 1985. I served as GPUS Steering Committee co-chair from 2009 to 2011. Today I am an member of the GPUS Bylaws Commttee, International Committee and Presidential Campaign Support Commitee; and an advisor to the Media, Coordinated Campaigns and Annual National Meeting Committees.

- On the international level, I was a founding member of the U.S. Green International Working Group in 1989 and have been active on the international Green level ever since.

I've attended as many or more international Green meetings than any other U.S. Green, representing both the Green Party of California and the U.S. Greens at international Green meetings on numerous occasions. In the early 1990s, I played an integral role in establishing the credibility of U.S. Greens in the international Green community, visiting and corresponding with numerous European Greens in particular.

My first role as a formal U.S. Green representative overseas was June 1990 at the European Green Coordination meeting in Brussels. In 2001, I was one of three U.S. Green delegates to the Global Green meeting in Canberra, Australia, where I cast one of three U.S. Green votes in favor of the first Global Green Charter. In 2008 I was a GPUS delegate to the Second Global Green Congress, held in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

In 1991, I was part of the organizing committee for the first CANAMEX meeting (Greens from Canada, U.S. and Mexico) and was active in the founding of its successor, the Federation of the Green Parties of the Americas. I attended Federation meetings as an observer that coincided with the founding of the Green Party in the Dominican Republic (December 2002) and Nicaragua (November 2003); as well as a GPUS Delegate in Venezuela (November 2007) and observer in Mexico (November 1999) and Canada (November 2008). 

I was also a keynote international speaker on Canadian national TV at the August 2006 Green Party of Canada national convention, as is documented in these three videos (one, two, three). I've written a 674-page book on European Greens (Sixteen Weeks with European Greens: Interviews, Impressions, Platforms and Personalities). I have the largest collection of international Green Party videos in the world on my YouTube channel. 

- On the global level, I have been active since 1990, when I put forward the first written proposal regarding global Green cooperation and coordination, which I presented in Bonn, West Germany at the meeting of the European Green Coordination in 1990.

I was part of the international effort to organize the first Global Green meeting, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. I was an advisor to the first Global Green Steering Committee (1992-1994), including in my role creating the first Global Green Calendar, writing for the first Global Green newsletter and helping co-create and coordinate the first international Green email lists in the early 1990s. I also served as part of the twenty-member Global Green planning committee for the 2008 Global Greens Congress in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

I was founding webmaster for the Global Greens website www.globalgreens.org from 2002-2009 and continue to contribute content to the site to this day. I am also a member of the Global Greens History Working Group and in this role, am writing a comprehensive global history section of Green Parties around the world all the way back to 1972.

2) Please list any prior or current positions, related experience, and/or personal and professional skills outside of the Green Party that you have, that apply to this position.

Municipal
• City Council, Santa Monica, 1996-2004 (elected in 1996 and 2000)
• Mayor, Santa Monica, 2000-2002 (chosen by a unanimous vote of my colleagues)

Regional
• Southern California Regional Comprehensive Plan Task Force, Southern California Association of Governments, 2004-2007
• Growth Visioning Subcommittee/Southern California Compass, Southern California Association of Governments, 2001-2004
• Energy & Environment Committee, Southern California Association of Governments, 1997-2004
• Westside Council of Governments
Santa Monica representative as Mayor, 2000-2002

State
• Housing Committee, California League of Cities, 2001-2002

National
• U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2002
• Central Cities Committee,
National League of Cities, 2002-2004

International
• ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)
Santa Monica representative, including presentations in Johannesburg, South Africa (World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002) and Athens (ICLEI Global Congress, 2003).

3) Please describe your vision for serving as GPUS Delegate including addressing the job description for GPUS Delegate.

I want to continue to ensure that our state party is well represented at the national level and that our national party grows as well, including by sharing skills and information with state parties not as well developed as California.