Green supervisor re-elected, Statewide Green vote shows support for publicly-owned state bank, Top Two limits voter choice

In June 3rd primary elections, Mendocino County Green Supervisor Dan Hamburg was re-elected to office, returning as the highest elected Green in the state.

Statewide, Ellen Brown received 6.6% for Treasurer, the highest percentage ever for a California Green in a statewide partisan election.

Five Green Party endorsed statewide candidates received over 785,000 votes among them*, led by Brown (269,636 votes, 6.6%) and Laura Wells, Controller (230,743 votes, 5.7%). 

Both Brown and Wells made campaigning for a publicly owned state bank a main priority, which Brown says would lead to "prosperity not austerity, stimulate the economy and create jobs, restore low-cost higher education, build 21st-century infrastructure and relieve the state’s debt burden." Both felt the support they received affirms  the need for the Governor and legislature to turn the public state bank concept into a reality for our state.

Green gubernatorial candidate Luis J. Rodriguez talked about the movement-building aspect of his campaign: "The 66,000 Californians who voted for me did so with a purpose: overwhelmingly they were the grassroots leaders fighting poverty, injustice, environmental degradation and economic distress and those they brought to the polling places. Against overwhelming odds, we succeeded in creating a voice and choice for the most dispossessed. 

Green Lt. Governor candidate Jena Goodman felt her campaign had a similar affect with students, inspiring them to get involved in the political process.  A 28 year old UC Davis anthropology major, "Students are a sleeping giant. If we wake up, we could shake the foundation of California by restoring free higher education, providing living wage jobs, and restoring our natural environment."
 

Green Secretary of State candidate David Curtis - who received notoriety during the campaign by being excluded by the Sacramento Press Club from a candidate debate that included two candidates behind him in the Field Poll - ironically, while he was campaigning for greater democratization of the state's electoral system - received a high of 8.3% in Mendocino County and 6.7% in San Francisco. Also in San Francisco - the state's fourth largest city - Brown received 11.2% and Wells 8.9%.

In all but one case, Green statewide candidates finished first among all candidates who either represented 3rd parties or who expressed no party preference, and in some cases, finished ahead of Democrats and Republicans. "I think this indicates that the Green Party's message still resonates with voters in California", said Goodman, who finished second to incumbent Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. 

Wells, who campaigned with Brown specifically as 'no-corporate-money' candidates, added "this was achieved with without taking any corporate money by any of our Green candidates. This is a sign that voters want to take back their democracy from the 1%, by supporting candidates free of corporate influence." 

The highest Green county total was Brown's 15.6% and Wells' 13.9% in Mendocino County.  Goodman's high was her 5.9% in San Francisco, while Rodriguez received 3.7% there, finishing ahead of Republican Neil Kashkari and doubling the 1.8% there Peace and Freedom candidate Cindy Sheehan received. Rodriguez's top county was Imperial with 4.9%.  
 
"Yet despite this voter support, because of the Top Two system, Green voices will be silenced on the November ballot - a ballot where they used to appear and receive hundreds of thousands of votes, from Californian voters who are now denied a voice in the election," said Michael Feinstein, Green Party spokesperson.
 
"The Green Party remains committed to overturning the travesty of Top Two through the courts and/or at the ballot box, because of the loss of voter choice and political voice it has wrought upon our democracy."
 
Thinking globally and acting locally, Greens continue to run and win local elections - 11 out of 20 this spring, led by Hamburg, who is one of 54 Greens currently holding elected office. 
 
"I'm fortunate to have been re-elected county supervisor for one of the most beautiful and politically progressive districts in California." said Hamburg, who joined the Green Party in 1996. "I've translated the Green Party's Ten Key Values into clean energy, water conservation and high-speed internet initiatives.  I've worked to instill operational efficiencies in local government, that are difficult but necessary in the highly skewed economic circumstances in which we live.  With large units of political and economic power becoming ever more neglectful of basic human needs, our challenge is to create alternative models that are vibrant and sustainable."
 
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* Vote totals updated periodically through the final count, follow each link to the latest total on the Secretary of State's elections results page. For all Green elections results in the June 2014 primary, you can also go here www.cagreens.org/elections/2014-spring
 

 

 

 

 

County: 
Statewide