Green Stein to run for governor

The Green Party can be fairly, uh, "out there", but third party candidates would be perfectly legitimate if people stopped worrying about "throwing away" their vote and other such bullshit. Vote for who YOU think represents YOU best.

Think a third party candidate would be useless? Uh...look at Mitt Romney. Republican, and the most worthless/useless governor we ever had.

People do vote on

By anon2
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 4:19pm

People do vote on issues.

It's just that our system isn’t set up as a parliamentary system where power is shared and bartered between ruling coalitions absent an clear majority.

You want to change the world, you work from the inside and do it within the already constructed political means. I always have to laugh at the LaRouches and Green Rainbows. They either know it’s nothing more than a rather small soapbox for their own vanity, or they’re truly bat shit crazy. If they really wanted to change or influence anything, they’d get serious and run a serious major ticket primary campaign that focuses more on their pet issues, and on actual governance that might include them.

Another way to look at it is they’re the left over teabaggers from the Dem’s of the 70’s. Simple minded, loud, and giving no attempt to build a political party (or sub group) capable of governing; just enacting knew jerk policies that they support blindly.

Insert that Margaret Mead quote here

By eeka
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 8:59pm

Remember when people who thought that people of color should have rights were a single-digit percentage of the population who'd never amount to anything substantial? It takes time for a concept to sink in and gain more support. Sure, we'll probably have a two-party system for the next 10 years, but not necessarily the next 100 or even 50.

Or we might still have a two-party system

By Ron Newman
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 9:10pm

but with one or more DIFFERENT parties than we have now. (Where are the Federalists and Whigs these days?)

They're with the tories, of course

By eeka
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 10:06pm

Republicans and democrats have essentially swapped positions. It's clearly possible for the system to change.

Wait, I can do the math

By JohnAKeith
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 11:16am

Wait, and if 100 people run, she can win with just 1.1 of the vote. Ingenious plan!

At this rate we may just get

By ShadyMilkMan
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 11:23am

At this rate we may just get there.

Next up ...

By JohnAKeith
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 11:44am

Paging Ben Dougett ...

Before dismissing her outright, let's remember Jesse Ventura

By Ron Newman
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 8:56pm

who became governor of Minnesota as a third-party candidate in a 3-way race, with 37% of the vote.

You beat me to it

By eeka
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 9:04pm

Yep, and this was with pretty much no relevant experience. I'd say that logically speaking, someone who has experience running community health initiatives and serving on boards and things should have a better chance at winning a gubernatorial election than some wrestler.

Some wrestler? LOL I realize

By ShadyMilkMan
Wed, 01/13/2010 - 8:05am

Some wrestler? LOL

I realize being a wrestler is not a qualification for being a Governor but Jesse Ventura was not just some wrestler. He was a pretty big name and would have been known by a good chunk of the male population between 18-50 at the time. Jill Stein is not well known outside of running for political offices and losing it is a very different situation. He was also in movies as well. His name recognition was high nationwide and I have to assume was even higher in his home state.

Also let me ask you a quick question. Who had more experience in government before running for Governor Jill Stein or Jesse Ventura? The answer is Jesse Ventura having been a mayor for 4 years previously. He also served in the Navy in an elite Navy Seals unit, many people give extra points to people in elections to those with military service. He also had friends with money and had NO PROBLEM getting media attention. There was no social media and almost no internet back then but if someone like him were running right now he would make Scott Browns social media outreach look like childs play. I bet a Jesse Ventura would easily get himself 50,000 Twitter followers with many pushing him.

I am not saying he was a better governor then she would be but dismissing him as just "some wrestler" is an ignorant statement that lacks any understanding of his qualifications and advantages in that race.

It is easier to win a mayorship/state rep seat/state senate seat then a Governor seat. There is only one reason to only run for these state wide offices and that is she knows she does not have the support in any one location to win a seat. Plus it is "ok" to lose the Governors race for her but running for an attainable seat would be devastating if and when she lost. Until she runs for an attainable seat I can not take her seriously. She needs to prove herself.

She did.

By jodie
Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:44pm

She ran for MA house a few years ago- and came in ahead of the republican candidate.

How close did she come to the

By ShadyMilkMan
Mon, 02/08/2010 - 1:17pm

How close did she come to the Democrat?

If she said she could win

By cowsandmilk
Thu, 01/07/2010 - 10:43pm

If she said she could win with 34% in a 3 party race, I would accept that. The problem with the 26% is that she is requiring another "3rd party candidate" to also pull 25% of the vote. The belief that more 3rd party candidates makes it easier for a 3rd party candidate to win is just flawed.

Hung up on the 26%, read the rest of the message

By anon
Fri, 01/08/2010 - 9:17am

A mathematical statement "conceivable to win with 26% in a 4 way race" is not strategic judgment but a fact for all the gubernatorial candidates. The real question of importance is what a Green-Rainbow candidate brings to the political discussion. All of the points being made in that appeal are highly unlikely to be made issues by any of the current candidates and each has strong sources of public support.

Tim Cahill the best thing to happen to Jill Stein in long time

By JohnAKeith
Mon, 01/11/2010 - 9:59am

Jill Stein should thank whatever pagan idol she worships that Tim Cahill has entered the race as an unenrolled candidate. Because he is pulling such good numbers in polls, he's very likely to be included in any and all debates & public forums. Therefore, they'll have no choice but to invite her, too.

Now if we can only get Grace on board, it will be a real cock fight. (Referencing chickens, of course.)

Stein

By anon
Sun, 01/17/2010 - 11:56pm

I have a suggestion and that is that you should really look into who Jill Stein is and what she has been doing for years, and continues to do, before you make rash judgments about her. She has 2 report/books that have been peered reviewed and published on Health, climate and politics that are heavily used in the medical circles (and organizations) around the country. She works and studies 24 hours a day. She tours and lectures at heavy duty non-partisan organizations about these same topics around the country. She will be in Washington DC this week(invited) giving a talk to people that is a precursor to meeting with members of Congress. She has been in courtrooms, over and over again, fighting against corporations as the "expert" for the people against the heavies of industry (similar to those courtroom scenes in the movies, Civil Action and Erin Brokovich. She's a consummate organizer. She's has already stopped bad bills being passed in the legislature by building coalitions of different organizations around the state. She's extremely well respected by folks around the country Dems, republicans, libertarians, and independents, etc, for some of the work she is doing. And she now has the ear of Progressive dems around the state of Mass. because of the sorry state of affairs here and the disillusionment of many many people for what's happening here. She's an extremely powerful person and is like the dems were 10-20 years ago before they moved to the right and let us all down. She is what 21st politics is becoming. If you really want to know what's going on, get your news from somewhere else than the Boston Globe and these blogs. Maybe even volunteer for a campaign and see what it's really like in the trenches of a political campaign. It's easy to write about stuff you don't know about. Try running a low money, volunteer based campaign and you'll see what I mean. There's more here than meets the eye.

just on a strategic note

By anon
Fri, 02/05/2010 - 9:07am

I am disinclined to vote for someone who admits from the start that she only expects the endorsement of a quarter of the electorate. That stuff is fine for strategists to ponder, but a serious candidate oughta be focusing on a bigger picture.

Green Stein to run for governor

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