It has proven extremely difficult for third parties to succeed even locally, but the Maine Green Party found a way. A recent comment titled, “Green Party Member Wins Non-Partisan Election in Maine” posted on Ballot Access News by Richard Winger had the scoop:
On June 13, the town of Standish, Maine, held an election for its own officers. Peter Starostecki, a registered Green Party member, was elected to the Town Council from area 2. Standish is in Cumberland County, the same county that contains Portland. Thanks to Michael for this news.
The winning candidate Peter Starostecki is from Steep Falls, Maine. Founded in 1984, the Maine Green Independent Party is six months older than the National Green Party, and is therefore considered the oldest state Green party in the the country. The party “achieved ballot status on December 21, 1998, after having received 6.6% of the vote in the 1998 gubernatorial election”.
The party witnessed a major split earlier in the year and defections to the Socialist Party USA, another third party. Take a look at this January article on the split from the Portland Press Herald:
The appearance at an inaugural event of the middle and high school marching band from Madawaska has fractured the leadership of the Maine Green Independent Party and driven two of its most prominent members to defect and declare themselves socialists.
The reason? The director of the marching band, Ben Meiklejohn, also happens to be the secretary of the Maine Green Independent Party. And some former Green members from Portland don’t think Meiklejohn should be doing anything close to supporting the inauguration of Trump.
Some more details from the article:
Former Green Party candidates Tom MacMillan and Seth Baker announced their resignations from the party this week and said they will change their voter registration political affiliation to Socialist Party USA. MacMillan is a past chair of the Green Party in Portland and ran for mayor there in 2015, and Baker was a Green candidate for a Portland state Senate seat last year.
Benjamin Meiklejohn says
Good article except for the characterisation that the party suffered a ” major split earlier in the year. ”
This assertion is sensationalism manufactured by the mainstream press to portray the party as disorganised and this publication should not be perpetuating such sensationalism.
The truth is, we have nearly 50,000 members and two members left the party because they took issue with the party secretary, a high school band director, going to the inauguration as part of his job.
Had 2 democrats or republicans left their party because of a difference with their party secretary, this would not have been news at all, let alone a “major split. ”
I encourage Democracy Chronicles not to perpetuate or validate sensational news designed to tarnish the party by falsely re-charaterizing a fairly benign defection of two out of 50,000 members as a “major split.”
Adrian Tawfik says
Thanks for the comment. I published the piece and perhaps phrased this too strongly based on the article I linked to. I’m leaning towards leaving the article as is and keeping your comment up too so that people can see the discussion. Would u personally be satisfied with that or do u think it should be edited out? What do you suggest for the edit:? And thanks for writing in.