The Green Party congratulates Connecticut Green and newly elected Green Party of the United States Steering Committee Co-Chair Clifford Thornton on an award he received from the Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.orgfor his leadership in the movement to reform drug laws.
Mr. Thornton, co-founder of the drug law reform organization Efficacy, Inc. http://www.Efficacy-online.org, is a national co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. In 2006, he ran on the Green Party ticket for governor of Connecticut.«Cliff Thornton’s work for the reform of US drug policy is in line with Green opposition to the War on Drugs, unjust and draconian drug laws, and the use of drug laws to fill up prison cells with black, brown, poor, and young Americans. We’re proud that Cliff is a member of the Green Party,» said Alfred Molison, co-chair of the Green Party’s national Black Caucus http://gpblackcaucus.blogspot.com.

Ballot Access Arizona

Arizona is the next state on the Ballot Access Committee list. Arizona has been working to get signatures for many months and has until March 1st to turn them in to the various County Election Offices. The committee sees two ways to help Arizona: 1) help mobilize and coordinate volunteers to go to Arizona to physically help get signatures and 2) raise revenue to help pay for professional signature gatherers. The signature goal is 28,000 and Arizona currently has approximately 8000 in hand.
If you are interested in a warm sunny vacation in Arizona during the Winter break, contact Richard Scott in the Phoenix area(scotty@azgp.org) or Claudia Ellquist in the Tucson area(ellquist.co.atty@juno.com). They will arrange housing and petitioning opportunities for you. Out of State people can help petition but they must be paired with an Arizona petitioner.
You can donate to the Ballot Access Committee and designate Arizona as the State you wish to share your donation with – simply click here to help Arizona gain ballot status.
You can download a copy of the petition and complete instructions by going to the Arizona web site:http://www.azgp.org

The Green Party will have up to seven candidates for the party’s presidential nomination on state ballots for the primary elections in 2008. «The Green Party, in most states where Greens have ballot status, participate in the primaries just as Democrats and Republicans do,» said Jim Coplen, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. «Green voters will vote in the primaries the same way registered Democrats and Republicans vote.»
The list of Green presidential hopefuls includes three women (two of them African American), one African American man, at least two candidates with Native American ancestry, one of Arab ancestry, a former member of Congress, two former Green presidential candidates, the former leader of the Black Panther Party, an environmental engineer, a college professor, a candidate who will turn 35 in June 2008, and a 73-year-old.
The nomination will be decided by about 800 delegates from state parties who will gather at the Green Party national convention in Chicago, Illinois, July 10-13. «We’re especially proud of the diversity and depth of political experience represented by our candidates. We look forward to a vigorous and friendly competition for the nomination,» said Ruth Weill, co-chair of the Green Party’s Annual National Meeting Committee.
The Candidates:
Jared Ball, independent journalist; radio host (WPFW 89.3 FM Pacifica Radio in Washington, DC), hip-hop scholar, assistant professor of communications studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland
http://www.jaredball.com
Elaine Brown, 2005 Green candidate for Mayor of Brunswick, Georgia; former leader of the Black Panther Party; organizer of Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice and National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform
http://www.elainebrown.org
Jesse Johnson, 2006 US Senate candidate and 2004 gubernatorial candidate for the Mountain Party in West Virginia (now affiliate state party of the Green Party of the United States); filmmaker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMxgYnmdHfg
Cynthia McKinney, former member of the US House of Representatives (Georgia), 1993 to 2003, 2005 to 2007; former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, 1988-1992
http://www.runcynthiarun.org
Kent Mesplay, 2004 candidate for the Green presidential nomination; former president of Turtle Island Institute; environmental engineer, alternative energy activist; California Green organizer
http://www.mesplay.org
Ralph Nader, 1996 and 2000 Green candidate for President; 2004 independent candidate for President; consumer advocate (Howie Hawkins of the Green Party of New York State has consented to serve as a ‘placeholder’ candidate until Mr. Nader announces his intentions for the 2008 election)
http://www.draftnader.org
Kat Swift, Texas Green organizer; former Campus Greens leader; activist with Clean Money San Antonio and San Antonio Democracy Now
http://www.bexargreens.org/katforprez

Contact information, photographs, video clips, and bios of the candidates can be found on the candidates’ own web sites. Video clips of many of the candidates are also linked at http://www.gp.org/audio_video.shtml.
Not all seven of the candidates will be on the ballot in every state where Greens are participating in primaries. In states where deadlines have already passed, most but not all of the campaigns have submitted required petitions with valid signatures to their respective elections offices.