We need YOUR help for our Green Presidential candidates to receive primary matching funds from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) in 2008. In order to receive primary matching funds, a candidate must raise a minimum of $5,000 each from at least 20 states before the Green Party makes its Presidential nomination on July 12. Candidates raising the money needed will be eligible to apply for $100,000 in Federal Matching Funds. This money can be used to help the Green Party succeed in its Presidential petition drives.

So far, donations from Greens all across the country have been vital in getting us on the ballot in Arkansas, Arizona, and Hawaii! Arizona was a particularly difficult state; we needed 20,449 valid signatures to get on the ballot. With generous donations of money and volunteer time, the Green Party of Arizona was able to collect 22,570 valid signatures!

Over the next two to three months, we have the chance to get our Presidential nominee on the ballot in as many as 46 states. Your donations to our candidates will help us with challenging petition drives in Connecticut (7,500 signatures), Idaho (5,984 signatures), Kansas (5,000 signatures), New York (15,000 signatures), Pennsylvania (24,666 signatures), and Virginia (10,000 signatures).

Every $1 that we can put into our petition drives gets us one signature closer to getting on the ballot. If everyone on the Green Line mailing list gives as little as $5 to each candidate, all four candidates could receive matching funds! We could have as much as $400,000 to get on the ballot and give the American people the chance to vote to bring all troops home from Iraq, to fight global warming, and to provide health care for all. The sooner that our candidates raise the money needed the sooner that they will get matching funds from the FEC, and the more time we will have to run strong petition drives. Read more about our Presidential candidates and visit their websites to make a donation.

Meet our candidates:

Jesse Johnson is the co-chair of the Mountain Party of West Virginia, which became affiliated with the Green Party of the United States at the national meeting in Reading last July. He produced, directed, and acted in many plays and films, and founded Talkback, Children Respond to Violence in the Media, which uses the arts to teach inner-city elementary school students how to combat violence. He was the Mountain Party’s candidate for Governor in 2004, and for U.S. Senate in 2006. http://www.jesse08.org/

Cynthia McKinney was elected to the Georgia state legislature as a Democrat in 1988, and to Congress in 1992. She was the first African-American woman from Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving in Congress from 1993 to 2003, and from 2005 to 2007. She filed the first resolution to impeach Bush, Cheney and Rice; has pursued meaningful answers on 9-11; has advocated for those displaced by our government in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and for the millions of voters disenfranchised in both the 2000 and 2004 elections. Last year, she left the Democratic Party and registered as a Green. http://www.runcynthiarun.org/

Kent Mesplay has been a registered Green in California since 1995, serving as one of his state’s delegates to the Green National Committee since 2004. He has worked as a substitute teacher and an Air Quality Inspector at the Air Pollution Control District, San Diego. He also served as the president of Turtle Island Institute. In 2004, he ran in the Green presidential primaries and caucuses,
and in 2006, in the Green primary for U.S. Senate. http://www.mesplay.org/

Kat Swift is a member of the Green Party of Texas, having served on her state party’s Executive Committee, and as co-spokesperson for the national party’s Women’s Caucus. She has served as a facilitator for the Green Party and for several other organizations, groups,
and coalitions, including Clean Money San Antonio and SA Democracy Now. She currently works as an accountant. In 2007, she became the first Green to run for the City Council of San Antonio. http://www.voteswift.org/

We are changing the political landscape. We can do more, but we need more help from you. With your help, we can change the world. Will you please help us out today? Tell your friends and please donate.