I spent WAY more than enough time when I was in Virginia contacting reporters, editors, and bloggers (successfully, by the way) to get them to stop identifying people like “Gail for Rail Parker” and other such candidates as “Green Party candidates” or “Green candidates” or, worst of all, “candidates for the Green Party which ran Ralph Nader in 2000.” It got to the point where the national GPUS office had to get involved and issue a statement.

I’m going to say this for the last time, in terms so plain and clear, as Thomas Jefferson would say, that even Joe Oddo and Carey Campbell can understand it: no one in the Green Party gives a rat’s rear end what or how many candidates Joe & Carey’s little group runs or doesn’t run; what their platform is or isn’t; or what they call themselves AS LONG AS they are not misrepresenting themselves OR their candidates as being in any way connected with or affiliated with the Green Party, a preexisting party with a preexisting reputation that does not want to be connected with them in any way, shape, or form. Even Libertarians, of whom Joe Oddo and Carey Campbell seem to be so enamored, are philosophically opposed to misrepresentation, or so the Libertarian Party platform stated for many years.

First of all, since you and the other IGP’ers who haunt this place know me so well, you’re surely aware that I (1) no longer live in Virginia, and thus no longer have to put up with Carey Campbell’s shenanigans, and (2) am busy managing, fulltime, an honest-to-goodness Green Party campaign in which the public & the media are actually interested. So this response is essentially a gift to you.

{{ One, running candidates adds to your volunteer base and GROWS your party. Where do you think we get so many candidates from? }}

I dunno, grocery store parking lots? And how good are your candidates, Joe? Is anyone interested in them? Are you getting more and more votes each time out? Is there any ideological coherence among them with which voters can connect, or are they all over the map but like to throw the word “green” around?

You seem to have this fixation, based on mythology, about the Green Party of Virginia having no interest in running candidates, and I’m not going to engage in a public pissing contest about it or list the numerous candidates the Green Party has fielded in Virginia of late. Sure, GPVA could run a lot more candidates, but as I’ve said endlessly, in public forums such as this, the IGP has taken its obsession with running anyone and everyone to extremes, while the Green Party is determined to run well qualified candidates when the opportunity presents itself.

Run all the candidates you like, Joe, all the Green Party asks is that you not do it while confusing the public and the media into thinking the people you run are Green Party candidates. They are not. Period.

{{ I know David you said you did not have to run candidates to be a political party }}

As ever, you missed my point when I said that, which is that it is possible to be a political party, and an effective one, without running candidates. And that was an aside rather my main point. The Progressive Labor Party of the 1960′s comes to mind. I’m sure you have an extensive knowledge of their activities so I won’t elaborate.

{{ The second point is that just as there are a range of ideological perspectives in the big two parties, so too should there be in the small two. }}

Says who? You and Carey Campbell? “A range of ideological perspectives” is a nice way of covering up endorsing a thoroughly unrelated variety of candidates for local office, sometimes without their knowledge, with no ideological consistency. This has been well documented in the Virginia media, Joe. I’m sure even you are aware of it. The Socialist Party’s “range of ideological perspectives” in the 1920′s and 1930′s and 1940′s resulted in…….well, you’re well versed in the history of minor parties in the USA so I don’t need to go on.

{{ Why not have people committed to being “green” on the environment like Bloomberg’s commitment to 100% hybrid cabs and green rooftops? Why not have some sense of fiscal conservatism like Gail “for Rail” advocating for an auditable accounting system to stop the wanton waste of our tax dollars at the Pentagon (where she served as a budget analyst)? }}

That’s nice that you folks are so fired up about the environment, Joe, and I’ve worked as a finance professional, too. But as an expert on Green values and Green politics, you, Joe Oddo, (and I know what a big supporter you are of consensus-based decisionmaking, which is a core Green Party value) know as well as I do that calling yourself a Green Party candidate involves a whole lot more than that.

I’d like to hear your views on Palestinian statehood, Venezuelan socialism, living wage, drilling in ANWAR, factory farming, and the Equal Rights Amendment, and how those views are congruent with any Green Party platform anywhere. I once explained to Carey Campbell, since his behavior indicated that he needed an explanation, what the ideological geneology of the Green Party of the United States was, including Norman Thomas’ Socialist Party, and he laughed derisively.

(( I also do not get why you have so much contempt for Mr. Campbell. Of course he has flaws as most of us do, but to accuse him of unsubstantiated fabrications is a stretch. }}

Unsubstantiated fabrications? Now you’re hurting my feelings, Joe.

You don’t “get it” because you don’t “pay attention,” Joe. Contempt doesn’t arise _ex nihilo_, it’s earned. Aside from my own personal eyewitnessing of this person’s behavior, I defer to a long list of people in the D.C. Statehood Green Party, the Northern Virginia Greens, and the Green Party of Virginia who have thoroughly documented – in written format – Carey Campbell’s hijack attempts and other malfeasances. In addition to this there are the various Virginia newspaper reports documenting his bizarre habit of endorsing candidates (seemingly at random) without their knowledge or permission. Are these reports all fabrications, Joe?

{{ His association with the Greens dates back to the founders in Germany. He knew Petra Kelly and Joshka Fischer personally. }}

Petra Kelly would probably find your IGP and its choice of candidates to support/run/endorse to be a rather odd parody of Green values.

{{ I would think you would inquire with Mr. C about forming an alliance instead of hammering him at every opportunity. }}

See above and discuss details with members of the parties out of which Mr. Campbell has been kicked to learn why that is rather unlikely to transpire.

{{ I was at the meeting in No. Virginia where he brought the votes to be nominated as chair according to their bylaws, and your state central committee – led by an individual later convicted of felony cheating on the Nader petition drive – threw out the results. }}

The members of the Northern Virginia Greens who were there, and the then-cochairs of the Green Party of Virginia (or, as you refer to it incorrectly, the “state central committee”), documented his behavior in detail and acted perfectly in accordance with the rules. This isn’t rocket science, folks.

And Jim Polk’s problems with the Va. Beach district attorney stemmed from partisan Democratic Party beefs against Ralph Nader and had nothing to do with the Green Party. Since I was involved in that petition drive, and you were not because the Nader campaign didn’t want to have anything to do with Carey Campbell, I’d be happy to discuss the particulars of that case with you.

{{ You were not present there Dr. Gaines. }}

Nope, I wasn’t, I was burned out from trying to keep Carey LaRouche from taking over the Green Party.

{{ So why do you keep distorting the record, and inciting division at a time when all of us who operate outside of the big two should be united? }}

There’s only one of us who is a practiced record-distorioner, Joe, and it is not me. I am not an opportunist who blows in whatever direction in which it’s convenient to go in order to oppose Democrats and Republicans while dangling the Green flag in front of voters.

I have no interest in you, Carey Campbell, Gail Parker, or the so-called Independent Greens except to the extent that each of you or all of you cause confusion in the media and lead people to think that you either are, or are in some way affiliated with, the Green Party. That’s it. So why not call yourselves the Independence Party of Virginia, and then you can nominate/endorse anybody you like for any reason you like, and nobody will confuse you with us?

Since you, apparently, don’t like to distort or incite division, that’s something which we can both surely agree. Right? So get to it. With my very best wishes.

Sincerely yours,
David Gaines
Rockville, Maryland

The second point is that just as there are a range of ideological perspectives in the big two parties, so too should there be in the small two. Why not have people committed to being “green” on the environment like Bloomberg’s commitment to 100% hybrid cabs and green rooftops? Why not have some sense of fiscal conservatism like Gail “for Rail” advocating for an auditable accounting system to stop the wanton waste of our tax dollars at the Pentagon (where she served as a budget analyst)?

I also do not get why you have so much contempt for Mr. Campbell. Of course he has flaws as most of us do, but to accuse him of unsubstantiated fabrications is a stretch. His association with the Greens dates back to the founders in Germany. He knew Petra Kelly and Joshka Fischer personally. He subscribes to Petra’s original green philosophy of fiscal restraint – especially in dealing with military budgets. I would think you would inquire with Mr. C about forming an alliance instead of hammering him at every opportunity.

I was at the meeting in No. Virginia where he brought the votes to be nominated as chair according to their bylaws, and your state central committee – led by an individual later convicted of felony cheating on the Nader petition drive – threw out the results. You were not present there Dr. Gaines. So why do you keep distorting the record, and inciting division at a time when all of us who operate outside of the big two should be united?

Even the big parties know when to bury the hatchet and work on common goals. After five years, shouldn’t you?

The last time a group qualified as a “party” in Virginia was in 1994, when the Reform Party got recognized by its vote for J. Marshall Coleman for US Senate. The Board didn’t acknowledge that his 10%+ vote had created the Reform Party, until 1995, the year the Reform Party was formed. The Reform Party lost its status as a party in Virginia after the 1997 gubernatorial election.

This has not changed.

Phil Sawyer responds:

The Independent Green Party of Virginia has the right to call itself whatever it wishes – within reason, of course.

The most rational solution would be for the party that chose to affiliate itself with the national Independence Party simply to change its name to the Independence Party of Virginia. But that would be too logical and would reduce both media and voter confusion, so it’s unlikely the so-called Independent Greens would be interested in doing that.