On November 8, 2011, the citizens of Tucson, Arizona will vote for a new Mayor (incumbent Mayor Bob Walkup will not be seeking re-election). They will have the choice between Democrat Jonathan Rothschild, and one of the two Greens seeking their party’s endorsement. Dave Croteau and Mary DeCamp will face off in the only Party Primary on the 30th of August, to decide who will represent the Green Party in the November 8th General Election.
With no Republican candidate, this Green vs. Democrat election will give Croteau (who won 28% against Mayor Walkup in 2007) or DeCamp a chance to overcome the two-party system that controls so much of our political discourse. However, it won’t be easy. Here are a few ideas to help the Greens win the Tuscon Mayor Race, and how they might propel themselves into State and National victories in 2012.
A lot of the ideas and concept I’m going to present are those that I have noticed work very well for the Ron Paul grassroots effort. Meet-ups are huge, yet I cannot find a single Green Party meet-up group on the website. I got involved with the Ron Paul grassroots campaign in San Francisco through their meet-up group. It’s easy, free, and very productive. I’d suggest that the Greens in Tuscon start up a meet-up group, on meetup.com, and see who shows up. Even if it is 4 or 5 people, at least you know who your grassroots leaders are. Sometimes people show up to these just to check it out, however, if you are able to motivate them, they may turn into activists and leaders.
I’d also suggest Green Party activists to try this out in every major U.S. city. Find some place that is low-key where you can get together and talk and keep trying to get people to show up. Whether or not they are actually registered Greens, see who is out there that is interested in what Greens have to say and who are willing to help.
Once a group is formed in Tuscon start getting to work. Find out who can do what, and start doing it; go door-to-door (once your candidate is chosen), make fliers, build a website, make videos, call into radio stations, do what you can. Take this movement seriously and push. Take it more seriously than your favorite sports team, than you favorite band, than your favorite TV. Miss your favorite TV show to go to your meet-up group, ignore your favorite sports team to follow your candidate, make this a priority.
GreenPartyWatch.org = DailyPaul.com
I don’t want to discredit everything the contributors over at Green Party Watch have done, but I really think they, and we, need to develop that site into an actual functioning forum for Green Party activists. The Daily Paul has done amazing things for the Ron Paul grassroots effort by simply being an open forum for his supporters. The site contributors still stay in control of the front page, but users are able to put up their own posts, like to videos and articles and “bump” up posts they feel are important and relevant.
We need this for the Green Party, and as a compliment to the fact that they are the closest thing we have to this, Green Party Watch really needs to be the leader in this effort. I would suggest they figure out how much it would cost to do this (or learn how to themselves, I am not a web designer yet I have been able to put my websites together by doing research and trying things out) and ask the community for donations to take care of any costs associated with converting the site into a forum format.
The site organizers may also feel free to contact me for any advice, hints or help:
jack@serafmedia.com
Money-Bombs
A “money-bomb” is an Internet organized fund-raising effort, usually held on a specifc day, to raise funds for a candidate or cause. Greens need to start using this concept. I’d suggest doing so with specific candidates, but even a money bomb for the National Green Party (or State/Local chapters) would be good. Usually money-bomb organizers are not affiliated with the official campaign. They make a website with information on the date and where to donate, and promote it on the relevant forums (Green Party Watch could help a lot with this type of effort).
This is a great way to raise funds, especially for the money needed to help develop GreenPartyWatch.org into a proper forum.
Let’s Start with a Single Idea:
Earth Day 2012 Money-Bomb for the U.S. Green Party
“keep the earth green by giving some green to the green party”
Givv.org is a great micro-donation site that allows you to pool your contributions with other activists into a single monthly contribution to your charity or cause. I have put the California Green Party on the site after attending a San Francisco Green Party Meeting in which fund-raising was a topic. No one joined me on the site however. We need to take this movement seriously. When people put up options and solutions we need to help and support them. Instead of just talking, act. Please, act.
givv.org/recipients/green-party-of-california
Take Charge – Do Not Wait for the Party or Candidates
This is the most important concept to get down. You must take the responsibility to get the Greens in office yourself, not looking to the Party or even the official Candidate’s campaign, to get stuff done. Work with them as much as possible, but don’t be afraid to take it on yourself. This is your world, your country, and your life. The problems you see in the world are your responsibility to fix. Don’t wait. Don’t defer responsibility. Take charge. Be a grassroots activist. Build your own website, write articles, make videos, do what it takes, do what you can do, and keep moving forward.
Make Better Candidate Websites
Every Green Party candidate needs a clean and clear website. Even our two candidates for Mayor of Tuscon don’t have professional looking websites. It is not hard, nor is it expensive, to make a clean looking website. I have start working with a single WordPress template to start showing people how to make their own websites. You can see the two I have made @ permanomics.com – and – jaktober.com. These sites were very easy to make.
To break down exactly what I spend and do to build and maintain my websites:
Domain Registration : $10/year for each website. So for $10 every candidate should register a unique domain name. For those that run often, choosing a domain that is specific to their name rather than their current campaign will help them maintain and build their web presence. The Green Party candidates in the 2010 Illinois General Election had great websites for their campaigns. It doesn’t take much, just make it look simple and clean, so that it is easy on the eyes and so people can navigate it easily.
Web Hosting: $10/month for every site you host. I have 7 domains hosted on the same account. It’s easy and not that expensive (the cost a latte and a beer).
Web Design: WordPress. It’s free and easy to use. My web host lets me set up WordPress in a few minutes. I then find a free theme [template] that fits my needs. For my simple sites that I use to show others how to build a site I use Pilcrow.
Keep Moving Forward
I hope this article helps spur some discussion and action within the Green Party community. It is important for us to take command of our presence on the Internet. If we fail to do this, we will fail to be relevant, and fail to move forward. Put aside pessimism and doubt, stop nit-picking, stop waiting for someone else to “take care of it” and start acting like you mean what you say. None of us are so broke we can’t contribute $10 a month to a candidate or chapter of the Green Party. None of us are so busy we can’t put aside a single evening every month to meet up with other Greens in our community. Make this movement a priority in your life, because this movement is about ending the War, ending Corporate Corruption, about protecting our Earth, our Water and Air. Take it seriously, make the “sacrifices” and put in the time needed to redirect our country and our world. Thank you!
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End the War: A Memorial Day Endorsement: Ron Paul for President/Green Party for Congress – 2012
Thumbnail Image: By SearchNet Media from Tucson, Arizona, USA (Ash-throated FlycatcherUploaded by Snowmanradio) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Jack Wagner is the Editor of The Free Independent-Sun. Born in Sonoma, California and currently residing in San Francisco, Jack set up The Free Independent-Sun on July 4th, 2009, after sleeping in and not making his usual trip up north for his hometown festivities. He figured he'd do something revolutionary to make up for it. In the Summer of 2010 Jack registered Seraf Media with the City and County of San Francisco as a Sole-Proprietorship. He is dedicated to articulating the finer points of the Revolution in order to bring about a Global Renaissance and Abundant World Economy. He also isn't afraid to get his hands dirty transplanting succulents. 
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Hi,
We’re doing weekly Meet & Greets at a local Mexican restaurant (La Indita, 622 N 4th Ave., Tucson) every Monday night at 6:30 p.m. so voters can see the 2 Green candidates side by side and ask questions directly. We’re also engaging the media, holding house parties, and speaking to groups whenever we can. If you want to help with my Clean Elections question, visit http://www.DeCampForMayor.org and use PayPal – Dave chose the $500 cap for his campaign or I’d urge you to contribute to his, too! We’re introducing a new, clean, Green way of running for office – cooperation instead of mudslinging! How refreshing!
Thanks so much for taking an interest and for offering helpful support, Jack!
The Mary For Mayor campaign will do all we can to polish the Green Party image here in Tucson. We’re all volunteer staff at this point, but we’ve gotten 100/300 of the required $10 qualifying donations for the Clean Elections program. Money blooms sound like a great way to keep the campaign growing.
Thank you again for the support!
Howdy guys! I’m a Paulbot. Another advantage of dailypaul is that it’s privately owned and not part of the official campaign. This makes management efficient (no committee to argue about decisions) as well as autonomy/flexibility (the campaign learned they can’t control what the R3VOLUTION! does last time).
I totally recommend starting with open-source software. Drupal has kind of evolved into the CMS for political type organizations. Joomla is pretty good too. You can have something up and running in a day and let it evolve and grow.
Give some thought to how you treat posted materials that contain copyrighted material from other sites. That’s been a bit problematic in the past. And keep a close eye on what people are posting.
We also have a social networking site which is tied into pretty much all the big social sites at RTR.org. We’re perfectly aware of the security ramifications of these sites.
Best of luck! I was a registered Green at one point. Voted for Nader.
There are a lot of good ideas here, including some that I’ve tried to sell Greens on, like meetups and money bombs (I like the name ‘money blooms’ for Greens). I’ll link to your post on Green Party Watch, and hopefully it’ll spur some discussion.
By the way, as an erstwhile resident of the Grand Canyon State, albeit for a short time only, I should point out that Tucson is spelled t-u-C-S-o-n. No worries tho, I’ve seen the same mistake on major news sites
Thanks Dave! I don’t know how I made that mistake. Sorry Tucson. I’ll see if I can fix it without killing the links that are already out there.