- Eight candidates to seek nomination March 13
- Top S.F. legislator Gonzalez to deliver keynote speech
The Baltimore Green Party (BGP) expects to nominate eight candidates for City Council at its first-ever nominating convention on March 13. In this year’s campaigns, the Green Party will mount an historic challenge to the Democratic Party’s decades-long monopoly on the city’s political power. This is the first time the BGP has ever run candidates for city office.
On Election Day in November, many of the Democratic Party primary winners who sometimes go unchallenged in the general election will face Green opposition. The Democratic Party has held every seat on the City Council since 1942. In this year’s general election, as many as eight races will be contested by Greens, most likely including the City Council president’s seat.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez will give the keynote speech at the BGP’s nominating convention. Gonzalez won 47 percent of the vote in December’s mayoral runoff in San Francisco, actually outpolling eventual winner Gavin Newsom on Election Day but losing because of absentee votes. Gonzalez came that close to becoming the first Green mayor of a major U.S. city (San Francisco has more than 770,000 people), despite being outspent 10 to 1 by his opponent, and despite last-ditch appearances on millionaire Newsom’s behalf by fellow Democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
Gail Dixon of the D.C. Statehood Green Party, a former elected member of the Washington, D.C., Board of Education, will also speak at the March 13 convention.
Voting on the Baltimore City Council candidates will be open from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on March 13. All residents of Baltimore City who are registered Green by March 6, 2004, are eligible to vote in the nomination election, as well as non-citizen, formerly incarcerated and 16- and 17-year-old residents who have completed a form stating they would register Green if they were eligible to vote in Maryland. The BGP will also make absentee ballots available to Greens who cannot attend.
The eight City Council candidates and Dixon will each speak, beginning at 1 p.m., before Gonzalez delivers his keynote speech.
Click here to meet the Green Party’s Baltimore candidates
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Click here to view the Convention Announcement (PDF) Your help is needed. Please lend a hand, even just for one hour. Call 410-662-8169 or email [email protected] to get involved!
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