Stein to jump into gov race with Green-Rainbow bid
By Jim O’Sullivan / State House News Service Thursday, January 7, 2010
Dr. Jill Stein plans to join the race for 2010 race for governor, running as a Green-Rainbow candidate and pushing the issue of universal health care, posing a challenge to Gov. Deval Patrick’s left flank.
Stein told the News Service late today that she plans to formally announce her campaign later this month. Her candidacy will further complicate a field that already has two major Republican candidates, a state treasurer running as an independent, and Patrick, the Democrat seeking reelection.
“I am very excited to offer voters a real choice for change,” Stein told the News Service in an interview. “We’re looking at three candidates for governor who have very similar opinions on a variety of key issues. It’s very important that voters have a second choice.”
Asked about issues where she feels she can stand out, Stein said she believes it’s “very important that there be another health care option,” which she described as affordable health care available to all. “We don’t have that now and we’re only getting further away from it,” she said.
Stein said job creation would be a major campaign theme, including establishing more “resilient” jobs that are less vulnerable to being exported out of state and overseas, and jobs in so-called green sectors.
“I’ll soon be announcing a campaign for governor of Massachusetts, a campaign to take our future back from lobbyists and insiders, and get Massachusetts working for the people, and the environment our economy depends on,” Stein said in a web posting to supporters.
Stein’s posting took direct aim at Gov. Deval Patrick and his low approval ratings.
“As the second round of ‘yes we can’ withers on the vine, Massachusetts is seeing once again that real change must come from outside of moneyed interests and the politicians they fund. The governor’s dwindling approval ratings underscore the opening. And, since the three CEO/politicians heading for the ballot differ only in fine points of their shared Wall Street vision – they’ll be splitting the business-as-usual vote three ways.”
Stein’s entrance would add a fourth political dimension, with two GOP candidates, one unenrolled, and Patrick carrying the Democratic mantle. Her liberal platform would likely drain more support from Patrick, a progressive, than the three more conservative challengers.
Stein registered under 4 percent when she ran for governor in 2002. Her 2006 campaign for secretary of state netted her under 20 percent.
Treasurer Timothy Cahill said the winner of next year’s gubernatorial election would likely need fewer than four in 10 votes, and said 35 percent could prove sufficient.
Cahill said any candidate who reached 40 percent would enjoy “a blowout.”
“I think somebody can win with 35 percent,” said Cahill. “I think it’s more likely going to be 37, 38 percent if all three candidates stay viable. And I think at the end of the day all three candidates stay viable.”
Polls show Patrick leading the field with support in the low-to-high-30 percent range, and Cahill, and either GOP candidate, Charles Baker or Christy Mihos, clumped in the high 20s.
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It’s fun to run for a statewide office.
But what political and legislative consequence has there been to her most recent effort? What the Green Rainbow coalition needs is actual office holders in the Massachusetts General Court. How would she be effective as Governor without the backing of supporters in the legislature, if she won? The previous Republican governor can certainly testify about how much fun it was to have numerous legislative overrides of his vetoes.
Far more powerful and long-lasting politically would be making the Republican party in the Legislature Massachusetts the flailing 3rd Party. Accomplishing that instead of the Green-Rainbow grand-standing that would result in a split center-left vote for Governor, that likely would bring yet another Republican governor into office, a result inimical to the Green Rainbow coalition’s aims.
Fielding effective campaigns in 30+ of the 200 legislative districts is far more important, and much harder, and much more important. The Green Rainbow coalition is capable of having more people representing districts in the legislature than the Republican Party. If I have it correctly, the House has a mere 19 Republicans of 160 seats (11.9%), and of the 40 Senate districts, there are a mere 5 Republicans (12.5%). The Democrats could use a little complacency reduction, and competition; it’s ripe for a little splitting up in the Legislature.
For example, there’s an opportunity to fill a wide-open State Senate office in Cambridge, either soon this year, or later this November 2010, with the resignation of Galluccio in Cambridge, and there are no residency requirements to live in the district prior to the election.
(Residency: see the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s guidance to candidates: only State Representatives must have resided within the district prior to the election. http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele… )
Massachusetts certainly has a number of unsolved problems in the state, starting with funding for Education, affordable Housing, deeply in debt MBTA Mass Transit, cut-back Social Services, inadequately maintained Roads and a court system that is groaning under cutbacks. It takes a legislature to support, fund, and resolve the operations and funding of these activities.
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In response to the previous commentator:
1. We agree that the GRP should focus most of its electoral attention on state legislative races. I say “we” because earlier last year, the GRP’s State Committee voted on a proposal from its Candidate and Legal Development Committee to make state legislative races our number one electoral focus for 2010. As of this date, we have a small number of our members who are actively considering running for either statewide office, Congress or the state legislature. If you are a GRP member or an Unenrolled voter who shares our values, we are very interested in encouraging you to run and will actively consider supporting your campaign. Please contact us.
2. My assumption about your comment about Jill’s campaign splitting the “center-left” vote leads me to think that you are concerned that our current Governor will not be re-elected. The political spectrum is an interesting concept. Your short list of very important issues in the last paragraph leads me to believe that not one of the other candidates on the “center-right” will support policies that you think are important. However, Jill Stein’s campaign for Governor will be the mechanism to broaden the public debate and to bring to the public a critique of the current system and the direction our Commonwealth and Planet is heading and an alternative vision of a Green-Rainbow future.
Please support our Green-Rainbow Team of Candidates!
Thanks,
Mike Heichman
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I just watched the US Senate debate. It was nice seeing a 3rd party candidate, who was very clear about why we need to hear more voices in our political campaigns. I also applaud Attorney General’s Coakley’s principled position that Mr. Kennedy belonged in the public debates simply because he went out and got the signatures to get on the ballot. My only regret with the debate was that the 3rd party candidate was not a member of the GRP.
How are we going to bring about progressive change? There is no one answer. Certainly running and electing progressives to office is an important way. Another way is to influence public opinion. Both Jill Stein (2002) and Grace Ross (2006) have done a great job in their campaigns getting a lot of favorable attention from the public. Every time they have participated in a televised debate, they have done very well.
There are now 4 candidates running for Governor. “Comment Planet” (above) stated that s/he is “more concerned that a Republican governor is elected than re-electing the present governor”, I do not deny that there are differences between the 3 well-funded campaigns and that it is doubtful that Jill’s campaign will be financially competitive. However, as of this month, there is now a progressive voice in this race, and JILL WILL BE HEARD!
4 years ago the GRP was not fooled into supporting the lesser evil. What has Governor Patrick done since he took office in January, 2009 to change our minds? What has he done to show us that we were strong to support a progressive choice? I can’t think of one thing. OK, we can do worse. We can always do worse!
I am 63 years old and there is a good chance that I may die an old man. My daughter is 19 years old and I’m not very confident that she will die an old woman. Whether we are talking about the economy, the environment, the growing misery around the world and at home in our state, we are speeding in the wrong direction.
If all that we ever do is to put our energy into preventing the worse evil from happening by supporting the lesser evil, I guarantee that life will continue to get worse. I am proud to be a member of the GRP because my friends and comrades are marching together for a better future.
Mike
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Put Stein into the Massachusetts Senate where she can participate in the day-to-day affairs of debate and influence, and have reason to issue a daily press release about the right things to do. What better place to do so than representing Cambridge and Galluccio’s district?
A gubernatorial campaign is just a few months. Incumbancy in office, is at least two years, perhaps many more.
Responding: I am more concerned that a Republican governor is elected than re-electing the present governor.
Let’s split-off the Democratic seats in the State House, and really participate in governing, not just looking in from the outside, as Stein has repeatedly for her (now) three state-wide campaigns.
We need winners, and not perennial candidates. Any one remember Howard Stassen?
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As a candidate who has spoken many times for the need for universal health care, I support Jill taking this issue to the ballot.
However, I also agree that we need to get more greens to run for city and state wide office. (I think we need more people from across the spectrum to run, MA is last in the country in contested elections)
How do we do it? I think the most difficult issue we face on an political level is how do we get more good people to want to participate in government.
Thanks to the editors for taking the time to set up this site, I hope that the forum is accepting of all forms of reasonable dialogue.