For the first time since Jill Stein ran as the Massachusetts Green Party candidate for Governor in 2002, endorsed by the Rainbow Coalition Party, the merged Green-Rainbow Party is not running a candidate for the Corner Office.

But that doesn’t mean that the party is sitting this election out. Instead, three candidates have put themselves forward for statewide office, receiving the party’s endorsement and running as a slate. As we announced earlier, MK Merelice, Danny Factor, and  Ian Jackson are running for the constitutional positions of State Auditor, Secretary of the Commonwealth, and State Treasurer, respectively. Needing 5,000 certified signatures to get on the ballot, the slate had collected 6,646 raw signatures as of July 4, and is aiming for 9,000 by July 27th to protect against challenges by the Democrats and Republicans. For details on how to help ensure the slate makes it onto the ballot, see www.green-rainbow.org.

While Stein is the party’s female co-chair, she opted to continue organizing at the national level, following up on her 2012 campaign as the Presidential candidate of the Green Party of the U.S. along with Vice Presidential running mate Cheri Honkala. The Green-Rainbow Party needs 3% of the vote in one of their statewide races in order to regain major party status in Massachusetts, which would result in ballot access for a Presidential ticket in 2016.

How do you, dear readers, feel about not having a Green-Rainbow Party gubernatorial candidate this year? How do you feel about the chance of having a slate of candidates for Auditor, Secretary and Treasurer instead?  What do you think any of this means for independent politics in Massachusetts?

The Green-Rainbow Party is fielding three statewide candidates for the November ballot in an effort to re-establish major party status in Massachusetts and to give voters a choice for badly needed reforms.

Since we last reported, MK Merelice has joined the statewide campaign as the GRP’s candidate for State Auditor. She joins Danny Factor who is running for Secretary of the Commonwealth, and State Treasurer candidate Ian Jackson. Notably, Merelice’s campaign team is bolstered by former State Representative and Rainbow Coalition founder Mel King as her campaign manager, and Nat Fortune, the 2010 Green-Rainbow Party candidate for State Auditor as her treasurer.