{news} Tony Harp was the first GREEN Candidate? or was she a Democrat?

[Green Party-CT]

New Haven Advocate- letter           THIRD PARTY FROM THE SUN   Okay, someone is bound to call me a raving historian, again, but Ryan Kearney dates the birth of the Green Party in New Haven to 1996 ["The Serial Candidate," Jan. 5], and to be accurate that would be the rebirth . Matt Borenstein and I signed the papers filed with the Connecticut secretary of state forming the New Haven Green Party in mid 1985, and we got over 10 percent of the citywide vote for our mayoral candidate that year. One alder candidate (we coined a gender-neutral term) did even better, but Ralph did us one better with 15 percent in his Guilty Party run. 
   
  The first Green elected to the Board, though I suppose she'd prefer to deny it, was Toni Harp. She ran as both a Green and a Democrat, aligned with the rebellious Bill Jones primary challenge to Ben DiLieto and with the Progressive Alliance, which cross-endorsed Greens in the general election of 1987.     That earlier incarnation of the party provided a platform for the growth of the national movement that eventually allowed Nader to co-opt and nearly destroy it, but which also seeded the newer incarnation here.      End of history lesson.      At this point, locally I'm kind of partial to the Guilty Party. They sure ran a more credible candidate last year! Too bad I couldn't vote for her.      Chris Gray 
Branford 


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      THE GREEN PARTY OF CONNECTICUT is the third largest political party in CT. The Greens are also the third largest political party in the US, with 220 Greens officeholders in 27 states. Over 80 countries in world have Green Parties. Wangari Maathai, the 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is Kenya's assistant minister for environment and an elected Green Party member.
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National Committee member from Connecticut: Tim McKee (860) 324-1684

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