DBC Sez: 5% is Victory!
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This is no longer a campaign site. And since I am no longer running for public office, I will have no qualms about using language not fit for the stump. Or beginning fragmentary sentences with conjunctions. Also, since the site is not strictly political, I can work on it at work, legally! As of this writing, 12 May 2008, it has been a long time since I have properly updated this site. I will likely be updating it further as events dictate. If anybody cares to know the story, after a quixotic three-month run, I am no longer participating in the race for the U.S. Senate. I would like to say, "I am no longer a candidate," but I have been informed that technically that is not true until the Green Party of Texas nominates Tom Davis instead of me at its state convention. And that would require a miracle. Perhaps more accurately, I am in the race until the June 2008 convention adjourns without having nominated anybody. Remembrance of Things Green In 2000, the Green Party of Texas achieved a minor miracle of sorts in securing a ballot line for the party and its candidates. It did not hurt that Ralph Nader was the Greens' purported presidential candidate. People all over America admired and trusted Nader, and he lent credibility to the upstart party. Texas Green activists secured more than 70,000 petition signatures in 75 days. The Texas Secretary of State's office deemed enough of the signatures in compliance with the state's requirements: registered Texas voters who did not vote in any primary elections that year or sign any other party's petition. Then, with some statewide races having no Democrat show up, three Green candidates got more than 5% of the vote, insuring a ballot line in 2002. Then, as they say, Florida happened. Suddenly any association with the name of Ralph Nader became a liability. In 2002, the Texas Greens lost their ballot line. The fielded a panoply for candidates for statewide and other races, but none received 5%. Back to the old clipboard. In 2004, the Greens got a lot of signatures, but nowhere near enough. Eventual presidential nominee David Cobb could not run in his native state. John Kerry did not overcome Karl Rove and the Swift Boat posse to drive George W. Bush out of the White House. In 2006, the Greens fell short again, thanks in part to petition efforts by independent gubernatorial candidates Kinky Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn. In 2008, the Greens were poised to pay petitioners the way Kinky and Carole had. But they couldn't even find enough people to collect signatures for a dollar each. Even with eight million people sitting out the primaries, it was hard to find Texans who had not voted and were willing to sign. Besides, even anarchists and fellow Greens lined up to vote for Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries. The risk of a Hillary Clinton presidency was too high. Hit by a B-52 Obama I started the petition drive in 2008 very gung-ho, pushing the party toward trying for ballot access, especially if it meant getting a ballot line for Cynthia McKinney or Texas's own Kat Swift. Once the drive started, it took me only a couple of weeks to be utterly shocked by the street-level political environment here, and I am not easy to shock. We were working twice as hard as in years past to get signatures. More people than ever were openly hostile to the Greens, still not willing to forgive us for Ralph Nader in 2000, even though we have distanced ourselves from him. It's hard to campaign when one's head is spinning. So in a message to the Harris County and statewide organizers, I withdrew from the race, the petitioning effort, and all party activities until further notice. Despite my departure, I remain as Green as ever, both in ideology and in practice. Once I have recovered my bearings, I hope that I can continue building the Green movement in the Lone Star State. However, I doubt that I will put forward my name for a candidacy in Texas until the state party organization has the resources to make it worthwhile. |
