OntheWilderSide

Much of the info from the message below, can be found in the form of a press release at the bottom of this page.

Message from Cynthia McKinney:

Hello All!!! I can safely say now that recently released preliminary results show that I have a clear lead in the delegate count for the upcoming Presidential Nominating Convention of the Green Party!!! Yay!!! I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who have worked to make this so. We still have a long way to go, and we take nothing for granted, but we’ve reached a great place to be in as far as delegate-counting goes! For more information, please visit www.runcynthiarun.org!

I’ve visited 24 states (counting DC!!) and I would very much like to visit the rest. Intensifying our fundraising efforts will make that possible. If you’re not onboard in some fundraising capacity, please think about what you can do to help us qualify for matching funds by the end of this month. And contact us at www.runcynthiarun.org to volunteer and for more information!

I’ve met some wonderful folks along this journey with whom I’ve done highway blogging in Texas, stood up for people’s water rights in Michigan (can you imagine), rallied with Reverend Pinkney of Benton Harbor who is in jail because he fights to protect that city from the greedy clutches of gentrifiers bent on stealing the people’s land. In Oregon, I went on my first-ever trek through an old-growth forest and I actually got to hug a tree! Gosh, I now see what I’ve been missing. Tim drove me over 1,000 miles in northern California and showed me the very trees saved by Julia Butterfly, a heroine of mine, for sure!

I’ve had the chance to reconnect with old friends and to make new ones. And as candidates before me can attest, that is truly a heart-warming aspect of this effort. To see the many people in our country who are completely comfortable with the political space afforded them by the values of the Green Party. We don’t see those values at all in the other two major parties. And just imagine, the current Democratic Party morass that we’re all watching get played out better than any daytime soap opera, began because of a desire by certain leaders of that Party, to maintain the “integrity” of the Party’s nominating process that is kicked off by states that don’t reflect one whit the richly diverse human fabric that now marks the political reality of our country. I think we need to remember that as we watch the drama unfold.

Our country is still at war. The Patriot Acts, the Secret Evidence Act, the Military Commissions Act are all still on the books. Even the Bush tax cuts are still on the books. Our country is even more a debtor country since the Democrats became the majority Party in the Congress and the foreclosure crisis has not yet even been address–except that in the Wall Street Journal I read that at least one influential Democrat wants cities to demolish “excess” housing stock. That’s an interesting notion as people are losing their homes through unregulated and unscrupulous banking practices, and homelessness is on the rise. Our children are not even graduating from high school!

What are our national leaders thinking?

Which brings us to why I’m running. And our charge must be to help voters understand that we’re running to fundamentally change the structure of our country’s politics. Five percent of the national vote puts the Green Party at the table of public policy making. When I first ran for Congress, it was dubbed the Year of the Woman, and we would say “We want our seat at the table.” And when I got to Washington, I saw that it really is a table. And public policy is made at that table. Only thing is, because someone slipped the corporate lobbyists the keys to the room where the table is located, the lobbyists are inside the process and the public–in whose name and with whose resources the policy is made–are locked out. Achieving that 5% with the Green Party, will add another seat at that table of public policy making and the people who occupy that third seat (Green Party members like me!) will remove the doors from the rooms and invite the public to come in and see public policy made in the Sunshine.

Then we won’t get these anomalies like politicians telling us they are against the war, but then vote to fund the war because they think no one is watching.

5% is not only victory for the Green Party, it represents a true victory for our country. And could be the beginning of the movement that our country so desperately needs. However, with ballot access being difficult for parties other than the major parties, it becomes increasingly difficult to get that 5%. And I’ll tell you, I suspect that the majors like it just fine and dandy this way. Which is why I’m taking the lead in doing something I’ve never done before in order to have some election integrity for our country and values in public policy making that we’ve rarely had before. We need volunteers and fundraising so we can ensure ballot access that will bring us that 5%. Please visit us at www.runcynthiarun.org and inquire about how you can help us and the Party achieve ballot access in your or other targeted states.

Lastly, we’ve posted a new video on www.runcynthiarun.org. Please visit our website and view it. It is emotional and moving and reflects the seriousness of our engagement in the political process and what it means and can mean for all of us. It is the work of one of the many change agents sent my way: Todd Laracuenta of Maralex Designs. This video is worthy of youtube honors and we can make that happen. Please post the youtube URL on every list and everywhere you visit online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSN61d5-q6c. By doing so, you will help this video get seen by the tens of thousands of people who really do need to see it. Again, that URL is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSN61d5-q6c

Finally, many thank yous are in order. Thank you to those who built a Party that has so warmly welcomed me and that is dedicated to truth and justice and liberty for all, where the public policy result that we advocate is consistent with our stated values. Thank you to those who have signed up to be delegates at the Party’s convention in Chicago. Thank you to those who have never fundraised in a campaign before, but are doing so! We must not let up! Let’s get those matching funds this month!

Onward to Chicago!

–

Press Release:
For immediate release
June 2, 2008

Contact:
John Judge, Press Secretary

Cynthia McKinney Takes Lead with Clear Majority of Delegates
As Green Party Heads to Chicago Presidential Nominating Convention

[Washington, DC] Recently released preliminary results show
that Cynthia McKinney has taken a clear lead in the delegate
count for the upcoming Presidential Nominating Convention of the
Green Party of the United States, scheduled for Chicago, from
July 10th – 13th. With the addition of the recent Florida and
New York mail balloting results, McKinney now has an outright
majority of 267 of the 550 allocated delegates. With these
results, former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney now
commands her first clear majority of convention delegates
in the ongoing contested four-way race for a Green Party
presidential nomination.

McKinney is widely acknowledged, both inside and outside
the campaign, as a leading contender for the Green Party’s
presidential nomination. Campaign organizers point out that
nearly two-thirds of delegates have been named and instructed
so far. There are 840 total possible delegates, including 34
uncommitted delegates, and some states for which allocation
is incomplete.  McKinney’s lead puts her ahead of all other
announced and write-in candidates, including early returns for
Ralph Nader, who has announced he will run independent of the
Green Party.

However, her campaign is not taking anything for
granted. Campaign supporters have taken the initiative to carry
her message to the public in spite of inequitable access to the
public airwaves and debates, which are being used to promote
some candidates to the exclusion of others. “Ms.  McKinney
may be heading into the convention with an impressive lead,”
said one campaign staffer, “but this contest is not yet over,
and we’re urging our supporters to engage with this campaign
and help us use this opportunity to bring to the forefront
issues no other candidate in this race is prepared to raise
as effectively as Cynthia does.”

Cynthia McKinney has an impressive public record serving
two terms in the Georgia Assembly and six terms in the
U.S. Congress. She is the only genuinely anti-war candidate
currently running for President, and a recognized and beloved
spokesperson and leader for the disfranchised millions of women,
African-Americans and other people of color who too often have
been denied their right to vote or to have their votes fairly
counted.  McKinney has been traveling the United States as well
as abroad and speaking to tens of thousands of people who feel
they are not represented by the existing political parties or
leaders in office. Her campaign has built a broad coalition,
greatly expanding on the Green Party’s traditional base.

Congresswoman McKinney broke with the Democratic Party after a
newly elected majority in the House of Representatives failed to
end the war on Iraq or address the critical social, economic and
environmental crises faced by the nation. Even now her former
party’s presidential candidates refuse to make concrete promises
to end ongoing carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor to address
the Bush-Pelosi saber-rattling against Iran. These are issues
that the Green Party has made a focus in their recent campaigns.

McKinney’s campaign and candidacy have not gotten the press
coverage enjoyed by other emerging party candidates, such as
former Congressman Bob Barr, who this past weekend won the
Libertarian Party nomination. Nor has she enjoyed the media
attention focused on the independent Nader campaign.  Even so,
her campaign is attracting broad grassroots support from
citizens who have taken matters into their own hands to spread
her message, on YouTube and elsewhere. As one example, see:
http://www.runcynthiarun.org/Video/FocusedOnGloryOfBetterAmerica

Campaign organizers point out that the Green Party is expected
to be on nearly all state ballots by November. With over
200 elected officials currently serving at the local level,
the Green Party is the most successful emerging American
political party in nearly a century. The media, supporters
note, particularly those using the public airwaves, have a
responsibility to fully inform the American electorate of all
their choices in the upcoming election.

McKinney emphasizes her long-term strategy of ‘adding a
chair to the table’ for the disfranchised by winning a 5%
electoral count, qualifying her Party for public campaign
funds in future elections. “Despite the limits and problems
relating to national elections, it will take only 5% of the
Presidential vote in November to add a seat to the table of
decision-making.  This will open the door on the long-closed
two-party system to some essential public scrutiny and input,
and position the Green Party for the 2012 race,” noted Cynthia
McKinney. “Reclaiming our nation from the corporate war makers
will be a long and arduous process. But it is work we cannot
afford to postpone. The Green Party has been tilling this soil
for nearly twenty years now. And the stakes for people across
this country and around the world are simply too high for us
to shrink from the challenge in this election cycle.”

For more on Cynthia McKinney’s campaign, and the
issues being raised, please see her campaign site at:
http://www.runcynthiarun.org

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Filed under: activism, Anti-War, cynthia mckinney, Green Party Websites, Political Websites, presidential race, social & economic justice, US Politics