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September, 1998
Hamburg, Greens Clear Favorite at Latino Conference
by Mike Feinstein,
Green Party organizer & Santa Monica City Councilmember
appearing in Change Links, Los Angeles
September 1st, 1998
In a major political upset, with possible overtones for future
California politics, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Dan Hamburg was the overwhelming crowd favorite among 1,000 Latino and Latina
political leaders at the Southwest Voter Registration Education
Project (SVREP) “Feel the Power ‘98” conference in Los Angeles
on July 18th.
Making his first campaign appearance alongside opponents Dan Lungren
and Gray Davis, Hamburg stole the show, receiving several standing
ovations during his electrifying 15-minute speech.
Democrats hoped this event would kick off the fall campaign, showing
they were the choice of Latino voters. But they hadn’t counted
on late addition of the Greens.
SVREP’s Executive Director Antonio Gonzalez introduced Hamburg,
saying “Latinos know all about exclusion. The Greens are the third
strongest party in California. They should be heard.”
From the start, Hamburg distinguished himself from Davis/Lungren,
particularly around issues of economic and social justice. Hamburg
tied low voter turnout to the lack of choice offered by Democrats
and Republicans. Then he denounced state-sanctioned capital punishment,
noting he was the only one of the three opposed to the death penalty,
which proportionally is used far more often on non-whites than
whites. The audience responded with a standing ovation, in sharp
contrast to the tepid response Davis received for his pro-death
penalty stance.
Hamburg attacked the economic theories of Davis and Lungren, including
their focus on more ‘economic growth’. Arguing for living wages
and the decentralization of economic power and control, Hamburg
said “California has the seventh largest economy in the world,
yet 25% of the children live in poverty, and less than half of
the workers in this state earn enough to support a family of four”.
Hamburg next criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), which both Davis and Lungren praise. Citing statistics
from the newsletter of the William Velasquez Institute (SVREP’s
own sister organization), Hamburg called attention to the massive
US job loses suffered because of NAFTA. He spoke of the struggles
of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, where NAFTA undermines local economic
self-reliance. The crowd rose to its feet again, seemingly in
disbelief that they were hearing these issues discussed in a major
political forum.
Hamburg then moved to education, declaring not only his opposition
to Proposition 227, but a promise that his administration would
seek that every California student would be bilingual. Again came
a standing ovation.
****************
The warm response to Hamburg bodes well for the Greens and for
California progressive politics in general. For the Greens, it
suggests possibilities for growth within the progressive Latino
community. It also is significant more generally, because Latinos
overall are a growing demographic group within the California
electorate (6% of the voters in ‘94, 12% in ‘96, more expected
in ‘98).
From a Latino perspective, something important has also taken
place. According to Antonio Gonzalez, SVREP Executive Director,
“even though the number of Latinos voting is growing, this growth
will cap at some point in the not-too-distant future, because
of the nature of the duopoly - i.e. the Democrats and Republicans
don’t give people enough to vote for.” What the Greens demonstrated
was that on many issues, their platform is more appealing. This
could draw many more Latinos to register and vote, particularly
among the poor and the young.
The Greens have already proven that they can attract young voters.
A great number of currently registered Greens are between 18 and
35 years old. At SVREP, Hamburg was surrounded by the younger
organizers, people who will form the base for the next generation
of Latino activists. They came from Latino communities around
LA - Pacoima (San Fernando Valley), the Eastside and South Central
LA, as well as from the Westside.
According to Natividad (Nati) Vazquez, a Latino student advisor
at Santa Monica College (and a boardmember of SVREP), the buzz
from Hamburg’s speech continued well into the afternoon. Vazquez
coordinated a 120-person affirmative action workshop afterwards,
but said he couldn’t start until the students had a chance to
talk about Hamburg. “The students said Vazquez, ‘thought Hamburg
was the ‘bomb’”.
*****************
The Green Party of California was founded in 1990 and gained ballot status in January, 1992.
How successful has it been? What are the goals for its 1998 campaign?
* Establish the Greens as the third strongest party in California
In 1992, 1994 and 1996 combined, California Greens contested 33
state and national races. The top Green candidates in these races
finished ahead of the top candidates from the five other small
parties in almost all cases. In the June ‘98 open/blanket primary,
Green Governor and Lt. Governor candidates Hamburg and Sara Amir
finished first among all ‘third party’ candidates. Four out of
the five Green congressional candidates this year finished first
among ‘third party’ candidates in their races, the other finished
a close second.
On the local level, Greens are definitely California’s ‘third
party’. Currently 29 California Greens hold elected office, including 14 city councilmembers, three of whom are currently
mayors. All of this is by far the most for any of California’s
smaller parties. All six Green city councilmembers that have run
for re-election have been re-elected. In Arcata, Greens have the
first-ever City Council majority in the US. Greens have won city
council seats in both liberal and conservative communities and
currently hold seats in Albany, Arcata (3), Berkeley, Davis, Menlo
Park, Nevada City, Ojai, Point Arena (2), Santa Monica, Trinidad,
and Yucaipa.
* Establish the Green Party as the natural electoral choice for
California’s progressive movement and other under-represented
groups
There is a growing sentiment among California progressives that
the Green Party is a viable alternative. In a significant milepost
for the Greens, Hamburg was endorsed in the June primary by the
major progressive weeklies in California, including the LA Weekly,
San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Sonoma County Independent.
Hamburg was also endorsed by the mainstream weekly the Silicon
Valley Metro.
Significant also was the coverage of the SVREP event in La Opiñion,
the nation’s largest Spanish-language paper. Hamburg and the Greens
were given fair treatment, including a front cover color picture
of Hamburg together with Davis and Lungren, and a title saying
‘Democrats, Republicans and Greens vie for Latino vote’. The article
stressed that the Greens received the strongest audience response,
and didn’t seem to be held back by the ‘counter-cultural’ prejudices
of the English-language press.
* Change our electoral system from winner-take-all to instant
run-off voting (IRV) and proportional representation
Most of the world’s established democracies use some form of proportional representation (PR), where parties receive representation according to the percentage
of the vote they receive. If the Greens got 15% of the vote for
State Assembly, they’d get 15% of the seats. PR systems help create
a multi-party democracy capable of more fairly representing the
diversity inherent in a modern society.
PR is more inclusive and democratic than the US’ ‘winner-take-all’
electoral system. Greens have long sought to enact PR in this
country, and are now using their leverage as so-called ‘spoilers’
to induce the Democrats to support this change. This has been
most visible in New Mexico, where in the last two years strong
Green results in special Congressional elections have helped make
centrist Democrats lose to Republicans.
In 1997, long-time rural health care advocate and Green Party
candidate Carol Miller received 17% for a northern New Mexico
congressional seat. The Democrat lost 42%-40%. In Santa Fe and
Taos counties, Miller actually finished second, ahead of the Republican.
In 1998 Bob Anderson received 15% for Congress in the Albuquerque
area. Again a centrist Democrat lost, this time 45%-39%.
These results have led New Mexico Democrats to consider implementing
Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) as an electoral reform, possibly as early as the 1999 legislative
season. IRV is a system where the voter ranks the candidates in
a particular race according to the voter's preference - 1, 2,
3 and so on. Where there is no simple majority winner (50% + 1
vote), the bottom vote getter is dropped and the people who ranked
that candidate first will have their vote transferred to their
second choice. This same process repeats until a majority winner
appears. It’s just like holding a series of runoff elections,
except it all happens with one ranking of the votes.
In this system, few votes are wasted, and the voter is not held
hostage to considerations of ‘throwing away’ their vote on so-called
‘spoilers’. By making it easier to vote for a ‘third party’ candidate,
it also gives a clearer indication of voter’s real preferences.
Such systems increase voter participation, because people feel
their views are more accurately reflected.
Greens see IRV as an important middle-step to achieving full proportional
representation, and are actively working for it in New Mexico
and in California, where Greens are pursuing both the initiative
and legislative route.
Once IRV is implemented, this will create even more inertia for
change. Voters will become more accustomed to voting for ‘third
party’ candidates. Ultimately the increasing number of voters
who vote for third parties (and still lose) will create a threshold
demanding full proportional representation.
*********
What is next between now and November? Both Hamburg and Sara Amir
are doing grassroots organizing, events around the state, as well
as interviews for the alternative and mainstream press. Green
tabling and registration efforts are underway across the state.
With California’s open/blanket primary law now in effect, one
can now register Green more easily, send a signal to the larger
parties, and still retain the ability to vote in another party’s
primary when it is strategic to do so.
After his performance at SVREP, Hamburg sought to be included
in the series of statewide gubernatorial debates. He found out
that contrary to public perception, these debates are not sponsored
by public non-profits like the League of Women Voters. "We contacted
the so-called ‘sponsors’ of the debates,” said Hamburg, “including
the California Association of Broadcasters, the television stations,
the newspapers and the business and labor organizations who were
named as sponsors. Each of them told us that they were not responsible
for the format of the debate. They told us that the debates were
solely arranged and promoted by South and Puglia, the campaign
consultants for Davis and Lungren. The scandal is that these are
not fair non-partisan debates. Rather, they are free publicity
for two candidates."
**********
To contact and volunteer for Hamburg/Amir, call (310) 820-3666
or visit the campaign office at 11310 Santa Monica Bl. in West
LA near Sawtelle & the 405 freeway.
To find Green locals and candidates around Southern California,
contact (310) 31-GREEN. On the world wide web go to www.greens.org
or send email to gpca@greens.org
Green Party candidates on the ballot in Southern California are
- Dan Hamburg, Governor, Sara Amir, Lt. Governor
- Glenn Bailey, State Board of Equalization, District 4 (most
of LA County)
- Maria Armoudian, U.S. Congress, District 26, (San Fernando Valley)
- Robin Barrett, U.S. Congress, District 36 (LA South Bay coastal)
- Phil Courtney, U.S. Congress, District 43 (Riverside)
- Walt Sheasby, U.S. Congress, District 28 (San Gabriel Valley)
- Krista Wong, U.S. Congress, District 31 (San Gabriel Valley)
- Rex Frankel, State Assembly, District 51 (LA/South Bay inland)
- Kevin McKeown, City Council, Santa Monica