*************** GREENGRAM *************** The Green Party of NJ Monthly Bulletin February 1998 issue (Part 1 of 2) - Calendar - Notice of Annual Convention - Successful Meeting of Progressive Activists - Organizer Position Established - Campaign Finance Reform - Save Organic Standards! CALENDAR (contact e-mail and phone number information is listed once, the first time the contact appears in the schedule) Feb. 7, 11:00am: Monthly meeting of the Essex County Greens at the Collage II Coffeehouse, 399 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair. Contact Joe Fortunato 973-744-5958. Feb. 7, 11:00pm to Noon: Pax Christie and other peace groups holding an impromptu demonstration at the East Gate of Fort Monmouth on Route 35. The message: No Military Action Against Iraq; No Bombing of Iraq! Contact: Earl Gray 732-219-5841. Feb. 8, 4:00pm: Global Cinema Cafe, held at the Third World Center of Princeton University, corner of Olden Lane and Prospect Avenue in Princeton. Showing Marlon Riggs' "Ethnic Notions." For more information: 609-497-3998. Feb. 8, 5:00pm: Middlesex/Somerset Greens will be meeting at Tumulty's Pub in New Brunswick. Contact Joseph Mosley 732-745-2602. Feb. 11, 12:00 noon: The Coalition for Peace Action will hold a press conference and demonstration on the statehouse steps in Trenton to protest Clinton's proposed bombing of Iraq. Contact Madelyn Hoffman 973-252-0797. Feb. 11, 7:00pm: Hudson County Greens will meet at the Old Bergen Church, corner of Bergen Ave. and Highland St. in Jersey City. To be discussed: Results of the election; need for city-based chapters of the Green Party; electoral, legislative, and educational actions. Contact: Claudette Meliere 201-868-4481. Feb. 14, 12:00 noon: Demonstration at Fresh Fields, Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair, to protest the conditions under which strawberry farmworkers in California are working and living -- and to try to persuade Whole Foods, Inc., the owners of Fresh Fields, to be more labor friendly in their choices of distributors. A strong Green presence on the picket line could go a long way toward convincing activists that Greens have a strong pro-labor orientation and would add to our credibility as people who can mobilize and organize quickly. ALL OUT TO FRESH FIELDS! Contact Joe Fortunato. Feb. 15, 1:00pm: Executive Committee meeting at 100 Prospect Ave., Apt. 5N, Hackensack. Contact Gary Novosielski 201-507-5477 or Art Rosen 201-487-2511. Feb. 18, 11:30am: The State Division of Elections will be holding hearings on the financing of campaigns. To be held at the Seton Hall Law School in Newark. Contact Madelyn Hoffman. Feb. 18, 7:30pm: The Burlington County Greens will meet at 4 Keith Lane, Burlington Township. Contact Fred Disque 609-265-0392. March 4, 7:30 pm: Monthly meeting of the Mercer County Greens. Discussion of "Green identity." Contact Nick Mellis 609-393-4349. March 5, 8:30am to 4:00pm: The USDA will be holding hearings at the Rutgers Student Center on College Ave. in New Brunswick for citizens to comment upon the proposed new regulations to standardize the definition of organic food. See article below. March 7, 11:00am: Monthly meeting of the Essex County Greens at the Collage II Coffeehouse, 399 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair. Contact Joe Fortunato 973-744-5958. March 8, 6:00pm: Mercer County Utne/Greens Salon. Contact Steve Welzer 609-443-6782. ---------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE OF ANNUAL CONVENTION The Second Annual Convention of the Green Party of New Jersey will be held Saturday, April 18, 1998, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, at the Rutgers Labor Education Center in New Brunswick. The convention will feature the election of party officers, reports from locals, introduction of electoral campaigns and candidates, and programmatic discussions. Literature of the Green Party and kindred organizations will be available. The Eco Chorale will perform during the lunch break. It is at the Annual Convention that changes to the organizational by-laws can be considered. Proposals for the convention and nominations for officers will begin to be published in the March GreenGram so that grassroots discussions in the locals can take place during March and April. All finalized proposals and nomin- ations must be received by the Executive Committee by March 20 so that the full agenda can be printed in the April GreenGram. ---------------------------------------------------------- SUCCESSFUL MEETING OF PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISTS Over 40 activists attended a meeting at the Montclair Unitarian Church on January 17 to discuss independent political action in New Jersey. The meeting was initiated by the Green Party and other independent organizers. At a morning plenary, keynote speakers included: Arthur Kinoy, Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, Rutgers Law School, who addressed the theme of progressive unity; Madelyn Hoffman, who discussed her 1997 Green Party campaign for Governor; and Professor Steven Shalom, who spoke about the grassroots successes of the Montclair Civil Rights Coalition. In the afternoon, an open discussion was held to identify issues and projects, including electoral races, around which a broad coalition of progressives can be forged. A follow-up letter to attendees and to those who were unable to attend was widely disseminated. The letter included a compilation of the projects and issues put forward at the meeting and a questionnaire where people were asked to assign priority to those projects and issues. People are also being asked to broaden the base of the coalition with the hope of convening an even larger progressive gathering in the Spring. Two committees were formed on Jan. 17: One, focusing on electoral activity, held its first meeting Feb. 2 in Montclair; in attendance were Bob Pawlo, Joe Fortunato, Joe Nardone, Gary Novosielski, Madelyn Hoffman, and Joe Mosley. A high visibility race in Essex County was discussed, as well the desirability of having a multitude of progressive candidates run for local office in their cities and towns. A second committee, consisting of Neal Gorfinkle, Stan Sheats, Joe Mosley, and others, will be drawing up plans for the next statewide meeting. There is still time to join either of these committees, which will be meeting several times each month at various locations. Contact the Green Party for more information. ---------------------------------------------------------- ORGANIZER POSITION ESTABLISHED Madelyn Hoffman is now working as a paid Organizer for the Green Party. During January a Liaison/Oversight sub-committee drafted guidelines for the facilitation and monitoring of her work. In addition to members of that sub-committee, all members of GPNJ are encouraged to attend weekly meetings which Madelyn will be conducting. These Organizer forums will provide an opportunity for members to keep abreast of the activities being coordinated by the Organizer, to give input and direction to her work, to help prioritize her tasks, and to enable her to delegate responsibilities. This arrangement with Madelyn is a very special one, in the sense that few other fledgling parties or activist groups are able to benefit from the concentrated work of a paid Organizer at such an early stage of their organizational development. Our growth and outreach capability will be greatly enhanced by having someone with Madelyn's stature assuming this role. There will be an ongoing project to raise special funds to support the Organizer position. All members of GPNJ are encouraged to contribute as generously as possible. Here is a tentative schedule of upcoming Organizer forums: Thursday evenings Feb. 5 and Feb. 12, 7:00pm at the Monmouth County Library in Manalapan (just off Route 9). Monday evenings, Feb. 23 and March 2, most likely in Montclair (exact location to be announced). Thursday evenings, March 12 and March 19, 7:00pm, again at the Monmouth County Library. Monday evenings, March 30 and April 6 back in Montclair. Greens in South Jersey, especially County Coordinators, are urged to attend at least one of the Monmouth County meetings. Contact Madelyn or 973-252-0797 to get finalized information and directions. ---------------------------------------------------------- CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM On February 18 at the Seton Hall Law School in Newark, the State Division of Elections will be holding hearings on the financing of electoral campaigns. These hearings (a second round will be held on March 18) are important because there is a chance that the state legislature will consider changing the matching funds rule such that a third party would have to raise even more than the already high threshold of $210,000 in order to receive matching funds in a gubernatorial race. THE THRESHOLD SHOULD BE LOWERED! Below is printed a draft of a position paper on campaign finance reform. It has been produced by Green Party member Earl Gray. Madelyn Hoffman will be circulating this draft to GPNJ locals and to other progressive organizations in an effort to get feedback and achieve wide co-sponsorship prior to February 18. The Green Party will formally consider this draft at its Executive Committee meeting on February 15. Earl Gray accompanied the presentation of this position paper with an extensive and well researched background document which includes sections on the current system, reform options being put forward by Kerry/Wellstone/Glenn, Doolittle, Mann/ Ornstein/Taylor, McCain/Feingold, Torricelli, the state of Vermont, and the ACLU, plus New Jersey-specific data, and a three page bibliography. Well done, Earl! Position Paper: Campaign Finance Reform Because the current method of funding election campaigns, both nationally and in New Jersey, is nothing more than legalized bribery, we believe the voters should insist on replacing the current method with a totally different way to finance elections. Taking our lead from recently passed legislation in the state of Maine, we propose the following Clean Money Campaign Reform (CMCR): 1. CMCR is a voluntary full public funding system; 2. It is a system in which candidates will no longer have to raise money from private sources, although they may choose to do so; 3. Candidates who volunteer for full public funding would receive a set amount of money from a publicly financed election fund. In Maine that amount has been set equal to 75% of the average cost of the prior two campaigns, on the assumption that at least 1/4 of all previous campaign expenses have gone to fundraising itself (with public funding, candidates will not need fundraising money); 4. Spending will be limited to that amount; 5. Once a candidate passes a carefully determined qualification threshold, she/he would receive the fixed amount of public money for the campaigns (primary and general); 6. To be eligible, candidates would be required to raise a relatively large number of $5.00 qualifying contributions listed by donor signatures from within his/her electoral district; 7. Eligibility also will be conditioned on a candidate's agreement not to raise or spend any private money whatsoever (during either the primary or the general election periods), and limiting spending to the fixed amount of public funds received; 8. Prior to the primary, the candidate would be allowed to raise a very limited amount of "seed money," with a $100 per donor limitation on contributions. This money could only be spent on the start-up costs of qualifying for public financing and could not be spent during the primary and/or the general election periods; 9. All the candidates running for the same office who met the qualifying tests would receive equal amounts of public financing; 10. The system would be strictly voluntary (thus conforming to the Free Speech concerns of the Buckley v. Valleo decision). Candidates would be free to reject the Clean Money option and raise private money or use their own money to finance their campaigns; 11. "Soft money" would be banned. (This is money which is supposed to be used only for generic party-building purposes, but more often is currently used by parties to finance specific candidacies); 12. Partial funding (matching funds) will be banned; 13. Publicly financed candidates who are outspent by privately financed opponents will receive additional "equalizing funds." In the Maine version, the additional funding is capped at 100% of the original amount received; but a higher cap could be set for Federal elections; 14. Candidates targeted by "Independent Expenditures," as determined by an election commission, would receive the same kind of "equalizing funds." This doesn't mean the disappearance of Independent expenditures (including those made by parties on behalf of their candidates). However, there is a likelihood that the equalizing provision will help to reduce these expenditures; and, in the "Clean Money" environment, there is likely to be strong voter disapproval of independent spenders who try to circumvent the system. The CMCR is constitutional, comprehensive, and comprehensible. It frees candidates from the demeaning business of raising money (the money chase); it turns their attention back from contributors to constituents; and it sufficiently equalizes political resources to encourage people without big financial backers to run for office. ---------------------------------------------------------- SAVE ORGANIC STANDARDS! In the December 16, 1997 Federal Register, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture proposed new regulations to standardize the definition of organic food. The proposal is nothing short of scandalous in that the new regulations, if adopted, would weaken the prohibition of many synthetic substances and would allow genetic engineering, food irradiation, sludge fertilization, animal confinement, and animal cannibalism. George Siemon, chief executive of an organic co-op in LaFarge, WI, vowed that organic farmers and their customers would not sit back and have the new rules "force-fed to us by corporate agribusiness lobbyists and government bureaucrats." According to the newsletter of Genesis Farm in Blairstown, NJ: "New proposed Federal Rules are a degradation of existing organic standards. And to make matters worse, [they] would prohibit organic producers from upholding and promoting their own stricter standards. We hope that you will feel called to join us as we have joined with the nationwide 'Save Organic Standards' (SOS) campaign, launched by the Foundation on Economic Trends' Pure Food Campaign." To join or to get more information about SOS call Lori or Laura at Genesis Farm 908-362-6735. New Brunswick, NJ will be one of four national sites for hearings on the rules; so on March 5 New Jersey citizens will have a chance to register their protest, either at the hearing itself, which will be held at the Rutgers Student Center, or at a demonstration (time and place to be determined; contact the Green Party prior to March 5 for more information). There is a web site for offering commentary: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop. Or fax a letter to the USDA at 202-690-4632 or write: Eileen Stommes, Deputy Administrator, USDA AMS, Room 4007-S, AgStop 0275, P.O. Box 96467, Washington, DC 20090-6546. In all correspondence, refer to Docket No. TMD-94-00-2. ------------------------------------------------------------ For the February issue of the GreenGram, you get two for the price of one! Part two should arrive in your mailbox shortly ------------------------------------------------------------