Minnesota voters will have another choice for United States President in November – Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Workers for the Minnesota Green Party successfully collected the required 2,000 signatures needed to place Stein on the ballot – in total they submitted 2,600 names to the Minnesota Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State approved the petition Aug. 16.
Jill Stein graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1979 and has been a long-time political activist and candidate. She ran for Massachusetts governor as the Green Party candidate in 2002 and 2010, losing to Mitt Romney in 2002.
Running with Stein as candidate for Vice President is Cheri Honkala, a Minnesota native who currently serves as National Coordinator for the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. Honkala ran as the Green Party candidate for Sheriff of Philadelphia in 2011. She came in third in that race.
“Everyone’s excited about the chance to have two strong, progressive women on the ballot in Minnesota,” said Minnesota Green Party ballot access coordinator Jim Ivey, St. Paul, in a statement released Aug. 16.
Stein is proposing what she calls a “Green New Deal for America,” which is a four part policy strategy inspired by the New Deal programs that helped the U.S. out of the Great Depression in 1930s. The Green New Deal proposes to provide similar relief and create an economy "that makes communities sustainable, healthy and just," the party's web site says.
The Minnesota Green Party is small, but scrappy. Its best showing in national elections in recent years was when Ralph Nadar headed the ticket in 2000 and received 5.2% of the Minnesota vote, which was about 126,000 votes. This in turn qualified the Green Party for ballot status because 5% or more of the vote is required.
However, in the 2002 elections, Green Party candidate for Governor Ken Pentel received just 2.3% of the vote, which failed to extend the party’s ballot status. Thus, it was necessary to petition to qualify to let Minnesotans vote Green Party this year in the national race.
For more about Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, see: GREEN PARTY
For more information on the Minnesota Green Party, see MN GREEN PARTY
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