Press Release:
Green
Party Advances in Virginia on Election Day
Contact: Sheri Bailey, Press Secretary, Virginia Green Party,
757-397-5963, or press@vagreenparty.org
Falls Church, VA (November 5)
- Green Party candidates made impressive gains on Virginia ballots on Election
Day, advancing the party’s status as Virginia’s alternative to the two major
parties.
Audrey Clement, co-chair of the Virginia Green Party, noted that “Election Day
2008 shows that the Green Party of Virginia is making great strides in
establishing itself as Virginia’s alternative to the two major parties. More
and more Virginians are recognizing that the Green Party, both at the local and
federal level, is proposing policy solutions on issues such as the environment,
health care, and the war that make sense.”
According to initial returns, Green Party president and vice-presidential
candidates Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente received 2,316 votes, easily
surpassing the Green Party’s total of 104 write-in votes for David Cobb in
2004.
McKinney’s campaign for president focused on calling for rapid U.S. troop
withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, ending threats of a U.S. attack against
Iran, supporting single-payer national health care, canceling the costly and
ineffective war on drugs, abolishing the death penalty, impeaching President
Bush, and not giving immunity to telecommunications firms that participated in
warrant-less spying on U.S. citizens.
In Arlington County, initial returns gave Green Party candidate John Reeder
23.3% of the votes for County Board. Reeder’s vote count of 21,503 exceeded
previous Green Party vote percentages in Arlington County of approximately 5%
and 10% in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
Reeder ran on a platform to promote affordable housing, increase recycling
opportunities, and trim government waste. He received favorable press coverage
in the Washington Post, Arlington Sun Gazette, and Arlington Connection and
received union endorsement.
In addition, in Arlington County, a Green Party-backed referendum to establish
a housing authority won 33% of the votes despite the opposition of both
Democratic and Republican parties.
The campaign to pass this ballot measure placed the Arlington Green Party at
the forefront of efforts to increase the County’s available tools to address an
ever-deepening affordable housing crisis.
Additional information on the Arlington Green Party and its
efforts to pass the referendum to establish a housing authority
can be found here: http://arlingtongreens.org/
Additional information on the Green Party of the United States
can be found at: http://www.gp.org
Additional information on the Virginia Green Party can be found
at: http://vagreenparty.org/
GPVA Press Secretary: Sheri
Bailey |
