Statements from the Leadership – Poudre Valley Green Party

What have the Poudre Valley Greens been up to?

It’s true, we’ve been a little quiet as of late, but we’ve actually stayed quite busy supporting the many wonderful activist projects happening locally and regionally, while at the same time working behind the scenes to strengthen the local chapter. Now, the time has come to ramp up our organizing. We hope you’ll dive in with us and get more involved as we hit the ground—your involvement will make a huge difference!

Candidate for City Council

Fred Kirsch, candidate for Fort Collins City Council for District 6

Fred Kirsch—a long-time registered Green—is running for Fort Collins’ City Council in District 6 (which is located in the northwest part of Fort Collins). This is really exciting, since we haven’t had a Green in the running for local office in quite some time. If you’re at Council meetings regularly you’d recognize him—he’s a regular fixture there and knows the workings of City Council well, so he’s ready to make a difference as soon as he’s elected.

Fred has been involved in local activism for over a decade as founder and Director at CforSE—the Coalition for Sustainable Energy—a local nonprofit working to pass progressive legislation statewide. His campaign is ramping up as we speak so we’re putting out a call for volunteers and donations to help him win. Check out his Facebook page, his website, then please make a donation to him of your time and/or money—only as much as you can afford—to help him shift Fort Collins’ City policy in a Green direction.

Meet and Greet with Fred Kirsch

Come to the Downtown Artery anytime between 6-9pm this Friday March 1st to meet City Council candidate Fred Kirsch in person. Be sure to bring those burning questions… no questions? Come anyway to just chat a bit and meet some of your community members. Check out the Facebook event for the most current info.

Phonebanking for Fred

This Monday, March 4th at 5:30pm, join us at the Old Town Library (201 Peterson St. 80524) in Study Room B for our first “Phonebanking for Fred” night. If you can, please bring a laptop and a mobile phone; we hope to have a few extras on hand but won’t have enough for everyone. If you’re planning to be there please let us know in advance if possible, but do come either way. We’ll be making calls for about an hour… less if you bring a few friends to help!

Full-Time Council Campaign

The Poudre Valley Green Party has endorsed and is actively supporting the “Fort Collins Full-Time Council” City Charter amendment. Why? Because most of us who live in Fort Collins care deeply about our community and—under the right circumstances—would love to be able to serve on City Council to help improve the City. Unfortunately, few of us could afford to do this as we have to also work for a living. The decisions City Council makes affect us all in so many ways; making the position full-time with the proper compensation means Council can give it their full attention, treat it like an actual job, and we can hold them to a high standard of performance.

Ballots should arrive by mail soon and we hope you’ll vote yes” for this amendment, then get involved to help pass this important change to the City Charter. For more information visit the Fort Collins Full-Time Council website.

As you can see, there’s a lot happening behind the scenes with the Poudre Valley Greens—your local Green Party of Colorado chapter for Larimer County. Are you ready to get more involved? If so, great! Please join us, we look forward to meeting you.

Meetings

The next member meeting is March 11th at 6:30 pm and is open to all local Greens, or those interested in becoming a Green. We meet at the Old Town LIbrary (201 Peterson St. 80524) on the second and fourth Mondays of each month (the specific room may change, check the library’s schedule beforehand). Come sit in on the conversations as we plan for the future.

Contributions are always needed and welcomed, since we do have running costs and project expenses. If you can’t get involved in person we hope you’ll consider supporting us with a small, regular contribution. The easiest way to do this is through the contributions page on our website. Thank you!

In Solidarity,

The Poudre Valley Green Party Leadership

First, A big THANK YOU to everybody who worked to support Jill Stein’s campaign in Colorado, and to everybody (we hope all of you) who voted for her. The Green Party made waves in so many ways this election thanks to you and your support.

Despite the new reality we find ourselves in, with Donald Trump slated to be our next president, our focus as Greens remains largely the same—we will continue building real progressive power within the electoral system while at the same time standing with and elevating people’s movements in the streets.

Many people are in shock after the election, fearing what may come from this new political arrangement. During times of fear and vulnerability it can be tempting to turn back to the policies and leaders of the past, however it is those very policies that brought about the economic and political climate leading to Donald Trump’s election. We must avoid that temptation, instead continuing to build a political force that’s unafraid to assert thepolicies and solutions we urgently need.

The Green Party offers a true progressive party of the left, one that is accountable to the people, not corporations or entrenched political forces. We oppose the neoliberal agenda shared by both major parties: one of corporate deregulation, privatization, and cuts to essential services. Instead, we support a strengthening of our shared institutions for the common good. Our country engages in endless war and empire-building for global dominance and profit. This is abhorrent, unjust and must stop immediately in favor of democratic solutions that originate from and respect the wishes of common people. We acknowledge that climate change is real, and is caused by human activity, and we support aggressive action to move our country (and the world) to sustainable, renewable energy sources. We oppose discrimination, and we favor peace, equal rights, and fair treatment for all people. We support campaign finance reform and grassroots political activity.

It is because of you, the forward-thinking supporters of the Green Party, that we continue to grow. The strong showing for our candidates this year proves that people are waking up to the need for a new, major party to champion our shared values.

Our presidential candidate Jill Stein greatly improved her performance since the previous presidential election. With counting nearly complete as of November 26, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office reports that Jill received 38,423 votes (1.38%) statewide in 2016, compared to 7,508 votes (0.29%) statewide in 2012. That’s an increase of about 400%! In Larimer County in 2016, Jill received 3,203 votes (1.63%) compared to 651 votes (0.36%) in Larimer County in 2012. Our U.S. Senate candidate, Arn Menconi, received 36,800 votes (1.34%) statewide and 2,803 votes (1.45%) in Larimer County. The Green Party is here and growing.

Although there has been speculation in the media that third parties influenced the election results, Jill was not a spoiler. Michigan and Wisconsin are the only states that Hillary Clinton lost where Jill’s percentage of the vote was greater than the margin of victory. Winning those two states for a combined 26 additional electoral votes would not have been enough to clinch the national victory for Clinton.

The Democrats simply lost. It was no one else’s fault. They ran a bad candidate and their message was misdirected and unconvincing. Their political vehicle is corrupt and broken — they’ve lost touch with the working-class people of this country and turned a blind eye to their legitimate needs. Greens understand that the way forward is not more of the same, and we will continue to assert this understanding in the streets and at the polls. We aren’t going anywhere. We’re here and we’re growing.

As we establish our place in the US electoral system, we must address our archaic and restrictive voting system. An update is necessary so we can freely vote our hopes and not our fears. This election, Maine voters passed Ranked Choice Voting statewide to address this issue. Colorado could do that, too. Here are links to information about Ranked Choice Voting, if you would like to explore what it is and how it can improve the system.

Boston.com Article about Maine’s Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) measure
RCV Maine website
Huffington Post article about Maine’s new RCV system

Our continued political engagement is more important now than before, and we hope all of you Greens are thinking about how you can participate. Stay tuned for more ways you can get involved with the Poudre Valley Green Party and other organizing activity here in Northern Colorado; we are already planning our next steps and need you by our side.

Thankfully, the spirit of collective resistance is alive and growing after the election. Let’s amplify this spirit and make clear our opposition to Trump’s politics of hate and fear. Let’s also channel this newfound energy and awareness not into the same structures which have repeatedly failed us, but into building a principled alternative for the future.

Poudre Valley Green Party Leadership Team