Lynne Williams Out

The deadline to submit petitions to put a candidate enrolled in a political party on the ballot has passed.  The major party primary field shaped up as expected.  Pat McGowan, Libby Mitchell, John Richardson, Steve Rowe, and Rosa Scarcelli will run in the Democratic primary.  Steve Abbott, Bill Beardsley, Paul LePage, Matt Jacobson, Peter Mills, Les Otten, and Bruce Poliquin round out the GOP primary field.  The Maine Green Independent Party will not have a candidate on the ballot however.  Lynne Williams announced she would be dropping out of the gubernatorial race today.  Despite having 60 volunteers the campaign was unable to meet the 2,000 signature requirement said Williams.  Williams credited the shortfall to the widespread nature of registered Green Party voters in the state.  Part of the problem, according to Williams, is that the state has fewer than 30,000 registered Green Party members.  (A recent Green Party email touts the 34,500 registered members, the “highest total ever”)  Williams also cited voter apathy, lack of listed phone numbers, and volunteer efforts spent on meeting Clean Election requirements as factors in the lack of signatures.  Williams pulled no punches in her criticism of the two major parties.  The Democratic and Republican parties have several hundred thousand members from whom they can collect signatures, said Williams.  “The Democrats need to collect one-half-of-one-percent of their registered voters, we need to collect six percent of our registered voters,” Williams said. As Pine Tree Politics pointed out, this is a difficult task, but quite possible through proper organizational management.  Both Johnathan Carter and Pat LaMarche were able to qualify for the ballot in elections past.

It should also be noted that several major party candidates had difficulty in collecting signatures as well.  A few did not make the ballot.  Clearly not all candidates faced a cakewalk.  This could be due in part to what Williams describes as “voter apathy” and Washington gridlock.  Difficulty in gathering signatures can also signify a candidate does not have enough support to make the ballot.  Nancy Allen, an early Green Party organizer, provided further insight into why the Green’s failed to make the gubernatorial ballot.  Allen believes that, “politics has a bad name right now, no matter what you’re doing in it.  And I think that the Green Party is kind of a wishful thinking place for young people, and I just don’t know whether the Green Party’s vision has been sustainable.”

Williams also takes a jab at the Democrats for changing the Clean Election requirements.

By eliminating the requirement that parties had to run a gubernatorial candidate in order to maintain party status, the Democrats made it clear they did not want a Green Party candidate for governor on the ballot this year, and furthermore, if there was a Green Independent candidate, they did not want that candidate to be well funded. So they also made major changes to the Clean Election Law that discouraged small parties from taking advantage of that process.

The most onerous change was the new requirement that Clean Election candidates for governor must raise $40,000 in private funding – under much stricter requirements than those imposed on traditional gubernatorial candidates – before qualifying for public funding.

If it were not for the law changes, the Green Party would lose party status this year.  More on the past Green Party issues with the Clean Election changes here.  Some have raised the issue that “big wind” kept Williams from the past AGC debate.  Thought this kept her from the wider electorate, this should not have impacted her reach to Green Party members.

There is a small chance that the Green Party could make the ballot.  Williams, or another Green nominee, must receive 4,000 write-in votes in the primary to be placed on the November ballot.  The prospect seems unlikely, given that the smaller goal of 2,000 signatures was unattainable.  The party will maintain its ballot status if they can receive 33% voter turnout in November.

Williams and the Green Party have quickly switched gears to make electing legislative candidates the new priority.  Anna Trevorrow, chair of the state Green Independent Party, has a different take on the ballot access changes.  As stated earlier, Williams sees the ability to maintain ballot status without running a gubernatorial candidate as a sign the Democrats were trying to keep the Greens out of that race.  Trevorrow, on the other hand, has a more optimistic outlook on the issue.  “We made legislative recruitment a top priority this year.  With sweeping changes in electoral reform that came out of Augusta last year, we no longer need the governor’s race to keep party status.  We turned our resources toward legislative seats, where we have better opportunity for success,” said Trevorrow. The Greens will run 18 legislative candidates in the upcoming election.

When it comes down to it, a campaign succeeds or fails on its own merits.  It is easy to lay blame on the establishment for failing to make the ballot.  Voters are a powerful force when motivated.  The right candidate or issue will cause voters to seek ways to lend their support.  Call it the “Field of Dreams” theory if you want, but a strong candidate, with a strong campaign organization, will attract support.  Donna Dion is not pointing fingers at the Republicans for failing to make the ballot.  She could not get the support, so Dion didn’t qualify.  With an activist organization such as the Green Party, the framework to gather support was there.  It just didn’t materialize.  Now is not the time to look outward for the Green Party.  The Maine Green Independent Party should look inward.  If they hope to field gubernatorial candidates in the future, and remain one of the strongest Green Party organizations in the county, it’s time for a little self assessment.