how Green is my Valley

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

from the L.A. TIMES, November 20, 2000:

>Struggling [San Fernando] Valley [of Los Angeles] Greens Are Proud of
Their Votes for Nader

Politics: Members of the relatively small group say they had no obligation
to Al Gore. Their goal is to build a progressive reform movement.

 By SUE FOX, Times Staff Writer

Don't bother calling Ceil Sorensen a spoiler.

At 79, she's got a "Ralph Nader for President" button pinned to her baby
blue sweater and fistfuls of pro-living wage and anti-sweatshop fliers--but
not a shred of patience with any suggestion that her Green Party candidate
robbed Democrat Al Gore of the crucial votes that would have ensured his
victory. As the messy battle between Gore and Republican George W. Bush for
Florida's 25 electoral votes continues to spill from one court to another,
an optimistic band of San Fernando Valley Greens--many of them
elderly--trooped into a cramped side room at a Ventura Boulevard acting
studio last week to plot the next moves in their grass-roots uprising.

When another member wondered aloud how Greens ought to fight "all this
negative bashing we've been getting" over the unfathomably tight vote
count, Sorensen glared through her squarish glasses.

"We don't have to apologize for anything," she said. "We have every
democratic right to vote for whomever we want!"

They have no discernible leader, no Valley headquarters, barely any money
and only about 25 hard-core members who regularly show up at meetings. But
the Valley Greens, a polite bunch of graying lawyers, ponytailed teachers
and other activists, say the Nader campaign energized their admittedly
loosely run operation and built a momentum that they intend to ride into
future races.

No matter that their precinct walking was hobbled when a batch of campaign
literature arrived late. Or that the "corporate media," as they call this
newspaper and others, failed to cover Green candidates with what they
considered the proper gusto.

Even Nader's inability to win 5% of the popular vote nationwide--the
threshold the Greens needed to qualify for federal election funds in
2004--was viewed as just an unfortunate bump in a long road toward building
a progressive reform movement.

"The model of this campaign was: We're doing the best we can," said
75-year-old Donald Tollefson, a retired divorce attorney from Encino who
led the precinct-walking effort.

The Valley group started organizing a decade ago to help put the Green
Party on the ballot in California. The Greens are also active on the
Westside, in Burbank, Agoura Hills and the Antelope Valley, as well as on
various college campuses, including Cal State Northridge.

But only the Valley Greens have been meeting regularly since 1989, making
them (in the precise wording typical of many a well-educated Green) "the
longest continuously meeting group in Los Angeles County," said Faramarz
Nabavi, 23, one of Nader's two paid campaign organizers in Southern
California.

Voter registration certainly has grown a tinge greener in the Valley. Four
years ago, there were just 3,166 Greens in the three congressional
districts that make up most of the area. Party registration has climbed
55%, for a grand total of 4,904 voters here.

Of course the Nader campaign attracted support this year from many other
quarters, including independents.

Almost 18,000 people voted for Nader in the Valley districts, out of about
518,000 who cast ballots, according to the Los Angeles County
registrar-recorder's office. That means Nader captured more than 3.4% of
the Valley vote, compared with about 3% nationwide. Nader got 3.1% of the
vote in Los Angeles County.

All of which establishes the Valley--nationally known for its decidedly
un-Green transformation from open ranchland and orchards into a swarm of
subdivisions and strip malls--as something of a modest Green refuge. ...<

for the rest, see: http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20001120/t000111481.html

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx & http:/bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
"It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.