Green Party (United States)

One of the political parties in the United States, and similar in mission to many of the worldwide Green Parties, the Greens have been active as a third party since 2001. The party first gained widespread public attention during Ralph Nader's presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. Currently, the primary national Green Party organization in the U.S. is the Green Party of the United States, which has eclipsed the earlier Greens/Green Party USA.

The Green Party in the United States has won elected office mostly at the local level; most winners of public office in the United States who are considered Greens have won nonpartisan-ballot elections (that is, the winning Greens won offices in elections in which candidates were not identified on the ballot as affiliated with any political party). The highest-ranking Greens ever elected in the nation were John Eder, who was a member of the Maine House of Representatives until his defeat on November 7, 2006, and Audie Bock, who was elected to the California State Assembly in 1999 but switched her registration to Independent seven months later running as an independent in the 2000 election. In 2005, the Party had 305,000 registered members in states that allow party registration, as well as tens of thousands of members and contributors in the rest of the country. During the 2006 elections the party had ballot access in 31 states.

Ideology
The Green Party of the United States emphasizes environmentalism, non-hierarchical participatory democracy, social justice, respect for diversity, peace and nonviolence. Their "Ten Key Values," which are described as non-authoritative guiding principles, are as follows:

  Grassroots democracy Social justice and equal opportunity Ecological wisdom Non-violence Decentralization Community-based economics and economic justice Feminism and gender equity Respect for diversity</li> Personal and global responsibility</li> Future focus and sustainability</li> </ol> </b>

The Green Party does not accept donations from corporations and the party's platform and rhetoric critiques corporate influence and control over government, media, and society at large.

Geographic distribution
The Green Party has shown its strongest popular support on the Pacific Coast, Upper Great Lakes, and northeastern United States, as reflected in the geographical distribution of Green candidates elected. Californians have elected 55 of the 226 office-holding Greens nationwide as of June 2007. Other states with high numbers of Green elected officials include Pennsylvania (31), Wisconsin (23), Massachusetts (18), and Maine (17). Maine has the highest per capita number of Green elected officials in the country, and the largest Green registration percentage with more than 29,273 greens comprising 2.95% of the electorate as of November 2006. Madison, Wisconsin, is the city with the most Green elected officials (8) followed by Portland, Maine, with (7).

One challenge that the Green Party (as well as other third parties) faces is the difficulty of overcoming ballot access laws in many states. This has prevented the Green Party from reaching a point of critical mass in party-building momentum in many states.

Office holders
The Green Party claims at least 230 party members in elected office in the U.S. as of May, 2007.

Presidential tickets

 * 1996: Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke 685,128 votes
 * 2000: Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke 2,882,000 votes
 * 2004: David Cobb and Pat LaMarche 119,859 votes
 * 2008: Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente

List of national conventions/conferences

 * 2000 - Denver, CO
 * 2001 - Santa Barbara, CA
 * 2002 - Philadelphia, PA
 * 2003 - Washington, DC
 * 2004 - Milwaukee, WI
 * 2005 - Tulsa, OK
 * 2006 - Tucson, AZ
 * 2007 - Reading, PA
 * 2008 - Chicago, IL

Explanations of the ten key values

 * Ten Key Values of the Green Party
 * Global Greens' charter
 * California Green Party's Ten Key Values
 * Radical Middle Newsletter's historical intro. & early version

Зелена партия в САЩ Strana zelených (USA) Green Party (Vereinigte Staaten) Partido Verde (Estados Unidos) Verda Partio (Usono) fa:حزب سبز (آمریکا) Parti vert (États-Unis) Groene Partij (Verenigde Staten) アメリカ緑の党 Green Party (USA) Partia Zielonych (USA) Vihreä puolue (Yhdysvallat) Green Party பசுமைக் கட்சி (ஐக்கிய அமெரிக்கா) Yeşil Parti (ABD) 绿党 (美国)