The Green Party of Sonoma County (GPSC) will be hosting the Green Party of California's Fall General Assembly (GA) this October 10th and 11th at the Cotati Veterans Memorial Hall. The GPSC coordinators (including the County Council) are organizing this event, but additional volunteers are needed to assist with the planning and to help out during the weekend of the General Assembly. If you'd like to support the party, please contact Tim Morgan at blkcloud_at_sonic.net and express your desire to help. We need:

Pre-Event Volunteers

• Greens to work on a food committee - Steve Devereux is investigating this now.
• Greens to work on a logistics committee (this includes travel and lodging research) - Halley DeCarion is working on this now.
• Greens to assist with event planning (as in entertainment etc.) - Tim Morgan is the point person on this.
• We also need Greens within a rough radius of Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Petaluma, and Cotati-Rohnert Park to step up and help provide home stays for GPCA Greens traveling other parts of the state.

Volunteers During the Event

We will need help with food preparation and service, registration, setup and clean up on both days, and possibly some event participants or speakers for the Saturday evening program.

So please help make this event a success and volunteer to support your party.

Tim Morgan

Treasurer GPSC

Note: As more information becomes available it will be posted on the plenary web site at http://cagreens.org/plenary/.

The North Bay Regional Meeting was held on June 14 from 5-7 PM in Rohnert Park. Attendees were Tim Morgan (ECC, Sonoma); Erica Martenson (CC, Napa); Tim Smith (CC, Sonoma); David Quinley (CC, Marin); Bob Moore (CC, Napa); and Mike Wyman (Incumbent Regional Representative, from Marin).

The attendees, by consensus, agreed to vote on the slate of nominees as a group and unanimously voted to elect the three nominees to their respective positions:

• Lou Tremain: Regional Representative
• Larry Bragman: Alternate Representative
• David Quinley: Second alternate Representative

The group also made a recommendation that the three representatives bear a special responsibility to communicate with Napa and Sonoma counties on the activities of the GPCA CC since they are all from one county (Marin).

The notes and results of the nomination were posted to the NorthBay regional Listserv for a seven day period to allow anyone to contest the election, and on June 23, the ECC confirmed the election. The elected officers will serve our region as representatives to the Green Party of California Coordinating Committee (GPCA CC) for a period of two years effective from June 14, 2009 until June 14, 2011.

Pacifica and the Green Party share the same core values.

The Green Party is one political party that does not take corporate money and Pacifica is one network that does not take corporate money.

The KPFA Local Station Board Elections is coming up in August, so you have the opportunity to elect candidates that will represent the interests of the Green listener-subscribers.

Nomination period for candidates (including self nominations) ends on July 15.

The balloting is from August 29 to October 14.

To vote, you must be a member between July 16, 2008 and July 15, 2009, so subscribe by July 15. (Do it by June 30 if you can.)

You can become a member by subscribing starting at $25 minimum, so encourage your family and friends also to become subscribers and vote!

1. Just go to www.kpfa.org
2. At the menu at the top of the page, select: SUPPORT US! > Pledge Online
3. Subscribe starting at $25 minimum.
4. Pay with your credit card and save or print the confirmation page.

*By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento*

While it is difficult for a new political party to qualify itself for the ballot, state law makes it easy to retain a place on the ballot once earned.

A party need only retain registration equal to 1/15th of one percent of the state total, then garner votes at the polls either equal to 1% of the total vote cast for governor or 2% of the vote for any statewide partisan office.

The low party registration number : 1/15th of 1% - is the result of the Legislature being kind to the lobbyist for the Prohibition Party. After each election that party would fail to meet the threshold for retaining a place on the ballot, and the Legislature would lower it. The lobbyist finally passed away and the process stopped. But it serves today to keep the Peace and Freedom Party and the American Independent Party on the ballot decades after their raison d'etre ceased to exist.

The "open primary", if it is approved by voters in the Primary Election next year, will end all that.

Only the two top vote-getting candidates "regardless of their party preference" will find a place on the General Election ballot. In most cases, especially where incumbents are seeking reelection, this will result in a Democrat facing a Republican in the "run-off".

In a few cases, it will result in two Democrats running-off. In ever fewer cases, two Republicans will run-off. But under ordinary circumstances, none of the minor party candidates will ever find themselves on the November run-off ballot.

The only circumstance where that would not be the case would be a district in which one of the two major parties didn't file a candidate in the primary - leaving a minor party candidate one of the two top vote-getters that would advance to the Fall ballot. But awareness of this fact would be all the incentive required to ensure that the respective State Committees of each major party filed a candidate in each seat.

The result would be the total absence of any alternative Party candidate on the fall ballot. And, because of that, no minor party candidate would be in a position to meet even the dubiously low standards for retaining their position as a qualified political party. If you're not on the ballot, then you won't get a vote equal to 1% of that for Governor or 2% of the vote for a state partisan office. You won't get any votes.

Denied the ability to meet the vote requirements of state law, California's minor parties (the Peace and Freedom Party, the American Independent Party, the Green Party and the Libertarian Party) will go the way of the dodo bird. While they could, in theory, return as a Party by obtaining 90,000 registrations or 900,000 petition signatures.

What would be the point? They would still find themselves shut-out of the run-off contests in the fall, hence faced with oblivion once again because of the standards of the Election Code.

Our major political parties serve many functions, the most important of which is to provide a mechanism for resolving "Arrow problems" - problems arising because of the intransitivity of social choices. Alternative parties have served mainly as a parking place for protest votes, on occasion upsetting the balance between the two Corporate Parties and forcing an accommodation. For better or worse, the "open" primary will end the place that alternative parties has had in our political history.

*Bill Cavala was Deputy Director of the Assembly Speaker's Office of Member Services where he worked for over 30 years. He attended undergraduate and graduate school in the 1960's and received a doctorate in political science at UC Berkeley. He taught political science at UC Berkeley during the 1970's while he worked part-time for the State Assembly.*

*Cavala left teaching at UC Berkeley and worked for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in 1981 until his tenure as Speaker ended in 1995, and he has worked for his five successors as Speaker. He now manages election campaigns for Democratic candidates.*

NOTE:
- We sometimes include events that may not have been officially endorsed by the GPSC, but may be of interest to local Greens. - To check for new events and schedule changes, visit our home page at http://www.sonomagreenparty.org

1

(Wed) Committee for Immigrants Rights Meeting
719 Orchard St., Santa Rosa. 6 PM
(Enter from the back. Parking is also available in the back.)

10

(Fri) Educational Event
Saint Rose Church, Santa Rosa. 6-8 PM
Sponsored by the Committee for Immigrant Rights of Sonoma County. Discussion: car impoundments.

16

(Thu) GPSC General Business Meeting
1914 Knolls Dr., Santa Rosa 95405 (look for '14' on the back gate)
6:45 PM - 9:00 PM
Business meetings are held every 3rd Thursday of the month. 
All interested Greens are welcome to attend!
Info: 707-545-4420 or email info_at_sonomagreenparty.org

20

(Sun) The 12th Annual Progressive Festival
Walnut Park (Corner of Petaluma Blvd and D St), Petaluma
The SF Mime Troupe will perform their new play, "Too Big To Fail". Speakers to be announced soon. Don't miss it! http://www.progressivefestival.org/

PC (Public Communications) WG
Info: http://www.sonomagreenparty.org/pages/gi_pc.shtml
Monthly newsletter submissions: editor_at_sonomagreenparty.org
Contact: info_at_sonomagreenparty.org

Campus Greens - Sonoma State University Chapter
Listserve: http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/sonomacampusgreens

PO Box 15073 Santa Rosa, CA 95402
Email: info_at_sonomagreenparty.org
Website: http://www.sonomagreenparty.org

Green Focus Newsletter
Green Focus is the official publication of the Green Party of California. It provides a forum for news, views, discussion and analysis on issues of importance for California, around the environment, social justice, peace and democracy. Green Focus also contains information about the positions, policies and actions of the Green Party and its candidates, officeholders and activists. The Spring/Summer edition is now available!
http://www.cagreens.org/greenfocus/

Join the Sonoma Greens Open Forum!
Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter to stay informed about the GPSC. Would you like to receive more than one Green email per month, and have discussions with other Sonoma Greens? The Sonoma Greens Open Forum is a free-for-all discussion list for Greens and the Green-curious in Sonoma County, for the purpose of advancing Green politics, activism, and debate. You can join at https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/sonomagreens (click on subscribe).
Note: this list is not sponsored or maintained by the GPSC.