Welcome to the February 2016 issue of the Sunflower Seed! In this issue you will find details and locations for the GPMN Caucuses, a recap of our winter membership meeting, local and national Greens in the news, as well as exciting new opportunities for growing our Party! Enjoy!
Upcoming Events:
Saturday, March 12th
10am-1pm
GPMN Coordinating Committee Meeting
4200 Cedar Ave. S
Minneapolis, MN
Tuesday, March 1st
7pm-9pm
Green Party of Minnesota Caucuses 2016
Various locations around the state.
More information coming soon! Go here to RSVP.
Green Party of Minnesota Caucuses Tuesday March 1st 2016
On March 1st from 7-9pm you will have the opportunity to vote on resolutions, straw poll for presidential candidates, obtain news on other candidates seeking Green Party endorsement in 2016 and meet Greens from your area!
The confirmed locations are as follows:
Saint Paul: Central High School Rm 1415, 275 Lexington Pkwy N, St. Paul, MN 55105
Minneapolis: Cedar Community Rm, 4200 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407
Bemidji: Lueken’s Village Foods South Store Meeting Rm, 609 Washington Ave S, Bemidji, MN 56601
White Bear Lake: City Hall Upstairs Meeting Rm, 4701 Hwy 61, White Bear Lake, MN 55110
Blaine: Blaine High School Rm 101, 1255 University Ave NE, Blaine, MN 55434
Grand Rapids: Central Square Mall Community Rm, 201 NW 4th St, Grand Rapids, MN 55744
Willmar: LuLu Beans Coffee Shop, 1020 1st St. S, Willmar, MN 56201
If you would be willing to be a caucus convener in your area in 2016 please call Andy Hamerlinck at (651) 402-7328 or email [email protected].
If you are interested in proposing a new Green Party of MN Party Resolution or Platform Proposal (to be decided on at the Summer Membership meeting) you can find the forms on our website here or you can fill them out at your nearby caucus on March 1st.
If you also would like to know more about the 2016 Green Party Presidential candidates prior to caucus night, feel free to read about them here.
Hope to see you out Caucus night March 1st from 7-9pm! Invite your friends on Facebook, click here!
Green Party Minnesota Qualifies for Tax Check Off
It's tax season! Don't let it get you down, you can now make the Green Party of Minnesota stronger!
Make sure you check off code number 15 under the State Elections Campaign Fund! (tax forms here)
Your contribution will help us run principled, non-corporate, progressive candidates for state government!
Prominent Greens Call for Immediate Termination of St. Paul Police Sergeant Jeff Rothecker
Rashad Turner and Trahern Crews, who both ran Green-endorsed campaigns last year, called for the immediate termination of Saint Paul Police Sergeant Jeff Rothecker during a news conference at the Minnesota State Office Building on Friday, January 22, 2016.
Rothecker admitted to authoring a post on social media that encouraged people to “Run them over,” referring to a protest organized by Black Lives Matter that took place on the Marshall Ave.-Lake St. bridge in St. Paul and Minneapolis on January 18, 2016, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In his post, Rothecker also provided instructions as to how a person could avoid being charged with a crime if the person hit one of the protesters while driving a vehicle.
Rothecker has been placed on paid administrative leave while an internal investigation takes place. Turner, Crews, and other leaders from the Black Lives Matter movement are calling for swifter action. Even the editorial board of the Star Tribune agrees. Crews also advocated for filing criminal charges against Rothecker.
(Photo credit: Jean Pieri, Saint Paul Pioneer Press)
GPMN Winter Membership Meeting Recap
This year’s Green Party winter membership meeting in Saint Paul was a great success, with a big turn out and awesome workshops!
We would like to thank our workshop leaders – Kip Hedges from 15 Now Minnesota who spoke about local efforts to bring living wages to the Twin Cities, Bob Tammen who spoke on the dangers of sulfide mining, and Mark Haase with the 2nd Chance Coalition who spoke on restoring felony voting rights.
In addition to hearing from our Green elected officials, the state Party also welcomed two new Coordinating Committee members, Hassan Hassan from Minneapolis (currently running for state representative in 60B) and former Green endorsed city council candidate from Golden Valley, Andy Schuler (both pictured on the left).
Thank you to all of our members who became new sustaining donors at our membership meeting! Your monthly contribution makes it possible for us to support progressive, non-corporate candidates and grow our Party!
If you are not already a sustaining member you can become one today by clicking here!
(Photo Credits: Brandon Long)
Green Cam Gordon Enhances Farmers Market Experience In Minneapolis
The Minnesota Food Truck Association has praised an ordinance amendment co-written by Green Party elected official Cam Gordon, Minneapolis City Council, 2nd Ward.
The changes allow food trucks to operate at farmer's markets and other events without requiring a permit in addition to the normal food truck permit. More food trucks will be allowed at events, the requirement for a minimum number of operating days has been removed, and the parking rules clarified.
The City Council will vote on the proposal in February. Support for local small businesses and making Minneapolis a tastier place are on the menu for this summer thanks to Cam Gordon!
(Photo Credit: Brandon Long)
Former Green Party VP Candidate, Winona LaDuke, Running For White Earth Tribal Chairwoman
Longtime Minnesota activist Winona LaDuke is gearing up to run for White Earth tribal chairwoman at the next opportunity.
LaDuke, the executive director of the Native American environmental group Honor the Earth, was Ralph Nader’s Green Party vice presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000.
LaDuke’s top priorities for White Earth are reflections of long standing Green Party values including improving local tribal economies, reinstituting rights after low level offenses, and constitutional reforms to ensure more democratic inclusion.
(Photo Credit: Vincent Schilling)
New York Green, Howie Hawkins, Arrested Protesting Fracking
Howie Hawkins, who received 180,000 votes as the 2014 Green Party candidate for Governor of New York, was arrested on January 26th for protesting the construction of a hydrocarbon storage facility. The planned facility would store pressurized, explosive, by-products of fracking in a crumbling salt mine on the shore of Seneca Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in Western New York State. This threatened lake is famous for its natural beauty, tourism and winemaking industries, as well as providing the drinking water for 100,000 people.
His arrest was part of an ongoing campaign of civil-disobedience organized by 'We are Seneca Lake' (http://www.wearesenecalake.com/). Howie was released soon after the arrest, and there is no word yet if there will be charges against him. He has expressed solidarity with the #montrose9 who are currently on trial in Upstate New York for blocking the construction of a pipeline linking to the planned facility on Seneca Lake.
(Photo Credit: Michael Dineen)
Doctors/Green Candidates Jill Stein & Margaret Flowers On The State Of U.S. Healthcare
Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein & senate candidate Dr. Margaret Flowers were invited to speak on The Real News about the state of our current healthcare system and explain why the Affordable Care Act is not even close to the Single Payer system our country needs:
"The United States is the only industrialized country that uses a market based healthcare system, that treats healthcare as a commodity.
So many people, especially on the progressive side, have been told for the last 6 years that (the Affordable Care Act) was the solution, that we have national healthcare." -Margaret Flowers
"The Affordable Care Act essentially creates another level of bureaucracy and complexity and allowed the insurance companies to have a captured market to mandate that people buy these stripped down and expensive policies." -Jill Stein
(Photo Credit: The Real News)
National Green Party Increases Ballot Access For 2016 Election
The U.S. Green Party is further ahead on ballot access in this Presidential election cycle than last!
Currently the national party has ballot access in 22 States, this time in 2011 there were only 17.
(Image Credit: Green Party of the United States)