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Future Dim For Greens In State: Dive in Membership Rolls Among Party's Problems
Aug 23, 2010 (Albuquerque Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
It ain't easy being Green.
With major political party status in the state only six years ago, the New Mexico Green Party has fallen on hard times.
More than half its registered members have left. It operates on a budget of only about $1,000 each year. Its only possible candidate in 2010 will have to win an uphill legal battle just to get on the ballot.
It hasn't qualified for minor party status since 2008.
Party insiders now waver between bleak forecasts and genuine hope that just a little break can get the party back on its feet.
Green leaders blame an onslaught of attacks by Democrats, actions by several New Mexico secretaries of state, media coverage or the lack thereof and the party's own inherent flaws all working together -- but not in cahoots -- to create a downward spiral of lost members, discouraged candidates and fading visibility.
There were about 11,500 registered Green Party voters in the state in 2003. By November 2009, the number had dropped to about 5,250, according to the Secretary of State's Office.
It's a party in limbo, said Michal Mudd, New Mexico Green Party co-chairwoman.
"I think there is interest, there is definitely energy still in the party, but just this frustration of where are we going? How do we get there?" Mudd said. "We're being corralled in. We're like a bunch of wild mustangs in the corral."
Troubled times
Mudd now estimates there are only 50 active members volunteering for the party and its few and far between candidates, mostly in Santa Fe and Taos.
Alan Woodruff, the wouldbe candidate for New Mexico's 1st Congressional District seat, said the Bernalillo County chapter has been "drifting" and he has had almost no campaign support from Greens.
Some of the party's former candidates have switched allegiances, just to stay in the game.
Former Green Party state Chairman Rick Lass, who won more than 75,000 votes in 2008 while losing a close race to Democrat Jerome Block Jr. for a position on the state Public Regulation Commission, is a Democrat now. He said the move was brought on by a desire to make "progressive" changes to the state.
"I'm hoping it's easier to do that from inside the Democrat Party than outside it," he said.
Others, like party activist Rosamund Evans, switched parties just this year to be able to vote for progressive Democrats in the primary election.
"One doesn't have much of a choice," she said.
New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera said the number of candidates from the Greens and other third parties have become a rarity. While she was serving as Bernalillo County clerk from 2003 through 2006, Herrera said, there were far more thirdparty candidates gathering nominating signatures to get on ballots.
Mudd said activists have noticed the party's deflation since the turn of the century with some despair.
"Ten years down the road, and you're like, 'Oh, my God, I'm 10 years older and I haven't gotten any farther,'" Mudd said. "I think in some people there is a feeling of hopelessness."
Obstacles abound
Party leaders say the biggest obstacle is New Mexico's election code.
Lass said the large number of voter signatures needed to qualify as a minor party and for candidates to get on the ballot, the deadlines to turn in petitions and legal interpretations of the current election code are stacked against minor parties.
"There definitely was a concerted effort by Democrats in the Legislature to do everything they could to make it tougher for third parties," Lass said.
Democratic lawmakers don't share a common opinion on the subject.
Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, said the Greens wouldn't have anything to complain about if they could engage more voters.
"That's not really my fault or your fault; that's their own fault," Jennings said. "They need to be able to get their own people to support them, and it's not necessarily my responsibility or Republicans' or Democrats' to get their people together."
Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said the Green Party has reason to be upset with stringent New Mexico rules.
"It seems to me that we have now created a situation where the Greens have nowhere to go but down," Ortiz y Pino said.
Woodruff, the possible Green Party candidate for the Albuquerque-based 1st Congressional District seat, said another barrier is Herrera, who he said has shown a "functional bias" and typically interprets election law against minor parties.
Herrera said she is only following the rules and has nothing against minor parties.
"I don't make the laws. The laws are passed through the Legislature. I just have to apply them," Herrera said. "They need to realize it's not an attack on them."
Carol Miller, a former Green Party congressional candidate, said former secretaries of state would blow out of proportion any Green Party gaffes, like missing a campaign reporting deadline, to give the party a bad name.
Jay Vandersloot, New Mexico Libertarian Party Central Committee chairman, said his party is frustrated with New Mexico election law, and has not run into problems with Herrera.
"They seem to be very nice and very congenial with us," he said.
Looking in the mirror
Greens are also painfully aware of some of the party's own shortcomings, especially its ability to persuade supporters to stick around.
A big issue, Mudd said, has been what she calls a fallacious argument that the Greens are a "spoiler" party that only siphons votes from Democrats and helps Republicans.
Mudd said many members left saying, " 'Oh, I'm leaving the party' because they basically fell for the idea that spoiling went on."
Lass said the national argument started in earnest after Ralph Nader's presidential bid 10 years ago, although Democrats in New Mexico had been making the same point since the mid-1990s.
"I think the biggest blow to the Greens was in the 2000 presidential election, when the Democrats succeeded in blaming the Greens for the Bush victory," Lass said.
Mudd said members are also hard-pressed to agree on an overall platform and prefer to be individually active in anti-war protesting, hemp and marijuana legalization, or supporting a range of environmental issues.
Candidates see very little support, especially financial support, from the party and get discouraged, Woodruff said.
"The Green Party does not have and has not historically recruited politicians," he said. "And it takes a politician to be the kind of person that who goes out and asks for money and wants money. So there are some inherent aspects to campaigning that minor parties don't attract the people who are ready to do that and, when confronted with it, choose not to be a candidate."
With so few volunteers and funds, the party's organization also falters, making it difficult to communicate and keep people interested, Mudd said.
"There are still people calling in, who are communicating, who are interested, but they are discouraged," she said.
Renewed effort
Moving forward, party activists have tempered their expectations.
Mudd said she now believes it will be nearly impossible to get the party recognized by the state again under the current election code. She describes a vicious cycle in which the party can't attract new members without candidates to spread ideas, but also can't get candidates on a ballot because it doesn't have enough active members.
The party is pinning its hopes on a federal lawsuit that would ease ballot access for minor parties in the state. Unless the party wins, Mudd said, the group's sales pitch is doomed.
"It's difficult because you don't know how to phrase a letter," she said. "We are a party; we're not a party. Here are our candidates; they can't get on the ballot."
To see more of the Albuquerque Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.abqjournal.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
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