Show Us Some Green

Johnson sounds heartbroken when he talks about what he sees happening in Appalachia. Mining companies, he says, "use 4 million pounds of explosives every day — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year," to blow the tops off mountains to access the mines. Toxic residue contaminates streams, vegetation that could combat greenhouse gases is destroyed, and animal habitat is ruined. Depleted topsoil means that trees may never come back. And river tributaries that get blocked with rubble or contaminated contribute to severe drought problems along the eastern seaboard — most notably in Atlanta, where there is a water crisis. Johnson says such problems can be alleviated with alternative, deep-mining technologies that would provide eight times as many jobs. But it's hard to get the word out about his ideas, he says. Even his local newspaper hasn't done a feature story on him.

The Green Party's best-known presidential candidate may be Cynthia McKinney, an African-American woman who served six terms in Congress representing a Georgia district; she had more than $91,000 in her coffers at presstime. McKinney was famously defeated in a 2002 Democratic primary because, she alleged in a lawsuit, Republicans voted in it, mobilizing to shut her out by voting for her opponent. The practice was deemed legal, and the lawsuit tossed out. Although McKinley has stood up for Hurricane Katrina victims, minority farmers, and government transparency, she is sometimes characterized as haughty. In one infamous incident, she struck a Capitol police officer who stopped her when she passed a security checkpoint. She has also introduced articles of impeachment against George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Dick Cheney.

A stumbling block for the Greens may be the lingering effect of Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential run, AKA "the spoiler effect." When George Bush won the presidency in 2000, the election was tipped by Florida, where Bush eked out a win by just 537 votes. In the aftermath, many Democrats blamed Nader for diverting votes from Al Gore. "There's a perception that we're public enemy number one," Mesplay says. Greens point out that Gore was a weak candidate who didn't win even his home state and that four times as many Florida Democrats voted for Bush in that election as voted for Nader. Nader is running for president as an independent this year.

But the election is still a distant battle as the Greens spend much of their energy simply trying to get their party on ballots. "Ninety percent of the time is taken up trying to be treated fairly," Johnson sighs.

Currently, the Greens will be on the presidential ballot in 23 states, but they are pushing for more. Ballot access varies from state to state. McMillan says that in Florida, getting on is easy — any party organized on a statewide basis can qualify. But in Oklahoma, they'd need to collect 43,324 signatures, making it a long shot.

At last count, in November 2006, McMillan says, there were 289,177 registered Greens in the country — but that's counting only the 21 states where a person is even able to register Green. Florida, McMillan says, listed 6,607 Green voters.

Greens believe their struggle illuminates the cause of third parties everywhere, and sometimes little-guy candidates help each other out. Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel initially ran on the Democratic ticket and switched to Libertarian but took the time to endorse the Greens' Jesse Johnson along the way. The Federal Election Commission's website lists 135 presidential candidates this season. And even though he is part of the moneyed and highly visible Republican Party, Ron Paul is still in the running. As recently as the first week of May, Paul still had $4 million to spend.

"I'm not concerned with national politics," Palm Beach County's Jayne King says breezily. "It's about local elections and changing the system."

King points out that Lake Worth City Commissioner Cara Jennings is the highest elected Green in Florida. And this fall, vote-count activist Ellen Brodsky will run for the Broward County Board of Elections as a Green.

By the end of the radio fundraiser, Jennings had won the cakewalk. King was preparing a trip to India to buy fair trade goods. And the Greens had raised $743, largely because Bonnie Redding pledged to donate her $600 economic stimulus check. You can hear about it all at www.pbcgreenparty.org — just as soon as the Greens scrape up the cash to buy that mixer.