There are 5 candidates for 4 Steering Committee seats.
Two current SC members, Gloria Mattera and Tony Ndege are running for re-election. One current SC member, Andrea Merida is term-limited and a second SC member, Violet Zitola has chosen not to run for re-election.
Gloria Mattera
Gloria Mattera has a master’s degree in special education from Bank Street College of Education in Manhattan. After teaching special needs preschoolers, she moved into the field of child life, working primarily with poor immigrant children and families in hospitals. Gloria has been the director of the Department of Child Life & Developmental Services over 25 years. She supervises 15 child life/development specialists, sits on several hospital-wide committees and works closely with the Development Office on grants.
Working in the New York City public hospital system over the years, Gloria experienced firsthand how unjust and inhumane this country’s healthcare system is and got involved in the single-payer healthcare movement. She has been a board member of the Physicians for a National Health Program NY Metro Chapter for many years. Gloria soon realized that the two corporate parties in power would never bring a national health program to the U.S. and turned toward independent political party- building, initially as a founding member of the Labor Party under Tony Mazzocchi, then NYC coordinator of Labor for Nader in 2000, and finally the Green Party. While in the Labor Party, Gloria was secretary of the largest chapter, NY Metro. After years of being registered in no political party, Gloria enrolled as Green soon after she was nominated to be the Green Party candidate in her City Council District in Brooklyn. Since that time she has been a Green Party candidate in four elections in addition to taking on leadership and organizing roles in her local, county and state party over the past 15 years. Believing that a red-green alliance is critical to building an independent left political party that is integrated with important social movements, Gloria has been at the forefront of several initiatives including a founding member of System Change Not Climate Change, the primary author of the Economic Democracy GPUS plank and recently one of the organizers of Eco-socialism - A Strategic Session by Greens for Greens.
Electoral Campaigns:
Gloria has campaigned as a groundbreaking Green Party candidate on four occasions. Her initial run for New York City Council in 2001 was as an independent socialist who sought and received the Green Party ballot line. Running on a slogan of “People’s Needs, Not Corporate Greed,” Gloria championed a platform that addressed the disparity between the 1% in the richest city in the world and the 99% of those trying to get by. That year, NYC suffered the 9/11 attacks and and was then victimized even further by our own government’s vile appropriation of that trauma as a pretext for imperial invasions and police repression of our Muslim brothers and sisters.
Receiving 10% of the vote as a first-time candidate against Bill de Blasio, who is now Mayor of New York City and seeking the DNC nomination for president, Gloria was also one of the first Green Party candidates to receive NYC public campaign matching funds That accomplishment enabled her campaign to open a district office and hire staff. She ran against de Blasio a second time for that council seat in 2003, almost doubling her vote percentage, which pushed the Green Party into second place above the Republican candidate. Gloria won access to public campaign matching funds again, through her fundraising efforts.
Striving to increase the visibility of the Green Party in Brooklyn, Gloria ran for Borough President in 2005 on an anti-eminent-domain platform, focusing on the mega-development of a professional basketball arena and high-rise luxury housing in the Atlantic Yards. Scores of volunteers from community groups fighting the development project made it possible for Gloria’s campaign to collect over 5,000 signatures for ballot access and raise $50,000 to meet the higher bracket of NYC public campaign matching funds. Gloria received 7% of the vote in a borough of 1.5 million voters.
Her last campaign was in 2010 as Lt. Governor and the running mate to Howie Hawkins in his first Green Party candidacy for Governor of New York. Their campaign garnered over 60,000 votes to win the Green Party back its ballot status in a state of almost 12 million registered voters. The Hawkins/Mattera ticket was the first time the Green New Deal was presented in a U.S. Green Party campaign as a signature platform that would address the growing climate crisis while restoring public services and creating much-needed sustainable jobs following the 2008 economic crisis.
Gloria served as an advisor to the Stein/Honkala Presidential campaign in 2012 and then transitioned to a member of the shadow cabinet in the area of Health. In 2015 she again was tapped to be an advisor and part of Jill Stein’s exploratory committee. Gloria took on several roles during the 2016 Stein/Baraka campaign including press liaison, staff supervisor and eventually was hired as a part time Deputy Campaign Manager for the last 3 months of the campaign.
Green Party of New York
Gloria is currently serving a third consecutive term as state co-chair, which she has also held in the past, along with other positions on our Executive Committee. Gloria served as Howie Hawkins’s running mate during our groundbreaking gubernatorial campaign in 2010, which won back our ballot status after an 8-year drought. She served in senior advisory capacities to the Hawkins for Governor Campaigns in 2014 and 2018.
During her term as co-chair when GPNY did not have ballot status, Gloria was instrumental in maintaining and growing the party, which included ensuring the 2008 McKinney/Clemente presidential ticket was on the ballot in New York That petition effort required filing over 15,000 signatures from registered voters. After GPNY regained ballot status,Gloria collaborated with other GPNY leaders to reconstitute our state party into a stronger, more effective organization.
She played key roles in:
- developing clear and comprehensive by-laws, including guidelines for affiliating county organizations and prohibiting cross-endorsement of candidates from the two corporate parties
- establishing high standards for working committees
- instituting dues structure
- hiring a part-time paid organizer
- strengthening alliances with other groups within the Left, leading to collaboration on issue campaigns and endorsements for our candidates
Under her leadership, GPNY accomplished these party goals while navigating myriad regulations and responsibilities that come with ballot status under New York election law..
Green Party of the United States
Before being elected to the GPUS Steering Committee in 2017, Gloria served on the National Committee as a representative from New York and several GPUS national committees prior to that: Accreditation, Ballot Access (current), Coordinated Campaign Committee, and EcoAction. Gloria also served as co-chair of the 2008 Presidential Nominating Convention in Chicago.
In her first term as a national co-chair, Gloria is currently a liaison to the Media, Fundraising, EcoAction and Coordinated Campaign Committee. She also serves on the Personnel Working Group that supervises paid staff and deals with related Human Resource issues as well as the working group who spearheaded the steering committee strategic planning process and the committee responsible for the new communications manager hiring.
Jon Mann
I am running for co-chair on the GPUS Steering Committee, because the current SC is compromised.
There needs to be accountability and opposition to those in leadership who are dominating the narrative.
Their agenda does not reflect the best interests of all the membership for transparency, and free speech which is being repressed.
I will work to keep the other members of the SC honest, open and above board.
I advocate a complete transformation of the listserv so it is efficient, easy to follow and inclusive.
I will NOT "Bend the Knee" to authoritarian leadership and I will not conduct purges!~)
I want the GPUS to recruit a leftist populist candidate for POTUS who is well known to the public, who will attract independent thinkers and lure blue collar workers from Trump's base into the Green Party.-.
I'm Jon Mann and I approve this message
Alt delegate CA
[email protected]
Kristin Combs
I grew up in Texas in a very conservative family. When I was able to vote in my first presidential election, I proudly cast my ballot for the Hope and Change Obama promised in 2008. It didn't take long for me to realize that the ideas of the democrats really weren't that different from what I had heard growing up. I expected something drastically different but saw more of the same corruption and oppression.
By 2012 I was living in Philadelphia and again cast my ballot for Obama, but this time with disappointment. I walked out of the voting booth and immediately started researching the other names on the presidential line that I didn't recognize. I learned about Jill and Cheri and went to my first Green Party meeting later that month. I ended up sitting right next to Cheri at a small local Philly meeting where they were debriefing the election. I had found my people, and I've never looked back.
We belong to something special; something different. I'm so honored to run for the Steering Committee of a party that has real solutions for a way forward in our world. I look forward to using my experience in green leadership, electoral politics, and organizing for the good of our movement.
Green Leadership
GP of Philadelphia Chair, current
GP of PA At-Large Member, 2018
GP of PA Chair, 2016-2017
GP of Philadelphia Recording Secretary, 2014
Electoral Politics
Candidate for PA State Treasurer , 2016
Candidate for Philadelphia City Council At-Large, 2015
Philadelphia Petition Coordinator, Paul Glover for Governor, 2014
Organizing
Field Organizer for Caucus of Working Educators campaign, 2016
Presented Organizing 101 Workshop, 2016 PA state meeting
Co-presented Candidate Workshop, 2017 NJ state convention
Current Green Committees
GP of PA Core Committee, Team Leader
GPUS Apportionment Review Committee
GPUS Accreditation Committee
Work Experience
Executive Director, School Organization, Phila SD, 2016-current
Teacher, School District of Philadelphia, 2009-2016
Tony Ndege
It is my pleasure to accept this nomination for another term as Steering Committee Co-chair for the Green Party of the United States. There has been an awful lot to learn, particularly since I was elected months into my first term and I look forward to taking these learning experiences into another full term!
Some of my goals for 2019-2020 include:
Going much further toward activating ways to make the various "working committees" work together - in particular Media, Fundraising Committee, Ballot Access, Outreach but also other committees and caucuses. I think that we have made some improvements in these fronts but have a lot further to go.
Further exploring ad hoc working groups with specific skills sets as a means of onboarding more members to the appointed committees but who also do specific tasks that are not capable of being accomplished by committees alone.
Implementation of a National Ballot Access Campaign with ambitious goals for fundraising, and even more importantly, for volunteer activation.
Development GPUS ballot access in all fifty states in 2020 that is not solely carried by the presidential candidates.
Developing educational materials and outreach material for other parties based upon a political education program that I have coordinated the development of as North Carolina GP Co-chair
I have several goals and several accomplishments as Cochair that I wish to share with all of you over the coming weeks. Thank you for your consideration and please read my bio below (updated from gp.org site):
Tony Ndege (the ending of his last name sounds a lot like reggae), presently also serves as Co-chair of North Carolina Green Party. For over two decades, Tony has organized from the local to international level for social justice, labor justice, the rights of immigrants and the undocumented, against war and military intervention, against the US embargo on Cuba, and against water contamination from coal ash and pollution. He has worked as a lead organizer for a wide range of major movements and events locally and nationally: from organizing #BlackLivesMatter actions events to Occupy Wall Street, from co-organizing the largest-ever protests against Duke Energy (one of the largest polluters in the nation), to uplifting the demand to make energy publicly owned, and from organizing protests and events standing up to Bank of America and Wells Fargo's criminal malfeasance to the largest statewide and national actions against the second Iraq War.
Tony has led or co-organized several hundred events including rallies, marches, teach-ins, debates, films, concerts, speaker tours, campaigns, immigration defense, political theater, etc. Just a few organizations he has collaborated with include FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee), NC Against Corporate Power, Industrial Workers of the World, NCWARN, NC NAACP, Rainforest Action Network, Campus Antiwar Network, Black Alliance for Peace, Healthcare for All NC, UE150, and Southern Workers Assembly among others. Professionally and artistically, Tony has organized, assisted with, and performed in hundreds of events including auditions, interviews, concerts, plays, short films, operas, etc.
Tony's experience with the Green Party US began as an Occupy Wall Street activist and co-organizer of the DNC protests in Charlotte in 2012, where he first met 2012 Presidential candidate Jill Stein. Subsequently, he participated in the Global Climate Convergence as a lead co-organizer for two events in his state. In fall 2015, in cooperation with Bruce Dixon and the North Carolina GP leadership, he co-organized a four-city cross-state tour for Dr. Jill Stein. Tony eventually became the North Carolina Ballot Access Coordinator and later the State Volunteer Coordinator for the Stein/Baraka campaign. Later, Tony had the honor to serve as Mid-Atlantic regional coordinator for the Stein/Baraka campaign, where he had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with thousands of Greens and supporters across the region. Subsequently in 2016, Tony was elected co-chair of the NC Green Party. Tony also serves on the GPUS Ballot Access Committee as the Southeast Regional coordinator, and he is a member of the Green Party Black Caucus and Lavender Caucus.
When serving as North Carolina Volunteer Coordinator for Jill 2016, NC Greens achieves historic election results for Stein/Baraka as write-in candidates, including the highest number of write-in votes for a Presidential candidate in North Carolina history. They accomplished this success via meetings with supporters in every major city in NC, and thanks to fantastic volunteer organization and personal motivation of so many NC supporters! The write-in campaign results were a major factor in passing legislation in fall 2017 that dramatically lowered our ballot access signature requirements from over 94,000 to about 12,000 signatures. As a result of these new laws, the North Carolina Green Party was able to achieve ballot access for the first time ever. It has become the first progressive or left party to achieve North Carolina ballot access in over 37 years!
In less than three months after winning ballot access, NCGP interviewed several prospects and successfully recruited 4 strong candidates for the 2018 Elections ranging from US Congress to Soil and Water Supervisor. Tony played a campaign management or other prominent role in all four campaigns.
The inaugural campaign year won over 102,000 votes between the candidates! NCGP has two endorsed candidates running in 2019 - Allen Smith (NC Congressional 9th District Special Election) and another candidate who has launched a campaign for Raleigh City Council.
During Tony's tenure as state co-chair, NCGP has grown from one functioning local to five region-wide locals, with plans to add more over the next year. NCGP has successfully restructured the state party into a dues-paying organization while significantly increasing membership. NCGP has co-organized several events, such as helping coordinate a statewide tour of Dr. Margaret Flowers and a presentation by Ajamu Baraka for its 2017 Spring Gathering. Most recently Tony has led the development of dozens of literature and table pieces, cocreated an educational presentation series on Building Independent Political Power which he has presented in several cities, and co-organized several protests and teach-ins against US intervention in Venezuela in Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Greensboro and elsewhere.
As a founding member of his new regional local, Triad Area Greens, Tony worked on its first electoral campaign, (CJ Brinson for Greensboro City Council), where he served as a fundraiser and assistant campaign coordinator.
Tony presently resides in Winston-Salem NC, a conveniently central location to all of the other major cities in NC, where he works in the school system and will be heading into the IT field. He also has experience in music, film production, and directing. Tony holds degrees and diplomas from UNC Greensboro and North Carolina School of the Arts conservatory.
Tony is extremely humbled to serve on the GPUS Steering Committee where he hopes to increase the party's profile to new communities, improve workflow and volunteer participation, improve state ballot access retention, and foster radical political education for the public.
Trahern Crews
It's time for us Greens to unite & get our endorsed candidates elected to office.Together we can implement our policies and the ten key values into law at the local, state and federal level to give power back to the people. As a green some notable meetings I have facilitated focused on reparations for American descendents of slavery,demilitarizing the police & raising the minimum wage to a cost of living wage of $15 an hour.
2012:
Campaign Manager for Marcus Walker for State Senate:
Door Knocking, phone banking, fundraising, creating & distributing literature, Filming/Editing online campaign commercials.
2013-2014:
Campaign Manager for Lena Buggs Door Knocking, phone banking, fundraising,lit drops,ads
2014-2015:
Spokesperson for Saint Paul Green Party of the 4th Congressional Districts.
Drafting & releasing press releases to news publications
2015:
Organizer for BLM STP MN
Organizing Mass Protest, community meetings, press conferences, developing flyers, creating and passing legislation on criminal justice reform, messaging.
2017:
Black Lives Matter Minnesota:
Organizing mass protest,community meetings press conferences, developing flyers, creating and passing legislation on criminal justice reform, messaging.
2015-2017:
Community Liaison for Dayton Bluff Community Council:
Connecting community members to the resources the city of Saint Paul and the Dayton's Bluff Community council had to offer. Such as zoning issues, small business classes, GED classes WEQY radio station conducting surveys for metro transit including surveys for low income residents around housing issues in East Saint Paul, MN.
2015- 2016:
The Trahern Crews Show on WEQY 104.7 FM
Interviewing community members about issues in our community combined with playing local music.
2017-2019:
The Trahern Crews Show on Frog-Town Community Radio 94.1 FM
Interviewing community members about issues in our community and playing music in between.
2018- 2019:
Co chair of the Green Party of the United States Reparations Working Group:
Working on getting HR40 passed,making reparations for the American descendants of slavery an issue in the 2020 Presidential elections.
2018-2019:
Minnesota Green Party Coordinating Committee:
Chairs the Minnesota Green Party politics committee & conducts outreach for the state party.
