Pennsylvania leads Greens in mid-Atlantic region
By David McCorquodale
Green Party of Delaware

Pennsylvania Greens presented strong evidence of a thriving party by fielding 31 candidates for the fall 2005 elections. Of that number, 13 won their races; among them were Matthew Ash, who ran unopposed for mayor of Boswell Borough (in southwestern Pennsylvania, near where Flight 93 went down on 9/11), and Michael Morrill, running for a position on the borough council, West Reading, who finished first among six candidates for four seats. 

A surprise star for the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA), Ash is the only Green in his municipality (pop. 1,364) and had not previously run for office or been active with the state party. He turned out to be the only candidate who had filed for mayor. (Pennsylvania has 2,584 municipalities, and Boswell, like most of them, has difficulty attracting candidates.) Now Ash is helping to organize the 44 registered Greens in the 1,074-square-mile county, with the aid of the GPPA Membership Committee, which is rallying neighboring Green locals in Cambria and Westmoreland counties to help him. 

Morrill, who was the GPPA's gubernatorial candidate in 2002, attributed his borough council victory to hard work and a sophisticated fusion campaign. "We knocked on every door and dropped lit to every voter four times. We identified likely Morrill voters and called them on Monday night on election eve."

As a fusion candidate, Morrill appeared on the ballot as a Green but also gained the Democratic and Republican ballot lines in the primary through write-in campaigns. In all, 68 percent of the electorate voted for him, with 207 votes coming on the Democratic line, 135 on the Republican and 59 on the Green. Morrill believes that this fusion strategy enabled him to overcome one handicap of running as a Green; i.e., there are too few straight party-line Green voters. He contrasted that to the campaign of Jennaro Pullano, who ran for city council in nearby Reading. 

Pullano, 2004 GPPA chairperson and 2000 state Senate candidate, ran a serious, well-planned and well-funded campaign and was the first Green candidate to have billboard advertising in the state. His campaign emphasized keeping city resources public, increasing community policing and after-school programs, lowering cable and telephone rates and supporting local small businesses. He finished with 47.7 percent of the votes, losing 570 to 621 in a two-way race. Morrill believes Pullano "would have won hands down" as a Democrat. Instead, the Democratic candidate received the straight party-line votes and won.

Sixty miles west of Reading, in Harrisburg, the state capital, Green Party National Committee member Diane White was elected to two offices as a write-in candidate: judge of elections and inspector of elections, Harrisburg Ward 2, Precinct 2 (Dauphin). By law, she had to choose one of the two, and she chose judge of elections.

Of the eight candidates fielded by the Adams County Green Party, three won, including Derf Maitland, auditor of Union Township; Marty Qually, Gettysburg borough council, Ward 1; and Bob Klunk, Arendtsville borough council.

Klunk's victory is notable because he had previously served as a council member when he was the chair of the Adams County Democratic Party, and now he was running as a Green. Arendtsville (400 registered voters) posed a special problem for Adams County Greens, who thought they had a shoo-in candidate, as Klunk was the only candidate filed. However, on Election Day both Klunk and his wife faced medical emergencies, yet were the only registered Greens in Arendtsville. At the same time, Arendtsville Democrats had organized a stealth write-in effort, which local Greens found out about only at the last minute. In response, Adams Greens from across the county stood all day in front of the Fire Hall campaigning for Klunk and, when the final ballots were counted, he won by three votes. This is the first year that Adams County Greens had enough active members to cooperate in this way.

In Gettysburg, borough council candidate Qually reasoned that, since the only Green Party candidate most local people had heard of was 2000 Green presidential candidate Ralph Nader, he would run in 2005 as an individual, only identifying his party affiliation when asked. People in such a conservative town, he felt, would respond more to his approach to local issues, without having to digest Green positions on national issues. He emphasized a quality-of-life agenda, combining municipal fiscal responsibility with putting the needs of local residents ahead of those of the city's tourists and students. The knowledge of local issues he had gained by attending council meetings for a year, as well as getting to know other council members, helped him win. So did the fact that he simply worked harder than the other candidates, who had taken his candidacy too lightly and did not realize he could win.

In Union Township, Maitland garnered a vote total (377 out of 500) for what could be termed a "one-dynamite stealth-plus campaign" for an office normally won by a handful of votes. He also benefited from name recognition; his cousin, Steve Maitland, serves in the state legislature, as well as coming from a respected pioneer family in the region.

According to Thom Marti, Adams County Green coordinator, these races illuminate how the saying "neither left nor right, but in front" plays in a state like Pennsylvania, which has two liberal cities (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) and a conservative heartland. "This demographic quirk forces most locals in [rural areas] to concentrate on getting Republican votes, instead of Democrat votes…but then Fearless Leader [Bush] has disgusted a lot of Republicans." 

The stealth-plus tactic, successfully used in three previous campaigns, worked in several races in York County and in a few other locations throughout the state. In Pennsylvania's unruly municipal system, there are many poorly run towns and numerous low-level elected offices, often with no nominated candidates in the election. "Stealth-plus" refers to the tactic of getting friends and family together to vote for a Green candidate who is the only filed candidate for an office. In York County, four people-Brenda Jo Samryk, Mike Mangles, Shawnya Calp and Stephen Baker-won inspector of elections seats. The other winning stealth candidates were Leif Winter, auditor, Franklin Township; Andrew McDowell, judge of elections, East Bradford Township North 2; and Diane White.

Christopher Titus North ran for mayor of Pittsburgh, highlighting the issues of ending corporate welfare, including the financing to build a new stadium, ending the tax-exempt status of nonprofit agencies, banning casino gambling and ending police brutality. Distributing more than 10,000 flyers, showing ads on black radio stations and participating in televised debates, North finished third out of five candidates with 4 percent and 2,392 votes, about double the number of votes Nader got in the 2000 election in Pittsburgh.

Back to Winter 2005