Locals representing McKean Co. with state Green Party
For the first time in party history, the Green Party of Pennsylvania is recruiting leadership from unorganized counties and two Bradford residents have volunteered to fill McKean County’s seats.
Barbara Laxon and Alexander Casper will represent McKean County on the Green Party’s state committee. Laxon may be known for her efforts to find and identify abandoned oil wells in the region, while she also owns Barb’s Boutique at 66 Main St.
The Bradford Era
By Sara Eddy Furlong
January 27, 2025
She has been a volunteer with the Green Party of Pennsylvania and Green Party of the United States for several years and currently is the Green Party of Pennsylvania Core Team Lead.
Casper is new to Bradford but served the Green Party as an inspector of elections in Philadelphia Ward 47-14, in the Our Philadelphia Committee in the Philadelphia Department of Planning and Development, and is a contract welfare worker. They also served as Green Party of Pennsylvania’s Green Wave Team Lead, and Green Party of Pennsylvania’s Steering Committee as an at-large member.
Casper noted plans to run for Green Party of Pennsylvania’s Steering Committee again for the party secretary seat in 2025.
Casper said that as of the November election, the party had 14,028 members, 25 in McKean County.
“Most of the membership in Pennsylvania is in Philadelphia where there’s over 2,900 members,” Casper said, adding there are more than 1,500 in Allegheny County and 700 in Montgomery County.
Some elected Green Party officials Casper noted include Cherry Valley Mayor Michael Bagdes-Canning in Butler County and Edgewood Councilmember Tara Yaney in Allegheny County.
The Green Party of Pennsylvania has been active since the early 1990s, according to gpofpa.org. The party itself was established in 1984 and, according to its website, gp.org, “has run a national ticket in every presidential election since 1996” — most notably Ralph Nader and Jill Stein. Greens, the site notes, also serve nationwide in roles from state legislatures to mayors to local zoning boards.
The four pillars of the Green Party are grassroots democracy, peace, social justice and environmental wisdom.
“I was drawn to the Green Party because it epitomizes my thinking on all issues,” Laxon said. “It was about 30 years ago that I first heard about the Green Party and realized this was for me — and I have never doubted that decision. I have been a registered Green since it was first possible.”
She elaborated that “the 10 key values of the Green Party are grassroots democracy, social justice and equal opportunity, ecological wisdom, non-violence, decentralization, community based economics, feminism and gender equity, respect for diversity, personal and global responsibility, and future focus and sustainability.”
“This is what the Green Party is all about and it is what I have always been about,” Laxon said. “Anyone interested in a life incorporating those key values belongs in the Green Party fighting along with us.
“I would like to see a thriving Green Party in McKean County because we are desperately in need of people willing to fight for community based economics and sustainability — for people rather than profit.”
For more information, visit gp.org/ten_key_values.
“We are looking at different ways we can support different organizing efforts in the county,” the pair said in a statement. They aim to lead the party’s work to form a Green Party of McKean County within the next couple years, and Saturday held their first public meeting.
Formation in McKean County would make it the smallest chapter in the state, they said, but added it would be open to Greens in Cameron (three), Elk (22), Forest (one), Potter (six) and Warren (28) counties “until their chapters self-organize.”
Also open to the public, meeting minutes will be released 24 hours following the meeting on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), @McKeanGreen, until a treasury and domain are established.
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