Write-In GREEN PARTY ENDORSED candidates on your Vote-By-Mail Primary Election ballots!
Harley Clingan and Endorsed Green Party Candidate for U.S. Senate, Eduardo Quintana, protesting to Stop the U.S./Israeli GENOCIDE and End U.S. Military Support to Israel.
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June 18, 2024 edition of the E-Digest
Write-In the following GREEN PARTY ENDORSED candidates on your Vote-By-Mail July 30th Green Party Primary Election ballots which will be mailed on JULY 3RD:
US Senate
Eduardo Quintana
Arizona Corporation Commission
Nina Luxenberg
Mike Cease
Pima County Attorney
Howard Druan
The Arizona Green Party’s primary for the U.S. Senate is developing into a fierce contest, but the group’s leaders say it is a mirage: Both candidates listed on the ballot have drawn suspicion of being plants for Democrats and Republicans in a race that could decide control of the chamber.
According to the Green Party, the candidates in question — Mike Norton and Arturo Hernandez, who each petitioned their way onto the ballot for the party’s primary on July 30 — only recently joined the party. The group, a minor party known for its progressive stances on the environment and its opposition to war, has about 3,000 members in Arizona, a swing state.
Party leaders said that Mr. Norton appeared to be a straw candidate for Democrats, one intended to help Representative Ruben Gallego, the likely Democratic nominee for the open Senate seat. The leaders also said that they viewed Mr. Hernandez as a proxy for Republicans and that party’s leading Senate candidate, Kari Lake, an ally of former President Donald J. Trump who refused to accept the results of both the 2020 election and her defeat in the governor’s race in 2022.
Party officials said they were concerned that Mr. Norton might drop out of the race if he won the primary, making it less likely that a minor-party candidate would siphon votes from Mr. Gallego. The thinking of party leaders is that Mr. Hernandez would stay in the race if he won the nomination, running interference for Ms. Lake.
The Green Party has endorsed Eduardo Heredia-Quintana, the chair of the Green Party of Pima County, urging its members to write in his name on their primary ballots.
“They’re not even trying to cover their tracks at this point,” Cody Hannah, a co-chair of the Arizona Green Party, said in an interview on Friday. “We know these people aren’t members of our party. We know they aren’t genuine Greens.”
Efforts to reach Mr. Norton and Mr. Hernandez were not immediately successful.
Neither Arizona’s Democratic Party nor its Republican Party responded to requests for comment on Friday. The campaigns for Mr. Gallego and Ms. Lake also did not provide comment.
Democrats narrowly control the Senate, an advantage that could hinge on Arizona’s contest in November, which the nonpartisan Cook Political Report considers a tossup.
The seat is being vacated by Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent before announcing in March that she would not seek re-election.
The jockeying over the Green Party’s ballot line is a microcosm of the larger scrutiny of third parties in the 2024 election, along with independent candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for president.
In several instances this election cycle, Republicans have tried to prop up minor-party candidates to lure disaffected progressives and antiwar voters away from the Democratic Party, while Democrats have sought to make it more difficult for them to gain access to the ballot amid consternation that they could play the role of spoilers for the party.
Green Party leaders said Mr. Norton had raised more than $30,000 from super PACs and prolific donors aligned with the Democratic Party, which was consistent with a New York Times review of Mr. Norton’s campaign receipts. Two of the super PACs have publicly endorsed Mr. Gallego.
Neither of the super PACs responded to a request for comment.
Mr. Hernandez drew scrutiny from the Green Party when a Republican lawyer recently represented him in a court case — brought by Democratic-aligned plaintiffs — challenging his eligibility as a candidate and whether his petition circulators had complied with the law. A judge ruled that Mr. Hernandez should be included on the ballot.
A treasurer listed by Mr. Hernandez on campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission was named last year as a board member of a “dark-money” nonprofit created by Nevada’s governor, Joe Lombardo, a Republican, which he used to attack Democrats.
Mr. Hannah, the Green Party’s co-chair, said party members were not familiar with either Mr. Hernandez or Mr. Norton.
“We know the faces who show up at our meetings,” he said. “We know the people who volunteer. It definitely made us suspicious, if nothing else.”
While only Green Party members can vote in its primary, independent voters are eligible to sign the petitions of candidates seeking access to the party’s ballot line, Mr. Hannah said. Mr. Norton and Mr. Hernandez needed at least 1,300 names each, and, according to Mr. Hannah, most of the signatures collected by them had not come from Green Party members.
“These are people who essentially have no connection to our party deciding who’s on our primary ballot,” he said.
June 18th General Meeting of the Green Party of Pima County
Join us at the Historic Y Conference Room, 738 N. 5th Ave. and on Zoom Tuesday, June 18th at 7:00 PM for our June General Meeting:
Support Endorsed Green Party Candidates Eduardo Quintana, Nina Luxenberg, Mike Cease and Howard Druan by writing them in on your Vote-By-Mail July 30th Green Party Primary Election ballots which will be mailed on July 3rd
Contact us for the Zoom credentials.
Statewide GET OUT THE VOTE Primary Election campaign, June 18th through July 30th
The Arizona Green Party will be conducting a statewide get-out-the-vote campaign to mobilize the approximately 3,000 active registered GRN’s in the upcoming July 30th Primary Election.
The immediate focus over the next two weeks (from June 18th through July 5th) will be on the vote-by-mail phase in advance of the July 3rd mailing date.
The get-out-the-vote campaign will be using social media, targeted email messages, postcards, phone-banking and text-banking.
If you would like to help volunteer with this campaign, please contact me at 520-327-4705.
Mike Cease
AZGP Secretary
Eduardo Quintana for Senate
My name is Eduardo Heredia-Quintana and I'm running for Senate with the Arizona Green Party to offer a true political choice outside our failed two-party system.
I believe in a pro-worker, anti-war, climate action agenda and will put this front and center in November.
I’ll advocate for phasing out the burning of fossil fuels and replace them with renewable energy sources (wind, solar, hyrdroelectric, geothermal), a just transition to a democratically controlled eco-socialist economy through a Green New Deal, protecting/expanding worker's rights to organize and bargain collectively, ensuring fair and proportional taxation, mandating employers pay livable wages, reducing the cost of living and eliminating poverty, defending medical/reproductive/personal autonomy, ending police brutality and mass incarceration, reducing our bloated military budget, ending U.S./N.A.T.O. wars of aggression and global dominance, shrinking the military-industrial complex, and promoting free & fair elections in an inclusive grassroots democracy.
MY PLATFORM:
- Guarantees Social Justice & Equality For All
- Eliminates Poverty & Economic Exploitation
- Dismantles Systems of Unjust Hierarchy & Oppression
- Cancels Student Debt
- Ensures Universal Healthcare
- Embraces Respect & Diversity in Society
- Decentralizes Wealth and Political Power
- Defends and Expands Our Democracy
- Promotes Peace, Diplomacy, & Non-Violence
- Provides Universal Access to the Necessities of a Dignified Life
- Protects the Ecological Health and Integrity of our Planet
- Ensures the Long-Term Sustainability of Human Civilizations
Eduardo Quintana is running for the U.S. Senate position to replace Kyrsten Sinema. Check out his platform: https://www.eduardoquintana4senate.com/ via @GreenPartyUS
Copyright (C) 2024 Green Party of Pima County. All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
[email protected]
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