As for the issue of state party support for the race, I’ll quote an IL Green who commented on another site:
“The Illinois Green Party cannot legally donate to congressional candidates because we do not have a federal committee. This is being worked on, but hampered any ability to donate to Reichel. A balance of winnable races (like the Aldermanic race in Urbana where we received nearly 40%) and high profile races (like Reichel’s) is important. Although I wasn’t going to abandon my local races for Reichel, I was glad to provide an individual donation, as were many others.”

It seems that Reichel overestimated the ability of the party to help him, based on some strong recent Green campaigns in Illinois. However, those campaigns were successful because of volunteer energy, not institutional support.
He’s right about the potential of the Greens in Chicago, but no one is going to make it happen for them…. if he expects others to support him, then he’s got to support other Green candidates with his own cash, blood, sweat and tears. The machine may work from the top down, but the alternative has to come from the bottom up.

two faced. yes. Ruined our neighborhood yes.

Here we go again with the “Demogreens” canard. Both of my state’s delegates to the National Committee helped out in my state’s Presidential petition drive, and one of the alternates to the NC collected about 6,500 signatures herself. This was in one of the states most heavily targeted by the Obama campaign.

As for the green party, it has failed to become democratic, and the national committee probably wanted to support the winning democrat in the race instead of the author.

I find Matt Reichel’s writing to be full of naive egotism and arrogance. And, it is a kind of flippant “grunge writing.” Silly, facile, and just negative enough to make someone feel discouraged instead of encouraged.

It is amazing when someone just gets somewhere, thinks they understand it, takes a lot out of a system, and than decides they are the judge and can attack and dismiss to the outside world.

Matt had not worked for the greens, or even identified as a green, for hardly any length of time before this race. He is a politician, looking for a path, who used the greens. But, he expected the greens to give him more money and resources…probably more than they had, because he, himself, notes how powerless minor parties are. It is pretty awesome that as a candidate chosen in the state of Illinois, he was able to get some publicity not just from the state party, but from the national Green Party. The national Green Party is not perfect, but they put his face on their web-site. And, that is a favor. And, something more than he would have gotten if he was an obscure, Democratic candidate in a primary he was going to lose.

The idea that the press was good to him because he is better or more positive than other greens is also b.s. I have seen a lot of green campaigns – good and bad. How much press you get is a complicated formula related not to your own brilliance, as Matt seems to imply, but related to how much of a threat they think you are, or how amusing they believe your race to be. The Green Party is ignored because they have power, and the more a candidate has a chance to win or change the public discourse, the less likely they are to get covered. The press probably realized Matt was just a Democrat playing a game with the greens, and that Matt wouldn’t put out the pure, shining message of the Greens which the mainstream press fears.

Finally, it is so easy for people to attack the left.

That last line, “If the Left can get off their egotistical high-horse, do something in life rather than complain, and put in the countless hours of necessary organizing, there is little standing in the way of progress.”

What b.s. I have heard that from someone people. Many of them people who hang out with activists, but don’t want to do the work. Just tell us why we are all wrong, and they are right (but too busy to show us this week.)

What discouraging b.s. It sounds as if “the Left” is foolish or lazy in its work. When, the reality is that the Left – and the greens – try to do things in more genuine ways, and the Left has harder work to do – ie: the path less traveled.

I think it is piggish to take the line of a party you have no history with, run on their line because it is easier to get, and then right after you lose the race start slinging mud because they did not give you enough. Just piggish and immature.

Matt asks the Left to stop complaining and be positive and all. So, go to it. Right a tip sheet for green candidates. Or, try to plant positive articles in the press about your Green Party experience. Aha. That is the oddness of this peace. It tells us all to be positive and do work. But, it is negative as all get out, and accomplishes nothing.

Thanks,
Kimberly Wilder

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Annoying quotations from Matt’s article, which was apparently written on Matt Reiche’s “egotistical high horse”:

Upon securing the Green Party nomination…the party offered me absolutely zilch to run an effective campaign.

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For all the yack about how “the press” hates the left, I managed to attract an impressive amount of attention

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Imagine if instead of hating the media, we learned to mingle a little with the corporate news hotshots and convinced them that Green is the future! Imagine if instead of always being negative, we were occasionally positive: if we smiled and said, “history is on our side!”

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If the Left can get off their egotistical high-horse, do something in life rather than complain, and put in the countless hours of necessary organizing, there is little standing in the way of progress.