Santa Monica Mayor pro tem Kevin McKeown travels this week to Washington, D.C. as a delegate to the annual national meeting of the Green Party of the United States.
McKeown, one of four delegates attending from greater Los Angeles and the only one from Santa Monica, said he’s proud to help represent almost 157,000 registered Greens in California.
“We’ll spend most of our first full day in Washington discussing whether to run a presidential candidate in 2004 and who that might be,” McKeown said. “This will be the first truly national Green campaign since the Federal Elections Commission in 2001 recognized the Green Party of the United States as a fully-qualified national political party.”
With increasing numbers of victories at the ballot box, the Green Party has come of age as the foremost electoral arm of the progressive movement. While in Washington, Greens expect to establish a national network of Green Party officeholders like McKeown, who was recently re-elected to a second term on the Santa Monica City Council.
The national discussion on a Green Party presidential candidate is certain to be the focus of the three-day meeting, which begins Friday.
McKeown dismisses claims the Greens were “spoilers” in 2000. “Some Democrats still think the votes Nader earned swung the election, but here’s the reality, folks, in 2000, about 2.5 million Americans voted for Ralph Nader,” he said. “Exit polls indicate about 7.5 million Democrats voted for George Bush. That’s how Gore lost.”
If the national Green Party meeting this week commits to running a presidential campaign, the final choice of a Green Party candidate won’t take place until next June’s convention, scheduled to be held in Milwaukee, Wisc.
In Santa Monica, two members of the City Council are Greens — McKeown and Councilmember Mike Feinstein — as are the Rent Control Board’s Jeff Sklar and a number of members of city task forces, boards and commissions.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 15, 2003. Read the original PDF.