An open letter to supporters.

• Author: Camejo, Peter Miguel
• Position: Thinking Politically

The following was circulated on June 16, 2006.

Dear Supporters:

In the recent June 6 California Primary, the Green Party received an amazing surprise: our candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Sarah Knopp, received the largest statewide vote ever for a Green in California; more than a half-million votes (570,000, or 17.3% of the total. Sarah finished second, defeating the Republican-endorsed candidate and several other candidates, and missed, by just 2%, forcing the incumbent into a runoff. Because of this surprise, the immediate impact will be that Sarah will gain important respect within her union, the California Teachers Association, and position her to represent us on the issue of education.

In the contested Green US Senate Primary, Todd Chretien was elected. We want to congratulate his two opponents for their strong showing in what turned into a real three-way contest for the right to meet pro-war incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein in November.

So now we are putting together a very strong team to build our gubernatorial campaign and our Million Votes for Peace statewide slate.

A giant awakens

As we move past the Primary, one factor is going to help us get an increased hearing for our platform: the new mass civil rights movement that has awoken in the Latino community.

On May 1, 2006 we had the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States. These demonstrations were of working people, many of them among the poorest people in our nation. They were organized, in most cases, by grass-roots formations. In some areas, Greens are participating in the broad coalitions that helped organize the mass rallies. I spoke tt the rally in San Francisco, which had at least 100,000 participants, as did Greens Matt Gonzalez and Todd Chretien.

In Los Angeles, at a rally of possibly a half million or more, Nativo Lopez, President of the Mexican-American Political Association (and an outspoken Green and strong supporter of Todd's campaign and mine) not only addressed the crowd, but has emerged as one of the key leaders of this new movement nationally. Sarah Knopp, our surprise candidate, was also a guest speaker, and helped lead the March 25 coalition.

When I spoke at the rally in San Francisco, I listed some of the key points in my campaign. Near the end of my presentation, I talked about the case of Santos Reyes, who is doing 26 years to life in prison for cheating on a DMV test. I asked the immense crowd to raise their hand to ask...