Ithaca Green Party Wins Its First Seat.

• Author: Glover, Paul
• Position: Brief Article

Based on their strong showing in the '99 elections, local Greens look forward to gaining one or two more seats in the 2001 elections. Five seats will be open that year, and those in Wards 4 and 5 are particularly vulnerable. The Green Party's Ward 4 candidate, Josh Glasstetter, won his seat with 54% of the vote, becoming Ithaca's first-ever undergraduate council member, and the only NYS official elected exclusively on the Green party line.

Green candidates won surprisingly good totals in three other wards, considering that they are political newcomers (ages 18-21) and that they scarcely campaigned at all.

The Mayor's Race

The Democratic Party has dominated City elections for 25 years, but this year the party split into its Republican and Green wings. Major landlords, major landowners, developers and contractors waged an aggressive campaign on behalf of Alan Cohen, while local environmentalists and small business advocates favored smart growth ideas championed by Dan Hoffman.

The extremely liberal character of Ithaca is evident in the vote total. Despite being endorsed by all print media, despite the powerful last-minute lies published about Hoffman's voting record, despite being endorsed by six Republican Democrats on Council, despite Cohen's personal charm, despite. Hoffman's strategy of relying on a political center that does not presently exist, Cohen won by only 400 votes (54%) out of 4400 cast (18% of voting age residents).

Had Hoffman pushed aggressively to inspire the Green vote by accepting the Green ballot line, had rain not been so heavy (keeping a majority of the 1,400 student voters home), and had Ithaca an independent community-based newspaper to promptly rebut lies, Hoffman would have easily won.

The Green Party can rally a new political center for Ithaca, by effectively addressing the central concerns of Ithacans for well-paying creative jobs, reasonable rents, safe and friendly streets for raising kids, low-cost health services, clean air and water, transportation alternatives, low-cost healthy food, energy efficiency, and lower taxes.

As the electoral arm of progressive community nonprofits, bringing forward their legislative agendas, Green proposals will contrast with those of Council's Republican Democrat majority. While Alan Cohen has been mayor, City Council has become more conservative than any during the past thirty years. They have surrendered Ithaca to corporate priorities; proclaimed Ithaca "open for business" even...