The Green Party Grows in Iowa.

• Author: Coleman, Dan

Begun in the aftermath of the 1996 presidential campaign, Green Party activity is finally starting to take off in the state of Iowa. Green locals have formed in Iowa City and Ames and a fledgling state party network unites those locals with Greens in a number of communities around the state. Iowa Greens are looking forward to the 2000 presidential election's providing a boost to their organizing and membership.

The first question that 2000 brought to the Greens of Iowa was how to respond to the upcoming Iowa Caucus (held on January 24). Ideally, Green Party presidential candidates would travel to the state to take advantage of the media attention and participate in a caucus or straw poll. Unfortunately, Ralph Nader had not yet announced his candidacy and neither Joel Kovel nor Stephen Gaskin had the time or resources to come to Iowa. As a result, the Iowa City Green Party (ICGP) teamed up with the Johnson County Labor Party to conduct an "anti-caucus" social event. Attendance was good and a number of people spoke out on the common concerns of Greens and labor. It was felt that a solid foundation of cooperation was being built between these two alternative parties. The local papers covered the anti-caucus, as did The Nation as part of its coverage of the presidential campaign in Iowa.

The Iowa Green Party (IAGP) will be meeting this spring to discuss possible delegates to the Green Party presidential nominating convention in Denver. The IAGP, as yet unaffiliated with any national green party organization, is so far keeping national activities at arms length. Also on the table for the spring IAGP meeting are developing party positions on agriculture, always a hot issue in Iowa and on peace issues.

Green Elected in Iowa City

The big news in 1999 was the election of Steven Kanner to the Iowa City City Council. Kanner ran on a platform that emphasized neighborhood organizing, exploration of municipally owned electricity, and a living wage. Although the race was non-partisan, Kanner, an ICGP member who had walked across the US in the mid-1980s as a member of the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, ran with the strong support of the local. (The ICGP had previously run a candidate for City Council in 1997. That race fell 26 votes short in the primary.) The ICGP placed an endorsement ad in the weekly paper for Kanner and several members served on Kanner's campaign committee, one of whom coordinated an active canvassing effort. In the...