Who Should Select Green Candidates?

• Author: Fitz, Don
• Position: Green Party

Common sense tells us that a political party should be able to define itself by writing its program, advocating its principles and selecting its own candidates. But didn't we learn in high school civics classes that the Progressive movement of the late 19th century made political parties more democratic by forcing them to select candidates in primaries? If you think about it, both of these ideas cannot be right.

In most (or all) states, only new parties which establish themselves by petition are able to select their own candidates. Once a party receive "ballot status" (by winning a certain percentage of the vote), then it is forced to have an "open primary." In open primary states, anyone can declare her/himself as a candidate in that party's primary and any resident can vote in the primary.

Suppose a progressive party wins ballot status and decides not to field a candidate for a certain race. Too bad. Anyone can file for the position, and, after winning an uncontested primary, be available for press interviews as a candidate of that party.

A Green Party with a platform calling for organic agriculture could find itself with a Monsanto candidate extolling the virtues of genetic engineering. A genuine Green Party candidate could be outspent many times over by a corporate agent promising to bring dollars to the state via safe incinerators, responsible nuclear waste transportation and a reasonable level of clear cuts.

Is this a serious concern? Many corporations find the public relations of buying an Earth Day celebration to be worth the investment. They could easily see similar value in purchasing a Green Party nomination.

A Labor Party would not be immune if it won ballot status. A union bureaucrat could enter a Labor Party primary for the purpose of winning and then urging a vote for the Democrat in the general election.

People create political parties to formulate ideas on social questions, organize to win support for those ideas, and elect candidates who will put their programs into practice. Many US laws function to prohibit political parties from doing what they exist to do.

This disenfranchisement of political parties is not universal. Most countries allow parties to determine their politics and candidates. In the US, this was the case until the late 19th century.

At that time, Democratic and Republican Party bosses controlled state conventions and made sure that their own candidates were nominated. Progressives and Populists of that...