Wisconsin Green Party

The Wisconsin Green Party has had a history of successes in the non-partisan spring elections, and 2009 was no exception. Twelve candidates were on the ballot, six of which were incumbents. Five of the six incumbents retained their offices and two challengers were elected for a 58% win rate.

Oshkosh - Tony Palmeri & Bob Poeschl Elected to Oshkosh Common Council

In Oshkosh, three city council seats were up for election this spring on the seven member Common Council. All seats are elected at-large, and all candidates are on a single ballot with the top three vote getters winning seats on the Council.

Dr. Tony Palmeri, a University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Communication Studies Professor, outspoken media critic and former candidate for State Assembly on the Green Party ticket in 2004 won a seat on the Oshkosh Common Council in his first attempt two years ago. As an incumbent this year, Palmeri was considered a front runner due to his broad public appeal and his tough stance on City Hall and open government transparency over the last two years in office. He had the support of labor organizations, blue collar voters, Greens, "progressives", Democrats, environmentalists, and others. His only opposition was from the Chamber of Commerce, which actively sought candidates to try to unseat Mr. Palmeri.

The local newspaper, the Oshkosh Northwestern, endorsed Palmeri again this year, stating:

"...Palmeri has been a change agent at City Hall. With captivating rhetorical skills, he has not shied from asking probing questions or demanding greater openness and public access to government. He has not fallen into the trap of opposition without alternatives. He was only one of two council members last fall to offer detailed amendments on the city's budget and capital improvements plan long enough before the meeting to be included on the agenda. That allowed for research, discussion and reasoned debate."

In the February 17 Primary, in which voters could vote for up to three candidates out of seven, to narrow the field to six, Palmeri received 2,027 of 9,254 votes from 3,622 ballots cast, for 21.9% of the votes. 56% of the voters cast a vote for Palmeri putting him in first place.

In the April 7 General Election, voters again could vote for up to three candidates out of six, with the top three candidates winning office. Palmeri finished solidly in first place, receiving 6,633 votes out of 28,188 votes for 23.5% of the vote. 11,267 actual ballots were cast, which meant that 58.9% of the voters voted to send Palmeri back to the Council. He was the only candidate that a majority of voters cast votes for.

Tony Palmeri was joined on the ballot for Oshkosh Common Council by fellow Green Party candidate Bob Poeschl, a life long Oshkosh resident. Poeschl, who started the Winnebago Peace and Justice center in 2003, was awarded the 2004 "Peacemaker of the Year" award from the Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice. He is also a former co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party, and ran for Oshkosh Common Council in 2005, when he received 1,403 votes in the February primary for 7% of the vote and did not advance to the general election.

This year Bob Poeschl ran a text book campaign based on fund raising and building name recognition. He raised and spent close to $2,000. He knocked on doors every weekend, and had volunteers out dropping literature twice a week. He had radio ads, newspaper ads, and made himself available to every community group that would have him speak. Although the Oshkosh Northwestern didn't exactly endorse Bob Poeschl, they offered him up as a potential third vote by stating:

"Bob Poeschl is as genuine a candidate as you can find running for public office these days. He's genuine about neighborhood involvement, genuine about affordable housing and sustainable development. He has not only talked about these issues, he has volunteered his time on the city's Energy & Environment Committee to help make them a reality. Poeschl understands that preserving and enhancing the quality of life in Oshkosh is essential to keeping the community moving forward."

In the February 17 Primary, Poeschl finished in third place, receiving 1,385 votes of 9,254 for 15%. 38% of the voters cast a vote for Poeschl.

In the April 7 General Election, Poeschl again finished in third place behind the two incumbents with 4,717 votes, 16.7% of votes cast. 41.9% of the voters cast a vote for Poeschl, electing him to the Oshkosh Common Council and putting two Green Party members on the seven person Council.

Madison - Brenda Konkel Targeted, Defeated In Re-Election Bid

In Madison, very few individuals have influenced local government over the last eight years more than Brenda Konkel. Konkel was first elected to the Madison Common Council in 2001, and was re-elected in 2003, 2005, and 2007. This year Konkel was targeted by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, who sought to recruit candidates to run against the one Councilor who challenged his agenda consistently from the left. “He felt because I bring things up at the council, I blindside him,” said Konkel, in the Wisconsin State Journal, “He’s a nice guy but he’s cutthroat when it comes to politics. I guess I’m in his way.”

Konkel faced an unusually large field of four candidates in the February 17 primary, yet finished strong with 40.44% of the vote. The other candidate to survive the primary, Bridget Maniaci, was an intern in the office of Mayor Cieslewicz. The campaign from the primary to the general election became a referendum on the work of Brenda Konkel over the years, and although the Maniaci campaign went negative, the Konkel campaign stayed focused on securing and publicizing key endorsements, raising over $7,000, running lit drops and getting out the vote, one of Konkel's strengths.

In the general election on April 7, Konkel lost to Maniaci by just 64 votes, with 48%. "When losing by 64 votes of 1800, every little thing led to my defeat." Said Konkel. "Spring break in the Madison Schools hurt me; my opponent was younger and that helped her get votes on campus; the Mayor; recent issues that I supported that were controversial; what is left of the media and their biases throughout the years; and the police union spent more than $4,000. But we stayed positive. We didn't go negative. I didn't want to win under those circumstances."

Madison's Four Lakes Green Party also endorsed Greens Marsha Rummel and Satya Rhodes-Conway for Madison Common Council. Both were incumbents, and both were unopposed. Rummel was first elected two years ago in 2007 in Madison's District 6, one of Madison's 'greenest' districts. Rhodes-Conway was also first elected two years ago in a tightly contested race in Madison's District 12. She is also a member of Progressive Dane and the Dane County Democrats.

Madison's fourth Green Party candidate didn't make it past the primary. First time candidate Katrina Flores ran in the student heavy District 8, a seat that was held from 2003 to 2007 by Wisconsin Green Austin King. Katrina Flores was one of four candidates seeking this open seat. Flores is a co-founder of the MultiCultural Student Coalition, founder of the Youth Engaged through Language Project, performer and chair of the Women of the Scarred Earth Rising Tide Performance & Popular Education Project and former member of the 2005 Madison Adult National Slam Team. Flores finished third in the primary, falling just 7 votes short of second place. This student district had very low turnout, with just over 500 total votes cast.

Todd Price - Put the Public Back in Public Education

Professor Todd Price was a last minute addition to the statewide race for the non-partisan Superintendent of Public Instruction, the administrative head of Education in Wisconsin. Price is a Professor in curricular education at National Louis University and a resident of Kenosha, WI just north of Chicago. He got his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Curriculum and instruction, where he was a union organizer with SEIU and worked on student labor and higher education issues.

Price and the Wisconsin Green Party decided to go ahead with the campaign with just weeks remaining to gather over 2,000 signatures with no campaign structure in place. On January 6 they turned over 2,100 signatures. They were challenged, but responded with a final tally of 2,010 signatures, just enough to join four other candidates on the February 17 primary ballot across the state.

Price's campaign quickly pulled together a coalition of support, including Pete Karas as campaign manager and organizers from both the Wisconsin Green Party and Progressive Dane, a local Madison based political party that endorsed Price on February 2. Price ran on dismantling "No Child Left Behind", fixing the school funding formula, building safe schools through anti-discrimination measures and tolerance for students and teachers of different religions, ethnicities and sexual orientations. He also spoke about the "Truth in Recruiting" movement that seeks to make sure that students hear both sides of the story when talking to military recruiters so they can fairly weigh the risks of military service along with the benefits. His positions caught the attention of progressives across the state, including John Nichols of the Capital Times who covered Price's campaign regularly through the primary. Nichols wrote in the Capital Times:

"DPI candidate Todd Price, a former Madisonian who is running with a lot of enthusiastic support from progressive activists (especially the Greens), started his campaign late. But he is getting up to speed fast. Price, a college professor, has a great Web site, and the best slogan so far: “Put the Public Back in Public Education"."

Price's campaign probably suffered its biggest blow when the State Teacher's Union endorsed the current Deputy Superintendent Tony Evers, who would go on to win the general election on April 7. Price finished in fourth place in the primary with 28,927 votes, 11.26% of the vote.

Price was disappointed with the results, but was adamant that the issues of his campaign were not going to be addressed by new Superintendent Evers. “We still need to repeal the No Child Left Behind law, we still need to address the inequities in the school funding formula, and we need to ensure that our schools are safe places regardless of sexual orientation, religious background or anything else… I guarantee you that we are going to be looking at these same issues four years from now.”

Price stated that he is not interested in running for otherstate wide office in Wisconsin but has his eyes on the Superintendent of Public Instruction race again in four years. “My hope is to build the Green Party, we need a second party. Democrats are going to try to save No Child Left Behind, they aren’t going to touch the school funding formula…” Price added. “The votes cast…were against the DPI (Department of Public Instruction), not for anything. People are frustrated with our state bureaucracy. We need people to step up and run on principles, on Green values - these values are ascendant. We need to bring in folks that are capable and interested and passionate about education to run for school boards…”

Pete Karas Shoots For First Green Mayor in Wisconsin

Pete Karas, who had served for five years on the Racine Common Council, was not a candidate in January, in fact he was managing Todd Price's campaign for Superintendent of Public Instruction. However when then Mayor Dave Becker was arrested for child enticement and child pornography in a sting operation, a special election was scheduled to replace Racine's disgraced Mayor. Pete Karas, a life long resident of Racine who is well known for being a man of integrity by those in the city that have worked with him in the past on the Council, was recruited to run for Mayor. Unfortunately ten other candidates also filed for the April 7 special election primary, a huge field of candidates that would ensure that no candidate would move to the special general election May 5 with anything near a majority of the votes.

Karas, however, hit the ground running, converting his "Cynthia McKinney for President" office into a Pete Karas for Mayor office in downtown Racine. He quickly hired a campaign manager, raised money, built a team of volunteers to drop literature and put out ads on TV, Radio, and YouTube. Karas was President of WAVE (Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort) that seeks to get hand guns off the streets of our cities. Although Karas had appeared to have strong grassroots support, on April 7 he came in 6th of 11 candidates in the special election primary for Mayor of Racine with 851 votes (9%). "I was everybody's second choice," said Pete Karas, who was disappointed with the results but didn't appear too surprised. Karas did not make definite plans for future races but he is serving on the Wisconsin Green Party's Election Committee which is preparing to begin recruiting candidates for 2010 races.

Two Milwaukee Greens Elected To School Board

The Greater Milwaukee Green Party endorsed two Green Party candidates for Milwaukee Board of School Directors, Peter Blewett and Annie Woodward. Blewett, an incumbent School Board Director who was elected President of the Board in 2007, joined the Green Party this Spring following a Todd Price for Superintendent of Schools event in Milwaukee. Blewett has been a champion of social justice and environmental issues on the Milwaukee School Board and had caught the attention of the Milwaukee Greens. He enacted a ban on pesticides at Milwaukee Schools, and repealed the handcuff policy enacted by a previous board. Blewett has been a strong supporter of language and arts education in Milwaukee schools and an outspoken critic of charter schools.

Annie Woodward, who has run for local office (County Board) twice before, ran this spring for District 4 Miwaukee Board of School Directors. Woodward was born and raised in Alabama where she attended segregated schools. She moved to Milwaukee in 1961. She has worked for Milwaukee County for over 30 years as a mental health worker and social worker. "I truly believe that every child deserves the opportunity to be what he or she wants to be," said Woodward. Woodward finished first in the February 17 primary with 348 votes or 44% of the vote. Woodward won the general election in a very close race that was decided by absentee ballots. On election night she was losing by 82 votes from the polling stations, but by the time absentee ballots were tallied she defeated her opponent by 76 votes due to her overwhelming advantage in absentee votes.

Bruce Hinkforth & JoEllen Gramling

Bruce Hinkforth, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party and former state assembly candidate, ran for Common Council in Oconomowoc, WI. He was one of three candidates on the ballot, and came in third with 15 votes (2.7%). Hinkforth has been with the Wisconsin Green Party for over 20 years. He has been active in the local Natural Step for Sustainable Communities movement in Oconomowoc, and stated that he was laying the ground work for a future campaign.

JoEllen Gramling ran unopposed for Town Clerk of Schleswig, WI, a township of 1,985, 45 miles south of Green Bay. She has served as the Town Clerk since 1999.