Campaigning on the themes of "A Green Economy and Environment", "Families First" and "A Better Democracy", Holle Brian ran one of the most successful state legislative campaigns among Greens nationally in 2000. Finishing with the most votes of any third party state assembly candidate in Minnesota, she also had the second-highest percentage for state assembly - 16.5% - among Green candidates in the entire country, Hawaii's Ginny Aste was first with 19.4%. (This among candidates in three-way or more races).
But perhaps the biggest measure of success for Brian's campaign was the manner in which it built the Green Party. According to Brian's campaign manager Chris Allison, people volunteered in droves for Brian because she had given so much of her self over the years to build the Green Party in Minnesota. "As a campaign professional with experience on quite a few successful campaigns," observed Allison, a veteran of US Senator Paul Wellstone's 1996 campaign, "I can confidently say that this campaign not only attracted more volunteer support than I've ever seen, but we also organized them effectively to perform very specific tasks."
Since its inception as a political party in Minnesota, Holle Brian has been willing to constantly fill many needed roles within the Green Party. She's been editor and designer of the state newspaper, The Sunflower; a facilitator at numerous state meetings, an elected member of the state coordinating committee and the state's primary representative on the national Green level."
Brian ran in South Minneapolis' State Legislative seat 62B, which encompasses the historic Minnehaha Falls, the controversial Highway 55 re-route through an old forest and sacred Native American ground, Lake Nokomis, and about 25,000 registered voters, mostly white, working class small homeowners.
For 24 years, District 62B has been represented by a conservative, "tough on crime" Democrat who personally killed the anti-Highway 55 reroute bill, voted against gay marriage and supports prison privatization.
As the Greens' first-ever candidate for this seat, Brian knew she had an uphill battle to unseat the established incumbent, so she committed herself to running two campaigns consecutively, with the 2002 election as the goal for getting elected, after building her base in 2000.
Brian began knocking on doors and talking to her constituents in May, proving her commitment early. During the petition drive to put Brian on the ballot, dozens of Green Party of volunteers got involved, collecting well over a thousand signatures of potential voters within the district in two weeks.
Brian's campaign became well organized during and immediately following the petition drive, according to Allison "kicking into a higher gear every few weeks until the November election". There was an organized telephone bank three nights each week, door-to-door precinct walking three days a week and large mailing parties at the volunteer meetings.
Brian's volunteers contacted 3,000 targeted registered voters through a well organized three night a week phone-banking operation. They also knocked on well over 3,000 doors through a three days-a-week precinct-walking operation; dropped an enormous amount of literature on doorsteps throughout the district and sent out over 3,000 pieces of targeted mail put together at large, weekly mailing parties. The campaign also had a very impressive web page, designed by a web designer volunteering her services.
The campaign raised over $12,000, mostly through individual $50 refundable donations (the Minnesota Political Contribution Refund Program provides a public financing rebate for every contribution up to $50, one of the best such programs in the country). Brian was endorsed by Clean Water Action, MN COACT (Minnesota Citizens Organizing for Action, a statewide membership organization that is very active on family farm issues and single payer health care), and Green presidential and vice-presidential candidates Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke, the latter a fellow Minnesotan.
Brian also hosted a series of educational forums on campaign issues in her District, bringing in guest speakers to talk about single-payer health care, genetic engineering and the history and philosophy of the Green Party. These popular forums were a valuable campaign tool, as they gave visibility to her candidacy and helped recruit new volunteers.
In addition to broad issues of affordable health care, living wages, and renewable energy, Brian focused on local, quality of life issues, like the noise and pollution problems from overhead flights associated with being adjacent to the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP).
Brian used this issue to tie together Green approaches to transportation and economy. She opposed further expansion of the airport; advocating decentralizing air traffic - and thus economic growth - to nearby Rochester and St. Cloud, and connecting those cities to the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area via high-speed rail.
Brian was the only candidate to point out that less polluting, energy-efficient alternatives to air travel should be developed and that a more locally self-reliant economy, based on local and regional goods and services, could also help reduce air traffic.
Brian accused the Minnesota Airport Commission, the mayor, the Metropolitan Council and Northwest Airlines (which makes MSP is base) of sacrificing the quality of inner city neighborhoods in order to concentrate economic power in the Twin Cities.
Brian's fine showing follows that of Cam Gordon, who ran in the adjoining district in 1996 as the first-ever Minnesota Green state legislative candidate. In an even more progressive district , Gordon received 24.6%, finishing second ahead of the Republican. (Brian came closest among US Greens to finishing ahead of a major party candidate in 2000 - her 16.5% trailed her Republican opponents' 21.5%). Mirroring the difference between the two districts, Nader received 8.9% in Brian's district and 12.8% in Gordon's in 2000 . South Minneapolis has become a Green stronghold - Annie Young, who was elected in 1997 to an at-large seat on the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, did well there, as did Dean Zimmerman, who was elected to the same Board via a district seat.
Nader/LaDuke received 6.2% in Hennepin County, home to Minneapolis and several surrounding suburbs.
