Boosting the Green Party to new heights and attracting new constituencies, human rights activist Medea Benjamin ran a spirited and groundbreaking campaign for U.S. Senate in California.
Co-founder and co-director of Global Exchange, Benjamin finished with 3.1% of the vote, the highest percentage for a third party U.S. Senate candidate in California in 62 years.. Her 326,848 votes were also the most that any U.S. Green candidate won in a non-presidential race against a Democratic and Republican.
Benjamin raised $250,000, a record amount for Greens, in mainly small contributions from thousands of people across the state. Her fundraising success proved that potential Green Party donors do indeed exist, and that Greens are capable of reaching them.
Benjamin opened six campaign offices across the state and recruited more than 400 volunteers. She spoke on more than 50 college campuses, helping Greens start 20 new campus chapters.
An architect of the Seattle and DC protests against the WTO, World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Benjamin was particularly attractive to progressive voters. Her platform and achievements stood in stark contrast to her centrist opponent, Democratic incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Benjamin's candidacy paved the way for the Green Party to build alliances and grow.
Seven newspapers endorsed her, both the alternative press and mainstream. The L. A. Weekly, for one, said "she's already done more to create a more just a livable planet than about 97 of the members inside the Senate."
Benjamin's endorsements included 25 current and former elected officials, among them long-time San Francisco Board of Supervisor President Tom Ammiano. Also on the list were prominent progressives: David Brower & Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky and Angela Davis, Barbara Ehrenreich and Michael Lerner, Ed Begley, Jr., Woody Harrelson and Bonnie Raitt, Manning Marable and Norman Solomon, Alice Walker and Cornel West, and Jim Hightower.
Benjamin captured the support of organizations such as Americans for Democratic Action, the farmworkers' group Project Vote, and Latinos for Better Government. She won a thumbs-up from unions, too, with AFSCME Locals 1108 and 444 and more than 30 union officials. These local unions supported Benjamin despite pressure to stick with the California Federation of Labor's endorsement of Feinstein (see box).
During the D2K Democratic Convention protests in Los Angeles, Benjamin was in full stride. She gave a rousing speech from atop a truck to a cheering crowd of thousands at The March against Sweatshops and For Immigrants Rights, one of the week's major marches that went from the downtown garment district to the Staples Center, the convention site. She also was a featured speaker at the Shadow Convention.
At the Convergence Center - a four story building that served as home base for D2K - Benjamin's name could be seen throughout as many, particularly young people - sported 'Medea for Senate' T-shirts, stickers and posters.
On D2K's final night, Benjamin appeared on a dramatic live two-hour national radio broadcast hosted by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman. Activists packed into a makeshift studio at Patriotic Hall to hear her message: the importance of an independent, progressive party like the Greens to tap the energy found in the streets of Los Angeles, DC and Seattle.
The editorial boards at every major daily and weekly newspaper in California invited Benjamin for an interview, with one exception - the Los Angeles Times. She interviewed on nearly every community radio station and NPR affiliate. But television media and the mainstream press largely ignored her campaign.
With Feinstein holding a 20-point lead over Republican Rep. Tom Campbell, the press treated the Senate race as a foregone conclusion - failing to cover Campbell closely, let alone Benjamin. The only television outlet that provided Benjamin with fair coverage was Adelphia Communications in Los Angeles, where public affairs host Bill Rosendahl interviewed her several times before election day.
The media shutout was clearest when Benjamin and 125 supporters sat in at the San Francisco station of KRON as it broadcast one of the two debates where Feinstein agreed to appear. Benjamin was excluded from both.
The lack of press attention spawned a surprising coalition between Benjamin and GOP candidate Campbell. They debated three times and organized two press conferences together, denouncing the war on drugs in Colombia, blasting the use of political action committee money in political campaign and criticizing Feinstein's refusal to debate.
Without reliable access to the media, Benjamin found alternative ways to spread her message through well organized protests, highlighting the collusion between the mainstream media and the two main political parties to exclude third parties. She also published and distributed thousands of copies of the booklet "I, Senator" outlining the positive transformation that would come if Greens held more positions of power in the U.S.
Since the election, Benjamin has focused on building a statewide coalition interested in serious electoral reform. Her plans include creating an independent debate commission in California in hopes of taking back control of the debates from the candidates.
Benjamin-the-candidate and Benjamin-the-organizer combined to embody the vision laid out by the Green Party of California when it was formed in 1990. Party leaders understood then, that a strong Green movement already existed in the state, comprised of various non-profits and community organizations. Turning the Green Party into the electoral extension of that movement would be key to the party's future. Drawing in some of the movement leaders as candidates was crucial to this task.
Enter Benjamin - an economist and nutritionist in Latin America, Africa, and Europe, and a senior analyst with the Institute for Food and Development Policy. She worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, and the Swedish International Development Agency - not to mention Global Exchange.
Then, as a Green Party candidate, Benjamin enjoyed one of the most successful runs in the party's national history - despite little press coverage, being denied access to debates and running in a race against on of the most heavily favored Democratic incumbents in decades.
Clearly, Benjamin's was a combination that worked.
An eyewitness acount, by Michael Everett, IATSE Local 278 and Green Party member The two-day biennial California Labor Federation concluded in Anaheim with a bit of a surprise, as delegates fired an unexpected shot across the bow of free trader U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein.
Most of the convention was a scripted campaign rally for Al Gore, accompanied by the usual rubber stamping of decisions already made by labor federation leaders. The convention was scheduled to close with the routine unanimous ratification of the state COPE endorsements. But COPE hadn't reckoned with Green US Senate candidate Medea Benjamin, who sat quietly at the back of the hall and had one-on-one conversations with delegates about her program for fair trade, universal health care, an end to privatization, and everything else on labor's agenda.
After the first day, about 20 delegates met with Benjamin to hear more about her labor platform along with a comparison to Feinstein's, who voted for NAFTA, GATT and was a leader of the campaign to pass China normal trade relations. We agreed that it would be wrong to be silent at the COPE endorsement. Even if we lost ten to one, we had to oppose Feinstein's endorsement and make sure it wasn't unanimous.
The next day when the endorsements were read off from the podium, our tiny handful challenged the Feinstein endorsement from the floor. Three of our number took to the floor microphones to denounce her free trade policies and praise the pro-labor platform of Medea. After the third delegate spoke, a motion was made and passed to cut off further debate. A voice vote was called and to everyone's astonishment, 40% of the delegates voted 'no' on the endorsement.
Though technically a victory for Feinstein, clearly Medea was the winner and Feinstein the loser. This was a warning message to politicians who take labor for granted and a clear illustration that the spirit of Seattle has taken hold in the labor movement.
