Five Greens were contenders to win seats in state legislatures on Nov. 5, but only one — John Eder in Maine — was elected.
Linda Schade in Maryland, Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona, and John Battista and Simone Mason in Connecticut ran strong campaigns that offer future candidates a wealth of field-tested expertise.
These candidates were widely perceived as electable. Schade was endorsed by the Teamsters, National Organization for Women (NOW), and the Sierra Club and the monthly Takoma Voice. Sinema was endorsed by NOW and the Fraternal Order of Police, as well as the Arizona Republic — which usually endorses Republicans, but in this case argued that the Green "would likely function as the conscience of a Legislature too often lacking one." Battista, whose endorsers included NOW, NARAL and unions, said such endorsements were not a major factor because the media ignored them.
As Schade said in a televised debate, even groups that habitually endorse Democrats may find their members supporting Green candidates on an individual level. The personal involvement of a Teamsters organizer in her campaign was instrumental in winning the Teamsters endorsement, and many Sierra Club members urged the group to endorse Schade.
Battista and Schade cite the importance of lawn signs and canvassing. Battista reports that his campaign "covered the district" with signs, early and found it "very effective in promoting name recognition and creating the perception of a strong, viable candidacy." Sinema points out that she had cultivated name recognition by working with labor and environmental groups before she entered the race.
"I already knew every one of them and had supporters on all their executive boards ... so I wasn't new or risky." Sinema and Schade, both in winning position in October polls, were targeted by Democratic attack mailings in the final week of the campaign. Sinema said the Democratic strategy of "scaring progressives away from voting for me" was devastating. "It had a huge impact; my numbers shot down," she noted, from second place to fifth.
Schade campaign manager Chris Driscoll said the Democrats, joined by campaign workers from the AFL-CIO and the Progressive Maryland coalition, made "a concerted appeal to the idea that the Green Party helps to hand over the government to the Republicans ... even though there was no chance of that" in Schade's district, where the two Republican candidates placed a distant fifth and sixth behind the Green.
Still, he concluded, "The argument seems to have made an impact on the 2,000 to 3,000 people it took to turn our lead into a defeat." Battista had a different problem. He was challenging a Republican incumbent in a conservative district where the Democrats didn't even field a candidate. He emphasized basic campaign tactics: "Start early, take off the month before the election, go door to door, buy plenty of lawn signs, and talk to people every chance you get." The Schade campaign also emphasized basics such as doorhangers, fundraising and get-out-the-vote work but reported good results from some flashier tactics as well. Waving to rush-hour traffic, volunteers held a series of issue-oriented signs, and the candidate held a sign that said "I'm Linda." The resulting photo ops helped Schade garner coverage in local media and USA Today, NPR and Pacifica. The interview did attract one fan. Ralph Nader called Schade after hearing her on the radio, and his subsequent endorsement was sharply critical of a former Public Citizen staffer who was running against her.
Race was a factor for Mason, who is African-American, and Schade, who is white. The Mason campaign found that the 23 percent African-American population of her district appreciated the fact that they had an Africa- American to vote for. Schade, running for one of three seats, faced two white incumbents and an African-American newcomer; though the Green was endorsed by national civil rights activists Ron Daniels and Ron Hampton, the Democrats got out the vote for the conservative African-American minister.
Each of the candidates feels the effort was worthwhile and will benefit future Green campaigns. In Battista's words, "We have succeeded in dividing the Democratic Party into Green Democrats and conservative Democrats. This will help us in the future." And Schade added, "We've shown that you can run a serious campaign without taking corporate money. We've made it awkward to pretend support for campaign finance reform without walking the talk."
