Maryland Green Party members were well represented in yesterdays rally in Annapolis clling for a special session of the state legislature re-regulate the energy industry and place rate caps back on.

Greens from Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Montgomery County were among the Maryland Coalition to Stop the BGE Rate Hikes witch gathered several hundered people to Lawyer’s Mall opposite the Governor’s mansion.

Perhaps the most moving speaker at the rally was LaLydia Stokes, a Meter Reader who was fired in retaliation for whistleblowing on BGE’s meter falsifications, said that the BGE meters were often defective, giving false readings, and that, as a result, residential ratepayers were being overcharged; also, Stokes informed the audience that she was aware of a number of other Meter Readers who were giving false readings- a big reason for this is the Meter Readers are heavily overworked, and their numbers are not large enough for the massive quantities of meters to be read.  Stokes indicated that she has documents and digital photographs to back up her claims.

A LaLydia Stokes Legal Defense Fundis being established for her to continue her work against BGE, with the first donation coming from an out of state tourist who heard her speak and was moved to donate.

Green Party candidate for Baltimore City Council, Maria Allwine, gave a rousing speech, citing public ownership of electricity utilities, chiding Constellation/ BGE for making cheap electricity at 3-5 ckwh, then selling it to us at 13 ckwh; Allwine castigated BGE’s bogus comments that blaming ancillary costs like advertising, employee salaries.

Annapolis City Councilman Sam Shropshire also spoke, saying that the Council had been lied to by BGE before deregulation passed and that he supported legislation that would Re-Regulate Constellation/ BGE.

Also speaking was Rita Collins, candidate in the Democrtic primary for the 11th District, BaltimoreCity Council.

The crowd, numbering several hundred, then marched through the downtown district, receiving many honks and waves and quite a few comments from people angry over the rate increases.

Switch2Green!  A new website has been set up for Democrats (and Republicans) fed up with the two war parties: switch2green.org complete with registration help for all states where it is possible to register Green and with a computer generated letter that you can send to your congressperson, informing her that you have switched.

Switch2Green.org has already been mentioned on the Mike Malloy radio show.

Here in Maryland, the move has already begun.  In April alone, the party received 500 new registered voters, its biggest growth spurt in years.

From Ballot Access News:

In 2003, the Maryland Green Party won a spectacular ballot access lawsuit in Maryland’s highest state court. That court ruled that it is unconstitutional for a state to require double petitioning. That is, it is unconstitutional to require a minor party to submit one petition to qualify itself, and then separate petitions for each of its nominees (”nominees” means people chosen at the party’s nominating conventions; it doesn’t mean people seeking the party’s nomination).

This morning the State Board of Elections notified us that the Maryland Green party has met the required 10,000 valid signatures to remain on the ballot for another four years. The Board still has another 1,800 to verify so we beat the requirement with plenty of room to spare.

Our validation rate has been a remarkable 85%; 10% better than our 2002 petition drive, and even better when compared against other parties’ petitions drives (69% for Libertarians in 2003 and 67% for Populists in 2004).

The successful drive will allow the Maryland Green Party to be in continuous existence for 10 years. In just seven years (six as a recognized party and three with full ballot access), we have become the third largest party in Maryland, hosted eight state-wide assemblies, struck down unconstitutional ballot restrictions, put 41 Green candidates on the ballot, built numerous vibrant Locals, attracted over 8,000 SBE-affiliated Greens, and established a notable presence in Maryland public policy making.

A new Zogby poll of New York State shows Green Party candidates making impressive gains among independent voters.

In the governor’s race, Green candidate Malachy McCourt is picking up 14% of the independents against Democrat Eliot Spitzer’s 53% and Republican John Faso’s 20%.

But, more impressive is the Senate race where Democrat Hillary Clinton picks up only 38% of the independent vote, Republican John Spencer 28% and Green Party Candiddate Howie Hawins 21%

In the Attorney General’s race Democrat Andrew Cuomo scores 31% of the independent vote, Republican Jeanine Pirro 25% and Green candidate Rachel Treichler 17%.

These gains are not matched among Republican and Democratic voters where Green candidates only score in single digits which holds down their overall showing. However, since independents are the only segment of the voting population that is growing–especially among younger voters–this is an indication that the Green Party has the potential to become a much more significant force in electoral politics in the future.

In Maryland, Kevin Zeese has shown nearly as strong support in the one available poll that provides a breakdown of the vote; a Survey USA poll from mid September.  In that poll Steele captured 45% of independent voters, Cardin 39% and Zeese 12%.  As in New York, very low numbers among Democrats (2%) and Republicans (3%) kept Kevin’s overall numbers low.  It would be interesting to see a breakdown on a more recent poll to see if Kevin is picking up any momentum among independents like the New York Greens.

As the primary season draws to a close in Maryland, there’s been a lot of talk about who should be included in debates and while it is a tough question with no easy answer (if you include everyone who files in the primary season than you’ll have a debate that isn’t substantive, but when you start to narrow the field it gets arbitrary), it gets tougher when a semi-public entity supported by taxes, in this case Maryland Public Television, is making the decision.

Allan Lichtman’s supporters put up a couple of videos of his recent arrest while trying to get into a debate between the two “leading” Senate candidates. Amidst all of the rhetoric, tension, and even action (between 1:20 and 2:20 is where things get energized and Lichtman gets arrested), the most interesting question isn’t really explored. You know this will be a question we get into in the general.

The real question is, who controls the public space, both literally and figuratively? What happens when public television staff decide who gets to be on tv? And what happens when security staffers keep Lichtman or really anyone out of a particular publicly funded and controlled (i.e. by your tax dollars) space, namely the MPT studio? Lichtman asks under what authority they are trying to drive him out and then, under what authority they are arresting him. He asks what laws were violated, what right they have to arrest him. And it’s a good question.

Who decides who can come on public property and what they can do there? And is it just the fact that they are government employees that the police can arrest someone? I don’t think so. Lichtman’s letter from jail and the presence of Kevin Zeese outside the studio (yes, he’s on camera), suggests we need to grapple with this. How far will some go with power if we don’t question them?

I write a blog and organize a generally progressive, collaborative Maryland politics and policy blog (that is looking for more progressive voices).

Maryland Green Party Candidates Kevin Zeese (Senate) and Bob Kozak (6th District House), proposed a lawsuit to challange the Army’s plans to expand its biological defense laboratory at Fort Detrick in Frederick.

The candidates cited a July 31 Massachusetts state court ruling ordering further environmental review of a proposed Boston University biodefense lab.  The Massachusetts decision called the state approval of the lab “arbitrary and capricious,” ignoring worst case scenerious.

Bob commented that the Boston decision “really energizes us and gives us hope.”

The Green Party candidates skipped an Army public hearing on the draft environmental statement, saying the “nothing’s going to really change by giving testimony.”  Instead the Greens held their own public meeting to generate support for the lawsuit.

The Maryland Green Party’s largest ever slate of candidates is gaining public support for it’s program to Take Back BGE.

The issue, growing out of the deregulation of electricity by Maryland’s Democratic controlled Assembly in 1999, would have gone into effect this summer, resulting in huge rate increases.  The worst hit by these rate increases would have been the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company customers who would have seen a 72% increases in their rates–making a mockery of the claim made by Democratic Senate President Mike Miller after passage of deregulation that “Prices will go down, no ifs, ands or buts.”

In order to avoid an election year fiasco, Democrats called the assembly back into emergency session and voted to limit the increase to 15% this year, with rates rising to market prices next year.  BG&E’s lost income plus five percent interest will be made up for by a surcharge on customer’s bills for the next 10 years.

BG&E made more than $200 million in profits in 2005, while it’s parent company, Constellation Energy–which also has contracts to sell BGE 70% of the fuel it uses–recorded $1.97 billion in profits.

Green Party Candidate for Governor, Ed Boyd, is leading the campaign, explaining in this clip, the Green Party alternative: full public ownership of public utilities; use “eminent domain” to take back BGE; creation of a Public Service Commission  that looks out for the interests of the taxpayers; and moving Maryland to the forefront of the affordable, renewable energy & conservation movements.

During the month of May, the Maryland Green Party locals conducted primary votes for the state’s Governor/Lieutenant Governor, and U.S. Senator races.  The results were announced at the State Assembly on Saturday, June 3.

 Ed Boyd was nominated for Governor.  Ed is a veteran who served in the Navy from 1979 to 1987.  After he left the service he did outreach work for homeless veterans in Washington, D.C., working with the Community for Creative Non-Violence.  He subsequently worked at the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training, and at Volunteers for Peace in Vermont.

The Boyd campaign is focusing on the 70% rate increase that has been proposed by the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., calling for the conversion of BGE into a publicly owned utility.  Public utilities are a growing phenomenon, with over 2,000 now existing in the U.S.  But the Democrats and Republicans, whose campaign chests are stuffed with utility company money, won’t talk about the issue.

Kevin Zeese was nominated for U.S. Senate.  Kevin is running a unity campaign, having already received the nomination of the Libertarian Party, and expecting to win the nomination of the Populist Party.  Kevin will only appear on the Green Party ballot line, however.

Kevin is running because the two major parties no longer represent the interests of most Americans, citing a recent poll that showed that only 17% of voters felt that their elected officials represented their priorities. Kevin is the only candidate in the race who is clearly against the war in Iraq.  A longtime opponent of the war on drugs, Kevin supports the decriminalization of most drugs.  And he has been in the forefront of the effort to ensure a paper trail for all election machines.

In addition, the Maryland has a growing slate of candidates for other state races:

For Congress:
Steve Warner, District 5
Gerard Giblin, District 8
For State Assembly:
Chris Bush, District 10
David Kiasi, District 25
Brandy Baker, District 43
Elsey Marquez, District 39
Joseph Sanchez, District 36
County Councils:
Joe Horgan, Montgomery County Council
Robb Tufts, Anne Arundel County Council
Brian Bittner, Hartford County Council
Judicial:
Nick DelPizzo, Baltimore City
Arthur Frank, Baltimore County

http://www.mdgreens.org/montgomery/blog/2006/02/06/513/#comments