The Ohio Green Party’s candidate for governor needs to capture at least 3 percent of the vote in the upcoming midterm election if the party hopes to retain state ballot access for the next four years.
That’s partly why Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presidential candidate in 2012 and 2016, is making stops across Ohio this week to campaign for Constance Gadell-Newton, 38, the Columbus attorney running for governor on the Green Party ticket.
Dr. Stein, 68, a Massachusetts physician, and Ms. Gadell-Newton rallied 50 or so party supporters at the Frederick Douglass Community Center Wednesday, urging them to embrace an alternative to the two-party system and not buy into the belief that third parties disrupt close races.
“To listen to the conventional wisdom out there you’d think that bad politics ... these naughty little boys and girls who don’t comply with the two major parties should be shamed into disappearing, because all manner of bad things are being blamed on those third parties,” said Dr. Stein, who will appear Thursday in Sylvania to protest the Nexus pipeline.
Jill Stein at Frederick Douglass Community Center
“It’s time for more choices, not fewer choices,” she told supporters. “Stop suppressing the independent third parties, the noncorporate third parties who are representing the everyday people. This is exactly what everyday people are looking for. We need to stand proud and refuse to be silenced. We are not taking away their votes, they should not be taking away ours.”
The Ohio Green Party secured four years of ballot access following a 2010 lawsuit against the state, said Sean Nestor, Lucas County Green Party co-chairman. Without ballot access, Green Party candidates would have to collect signatures to appear as independents.
Then in 2014, the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Anita Rios, won 3.3 percent of the vote, which under state law permitted Green Party candidates to appear on the ballot for another four years.
Getting at least 3 percent of the vote is the party’s goal in 2018, said Ms. Rios, who is now co-chairman of the national Green Party.
“This campaign for governor is very important to us in terms of maintaining our party status,” she said. Otherwise, “we lose the opportunity to have a Lucas County central committee. We lose the opportunity to be able to count our members. We lose the opportunity to be able to get some of our candidates on the ballot.”
Another third party, the Ohio Libertarian Party, regained its ballot access this summer after collecting nearly 55,000 signatures — equal to 1 percent of the total votes cast in Ohio for the 2016 presidential election. The Libertarians have candidates running for governor, U.S. Senate, and Congress.
Ms. Gadell-Newton and her running mate, Brett R. Joseph, 59, an attorney and professor from Concord, emphasized the Green Party’s support of universal, single-payer health care; protections for low-income workers; social justice, and clean-energy alternatives.
“As an attorney who represents mostly low-income people, I see up close and personal the struggles that everyday people face as the policies of the state are enacted and influence people’s lives,” Ms. Gadell-Newton said.
She believes the Green Party has a shot at growth in Ohio.
“So often we see hopelessness in our political system,” Ms. Gadell-Newton said. “What makes the Green Party unique and more than just an activist group is that we have the ability to run candidates.”
In severely gerrymandered districts, she said, third parties offer an alternative for political engagement.
“We go to areas where people really feel neglected and forgotten by their political system,” she said. “Because of gerrymandering, the race is really fought and won in the primaries. If they don’t vote Republican in areas, they really would have no one to vote for. So as Greens we can come in and really give people a meaningful choice in those highly gerrymandered districts.”
Contact Liz Skalka at lskalka@theblade.com, 419-724-6199, or on Twitter @lizskalka.
First Published October 4, 2018, 2:12 a.m.
