OntheWilderSide

July 31, 2008

Michigan Greens Nominate Rev. Pinkney at State Convention
=========================================================
Benton Harbor Activist, Jailed for Quoting Bible at Judge,
Among 10 Congressional Candidates Picked in Marshall July 26-27

Mentioned in Presidential Candidate McKinney’s Acceptance
Speech at National Green Convention July 12 in Chicago

First Office for McKinney-Clemente Campaign to Be in Detroit

The Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) evoked the memory of
Eugene V. Debs by nominating jailed Benton Harbor community
activist Rev. Edward Pinkney for Congress at the party’s
2008 Nominating Convention last weekend in Marshall.

Pinkney is one of ten GPMI candidates so far who will run
for Congress, and seventeen in total nominated at the
convention. They will all join the Green Presidential
ticket of former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Rosa
Clemente, founder of the National Hip-Hop Convention, on
the November 4 general-election ballot. And more Green
candidates will be nominated at local caucuses this weekend.

McKinney has met with Pinkney and the Black Autonomy Network
Community Organization (BANCO) in Benton Harbor in the past.
And she mentioned Pinkney and Benton Harbor in her Chicago
acceptance speech July 12.

McKinney-Clemente campaign manager SKCM Curry attended the
GPMI convention, rousing the members to join her in a chant
of “Paint the White House Green!” Curry also announced that
the campaign will soon be opening its first office — in
Detroit.

Pinkney Paying a Heavy Price for His Beliefs;
Will Now Get to Express Them by Running for Office
————————————————–
Pinkney will run for the 6th District seat now held by Fred
Upton, scion of the family that founded Whirlpool. Pinkney
has opposed the corporation’s influence on local government
and the plans of Whirlpool-led institutions to take Jean Klock
Park away from the people of Benton Harbor for a golf course
priced for the wealthy.

He is now sitting in state prison in Jackson awaiting appeal
on a 3- to 10-year sentence for alleged mishandling of four
absent-voter ballots in a 2005 recall election of a city
commissioner who supported Whirlpool’s plans. That verdict
came after one mistrial with a deadlocked jury, and despite
an affidavit by one former prosecution witness saying the
recalled commissioner had offered him $10 to say Pinkney had
paid $5 for his vote.

The Berrien County courts also overturned the recall, even
though it had passed by over 50 votes.

Pinkney’s sentence was imposed last month, and a pre-sentence
probation order which came with an elaborate set of prohibitions
(including bans on any kind of political involvement — and
making him pay the rental on his own electronic tether) was
revoked last month, because of an article he wrote last fall.

In the article, he used a slightly paraphrased quote from
Deuteronomy that a Berrien County judge ruled was not
protected by the First Amendment because it constituted a
believable threat of the wrath of God against a fellow
judge and the judge’s family.

The article appeared last November in _The People’s Tribune_,
a political newspaper published in Chicago.

More Greens at All Levels Will Be
On the Michigan Ballot November 4
———————————
Greens will have at least nine other Congressional candidates
joining McKinney, Clemente, and Pinkney on Michigan’s general
election ballot November 4.

The convention also nominated one candidate for the State Board
of Education and one for each of the three state university
boards (U of M, MSU, and Wayne State).

And candidates for county and local office include Korine
Bachleda, who won election in 2006 as a write-in for clerk
of Newberg Township. Soon after, Bachleda asked the county
clerk to officially list her as a Green — and this year she
will be running for re-election in the Green Party’s column
on the ballot.

A list showing all the candidates nominated in Marshall is
presented below, along with information on how to contact
the campaigns for more details.

Caucuses Will Nominate More Green
Candidates for November General Election
—————————————-
The list also includes Matt Erard, who was nominated July 14
by Washtenaw County and Ann Arbor City Greens for the 53rd
District seat in Michigan’s State House.

Greens from Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties will hold a
joint caucus 2-4pm this Saturday, August 2 at the International
Institute; 111 E. Kirby (between John R. and Woodward, across
the street from the Detroit Institute of Arts); Detroit, MI
48202.

For candidate information about Detroit, please contact: Lou Novak lmn at lppals dot com or go to
http://www.DetroitGreens.org

For information on anything in this press release, please contact: Fred Vitale, Chair of Green Party of Michigan at: chair at MIGreens dot org
OR
John Anthony La Pietra, Elections Co-ordinator, Green Party of Michigan at jalp at triton dot net

For the latest information on Green Party of Michigan candidates, issues, and values, please visit the GPMI Web site:

http://www.MIGreens.org

Green Party of Michigan
548 South Main Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-663-3555

GPMI was formed in 1987 to address environmental
issues in Michigan politics. Greens are organized
in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each
state Green Party sets its own goals and creates its
own structure, but US Greens agree on Ten Key Values:

Ecological Wisdom
Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice
Non-Violence
Community Economics
Decentralization
Feminism
Respect for Diversity
Personal/Global Responsibility
Future Focus/Sustainability

Filed under: cynthia mckinney, election, elections, Green Party Websites, Green Presidential Campaign 2008, Rosa Clemente, social & economic justice, US Politics Tagged: | cynthia mckinney, Edward Pinkney, Eugene V. Debs, Rosa Clemente, SKCM Curry