with 48% of the vote in a race for a Syracuse Common Council seat, and the election of Green candidate Mary Adams to Commissioner of Rochester City Schools. Other Greens had visibly strong runs as well, with Christine Shaheen receiving 35% of the vote in Herkimer County for a county legislative seat, Joseph Duffy with 34% in a Hornell campaign for Alderman, and Cecile Lawrence 35% in a race for Tioga County legislature.  The party hopes to expand upon these results next year at the state and federal level.

"With a victory in Rochester and 48% of the vote in Syracuse in a hard-fought partisan election, this shows the Greens are poised to become the true opposition party in New York State. Our candidates ran on diverse platforms, but they all agreed with the Green key values like full employment, living wage jobs, single-payer health care, stopping hydrofracking, proportional representation,and public financing of elections, amongst other things.  This election highlights how important it is to expand choices on the ballot as an alternative to New York’s typical contests between a Democrat, Republican, and the multiple ballot lines they are given by faux-third parties,” said LaVenia.  

"While there are still many hurdles in the way between the Greens, indeed any third party, and winning, we demonstrated a well-run Green campaign can succeed.  With voter discontent at the system at an all-time high, and the Greens representing the values of Occupy Wall St., we believe we can do very well in the 2012 elections," said state party secretary Michael O'Neil.  "We're looking forward to building the party and are glad that this local election cycle helped us take a step forward."