Contact: Gloria Mattera, Green Party of NY Co-Chair, (917) 886-4538, [email protected] Peter Lavenia, Green Party of NY Co-Chair, (518) 495-8001, [email protected] New York - The Green Party of New York declared its support of the recount effort launched by 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Party officers added the recount effort was focused on election integrity and making sure all votes are counted, a fundamental principle of grassroots democracy and the Green Party. Continue reading

Monday August 29 - We had a great turnout of about 15 people, and thank you to everyone who came. For those of you who could not make it, here is a quick summary of the meeting.  Howie Hawkins gave a great talk on his experience at the DNC, and GNC (Green National Convention), and what the future looks like for the Stein campaign. It seems that she drew a lot of support from Berners who were thrown under the bus by Bernie, and the Democratic Party. After Bernie backed Hillary and her nomination, Jill Stein saw one million dollars flow into her campaign overnight from donors.  Stein's speeches were great, and well attended.  Howie says that he thinks she is getting better at unscheduled talks or "stump" speeches. He said the GNC was fantastic with great media coverage, and the feeling at the whole convention was positive, and vibrant. We went over volunteering opportunities for the month of September, and some fun events coming up. For the month of September, we will be holding phone bank parties on Tuesday and Thursday at the Green Party Office on E. Genesee St, or someone’s house in the city. You can also phone bank from home on a day that works for you, and if you are interested in that please contact me. We will also be doing standouts every Friday. After Standouts we will then head to a local coffee shop, or bar to catch up with each other. To see how everyone has been doing with outreach, and their feeling so far of the responses they have been receiving. What does the political climate look like in our area? Does Jill have a lot of support? Also we can brainstorm on upcoming events for the area. The Stein campaign also needs our help with a million calls for Jill. It is a phone banking initiative whose purpose is to contact, and recruit more phone banking volunteers to spread Jill’s message. I will be contacting everyone through email to let them know more about this.   We will be doing door knocking one Sunday in September, and we will ramp up door knocking for October. Two fun events we have coming up in the Syracuse area are; Labor Day outreach at the fair, and The Westcott Cultural Fair. Labor Day outreach will take place on Labor Day 9/5/16 by the main entrance of the fair. We will meet up at 9:00am by the main entrance. There will be literature, and signup sheets handed out to volunteers. We will canvass the people who are entering the fair from 9:15am to 12noon. We will have two point people to contact if you run into any trouble.. It is dollar day so admission is only a dollar! This is usually the busiest day of the fair so we really can reach a lot of people, and spread Jill’s message, and campaign. The Westcott Cultural Fair is also another fun event coming up in the area. It goes from 11:30am till 6pm. We will be marching in the parade so we want people to meet at the Westcott Community Center at 11:30am withy our green on! This is where the parade will start. We are looking for 100 people to march so spread the word! We also will have a booth, and will need people to fill shifts throughout the day. The shifts we need to cover are; booth set up, booth take down, people to staff the booth through the day, and people to hand out literature and engage passersby. If any of these volunteer opportunities peak your interest please get in touch with me. Jill has a chance to win this. In order to do so we need people like you to get involved in the revolution.  We have some great contacts now in Weedsport, and the Utica area. We are looking forward to working more with our new volunteers, and hopefully get them set up to get volunteering started in their towns. Reported by: Mary House Jill 2016 Volunteer Organizer, Onondaga County [email protected] 315-243-7748          

Albany - In light of the ongoing investigation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's former confidante and campaign manager Joseph Percoco, the Green Party of New York again calls on the New York State Legislature to pass a comprehensive ethics and campaign finance reform package before the end of the 2016 session. Noting the endemic nature of corruption amongst state officials in New York and the frequent indictments brought by US Attorney Preet Bharara, Green Party officers stated that only a strong push to remove the legalized bribery of campaign donations and the lure of outside income for legislators would clean up the cesspool of corruption found in Albany. "We know what will work to change the political culture in Albany: closing the LLC loophole, limiting outside income for legislators, strong disclosure and conflict-of-interest rules for income earned by lawmakers and senior staff, and a fully transparent budget process. While outside income for legislators should be limited to levels akin to those of Congress (15% of the highest salary paid to any sitting legislator), the party supports a full-time, year-round state legislature much like California's. Legislators should consider this their job, and during their terms should worry about people of New York State and not outside income. This would require far more than the 60 calendar days spent in Albany during the year," said Gloria Mattera, state party co-chair. "Alongside this we need a system of full public campaign financing for candidates at the local, state and federal levels modeled on those of Maine and Arizona. The real impetus for corruption arises when campaign donors are able to influence government through the system of legalized bribery that is our campaign finance laws. Creating a system where candidates have no need to solicit those bribes in the first place would move us far closer to cleaning up Albany than any of the so-called reforms have done to this point," concluded Peter LaVenia, state party co-chair. For Immediate ReleaseMay 10, 2016 Green Party of New Yorkhttp://www.gpny.org/ Contact:Gloria Mattera, 917-886-4538, [email protected] O'Neil, 917-825-3562, [email protected]  

New York - The Green Party of New York (GPNY) has issued the below statement in response to frustrated voters calling for "open" primaries in the state of New York, and the recent lawsuit filed to that effect. GPNY will not participate in the April 19th Primary Election for president, and instead New York Greens will vote for the Green Party's 2016 presidential nominee at a June 11 state nominating convention in Troy, NY (with a mail-in ballot available for Greens who cannot attend). The Green Party of the United States national convention will take place in Houston, TX from August 4-7. The winner of the GPUS nomination will appear on the November 8 General Election ballot for all New York voters. Continue reading

The Democratic primary campaign of Bernie Sanders has ignited a new enthusiasm among many who are fed up with the status-quo of politics in the United States. Tens of thousands have joined rallies to hear Sanders decry the billionaire class and call for an end to inequality. Many on the Left have embraced the campaign. Others have argued against support for Sanders, calling instead for Leftist to organize independently of the Democratic Party. Continue reading

The Gotham Greens local of the Green Party of New York County is organizing a free public forum on the candidacy of Bernie Sanders for President. The Sanders campaign has generated a lot of interest because it is raising the public profile of issues that have wide support among those on the political Left. A number of registered Greens are involved in the Sanders campaign in order to advance certain policy objectives even while taking issue with some of the candidate's specific policy positions. Others are critical of Sanders' decision to run as a Democrat and feel that the long-term path to building an independent political movement must be outside of the two corporate parties. Regardless of who wins the Democratic Party nomination, the Green Party will be running its own candidate for President in 2016 and Jill Stein and others are actively campaigning for the Green Party's nomination. This forum will explore whether and how Sanders supporters and Greens can work together to advance our shared policy goals both during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. Continue reading