Ajamu Sibeko Baraka

 

Ajamu Sibeko Baraka, October 25, 1953 (Chicago, Ill.) -

VP candidate for Green Party of the United States (aka Independent aka DC Statehood Green Party aka Green Independent Party aka Green Rainbow Party aka Pacific Green Party aka Progressive Party aka Unaffiliated aka Mountain Party) (2016)
VP candidate for Wake Up (2016)

Running mate with nominee: Jill Ellen Stein (b. 1950)
Running mate with nominee: Charles R. Zerilli
Popular vote (Stein): 1,355,128 (0.99%)
Popular vote (Zerilli): 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign (Stein):

Jill Stein was nominated as the Green Party standard bearer for the second time in 2016. Her official running-mate was Ajamu Baraka.

Stein's direction had veered a bit since 2012. In the 2016 election some critical observers felt she was starting to demonstrate what critics call "conspirituality," where New Age followers and the more cultish Trump adherents overlap in their denial of science and embracing a multitude of conspiracy theories. For example, the belief that Big Pharma controls the government regulatory agencies and vaccinations are harmful. Although Stein did not go full anti-vaxxer, she was accused by critics of pandering to that demographic through the use of linguistic "dog whistles." Critics also contended she used the same method in suggesting Wi-Fi causes brain damage and that the 9/11 attack deserved more investigation.

Although even skeptics agreed the Greens seemed to be more reality based when it came to environmental science, they pointed out their medical science was quite another thing (which is ironic considering Stein is a doctor), as demonstrated on the Green webpage--

Greens support a wide-range of health care services, not just traditional medicine which too often emphasizes “a medical arms race” that relies upon high-tech intervention, surgical techniques and costly pharmaceuticals. Chronic conditions are often best cured by alternative medicine. We support the teaching, funding and practice of holistic health approaches and as appropriate, the use of complementary and alternative therapies such as herbal medicines, homeopathy, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine and other healing approaches.

The rise and fall of the Bernie Sanders campaign left a good sized number of voters without a home. The Green Party was able to seize upon this opportunity. The Greens disdained Sanders' method of working within a major party, and felt everything the Democrats co-opted from them, such as the Green New Deal, became watered down after it had been essentially mainstreamed (hmm, interesting accidental aquatic wordplay there). Stein also did not seem to care if Trump emerged the winner in 2016--

The answer to neofascism is stopping neoliberalism. Putting another Clinton in the White House will fan the flames of this right-wing extremism. We have known that for a long time ever since Nazi Germany. We are going to stand up to Donald Trump and to stand up to Hillary Clinton!

Stein told the media she would step aside if Sanders was willing to run for President in the Green Party. She felt Clinton could do more damage if elected because she was competent where Trump was clearly in over his head.

The fact her running-mate Baraka was outspoken about his embrace of certain conspiracy theories did not help with the Greens escaping the "woo" image that took off like a rocket with Cynthia McKinney in 2008 and was now solidifying in 2016. He was particularly interested in what he viewed as US-generated "false flag" operations.

Baraka also held an unorthodox opinion regarding the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shootings. An essay he wrote on the subject includes this sample--

Je Suis Charlie has become a sound bite to justify the erasure of non-Europeans, and for ignoring the sentiments, values and views of the racialized “other.” In short, Je Suis Charlie has become an arrogant rallying cry for white supremacy that was echoed at the white power march on Sunday in Paris and in the popularity of the new issue of Charlie Hebdo.

It was published as part of his article, "The Paris Attacks and the White Lives Matter Movement" in Kevin Barrett's anthology entitled ANOTHER French False Flag?: Bloody Tracks from Paris to San Bernardino with contributions by Holocaust deniers, 9/11 Truthers, anti-Semites, and other conspiracy theorists. Baraka was forced to issue a statement that he had no idea of the overall scope of the monograph and found himself on the defensive for most of the campaign.

Baraka was not a fan of President Obama, who he called an "Uncle Tom," nor of Sen. Sanders and the majority of his supporters--

In their desperate attempt to defend Sanders and paint his critics as dogmatists and purists, the Sanders supporters have not only fallen into the ideological trap of a form of narrow “left” nativism, but also the white supremacist ethical contradiction that reinforces racist cynicism in which some lives are disposable for the greater good of the West.

And as much as the ‘Sandernistas ’ attempt to disarticulate Sanders “progressive” domestic policies from his documented support for empire (even the Obamaite aphorism “The perfect is the enemy of the good” is unashamedly deployed), it should be obvious that his campaign is an ideological prop – albeit from a center/left position – of the logic and interests of the capitalist-imperialist settler state.

The silence of the left on Yemen is not a trivial matter. The fact that so many white leftist supporters of Sanders can politically and psychologically disconnect his domestic program from his foreign policy positions that objectively support U.S. and Western neoliberal hegemony means that not only have they found a way to be comfortable collaborating with imperialism, but that they have also decided that they can support the implicit hierarchy that determines from an imperial perspective that lives in the White West matter more than others.

This is not to suggest that everyone who might find a way to support Sanders is a closet racist and supporter of imperialism. I know plenty of folks of all backgrounds who “feel the Bern.” There is, however, an objective logic to their uncritical support that they cannot escape and which I believe represents the ongoing crisis of radicalism in the U.S. and Europe.

For some reason Howie Hawkins once again ended up as a stand-in VP, this time in Minnesota, Vermont, and Washington. He was quoted by Politico during the Green convention with a statement that turned out to be prophetic--

The biggest threat to the Democrats isn't losing votes to the Greens ... Working class whites say, well, the Democrats don't have all that much for us. And Trump sounds like he's mad at the system. So they throw a protest vote to him ... the African-American, Latino, Asian working class. Barack Obama got them out twice, but he didn't do a lot for them, and he's not on the ticket this time.

Stein finished in 4th place with 1,457,288 votes (1.06%), the second highest result in the history of the Party. Of that, the Stein/Baraka team accounted for 1,355,128 votes. The ticket had their strongest results in: Hawaii (2.97%), Oregon (2.50%), Kansas (1.98%), California (1.96%), Maine (1.91%), Alaska (1.80%), and Montana (1.60%).

Some pundits point to Stein's percentages in Wisconsin (1.04%), Pennsylvania (0.81%), and Michigan (1.07%)-- all swing states that voted for Trump who won by margins below the Green total-- and accuse her of being a spoiler as they accused Nader in 2000. However, in all three states the Libertarians had considerably higher percentages than the Greens, placing third, which complicates the "spoiler equation." If anything, a case could be made both third parties drew away a significant number of "Protest Voters" who otherwise would have voted for Trump and he won those states in spite of that.

Baraka endorsed Howie Hawkins in 2020.

The campaign (Zerilli):

Charles R. Zerelli of Staten Island, N.Y. was a registered write-in in Minnesota and Washington under a party called Wake Up. In Minnesota he indicated Baraka was his running-mate.

One of Zarelli's Youtube's summarizes his platform in the introductory text--

After finding out that Radio-Active-Readings are approaching Cali. Shores.. Charles wants Fukuashima STOPPED NOW. Waters heating-up WILL spawn Poison gasses. SEE THIS VIDEO NOW.!!  He will go there and do this for America AND The Worlds benefit. "I'm Ready to go to China and help them ..to help US.  Redefining what a National Security Emergency really is.. A business plan and HOW Carbon-Foot-Print IS effecting US. Charles really cares for US, our retirement and our kids-kids NOW - Cha

No votes were reported.

Election history: none

Other occupations: US Army (Vietnam War), Amnesty International board member and regional director, executive director of the US Human Rights Network, teacher, editor, columnist

Notes:
Awarded the US Peace Prize by the US Peace Memorial Foundation in 2019.

Cheri Lynn Honkala

 

Cheri Lynn Honkala, January 12, 1963 (Minneapolis, Minn.) -

VP candidate for Green Party of the United States (aka DC Statehood-Green Party aka Mountain Party aka Green-Rainbow Party aka Independent aka Pacific Green Party aka Green Independent Party) (2012)

Running mate with nominee: Jill Ellen Stein (b. 1950)
Popular vote: 431,741 (0.33%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The 2012 Green Party Presidential nomination was won by Massachusetts physician Jill Stein, a perennial Green Party candidate for various offices in the Bay State during the previous decade. From 2005-2011 she had been twice elected to the Lexington, Mass. town council, her only public office prior to running for the White House.

The cornerstone of Stein's campaign was the Green New Deal, a phrase that goes back to the early 21st century, was picked up and expanded on by the Green Party, and then later co-opted by progressive Democrats. The Party's 2012 Green New Deal not only called for assertive environmental measures but also included several social issues such as full employment, strict tariffs, support labor unions, upgrade the nation's infrastructure, tuition-free education, a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, phase out dependence on oil-coal-nuclear power, repeal the Patriot Act, Statehood for DC, legalize marijuana.

Although Stein might have appeared radical to mainstream voters, she looked totally moderate when compared to her running-mate, controversial Philadelphia-based activist Cheri Honkala. The Green Party VP had a Dickens style hardluck upbringing and later survived as a homeless single mother living in her car. In her struggle she evolved into an unorthodox and in-your-face advocate on behalf of those living on the margins of society. Her method of operation was confrontational, probably giving her the record among 2012 nominees for number of arrests related to civil disobedience. Honkala's efforts worked in terms of generating attention for her cause. Back when magazines had more clout than they do today, Ms. Magazine named Honkala "Woman of the Year" in 2001, and Mother Jones bestowed the "Hellraiser of the Month" honor to her in April 2005.

Stein and Honkala were arrested more than once during the campaign in the course of protesting issues like foreclosures and being excluded from the Obama-Romney debates. For them, incarceration was considered just part of the election process.

Their 4th place result of nearly half a million votes was the best showing for the Green Party since 2000. On the ballot in 35 states + DC and write-ins in 5, there were no states where they could be accused, as they were in 2000, of being a spoiler. The Stein/Honkala ticket finished strongest in Maine (1.14%), Oregon (1.18%), Alaska (0.97%), Arkansas (0.87%), District of Columbia (0.84%, where they placed third), Hawaii (0.73%), Washington and Idaho (0.67% each), West Virginia and California (0.66% each), Massachusetts (0.65%).

In Wisconsin Stein's running-mate was Ben Manski, in Illinois it was Howie Hawkins.

Stein would run again in 2016 where she had morphed into a different kind of candidate who would have more of an impact on the outcome of the election. I'll get to that later.

Election history:
2011 - Sheriff of Philadelphia, Penn. (Green Party of the United States) - defeated
2017 - Pennsylvania House of Representatives (Green Party of the United States) - defeated

Other occupations: activist for homeless, co-founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, co-founder National Coordinator of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign

Notes:
Honkala's son is the actor Mark Webber, best known to me as "The Kid" at the end of one of Bill Murray's best films, Broken Flowers (2005). Murray imparts the following wisdom, "Well, the past is gone, I know that. The future, isn't here yet, whatever it's going to be. So, all there is, is, is this. The present. That's it."

Rosa Alicia Clemente

 

Rosa Alicia Clemente, April 18, 1972 (New York, NY) -

VP candidate for Green Party of the United States (aka DC Statehood-Green Party aka Mountain Party aka Green-Rainbow Party aka Independent aka Pacific Green Party aka Unaffiliated) (2008)

Running mate with nominee: Cynthia Ann McKinney (b. 1955)
Popular vote: 161,870 (0.12%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In 2008 the Green Party nominated former US Representative Cynthia McKinney for President. Serving from Georgia 1993-2003, 2005-2007, she found herself frequently operating on the Left side of the Democratic Party. Initially she ruled out running for President but changed her mind in the course of the election season. Her running-mate was Hip-Hop activist Rosa Clemente.

McKinney's political record was a mixed bag for progressives. She took strong positions regarding both domestic and international human rights and was firmly in the anti-war camp. In 2006 she had introduced articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush for abuse of office and unconstitutional actions but it failed to clear the House Judiciary Committee.

But on the other hand McKinney also had some serious baggage. She was inclined to promote various conspiracy theories and by 2008 had been associated with the 9/11 Truthers, a claim that the Dept. of Defense used the chaos of Hurricane Katrina to execute about 5,000 people by a bullet to the head, and was showing the early signs of a mindset that would later accept pizzagate, anti-vaccinations, portions of Holocaust denial, exposing "Zionist shill" operations, and many other alleged plots as fact. She would earn a place in the Encyclopedia of American Loons ("The Democrats' answer to Michele Bachmann, McKinney is really stunningly insane, and despite the good stuff she’s done, she is a real threat to sanity and society"), and Cracked's "The 6 Most Insane People to Ever Run for President." McKinney's supporters responded that painting her as a conspiracy nut was an effort to discredit her and hide the truth.

In 2006 McKinney made national news after she was accused of physically assaulting a Capitol police officer who stopped her entrance to an office building due to her lack of displaying the required credential identification.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviewed McKinney and Clemente and in her introduction stated, "The Green Party made history last week when it nominated the first all-women-of-color presidential ticket in US history." This is an often repeated claim about the McKinney/Clemente ticket but it is not really accurate. Earlier tickets included: Lenora Fulani with VPs Wynonia Brewington Burke, Mamie L. Moore, and Barbara R. Taylor (New Alliance Party, 1988), Lenora Fulani and Maria Elizabeth Muñoz (New Alliance Party, 1992), Isabell Masters and Shirley Jean Masters (Looking Back Party, 1996), Monica Gail Moorehead and Gloria Estela La Riva (Workers World Party, 1996, 2000), Isabell Masters and Alfreda Dean Masters (Looking Back Party, 2000).

During the Goodman interview, Clemente gave the listeners a little bit of autobiography and her mission--

I mean, thank you for having me, Amy. It’s a humbling experience, first and foremost. But, I mean, I’m a South Bronx Puerto Rican-born girl, 1972. I was in the South Bronx when hip hop, which is still now the voice of multi-racial young people all over the world, began. So I’m humbled, but I’m ready for the work. I’ve been in a great tradition of student activists coming from the State University of New York at Albany in the early ’90s to getting my Master’s at Cornell University under the mentorship of Dr. James Turner and being a community organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, but again under mentorship of the great late Richie Perez.

So I’m humbled, but I’m also excited, because I feel that many African American, indigenous, Asian, Latino youth in this country, mostly working class, are completely disenfranchised and marginalized from a two-party system. There’s over 40 percent of young people that still have not registered to vote, which shows their dissatisfaction with both the Republicans and Democrats. And I really want to bring the face of what hip hop has always been for me, a voice of the voiceless, the mic that speaks truth to power but also uses these elements to act against the status quo or the powers that be.

The Workers World Party endorsed McKinney in this election rather than running their own candidate. She was also endorsed by Roseanne Barr, Noam Chomsky, and Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan.

McKinney/Clemente were on the ballot in 32 states and theoretically could have won enough votes to achieve the magic 270 Electoral number to take office. They were also write-ins in 17 other states. Their strongest percentages on Election Day were in Louisiana (0.47%), Maine (0.40%), West Virginia (0.33%), Arkansas (0.32%), California (0.29%), Oregon (0.25%), and South Carolina (0.23%). They had earned a little more than 40,000 votes over the previous election for the Greens.

Election history: none

Other occupations: journalist, media consultant, speakers bureau

Notes:
In Nov. 2019 McKinney endorsed Adam Kokesh for the 2020 Libertarian Party Presidential nomination.