Members of the Bernalillo County Green Party elected new officers and brainstormed ways to boost party participation during the group's annual convention Saturday at the UNM Law School.
David Bacon, the Green Party gubernatorial candidate, also made an unscheduled appearance at the event.
Bacon, from Santa Fe, said that Kathy Sanchez, director of the activist group Tewa Women United, has agreed to run as his Lieutenant Governor.
He said local renewable energy, water issues, universal health care, the downside of corporate power, campaign finance reform and keeping the money in New Mexico are paramount issues in the fall election.
"I think every issue we've got this year, it's just going to be up to me, and Kathy, and to our other candidates to articulate those to people," Bacon said. "And again, I haven't heard anyone, the other two parties, really addressing them at the level they need addressing."
Bacon said his background in politics comes from his participation in the fight against electricity deregulation in New Mexico in 1999. Bacon said he is also a member of the Permaculture Credit Union, a nonprofit financial cooperative that he helped to form in Santa Fe, and is on the board of directors of the Los Alamos Study Group, a group that focuses on nuclear issues at the laboratory. He added that he has worked for years for Cornerstones, a nonprofit church restoration and community revitalization program.
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Bacon urged Green Party members to run for the state Legislature.
"I think if we can start getting good, Green candidates at the state level, it would really put the party forward," he said.
Martin Zehr, the out-going co-chair of the Bernalillo Green Party, said voter registration of Green party members in Bernalillo County has gone up 16 percent during the past six months.
"Now we have voter registration of 5,200 and this isn't because of any voter registration drives," Zehr said. "We haven't gone door-to-door, we haven't got tables, by and large, outside places to register voters.
"On the other hand, we have engaged with the community issues and we have been a visible presence throughout the issues that are raised, in such a way that people identified us as people who were serious about promoting change."
Zehr added that officials from other parties are now starting to view the Green Party as a force to be reckoned in the congressional district.
Marsha Lichtenstein, who was elected as the co-chairwoman for the Bernalillo County Green Party at the convention, said she would like to see the party have more meetings in the county. She said this would build more solidarity among members while supporting the party's grassroots community project ethic.
"It would make ourselves have a presence in the community because we're contributing and we're networking," she said. "To me, that's what the Greens is really about, making an impact on the community. That's what it started out to be for me and I think that's what I value most about it and I don't think you have credibility in elections until you're really out there in the street."
Roy Johnson, newly elected co-chairman, said he has been a Green Party member since October. Before that, the University of Phoenix teacher and retired Air Force member said he had been a Republican for 32 years. Johnson said one thing he likes about the Green Party is that people get to participate. He said that the party needs to reach out to UNM students and reiterated that building community is important in the United States and across the world.
"Without the sense of community, we are never going to survive in a peaceful world, period," Johnson said. "And that includes a sense of community, not only with other people, but with the environment, too."
