The Green Party’s Jill Stein
It’s official! The Green Party nominated Dr. Jill Stein as its candidate for President over the weekend at the party’s national convention in Baltimore.
Following a state-by-state roll call vote in which Stein came out with 193.5 delegate votes to 72 votes for actress and activist Roseanne Barr, the party unanimously selected Cheri Honkala as the Green Vice-Presidential nominee in a voice vote.
At one point, a few months ago, it seemed like this year’s Green convention could be a raucous and potentially controversial event. When Roseanne Barr decided to seek the party’s nomination, it set up a potential split between the more “conservative” rank-and-file Greens and those looking to make a big splash by nominating a celebrity candidate. However, the split barely materialized as Barr’s campaign never packed much of a punch. Throughout the Spring, the Stein campaign demonstrated their superior organizational skills, as the Massachusetts doctor rolled over Roseanne in one state contest after another. The final blow came in early June when Stein outpolled Barr in the party’s California primary, considered by many as Barr’s home turf and last stand.
Stein told a crowd in the hotel lobby, “We are the 99 percent, and this year we take our country back.”
Portions of the convention, including the presidential balloting, were televised live by C-SPAN. This year’s convention seemed like a remarkably low-key event, lacking the production values and crowd enthusiasm you might expect from a political party’s national convention. As an illustration of my point, compare the below videos of Jill Stein’s acceptance speech from this weekend and the video of David Cobb’s speech from the party’s 2004 convention.
To watch the entire nominating session from this weekend’s convention, click here for the C-SPAN video.
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