The first registered Green in the state is “elated” to finally be able to vote under his preferred political affiliation after years of complaining, but he’s still hoping the Greens achieve full political party status.
Beginning Jan. 2, Iowa has established a new class of minor political party called a “political organization.” The change is part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Green and Libertarian Parties. Political organizations are required to have run a statewide candidate within the last decade and to complete a petition process.
The news, and the handful of new Green and Libertarian registrations, have been buried by the caucuses and the massive waves of caucus-night party changes to the major parties, but that wasn't on the mind of Ron Kinum of Iowa City the morning of Jan. 2. “I really was hoping to be the first if it was possible, without being egocentric about it,” said Kinum. He went to the Johnson County Auditor’s office just before 8 a.m. on Jan. 2, after attending the Hamburg Inn’s Coffee Bean Caucus results announcement.
“I filled in the form and requested they enter my registration in the computer so I would be among the first registrants,” said Kinum. “I really did expect someone somewhere in the state would want to register before they went to work or something. As it turned out, the clerk said I was the very first to register!”
“I was more elated over just being able to sign up as a Green after three years of complaining to the Auditor's office and to the state ID office where I got my ID back in 2006,” Kinum said.
Kinum is still not happy about the way the process treats the Greens. “They still discriminate about us as being a ‘political organization,’” he said. Full party status still requires two percent of the vote for governor or president. The Greens had full party status from 2000 to 2002, and the Reform Party had party status from 1996 to 1998.
As political organizations, the Greens and Libertarians will not hold primaries. Soma activists, like Holly Hart of the Greens, are just as happy not to have a primary, since a low turnout primary leaves a small party vulnerable to takeover by candidates who do not support the party’s values. That happened to the Reform Party in 2000, when Pat Buchanan took over the remnants of Ross Perot's organization and drove the party's only elected official, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, to quit the party.
Kinum was also displeased with the Coffee Bean Caucus results, noting that Green candidate Cynthia McKinney’s coffee bean jar was not added until December, shortly before her announcement. “Many of (her) 36 (votes) were from me,” he said. “I figure I put in at least a third of them. I am a somewhat regular customer.” (The Coffee Bean Caucus slogan is "One bean, one vote," not "One person, one vote.")
Kinum attended the Democratic caucus for his precinct, wearing green clothing and a Green Party hat. He did not participate because he refused to re-register as a Democrat as required under party rules.
Kinum is well known in Iowa City for attending political events in Iowa City and carrying large hand-made signs, and he made a special sign for the caucus:
GROW UP
CITIZENS OF
OZ!THE CAUCUS SYSTEM IS
ANTI-DEMOCRACY!ONLY THE PRIMARY GIVES YOU A
VOTE!
Kimum was unimpressed with the proceedings on caucus night. “It is so Neanderthal in the process that I cannot believe how ignorant these people are about the way they are doing this! Why don't they have foot races and arm wrestling to decide their candidates?” he said. “They're wasting an entire night to play politics like little children rather than to just have a primary vote and get the issue decided by the tally numbers!”
But other Greens, including Hart, like the caucuses’ system of second choice voting. “The caucus poll is proportional representation, exactly what Greens say we want,” she said. “There are some undemocratic things involved, but the caucus poll isn't one of them.”
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