Candidates for Co-Chair (3 seats)

michele bickingMichele L. Bicking

Candidate for Co-Chair
At Large, Tolland - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 860-598-0018

Michelle Louise Bicking is a licensed clinical social worker, Justice of the Peace, and aspiring herbalist originally from Brooklyn, New York. She is a first generation Bajan (Barbados)/Vincentian (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) American that identified as an emerging woman farmer of color. She says farming is a natural extension of her role as a professional caregiver and her 20+ years of direct service experience to social and economically disenfranchised youth and families including in inner city and rural communities throughout the Northeast. Now, as Executive Director/Founder of Hidden Acres Farm, she is looking to channel her life-long commitment to service into regional projects that address the opioid pandemic, including opening a trauma-informed rural mental health clinic with a focus on forging/rebuilding connections to name spiritual life as well as to the natural world through farming. In addition to hosting agriculture-oriented seminars targeting folks of color, she is currently working on a series of regenerative agriculture projects, including a medicinal herb garden.

Stance:

Michelle stands by her platform from 2018 when she ran for Representative to Congress, 2nd District: pro-choice; anti-death penalty; pro-cannabis legalization, taxation and deregulation including industrial hemp; immediate forgiveness to all student loans; freedom of religion or non-religion; universal health care for all, including legal migrants; freedom from discrimination for LGBTQIA, Two Spirit, et al. communities; sanctuary communities and houses of worship; gender pay equity; paid family leave; universal education for all; ending mass incarceration; supporting a peace economy, town by town.

Party Goals:

In addition to broadening the base of existing members to include more ethnic and religious "minority" groups through targeted outreach efforts, Michelle is eager to host an international convening of Green Party members from across the globe between 2020 and 2021. Michelle is also interested in cofounding a communal work space with incubator projects led and staffed by Green Party members for the greater good of the communities in which it is housed.

 

owen charlesOwen Charles

Candidate for Co-Chair
Shoreline Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Green Future.

What is that about? You SHOULD ask!

It’s about- setting the stage for people taking power and overturning many years of “duopoly.” Let’s define “Duopoly”: it is a corporate coup d’etat supporting the Democrat and Republican parties. It is billionaire and corporate money exerting more influence in our “democracy” than the actual votes of people.

  • Green Party: it ought to be about: we the people working together to combat: 1) Crony Capitalism 2) Climate Destruction 3) Injustice – Racial, Military-Industrial, Medical-Industrial…
  • What it has been in Connecticut: Dysfunctional attacking of everyone, rudderless, aimless, a small club.
  • What it needs to be in Connecticut: Working together with each other AND with other groups – Socialist, BLM, LGBTQ+, environmentalist, unions, etc.:
    • To help guide the electoral approach (running candidates who can win) and
    • To support Direct Action and each other’s efforts.

Frances Fox Piven once said: “A life of political engagement is so much more interesting and so much more joyful and comradely than a life of private disengagement and private consumption.” Let’s try to bring comradely joy back to the Green Party of Connecticut, starting with “Making GP meetings Fun Again!” ®

  • WHAT YOU SHOULD DO? Please, please, VOTE in this annual Green Party election for the GREEN FUTURE SLATE that will represent this CHANGE:  myself, Owen Charles,Peter Goselin, and Michelle Bicking for co-chairs, Bob Stuller for Treasurer, and Ronna Stuller for Secretary. In 2018, I was treasurer for Michelle’s campaign for Congress, and a strong supporter of Peter’s campaign for Attorney General. If YOU are ready to run in 2020, heck, you may easily have me supporting your campaign – just ask!

Suffice it to say, I am a life-long activist, a Registered Nurse, a former Occupy-organizer, and a business professional with an MBA in healthcare management. I’ve held public office, run as a Green candidate, and founded and continue to be a leader of the Shoreline Green Party, a thriving (and fun) chapter. If you’d like to know more, visit my candidate site: http://shorelinegreenparty.com/owen-charles-2017 .

But “it’s not about me." It is about turning the Connecticut Green Party into an effective organization to accomplish what we all want. To do that, no matter where you have stood to date, I ask you:

PLEASE, vote for the Green Future, represented by Peter, Michelle, and me, Ronna, and Bob.

Thanks.

And one more thing:

Unless we want to remain a “Small Club” we need to welcome people into a mass movement – This will require “meeting people where they are.” Convincing and “converting” if you will, those among us – friends, family, neighbors, and many strangers who may be registered as Democrats or Independent or even Republican. Taking an insular and at times paranoiac approach to outsiders is not working. We in the shoreline LITERALLY brought over 10 of our members (including yours truly) from the Democrat Party (and some unaffiliated) to be Registered Green. It can be done, but it means tactful engagement. I look to our brothers and sisters in neighboring Waterford and New London, who have, yes, cross-endorsed others. IS this the END of the Green Party? Or is it the beginning of strategic engagement, and winning elections? Decentralization is a key Green principle – and as an exception, these strategies may pay off in certain areas. Do I gleefully embrace cross-endorsement? NO. But also, we will not “become the Working Families Party,” although we must respect that fear. But, Yes, we can become a Party that inspires people and WINS ELECTIONS. Look at the electoral successes of New London and Waterford. Mirna Martinez’ 2019 campaign was a significant achievement and despite incredible obstacles, was the first candidate in CT to qualify as a Green for state matching funds, didn’t win, but came close – in 2nd in a field of 4, beating a Republican and a Democrat, and getting the endorsements of The Day newspaper, the Police and Fire Unions. You don’t achieve things like that by staying at home and posting nasty things on Facebook and fighting with people who should be your comrades. You get there by showing up, inspiring people, and working with and meeting people “where they are”.

 

owen charlesCheryl Curtiss

Candidate for Co-Chair
At Large, Litchfield County - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I’m running for co-chair and am asking for your vote as part of the progressive slate in this important election that will determine the direction of the Connecticut Green Party in the year ahead.

I’ll start by telling you a little bit about myself. I have worked in education most of my life, first teaching Spanish at Bloomfield High School and at several community colleges and have also taught ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) and coordinated the ESOL program in the West Hartford school system for 17 years. I hold a BS in Spanish with a minor in TESOL and an MS in Secondary Education and an MS in Counseling. I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in Connecticut. I currently reside in Northfield which is part of Litchfield, CT.

I’ve been a member of the Green Party since 2012, and have held “Green” values all of my life and became politically active in the antiwar movement 17 years ago co-founding West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice. I also worked on drafting a petition opposing the Patriot Act and helped to get town officials to endorse it.

I support the National Green Party and the Four Pillars and Ten Key Values it promotes, and the real Green New Deal. I also believe that we must adhere to the national GP bylaws on all issues, and especially cross-endorsing with those two other parties, which is prohibited. Therefore, I support our current CT Green Party bylaws because they are in alignment with the national GP bylaws.

I do not support cross-endorsing with any other political party. The two main political parties are corrupt beyond repair. We need a separate, independent GP not tainted by any connection to the democrats or republicans. There are more independents than democrats or republicans for a reason. It’s time for the Green Party to reach out to these independents. We want to be a true alternative voice and choice for the voters.

As a co-chair, I would work to bring the CT Green Party together to create a unified and robust party, and to promote “green” issues and help our green candidates get elected. I would also make fund-raising a priority in order to accomplish our goals.

I would also work to create a listserv including all of the registered greens in Connecticut and work with others to send out a monthly newsletter keeping them informed of our activities/candidates. As an at large Green, the only information I ever received from the party was the annual ballot. If we hope to grow stronger as a party, we need to change that.

Together we can make our Green Party candidates a viable choice for voters who are sick of having the limited choices offered by the two corporately controlled political parties. To accomplish this we must keep the CT Green Party independent.

So, I’m asking you to vote for me and the entire progressive slate so that we can work together to create a strong, independent, and robust CT Green Party.

 

mike derosaMichael DeRosa

Candidate for Co-Chair
Hartford County Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 860-919-4042

Dear Green Party of CT Member:

I want your vote for Co-chair of the Green Party of CT. I believe that I and other members of the progressive slate represent the best long and short term interests of the Green Party of CT.

Accomplishments in the Green Party of CT:

  • Co-founder of the Green Party of CT in 1995.
  • Campaign Manager for six years for the three successful elections of Elizabeth Horton Sheff to the Hartford City Council as a Green. These successful elections stopped the siting of a toxic medical waste dump in Hartford CT.
  • I have run as a Green Candidate for State Senate (11% twice), Congress in the 1st district (5500 votes, 1.8%), and most recently in 2014 and 2016 for CT Secretary of State.
  • Litigant (as a Green Candidate) in the lawsuit: Green Party of CT vs. Garfield. This case was about requiring huge signature requirements from third parties for grants under the CT campaign finance law while not applying these same requirements to the major parties. We won a positive decision by Federal Judge Underhill on this case and got a negative decision at the appellate level with a 2 to 1 vote. The US Supreme Court took our case but refused to rule on our lawsuit. We continue to fight this unfair and discriminatory law.
  • As Co-chair I have given honest, dependable, and committed activism to our party and have fought for democracy and respect for diversity within our party.
  • Worked with Green Party of CT members to develop a legislative agenda in the present and last General Assembly that include proposals and bills that supported: A CT Public Bank, urban agriculture, renewable energy, universal health care, municipal energy districts, medical marijuana reform, demilitarization of the police, and ballot access reform. We met with many legislatures on these proposals and bills and got a deputy speaker of the house to submit and support a CT Public Bank bill
  • Was the CT state wide coordinator for ballot access for the effort to get Jill Stein on the ballot in 2016. We collected over 17,000 signatures across the state of CT and put Jill Stein on the ballot in 2016 (we needed 7500 valid signatures to get on the ballot). Jill got 1.4% of vote which means that we will ballot access for our next presidential candidate in 2020. Help to support and develop two dozen candidates that ran for state and state-wide office in 2018 and I continue to support and work with the Greater Hartford Green Party. These included putting in the necessary paper work into the CT SOTS’s office, holding phone campaign seminars for new candidates, and helping people to petition on to the ballot.

Over the next year as your Co-chair I will work hard to keep our party independent and Green. There are those who want our party to cross endorse Republicans and Democrats. This is a big tactical and political mistake. One only has to look at what cross endorsement did to the Independent Party of CT and the A Connecticut Party to see that these 3rd parties are either dead, dependent, or moribund. We have won many offices at the local level all over CT and have gotten many votes for state and federal office. I believe we are on the cusp of a great break through if we continue support the 10 key values and the platform of the Green Party and thereby build our party with issues and people and not with back room deals. I support our present bylaws that continue to support keeping our party independent and Green.

My goals if I am elected to co-chair this year include developing a internet newsletter for the GPCT in coordination with the GPCT Media committee. As part of the fund raising committee we will create events that will create the necessary money to develop the news letter and other important organizing tools in 2019. In late April of 2019 we hosted an event that raised over A $1000 so that we could send out our ballots for the upcoming election. I was the coordinator for this event.

I believe that the Green Party of CT’s time is near. The American electorate are tired of the two party monopoly and have shown over the last year that they are tired of a government that is more interested in waging war all over the world than in building a just and fair society for all of our citizens. Building a real Green progressive party is not easy. If it was easy we would have a party that represented the 99% a long time ago instead of having two parties that consistently support the interest of the 1%. We can and will build this real Green progressive party because very soon the citizens of the United States will demand it. That is why we must stay with the issues and build the independent Green candidacies that will make us relevant and strong.

Please consider voting for me for Co-chair and voting for the entire progressive slate.

If you have any questions feel free to contact at 860-919-4042.

 

dustin fioreDustin Fiore

Candidate for Co-Chair
At Large, Seymour - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Fellow Greens, I would like to be one of your next Co-Chairs of the Green Party of Connecticut. I have a committed record with the Green Party, a strong academic background, and a history of success in positions of leadership. I want to be part of the leadership team bringing the Green Party of Connecticut forward and upward.

I have been a member of the Green Party since 2016. I first became involved with the Green Party while living in Denver, Colorado. I was one of the founding members of the Arapahoe County chapter of the Green Party of Colorado. I organized a speaking event for Jill Stein in Denver during her 2016 Presidential campaign. I also assisted on the campaign of Arn Menconi for U.S. Senate. I am a passionate member of the party and I believe I am the ideal person to help lead the Green Party of Connecticut going forward.

I earned my Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Central Connecticut State University. After leaving CCSU I earned my Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. During my time at St. Thomas I was the Competition Chair for the Moot Court Board in addition to competing twice nationally. I was also the Vice President of the Entertainment and Sports Law Society.

During my final year in law school each of the organizations was recognized as the top two organizations at the law school. Through Moot Court I created a survey for the members, which resulted in our entry into a handful of new competitions. The ESLS was extremely active during my time as Vice President. We were able to organize several outings and guest speakers in addition to a fundraising tennis tournament and a daylong symposium.

I have a strong and resolute vision for the future of the GPCT. My first order of business is to conduct meetings in a way that is democratic and productive. As a newer member of the GPCT my only loyalties are to the party and the values it stands for. I wish to see our party as efficient as possible.

I strive to expand the channels through which we disseminate our information. Younger voters are not tuning into AM talk radio or the evening news on Channel 8. Young voters are using social media, listening to podcasts, and consuming independent and viewer-funded news segments on YouTube. The youngest segments of the voting population are the best aligned with our policy positions and we are doing ourselves a great disservice by not getting our message to them.

We must also make a concerted effort to reach out to the underrepresented portion of the electorate, women and people of color. This outreach must be one of actions and not merely one of words. My vision of the GPCT of the future is one where we walk the picket lines with union voters and march arm-in-arm with the families affected by police brutality. We must become more visible in these communities and most importantly we must listen to the concerns and critiques of the members of these communities and incorporate them into our own vision. Our key values illustrate that we are the party to best represent them, and it’s time we go prove it to them.

I also strongly believe in keeping the Green Party independent. The Democratic Party has demonstrated time and time again that it is simply incapable of making the necessary changes to improve our world. The Democratic Party has gone out of its way in some states to remove our ballot status, to disparage and dismiss our party and candidates, and to implicate us in the Russiagate hysteria when convenient. For the sake of pragmatism I support issue coalitions where we can work with other parties to push forward a particular issue. I oppose any sort of cross endorsement or direct impact from an entity of the Democratic Party.

Here in the Green Party we are a collection of committed activists, searching for the best way to save the planet and to empower the people. I am asking for your support, so that I may serve and guide us towards electoral and grassroots success as an independent party. Thank you for your time and consideration.

 

peter goselinPeter Goselin

Candidate for Co-Chair
Hartford County Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I am proud to have been the Green Party of Connecticut candidate for Attorney General in 2018. Today, more than ever, we need a grassroots political party in Connecticut that will represent the interests of working people, that will fight to dismantle white supremacy and oppression, and that will lead in saving our planet from capitalist greed.

As a lawyer in Connecticut for almost twenty-five years, I have been an advocate for the rights of individual workers and labor unions. In recent years my political and legal work has been focused on exposing police violence against people of color, protecting workers’ rights on the job, defending immigrant workers from wage theft and exploitation, and protecting our First Amendment freedom to protest.

As conscious and caring members of our communities, Greens know it takes more than voting to make change. Neighborhood groups, organizations that represent oppressed communities, labor unions, and direct action groups all play a role, along with political parties like the Connecticut Green Party. Petitions, picket lines, boycotts, and protests are, like running for office and voting, tools for creating a better world.

When activists organize to demand police accountability in their city, or call for a ban on plastic bags, or oppose dangerous budget cuts, we in the Connecticut Green Party should be right there with them. Not only supporting their work but inviting them: run your candidate for board of education or city council or state legislature on the Green Party ballot line. Let us make this tool available to you. To accomplish that goal, we need to take seriously the work of getting Greens onto more ballot lines, preserving the ballot lines we have, and reforming Connecticut’s elections system, including with ballot re-design and Ranked Choice Voting.

 

 

Candidates for CT Representative to the GPUS National Committee (3 seats)

owen charlesOwen Charles

Candidate for CT Representative to the Green Party of United States
Shoreline Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(See above)

 

mike derosaMichael DeRosa

Candidate for CT Representative to the Green Party of United States
Hartford County Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(See above)

 

richard duffeeRichard Duffee

Candidate for CT Representative to the Green Party of United States
Fairfield County Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I am running for a seat on the Green National Committee because I believe I have some knowledge of the structural problems of this country and its place in the world. I studied philosophical psychology at the University of Chicago and law at Pace Law School, where I earned certificates in environmental law and international law along with my J.D. I compiled the first bibliography of the international law of peace, published by Oceana Press in 1990, and later used as the basis for the bibliography of a UN staff training manual on the subject.

I was born when our government began the “Cold War” to open all markets to corporations wanting to profit from the widest variety of resources and the cheapest labor available on earth. Simultaneously the House Un-American Activities Committee began to intimidate us into believing we were under assault when the truth was we were hypocritically planning and conducting aggressive wars, the most fundamental war crimes we’d just outlawed with the Nuremberg Laws.

With our government’s speech and actions perpetually contradicting each other, this was a maximally disorienting world to be born into. The scope of moral and intellectual corruption invading daily life was best expressed for us by J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.

I’ve put a lot of effort to get a grip on this strange reality we live in. I was the president of a Nuclear Freeze group and the research person for the Alliance to Close Indian Point. In prisons I taught creative writing and worked with the Quakers’ Alternative to Violence Program and taught writing and history to “juvenile delinquents” in a detention center in Boston. I worked to find housing for families made homeless in Westchester County. I served on the board of WESPAC and the Westchester and Fairfield Civil Liberties Union. In India I taught Law and Poverty, the Philosophy of Law, and Human Rights Law to law students. I taught logic to an Indian law firm. In 2006 and 2008 I ran for Congress in the 4th Congressional District of CT for the Greens.

 

rolf maurerRolf Maurer

Candidate for CT Representative to the Green Party of United States
Fairfield County Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To date, in response to the extremist blitzkrieg unleashed by the Trump administration on the domestic and global scenes, the Democrats have largely only masked the regressive direction of their own policies on the environment, health care, economics, foreign relations and other areas, beginning with the popular party rebranding as "progressive" (a term our own Senator Chris Murphy has been using since before 2016) to last year's brazen (if watered-down) appropriation of the Green New Deal by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

While the Republicans favor blaming the victim of a problem, the Democrats like to put superficial band-aids on it—approaches that protect both faces of the corporate political Janus from addressing the root cause behind any given issue adversely affecting people and planet, alike, a false distinction driven home to me through numerous runs for municipal and state positions since 2009, where I repeatedly observed how matters on the local level were informed by what was happening on the state/national levels and vice versa.

I would look forward to drawing on this experience in representing Connecticut on the National Committee in support of positions on major issues from the uniquely holistic, radical perspective undergirding the 10 Key Values and Four Pillars of the Green Party of the United States.

 

tim mckeeTim McKee

Candidate for CT Representative to the Green Party of United States
At large, Hamden - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Candidates for Secretary (1 seat)

barbara barryBarbara Barry

Candidate for Secretary
Hartford County Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 860-919-3819

Hi, Green Party of CT members!

I’m Barbara Barry and I’m asking for your vote to be secretary of the GPCT.

As a registered nurse for 50 years, I have had, at times, needed to make decisions about which course of action I would take about complicated situations. Should I follow the legal, medical, ethical and logical protocols or… obey my employer? The answer was to follow the legal, rational, medical and ethical protocols. It was the right thing to do.

I have been involved with 3rd party politics since 1976 but found my political home and have been an active GPCT member since 1996. Green Parties have the humane platforms and philosophies to our concerns.

I pledge as secretary to comply with: GPCT bylaws, rules, policies and procedures; comply with GPUS bylaws, rules, policies and procedures; CT State regulations and show respect for diversity in behavior and deed. E.g.: by not accepting P.A.C. money from other political parties. I’ll support only GPCT candidates on our petitioned ballot lines. These actions along with complying with our GPCT bylaws are helpful in promoting GPCT issues and party building. It also promotes the GPCT political and marketing image because our GPCT (and GPUS) platforms and Green New Deal actually reflect our concerns and agendas. On occasion, one may support some bills and/or issues with other political parties. Compromises can be done as long as one does not give up the overall Green goals or rights or democracy. But we lose our identity if we place candidates of other political parties on our ballot lines.

I pledge to comply with the GPCT bylaw requirements {III, 1. and 2. c) & g)} of secretary and as an officer of the GPCT Executive Committee (EC) and continue my best practices of detailed, comprehensive and transparent minutes and correspondences in a timely fashion. I will continue to hand deliver GPCT documents to the SOTS office, typically on the next business day. This is done to ensure the State of CT actually receives GPCT documents. I did that when I was GPCT secretary some years ago and as the GPCT responsible for delivering all petitions for our successful drive for the GPCT 2016 GPUS presidential candidate ballot line. Because Jill Stein received more than 1% of the 2016 CT votes for president, we have qualified to have a 2020 GPCT ballot line for GPUS president. I pledge to do 2 things as secretary: a) urge the GPCT to endorse the GPUS 2020 presidential candidate and b) will hand deliver the GPCT documentation of endorsement of the 2020 GPUS presidential candidate.

I further pledge to urge the GPCT comply to with the following CT and federal regulations, inclusive but not limited to: ADA, FOI, DOJ, EEOC. (Because the CT SEEC (state elections enforcement committee) and FEC (federal enforcement committee) agencies oversee campaign monies only the GPCT treasurer is authorized (by GPCT bylaws) to comply with these CT and federal regulations.)

These are my GPCT leadership practices, past, present and future, whether a member or an officer.

Outreach: The GPCT and members need to enhance our work with other organizations with shared similar values. I am currently associated with: ANHE (Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environment), IRESN (Interreligious Eco-Justice Network), Tree of Life, Poor People’s Army, SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), Tree of Life, Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Coalition, Hartford Vota Coalition; ACLU, Sierra Club, etc. Other issues I support: racial, gender, religious equality laws and cultural inclusion; demilitarization of the police; demilitarization economy to a peace economy (e.g. renewable energy which is carbon and nuclear free); industrial hemp; gender pay equality; temporary and permanent housing for the homeless; regeneration agriculture; public banking for CT to enable: low interest business loans or college loans; promote home healthcare workers; living minimum wage inclusive of service works. A CT public bank could employ financial workers who are CT residents…which would eliminate their NYC commuter taxes.

If other GPCT members have information about other organizations which share a GPCT value, we need to hear about it from them. Please contact the GPCT secretary. Or if I’m secretary, please contact me (information is below). Or GPCT members could seek authorization from the GPCT SCC (State Central Committee) to be a GPCT representative to the other organization. (GPCT bylaws: II. B. 3. D. 6.)

Enhancement of our political work can be done with additional member support regarding: a) improved social media, websites, podcasts; community TV programming; b) more press releases regarding ongoing local, state, national and international events. c) events committee; d) GPCT candidate support committee telephonic meetings which I organized and held during the 2014 election cycle. I publicized GPUS Candidate Coordinating Committee webinars. e) fundraising committee (e.g. for endorsement of events or and GPCT events; yearly ballot mailing, technological updates, literature); f) outreach to organizations with our shared similar values.

There is synergy within the Green Party whether it is a chapter (Fairfield County, Hartford County or Shoreline Chapter), town committees of New London, Waterford and Willimantic, the GPCT, the GPUS and world-wide Green Parties. We stand for the same key values. We are synergistic because no entity such as the 169 CT towns, or state or nation or continent stands alone. Residents, employers, employees, visitors and tourists go across man-made borders. This also applies to transportation and communications. We have shared issues.

Within the GPCT, I have successfully performed as a volunteer coordinator and campaign manager ( Elizabeth Horton Sheff, Hartford City Council x3; S. Michael DeRosa for: CT State Senate#1, Secretary of the State & Congressional District #1), chapter organizer (Hartford,1996 & Southeast CT, 2001), GPCT co-chairperson and secretary; member of the GPCT Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC); a GPCT candidate (three times) for State Senate District 1 (southern half of Hartford and 5/6 of Wethersfield) and was endorsed for the 11-6-18 election by the National Association of Social Workers of CT=NASW/CT ; co-chairperson and secretary of the Hartford County chapter of the GPCT; and in recent years a GPCT representative to the GPUS: Accreditation Committee (AC), Campaign Coordinating Committee (CCC); GPUS Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) and Presidential Campaign Support Committee.

I seek your support and vote! Let’s continue our work and stay Green! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 860-919-3819, Facebook: Barbara Barry for State Senate. I am a Justice of the Peace.

 

ronna stullerRonna Stuller

Candidate for Secretary
New London Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 860-772-8439

A Green since 2004, I currently serve as Chair of the New London chapter/town committee. I'm a host of our long-running public access program “Thinking Green,” and I designed and maintain our website: www.nlgreens.org. I am a past member of the New London Board of Education and have served on the Planning & Zoning Commission for nearly 5 years. In 2011, in response to the city’s attempt to sell parkland in a long-neglected low-status neighborhood, I became treasurer of the Friends of Riverside PAC and later, after the proposed sale was defeated in a dramatic referendum, co-founded the Riverside Park Conservancy, a nonprofit organization committed to the restoration, management and enhancement of the park. I have been active in community organizations promote peace; advocate for equitable public education; address food insecurity; and create opportunities for affordable home ownership.

Despite recent setbacks in statewide ballot access, the Green Party retains its unique potential to bridge the gap between the progressive movement and governmental action. Having minor party status allows us to offer electoral opportunities to activists fighting for social, environmental, and economic justice, and to influence Connecticut’s legislative agenda.

As GPCT secretary, my priorities are to provide technical support for Greens forming local chapters and town committees; seek out and nurture candidates with a progressive platform; improve communication among members throughout the state; share lessons learned during New London’s two decades of political activity; and maintain clearly written, accessible Green Party records.

I look forward to being part of a team that will work cooperatively to build our party, increase its relevance among voters, and offer a politics of hope with which we can face – and solve – Connecticut’s challenges.

 

Candidates for Treasurer (1 seat)

david bedellDavid Bedell

Candidate for Treasurer
Fairfield County Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I have been a Green Party member since the 1996 Ralph Nader campaign. I serve as Secretary of the Fairfield County chapter, I served previously as State Party Treasurer (2012-2013) and State Party Secretary (2016-2017), and I am currently webmaster for the party web site ctgreenparty.org. I have also run for public office and served as a Green Justice of the Peace. Now living in Wallingford, I serve on the town's Quinnipiac Linear Trail Advisory Committee. I also volunteer on the boards of the Wallingford Land Trust and Teachers Against Prejudice.

My goals if elected include: 1) transfer our funds from People's Bank to a credit union (possibly Connex Credit Union) in order to reduce fees and support a cooperative economic system; 2) establish an online donation system; 3) keep careful account of our non-monetary assets, such as membership lists and ballot lines.

On the question of cross-endorsement, I support the requirement in our current bylaws stating that any candidate running on the Green ballot line must be a registered Green Party member.

In the interest of party unity, if elected, I will invite my opponent to serve as Deputy Treasurer.

(This campaign is dedicated to the memory of Frank Vernava, first treasurer of the New Haven Green Party, who led a flawed but creative life.)

 

bob stullerBob Stuller

Candidate for Treasurer
New London Chapter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 860-271-9135

The Green Party of Connecticut is at a critical juncture. We have had some successes in recent years, forming a few new chapters and running a handful of successful campaigns. But losing multiple statewide ballot lines in last year’s election is a major red flag.

We must therefore adopt an attitude of urgency. Urgency to be relevant to the social movements of our time. Urgency to address the dual challenges of damage to our global ecosystem and damage to civil society. Urgency to respect our Ten Key Values, including Decentralization and Grassroots Democracy.

When we embrace those two Values, we begin to see the State Central Committee as the functional body it was designed to be: an administrative body coordinating among local chapters and directly representing Connecticut Greens without a chapter, always seeking to nurture the tender young growth of future chapters.

During my tenure as Treasurer of the New London Greens, I have handled the State Election Enforcement Commission (SEEC) paperwork via the eCris system through multiple municipal and State Representative elections. In the recent special election, I learned the ins and outs of Citizens Election Program (CEP) funding. During this process, I also had the opportunity to develop a comfortable working relationship with SEEC staff.

If elected I would pursue three objectives: First, I would initiate a process to produce realistic, transparent, balanced budgets focused on supporting Green candidates and local organizing efforts.

Second, I would implement an SEEC-compliant Anedot donation page for our website, leveraging our budgetary goals to motivate donors.

Third, I believe that – to ensure uninterrupted continuity of all SEEC and FEC required record-keeping – the Green Party of Connecticut should, at all times, have a Deputy Treasurer.

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