Dear Friends,

What I want to say to all of you can be summarized in one word: "Run!" The great thing about Green politics is that they are the people's politics.  At some level, almost everyone who is minimally politically aware and is not  in some way cut into the scam which is our political system knows that something is wrong and knows thatwe represent some part of the solution.  Time and time again I knocked on someone's door and after mentioning that i was a candidate, just as I was about to have the door slammed in my face blurted out that I was with the Green Party. Immediately the person's face changed from a scowl into smile and the door opened  back up for an invitation to talk.  (In a couple of cases, I received dinner invitations!)

Even when the receptions are not supportive, they are almost invariably polite. You will find that many people are starved for the opportunity to have real as opposed to superficial political conversations and are tired of  the meaningless blather which passes for political discourse in the media.

So run, run hard, but also run smart and that's what i want to talk about in the remaining.  There is definitely a place for symbolic runs for office-ones which we know will not be successful but are important in other ways e.g. they raise isssues which would otherwise be ignored, increase our visibility or set the stage for future winning races.  The Nader candidacy is the obvious case in point.  However, to continually engage in quixotic runs at offices we don't have a realistic shot at ends up reflecting badly on us and can work against us.  Losing is demoralizing and causes people to look for other channels in which to direct their activism-ones in which they can make a real difference. 

What this means is that symbolic runs need to be complemented by races which have a chance at succeeeding and what these are can be more or less determined in advance based on a fairly simple set of conditions.  If  I'm stating the obvious, I apologize. But the fact that mine is one of theonly successful runs we have had in the state indicates that it may be worth going through them.  Here's a list in no particular order.  

1) Races in which there is no incumbent. 
This is relatively clear but shoudn't be forgotten. Even a relatively weak incumbent has the advantage of having had personal contact with voters both from having run previous races and from having served in office. Since so few people are aware of what government does, it is unlikely that they are evaluating the performance of the candidate critically. So any  publicity which a local official gets is usually favorable and reinforces the incumbent's credibilty. It may be a good idea to wait to run in a given ward or district rather than square off against even a relatively weak incumbent.

2) Try to run against weak opponents.
In my particular case, the candidate I ran against was the head of an organization representing local restaurant and bar owners, several of which had become serious neighborhood nuissances. He had also just moved into the neighborhood two weeks before the election.  Finally his day job was as a developer for Walgreens whic  (fortunately) got corrupted slightly in the first article which appeared in the press into "a developer for Walmart."  He was damaged from the get go and I did my best to associate his politics (correctly) with the business interests he represented.  Of course, you pray that the opposition puts up candidates with "negatives"  as high as this.  The amazing thing is that the major parties can be so arrogant and also so deluded that they are convinced that they can elect anyone. In other words, they have spent so much time fooling everyone that they are now fooling themselves.  This is very much to our advantage. 

3) Actively seek out strong candidates within your chapter (or even outside your chapter if you are comfortable that they are Green material.) Probably the most important strength for a candidate is being well-known  and (preferably) well-liked in the community. This does not mean havingachieved any kind of celebrity-though this can certainly help, particularly in higher level races. More important is having been a part f  the community in some fashion, through your job, through a church, through having children in school.  Any of these sorts of engagement can  result in surprisingly large social networks which by themselves can be converted into winning candidacies.  I should add that I had very few of these in my favor-no kids, relatively few contacts due to my job, and I'm not a church (or synagogue or mosque etc) goer.  In the absence of these, one tries to get introductions into these networks second hand-through friends or friends of friends.  I was  moderately successful at this.  But I was aware at the outset that I needed to compensate for this liability by a lot of legwork, and I did that, at least. This leads naturally into  

4) Canvassing.  You need to do a lot of it, and the candidate should try to do as much of it as possible, even talk to every potential voter once or even more.  Volunteers can also be put to work canvassing but it is  important to understand that canvassing is not something which everyone is equally effective at.  Bad canvassers can be negatively effective-they can hurt rather than help by creating an unfavorable impression of the candidacy or representing the candidates positions either inaccurately or unconvincingly.  On the other hand good canvassers, or perhaps I should say canvassers who are targeted to areas where they can be most effective  (and I had a bunch of them) can be enormously helpful. We found that thebest strategy for us was for canvassers to engage the voters in a general conversation about several issues and then email in reports of their conversations.  If the voter showed an interest in a particular matter, I  would call them up and discuss it with them having prepared myself in advance for the discussion. This clearly got me more than a few votes.

5) "Superficialities"  I put this category in quotes to indicate that while substance is ultimately far more important than style-that's what we stand for as a party after all-superficial first impressions can make a difference. The candidate's personal appearance and that of those representing her/his positions publicly can turn off voters who would otherwise be favorably inclined.  For example, if one is canvassing in an African American neighborhood on a Sunday, not to dress neatly is seen by many as disrespectful. While nose rings and tatoos will not turn off some voters, and might even be a plus in some areas, they will turn off others and one needs to be able to pass the laugh test before what one is going to say is seriously considered. Again this is superficial but it is reality, and while I will not say definitively "get a hair cut" if you want to get elected, it is worth considering whether if a candidate is not willing to make this and other small, meaningless concessions to social reality, her/his commitment to the campaign and more importantly to the ideas he is represent is all that serious. 

So these are the guidelines. In reading this over, it occurs to me that I've left out the most important thing which is that campaigning for what Nader called "the politics of joy and justice" is a huge amount of fun. I had a blast and I'm sure you will too. Also, I didn't think I would enjoy it at all-I looked at it much more as an obligation than as the privilege which it turned into, so keep this in mind when you're making your determination whether to run or not. 

I'd be glad to talk to anyone about any of this, and I'm sure many of you have much to contribute along these lines to me or to the newsgroup-which has been relatively inactive as of late. 

Given that we now have only two Greens in office, we are clearly still novices. But if we share all of the information we have, we stand the greatest chance of increasing our numbers.  I am completely convinced that Elizabeth and me are only the very beginning and there is not limit to how far we can go if we are smart about how we go about it. 

Best to you all, 

John Halle

Green Party Alderman
Ward 9, New Haven

Who is John Halle ? 

John Halle is an assistant professor in the Department of Music at Yale University, a pianist, a composer, and an author of articles on music and politics. He has lived with his wife, Marka, a professional violinist, at their home on Eld St. since 1997.

Back to John Halle's Homepage | Back to Articles