Ten races to watch: '98 elections - progressive, pro-labor, and environmentalist candidates

Progressive, The, Nov, 1998 by John Nichols

Looking across the American political landscape this fall of 1998, I keep remembering Albert Camus's observation: "Politics and the fate of mankind are reshaped by men without ideals without greatness." But some candidates are running passionate campaigns that challenge the political, social, and economic status quo. Ed Garvey of Wisconsin, the Democratic nominee for governor, has offered an innovative proposal to raise taxes on the wealthiest corporations and individuals, while lowering taxes on the rest. Dan Hamburg, former Democratic Representative from California, has chucked the two-party system and is running as the Green Party nominee for governor of California. You won't see many reports about these campaigns on CNN's Inside Politics. But across the country this fall, in federal, state, and local contests, candidates are advancing progressive ideals. Here are ten campaigns worth watching as election day approaches:

1. HAWAII: JULIE JACOBSON

With fifty-nine elected office holders across the country, the Greens are an increasingly significant presence in local politics. But in few locations are they more serious contenders on a regular basis in partisan politics than on "the big island" of Hawaii.

Two years ago, Hawaii county voters came within a whisker of electing Green candidate Keiko Bonk as mayor. And this year, the Greens are running hard for a number of local positions.

Rene Siracusa, a founder of the Big Island Rainforest Action Group, and Larry Sinkin, who during the 1980s served as a lawyer for the Christic Institute in its anticontra lawsuit, are among the local Green candidates.

Julie Jacobson has made exciting inroads in a county council race with a platform that emphasizes her support for grassroots democracy and tough anti-development laws, as well as her opposition to privatization of county services and the expansion of for-profit prisons on the island.

Jacobson has forged a rare Green-Labor alliance, winning endorsements from powerful union groups, including the Hawaii Government Employees Union.

The Greens have a proven track record of building from local bases in places like Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Arcata, California-where the party controls the city council. Wins by Jacobson and her fellow Greens could make Hawaii another such green island.

2. NEW MEXICO: DAMACIO LOPEZ

In 1996, the Green Party made one of the most significant third-party breakthroughs in recent electoral history when Ralph Nader's low-profile Presidential campaign scored enough votes to earn the party ballot status in nine states.

But even before that, the New Mexico Green Party had shown its political muscle.

Since 1994, the Greens have attracted enough progressive votes to deny Democrats the governorship and two special elections for vacant U.S. House seats. But the charge that Greens are spoiling Democratic chances is debatable--since the Democrats nominated weak candidates, while the Greens have brought thousands of new voters to the polls.

New Mexico progressive voters may show in smaller numbers for this year's Congressional campaigns by Greens Bob Anderson in the Albuquerque area and Carol Miller in Santa Fe. The prospect of handing Congress to the Republicans for another two years as the result of a divided vote is not popular. That's especially true in Miller's northern New Mexico Third District, where Democrat Tom Udall, son of former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, has been endorsed by some top Greens and appears to be regaining at least a portion of the environmentalist vote for his party.

But polls show that tens of thousands of voters will back Damacio Lopez, the veteran activist running on the Green line for Secretary of State.

Lopez is a fiery campaigner. "When I discovered the connection between big money and politics and radiation poisoning on my family land, I committed myself to reforming the political scene," he says. "I have fought from tiny town halls in New Mexico to the halls of Congress--and even the United Nations. People are fed up. Big money politics must stop!"

The Secretary of State's office, which oversees elections, is an ideal spot for a reformer such as Lopez, and he could do a lot with the job. But even if he fails to win on November 3, a strong showing will help to secure the Green Party's ballot line in New Mexico.

A similar Green campaign is taking place in Wisconsin, where teacher, environmentalist, and Native American rights activist Jeff Peterson is waging a campaign for state treasurer. If Peterson gets just 1 percent of the statewide vote, the Greens will maintain the ballot line they won on the strength of Nader's 1996 showing. But count on Peterson--who has written an impressive plan for using the treasurer's office to monitor state investments with an eye toward environmental and ethical concerns--to do significantly better than that on election day.

3. IOWA: TOM VILSACK

The under-publicized farm crisis of the 1990s is forcing more people off the land than the much more prominent crisis of the 1980s. The 1996 "Freedom to Farm" Act radically shifted the focus of federal farm policies to favor the interests of huge agribusiness firms, f For small farmers and ranchers, as well as the communities where they reside, the bill would better be called--in the words of U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat of Minnesota--the "Freedom to Fail" Act.