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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1991)
Alaska: 50th state designs official party from scratch By Connie L. Sheehan Senior Editor __ (* The distance from its lower 49 neighbors has not kept the state of Alaska from assuming a leadership role in the expansion of the political Green Party across America. The Green Party of Alaska (GPA) became the first state recognized Green Party in the nation after gubernatorial can didate Jim Sykes won slightly more than the required 3 per cent in last November's elec tion. "Once you get 3 percent of the ballot turnout in any elec tion, then you can go to the board of elections and become an offi cial party," said Jim Hunter, public relations contact for the Tanana Yukon Greens, head quartered in Fairbanks. Alaskans can now go down to the board of elections and register as a member of the Green n as an inde And although Sykes lost in the general election, the mem bers are still enthusiastic that the winner, an Independent Party nominee, also came from a splin ter party. Hunter said. He proved you can elect someone out of tne mainstream here in Alaska/' Hunter said. The party's immediate plans include registering people, he said, and Decoming a viable party. Hunter said the March GPA convention was mostly house keeping — "administrative because literally the GPA had no structure... we had to create a structure." - Hunter said members were excited about having thechance to design the party from scratch _and plan to take the best items from other parties in arranging their own structure. Hunter, whose job was to ap proach the other parties for ad vice, said "those parties had their hand out and said 'sit down, we'll be glad to tell the Green Party how to (structure) it bet ter. If they can do it better, more power to them.'" "A lot of people, both Repub lican and Democrat, are feeling that the Green Party is a great vehicle for the future," he said. 'That's our main thrust — the future." Hunter said the GPA'splat form reflects the Greens' lu key values (see graph). "With what's happening to the wilderness ... we know we can't just keep on, and the people need a party that puts that kind of thing first," he said. But because of the similarity in names with organizations like Greenpeace, the public percep tion seems to be that the Green Party is just an environmental party, Hunter said. , "But we're not, we're a global party and we see the future with global politics," he said. Group members like the fact the there are already successful Green Parties in Australia and Europe and now in America, he said. "We see that these are broth ers that will help connect us to planetary work, he explained. },It's hard to pass a clean air law that's going to do any good when 90 percent (of the pollution) is coming from another country." Hunter said the GPA has an awareness of the social things that need to be changed but the main focus, by virtue of Alaska's geographica lloca tion, i s mainly environmental. "Social questions arc certainly a part of our platform too," he said. "butFairoanksisnotlikea large metropolitan area where your social problems are more at the front/' Asked if the GPA suffers from being viewed as an extreme left ist organization, Hunter said the public "perceives us properly now." "Jim Sykes made such a wonderful spokesman," Hunter said. "When he spoke, he ex pressed himself so well that he gained so much respect for the Green Party in Alaska and worldwide. Hunter said the GPA is draw ing support from across the board, equally from Democrats and Republicans who are disaf fected with what their own parties are doing about impor tant issues. The Green Party crosses all levels of society, Hunter said. People think that the Green Party is the hippy movement of the '60s reborn, but it's not, Hunter said. "I'm 54 years old, pretty conservative in my financial ways and own and operate my own business," he said. We have students from the university, yuppies and people coming to our meetings in suits, ties ana short hair who are tech nocrats," he said. "But that's true of the Green Party through out the planet." "It's your moral outlook that7s most important," Hunter said. Although currently there's no direct connection between the European, Australian or Ameri-. can Green Parties, he said, there will be. "We all operate individually but they read our stuff and we read their stuff," Hunter ex plained. "We see we're going our own ways, but it's all very similar — it's going to be a worldwide movement. It's that worldwide consciousness that's so necessary." "Imagine somebody had stood in a field and threw out a bunch of seeds and all these little seeds are growing sepa rately in different parts of the field," Hunter said. "Ultimately, we'll all come together." , FAtReAtJKS AKCHORActe! 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