Members of the New Mexico Green Party, which lost its major party status after the 2000 presidential elections, say they plan to regain it - not in the courts, but by "taking it to the people."
Greens from all over the state met at UNM Saturday and Sunday to elect officers, discuss grass-roots strategies and introduce candidates for the state gubernatorial race during the party's 10th annual state convention.
Much of the two-day series of discussions and workshops focused on fueling public debate and activism on issues such as water, energy and natural resource conservation; and keeping the roughly 12,300-member party going strong in the wake of the status change.
Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron ruled in March 2001 that the Green Party no longer met the requirements for major party status because its presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, received 3.5 percent of the vote - falling short of the 5 percent requirement for major party status.
Party officials contended, however, that Marvin Gladstone, the Green Party candidate for a state court of appeals seat, earned 10 percent of the vote in the 2000 election.
This should have allowed the party to keep major party status, according to a 1996 interpretation of the state election code by then-Attorney General Tom Udall, said Green Party co-chairman Xubi Wilson.
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Vigil-Giron maintained in her ruling that Udall's opinion was overruled by a March 2000 District Court decision ruling that a party's presidential or gubernatorial candidate must receive 5 percent of the vote.
The Green Party of New Mexico has had major party status since 1994, when Roberto Mondragon received about 11 percent of the vote for governor.
Wilson, who was reelected Sunday, said the State Supreme Court refused to hear the case without giving a reason.
"So the Green Party council decided to take it to the court of public opinion by entering the governor's race," he said.
The audience of about 75 questioned gubernatorial candidate David Bacon and Kathy Sanchez, the party's candidate for lieutenant governor, about a variety of issues, including drug policy, education and statewide health care.
Bacon, a 30-year resident of Santa Fe who has worked as an advocate for sustainable energy and economic development policy, said he wanted to work to keep money - especially revenue earned by utility provider Public Service Company of New Mexico - in the state.
"New Mexico needs to do an entire economic audit and find out where the money leaks," Bacon said.
He drew laughs from the crowd when he suggested that the PNM could be another Enron, and said that, if elected, he would never allow energy deregulation.
Bacon also said he would encourage dropping the gross receipts tax on groceries - a similar attempt failed in this year's Legislative session - and increasing tax on cigarettes.
"We have to tax the negative, not the positive," he said.
When addressing New Mexico's drug policy, Bacon said he would support continuing the shift toward treatment instead of prison started by the current state government. But, the candidate stopped short of saying he would advocate legalization of marijuana.
Sanchez, a native Tewa Indian from San Idelfonso Pueblo and founder of Tewa Women United, which advocates against violence and environmental destruction from nuclear waste, agreed.
"Drugs are numbing to something deeper," she said. "It's a symptom that something in our society is wrong."
Bacon said he would push for competing contracts for Los Alamos National Laboratories, which, because of its nonprofit status, pays no gross receipts tax. He also suggested moving some of the labs' peaceful work to community businesses.
Sanchez agreed, adding that she was worried about contamination from the state's laboratories and waste storage sites.
"Nuclear energy is a sacred fire within us - you don't desecrate that," she said.
Cris Moore, a former Santa Fe city councilor who was the state's first elected Green official, told the group to focus on local activism and elections.
He highlighted the eight local offices held by Greens in New Mexico, which include city council seats in Silver City and Santa Fe.
"There's always been a debate in the Greens on the roles of state and national races," he said.
Moore echoed the assertion of other party members who say activism and grass-roots organizing shouldn't be forgotten in the race to get Greens elected to offices.
"The groundwork for my race was lobbying in the Legislature for property tax issues," he said.
He added that focusing on taxes veered from public perception of the Green party as solely environmentalists, helping him earn the support of older Hispanic families.
"It's a social justice issue - not an environmental issue," Moore said.
He said performing community service before seeking support was the key to a successful local election.
"Don't make the mistake of getting people in office and then not organizing anymore," he said. "If your first interview with a voter is asking for a vote, and you haven't done anything in the community, that's pretty presumptuous."
Newly elected co-chairwoman Lisa Houston, who is from Silver City, said during an interview that the Green Party was alive and well despite the status change.
Silver City's Green city councilor is serving a third term.
"That's always a good sign in a chapter," she said.
Houston and Wilson said the state's campus chapters are growing by leaps and bounds. New Mexico has six student chapters, including groups at Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute and New Mexico State University.
Wilson said a re-organization of the defunct UNM Green Party is now in the works.
"We really hope to have a whole convention of just student Greens," he said.
