Sunday, July 30, 2006
The Alaska Brain Trust comes thru
In a message to the National Committee, Deirdre Helfferich of Alaska asked about the idea of creating a nation wide coordinated campaign on instant Runoff Voting, or IRV. In her message she quotes Joni LeViness of Oklahoma, and they point out that IRV is something that voters agree with and which advances our prospects of success.
The idea is to have one Green in each state who will be that state's contact person to advance IRV via the Green Party. Basically, the strategy would have to vary from state to state, depending on what can and what cannot be done. Here in South Carolina for example, if we had good, concise wording to put on a petition, we could get IRV passed by a vote of the people. In other states it may require lobbying, lawsuits, or running for office in places where we know we will "spoil" in the process, to force our demand for IRV.
I think it's a great idea. Who will be your state's IRV contact person? What else should we do? Public financing of campaigns? "Clean elections" changes? Stronger ethics laws? Better ballot access laws? Should we develop a comprehensive "Model legislation" to address all these issues at once, and then push the whole package nation wide as a Green Party agenda for action?
The idea is to have one Green in each state who will be that state's contact person to advance IRV via the Green Party. Basically, the strategy would have to vary from state to state, depending on what can and what cannot be done. Here in South Carolina for example, if we had good, concise wording to put on a petition, we could get IRV passed by a vote of the people. In other states it may require lobbying, lawsuits, or running for office in places where we know we will "spoil" in the process, to force our demand for IRV.
I think it's a great idea. Who will be your state's IRV contact person? What else should we do? Public financing of campaigns? "Clean elections" changes? Stronger ethics laws? Better ballot access laws? Should we develop a comprehensive "Model legislation" to address all these issues at once, and then push the whole package nation wide as a Green Party agenda for action?
// posted by Gregg Jocoy @ 1:07 PM 
