The Green Party of Alaska is not going along with the national Green Party in its nomination of the party’s standard-bearer Howie Hawkins for president.
Instead, the Alaska Green Party has voted for Jesse “The Body” Ventura for president and Cynthia McKinney for Vice President. Their names will appear on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot.
In a highly unusual but calculated move, Ventura is actually being drafted by the Alaska Green Party. The former governor of Minnesota. who lives half of the year on the beach in Mexico in a house that is “off the grid,” has not thrown his name in the hat for consideration.
McKinney is a Green Party member from Georgia who served in Congress from 1993-2003 as a Democrat, and who was at the heart of several political controversies.
Robert Shields, who chairs the Green Party of Alaska, said part of the thinking was to give Alaska Republicans someone other than President Donald Trump to vote for. He thinks that Ventura’s name will shake things up this political season.
“[Ventura] was an easy choice for independent Alaskans and he is clearly the most competent candidate. Drafting is a proven way to make radical changes to the system.”
Shields said that President Eisenhower was drafted for Republicans in the 1950s and the Green Party of Alaska is using that model.
Richard Idriss, who is in leadership at the People for Jesse campaign, said, “The People for Jesse largely moved on from the Green Party after their national convention to work toward an independent write-in campaign for Governor Ventura, but we had always recognized an internal schism within the state Green parties as a possible outcome of their primary. Tension around presidential nominee selection has led to these sorts of issues within both the Green and Libertarian parties before.”
Shields said he thinks Ventura will drain votes from Trump but not so much from Joe Biden.
“It gives Republicans an out, a quiet way to say they can’t be part of this anymore,” he said.
In 2016, the Green Party ticket led by Jill Stein received over 4,000 votes in Alaska.
Ventura was a professional wrestler before running for governor of Minnesota as a “Reform Party” candidate in 1998.
According to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, he strongly backed gay rights, abortion rights, funding for higher education, mass transit, property tax reform, and opening trade relations with Cuba. He was flamboyant and unpredictable.
He was the recipient in 1999 of Freedom from Religion Foundation’s Emperor Has No Clothes Award for his “plain speaking” against religion and for refusing to proclaim a state “Day of Prayer.” He vetoed a bill that would have required students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools.
McKinney ran for president under the Green Party in 2008. When she was in the U.S. House as a Democrat, she filed articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2006, she scuffled with Capitol Hill Police officer after they asked her to show her identification.
The Alaska Green Party polled its members and Ventura won 50 percent of the vote among several choices, which included Donald Trump and the national Green Party’s nominee Howie Hawkins:
Sounds like the perfect plan to put the Left in office.
He’s an interesting character, skunked personally & professionally by a two time proven lier. The uniformed establishment glitterati, both left and right hate him vehemently.
So Mr. Shields thinks draining votes from Trump is a good idea. It’s not.
A vote for Trump is not necessarily a vote for Trump per se. For me, it’s a vote against Biden and the massively corrupt and morally bankrupt Democrat party he represents. Why anyone would think that the Democrat’s lunge to the left is beneficial to our country’s future troubles me deeply. Are they ignorant of history or just indoctrinated past the point of no return? Perhaps they’re deeply cynical and without any principles at all. By the way, that would describe a few of our shamelessly self-interested state legislators. Saddest of all, because of our almost infinite appetite for distractions and a media culture that superbly supplies those distractions, many will not vote at all and many who do, will do so with no more thought then when choosing dinner. But there is hope, 5 years ago ordinary Americans saw a nation being driven dangerously leftward and elected Mr. Trump. Judging by anguished cries from the swamp, it was a good left jab. We now need to follow up with a solid right hook by reelecting President Trump. The alternative is just too dismal.
Consider Berkowitz and his politburo city assembly. Do we really want this type of governance at the national level? How about Portland or Seattle at a national level? No thank you, I’ll pass.
Jesse now owns a pot farm. He is more suited to running a head shop for environmentalists. Or, maybe he could be Biden’s campaign advisor for medical marijuana issues. Light up a big bowl, Jesse.
This:
“McKinney is a Green Party member from Georgia …”
Is not true.
McKinney has been a Libertarian since 2018.
I searched and found NO evidence she is a registered member of the Libertarian Party
Considering Jesse Ventura, his politics, reputation for vitriol, military, acting and professional wrestling careers, conspiracy theories, governorship, and basically everything else in his life history…. really only one thing stands out. He needs a haircut.
Wayne, haircut? Are you saying his candidacy is repugnant to folks with male pattern baldness?
Another liar. He is not, and never was, a Navy SEAL. He must be a Democrat.
WRONG. Ventura was a Navy SEAL. As for being a liar, you are thinking of Republicans (like Trump, who has been caught lying over 10,000 times since Russia put him in the White House)
Show me some facts to back that up Timmy. Drinking Kool Aid much lately??
It’s obvious you never listen to Trump speak, or else you would have heard all his lies. Go ahead bury your head in the sand and believe Trump is truthful.
I think this drafting of Jessie V. For POTUS speaks volumes about how leftist view their fellow Americans. This preoccupation of spinning away Trump support by drafting a macho wrestling / movie actor with an dubious intellectual capacity. Yup, they think you are that stupid.
Ventura is a nutjob who believes many conspiracy theories, including saying he thinks 9/11 was an inside job. Anyone who cares about America should vote for Joe Biden
9/11 was an inside job. Haven’t you watched Building 7 collapse in a controlled demolition? You think buildings just suddenly collapse in a uniform manner?
Oh, and you think being a Neocon and granting trillions of $$$ to major corporations, the Saudis and he and his wealthy friends isn’t stupid? The Trunpet and Biden are both Zionists (beholden to Israel and their tyranny over All). Get a clue. Nullifying pollution regulations, encouraging endangered species to be erased from the planet, fast-tracking the novel vaXXine? Get a clue!
“Anyone who cares about America should vote for Joe Biden.” I’m looking at my calendar and notice its not April 1st (April Fool’s Day). Yes, a puppet president with dementia who has gone hardcore communist is just what we need. Throw in some paid thugs to burn, loot, and murder American citizens and we have a real winner here.
Yes, that is what we got with Trump. Time for a change. It can’t get any worse.
Thanks for the insight and feedback. With this move the GPAK seeks to move the Green Party to a centralist position of principles as to serve as a model of the one thing Ventura has proven he can do — bring the parties together. This will bring the people together and together is how we move forward. How we heal.
There is no center. There is a left hump and a right hump with a valley in the middle. Unfortunately both the Dems and Reps are puppets for their corporate funders on the right. The Greens with the Hawkins/Walker, no corporate funding, peoples campaign is the best option for the majority on the left side of the political spectrum. Sorry to see very few AK GP members chasing an illusion.
Voted green here in AK for many years now. Proud i can vote for Jesse now. Wish it could have been national for Jesse, really shake up the reds and blues don’t you think. There is much for us to be concerned with here in the great land. I watch carefully the down ballot picks. Hand wrote on the tail gate of my land cruiser….
JESSE BFTS. Yes i am old but i can tell what it says.
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