The Illinois Green Party is a statewide

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The party is state affiliate of the

Green Party of the United States The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is a federation of Green party, Green state political parties in the United States. The party promotes green politics, specifically environmentalism; nonviolence; social justice; participatory democra ...

. Its stated mission and purpose are to advance the ''Ten Key Values of the Green Party'' in Illinois through political means and to support individual members and the formation of Green Party locals. In 2006, the party ran its first statewide candidates led by

Rich Whitney Rich Whitney (born April 21, 1955) is an American politician and civil rights attorney who was the Illinois Green Party's nominee for Governor of Illinois in the elections of 2006 and 2010. During the 2006 campaign Whitney received endorsements ...

, candidate for Illinois Governor, who received 361,336 votes for 10% of the total vote, making the Green Party one of only three legally ''established'', statewide political parties in Illinois, in addition to the Democratic and

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

parties until it lost that status in 2010. There are currently 12 local chapters affiliated with the party, as well as ten members holding elected office in the state.

The Ten Key Values

Key values of the Green Party platform include the following: #Ecological wisdom #Social justice #Grassroots democracy #Nonviolence #Decentralization #Community-based economics #Feminism #Respect for diversity #Personal and global responsibility #Future focus

2008 Elections

At the 2007 Green National Meeting the Illinois Green Party submitted a Proposal to host the 2008 Green Party National Convention
Green Party National Convention 2008 - Chicago, Illinois
Greens from four cities had submitted proposals for the 2008 convention but in the end The National Committee chose

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. As an established party it was entitled to a presidential primary, if at least two candidates qualify for that primary. In 2007, Illinois law required all candidates in the presidential primary to submit 3,000 signatures by November. On November 5, 2007 the deadline for candidate petitions to run in the Green presidential primary, four Greens filed

Cynthia McKinney Cynthia Ann McKinney (born March 17, 1955) is an American politician, academic, and conspiracy theorist. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms in the United States House of Representatives. She was the first African American ...

Kent Mesplay The 2016 Green Party presidential primaries were a series of primaries, caucuses and state conventions in which voters elected delegates to represent a candidate for the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States at the 2016 Green ...

Jared Ball Jared A. Ball (born 1971 in Washington, D.C.) is a professor of communication studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Additionally, he is an author, radio host and mixtape radio producer. In the 2008 presidentia ...

and

Howie Hawkins } Howard Gresham Hawkins III (born December 8, 1952) is an American trade unionist, environmental activist, and perennial candidate from New York. A co-founder of the Green Party of the United States, Hawkins was the party's presidential nominee ...

. (Hawkins was believed to be a stand-in for

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the Un ...

). Only eight state affiliates of the Green Party held presidential primaries in 2008 (other states nominated by caucus or convention). In 2008, 32 Green Party candidates filed petitions to run in the Illinois Green Party primary by the filing deadline. The party also had the power to fill ballot vacancies in races where nobody is picked in the Feb. 5 primary. Following the primary and state party convention the party has fielded sixty candidates for the November general election.

2010 Elections

In 2010,

again ran for

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

, hoping to improve on his 2006 result.

LeAlan Jones LeAlan Marvin Jones (born May 8, 1979) is an American journalist who lives in Chicago's South Shore. His radio documentaries have received critical acclaim and numerous awards. Jones was the Green Party's 2010 nominee for United States Senate fr ...

, a journalist and activist from Chicago's South Side, ran for

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. Both were uncontested in the June primary. Both Whitney and Jones were excluded from televised debates, despite the Green Party's Major Party Status. Whitney and Jones filed a lawsuit against

Public Broadcasting Station The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

member

WTTW WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The ...

for excluding them. A private vendor of ballots misspelled Rich Whitney's name as Rich 'Whitey' in 23 Chicago wards, about half of which were in predominantly African-American neighborhoods. There is no evidence this was intentional. Jones polled as high as 14% in a June 2010 poll, but ended up with 3.18% of the vote. In August 2010, Whitney polled 11% in a

Public Policy Polling Public Policy Polling (PPP) is an American polling firm affiliated with the Democratic Party. Founded in 2001 by businessman Dean Debnam, the firm is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Debnam currently serves as president and CEO of PPP, while To ...

survey. However, he ended with just 2.70% of the overall vote. Because neither candidate garnered over 5% of the vote statewide, the Illinois Green Party lost Major Party Status.

2014 Elections

Scott Summers ran for governor and

Sheldon Schafer Elections were held on November 2, 2010, to determine Illinois's 19 members of the United States House of Representatives. Representatives were elected for two-year terms to serve in the 112th United States Congress from January 3, 2011, until J ...

ran for secretary of state as write-in candidates after being knocked off the statewide slate.

2016 Elections

In 2016, the Green Party ran Scott Summers for U.S. Senate and Tim Curtin for Illinois Comptroller. Dr.

Jill Stein Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party's candidat ...

was the party's nominee for President.

2020 Elections

In 2020,

won the nomination over

Dario Hunter Dario David Hunter (born April 21, 1983), also known as Yisroel Hunter, is an American rabbi, lawyer and politician. He is the first Muslim-born man to be ordained as a rabbi. A former member of the Youngstown, Ohio Board of Education, Hunter sou ...

. In the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

received 30,494 votes, which is less than 1% of the vote.

References

External links

Illinois Green Party
(Official site)
ILGP on FacebookILGP MySpace page
{{IllinoisPoliticalParties

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...