September, 26 2017, 11:45am EDT
Green Party Candidates to Watch in 2017 Local Elections
WASHINGTON
Local and state Green Parties are running several strong candidates in well-organized campaigns for public office in 2017.
The Green Party of the United States welcomed Maine State Rep. Ralph Chapman, who announced his new membership in the Maine Green Independent Party on Thursday. Mr. Chapman is Maine's second Green in the Maine House of Representatives, following John Eder, who served from 2004 to 2006.
162 Green candidates are running for office in 2017. See also the Green candidates' news page. At least 140 Greens hold elected office in 18 states as of Sept. 15, 2017.
Green candidates often face barriers, such as exclusion from forums and debates; limited ballot access, restrictions, and thresholds that in some states don't apply to Democrats and Republicans; and even rigged elections. In Philadelphia, Pa., Cheri Honkala has taken legal action after she uncovered evidence of election fraud when she ran for State Representative in 2016.
The five candidates profiled below are a sample of those running strong Green campaigns in the 2017 general election on Nov. 7. They show the diversity of backgrounds, interests, and campaign focuses among Green candidates who uphold the party's principles and platform. For more detailed bios and photos of the candidates, visit https://www.gp.org/2017_candidates_to_watch.
* Julie Banuelos, candidate for Denver Board of Education, at-large School District No. 1, in Denver, Colorado
https://www.banuelos4education.org | https://www.juliedps.com
"I come from a family of immigrants who originally were migrant workers but because of education, were able to lift up out of poverty and set us kids on a path to success," said Ms. Banuelos. "Just like many Denver families, we lived in humble surroundings while my father studied for his engineering degree. I grew up in the East Village, which is the housing project across from what was then Ebert Elementary, on 23rd and Tremont, in Denver's Curtis Park.
"During my 15+ years with Denver Public Schools, I've worked mostly with communities of color with large constituents of immigrants, students and families of English Language Learners -- groups to whom I am still tied and who are most impacted by passionate teachers that invest not just their time, but also their souls to these academic and personal relationships."
Ms. Banuelos was interviewed on GreenStream, the Green Party's livestream show, on Wednesday, Sept. 20.
* Jabari Brisport, candidate for City Council, District 35, in New York City
Mr. Brisport, the proud Caribbean son of an immigrant father and a tireless mother, is an artist, educator, and activist who has spent the past ten years creating political theater and marching in the streets.
After attending NYU, where he was a founding member of The Glass Theater Company, and Yale School of Drama, he joined the anti-racist artist collective Artists for Change, which held marches, protests, and online petitions to address the crisis of police violence. For the past seven years, he has performed with the political comedy theater group Political Subversities.
* Mico Lucide, candidate for General Assembly in New Jersey's Legislative District 2
https://www.LucideForAssembly.com
Mr. Lucide grew up in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey and has lived in Atlantic County his entire life. He has held local and state positions in the Green Party, serving as a member of the Executive Board of the Green Party of Atlantic County and as the National Delegate Alternate for the Green Party of New Jersey.
Mico Lucide is running a campaign focused on two major themes: government efficiency and making people the priority. He supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour; a sustainable environment with clean air, land, and energy; and putting more substantive efforts into reemployment for the chronically unemployed and those trying hard to enter the workforce for the first time.
* Montigue T. Magruder, candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates, 69th District (parts of Richmond City and Chesterfield County)
A Virginian native who has lived in Richmond since he was 10 years old, Mr. Magruder has worked as a general labourer and caretaker for six years and currently works part-time as a scooter mechanic and fry cook. In 2010, he spoke in opposition to fare increases in Richmond's public transit system, which lead him to join the Richmond Transit Riders Union, VA Organizing, RePHRAME, and the Industrial Workers of the World.
In 2012, he was appointed to the Greater Richmond Transit Company & Transit Study Task Force and wrote five of the 11 recommendations submitted to Richmond City Council. He ran for Richmond City Council in the 2016 election and came in third place with 13% of the vote. Montigue Magruder's struggles with poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and surviving domestic violence led him to realize that the world shouldn't be the way it is today and compel him to do his part to ensure no one else lives the life he has endured.
* Samantha Pree-Stinson, candidate for the Ward 3 City Council seat in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Ms. Pree-Stinson is a US Army Veteran who served in Afghanistan as a Combat Medic Sergeant. She has been an educator and Associate Director of Education for Corinthian Colleges, and worked at Medtronic as a leader of both the Global Women's Network and African Descent Network. She serves as First Vice President to the Board at KMOJ and is a Director of the transition team at MTN.
Ms. Pree-Stinson has a degree in Organizational Psychology from Franklin University and a Program Management Certification from UC Berkley extension. She and her husband live in Northeast Minneapolis and contribute to their community by coaching soccer and advocating for their three children and all students in Minneapolis Public Schools.
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
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'Dangerous Union-Busting': Trump Rescinds Collective Bargaining for Air Safety Union
"Let's be clear: This is the beginning, not the end, of the fight for Americans' fundamental rights to join a union," said one labor leader.
Mar 08, 2025
Labor advocates condemned Friday's announcement by the Trump administration that it will end collective bargaining for Transportation Safety Administration security officers, a move described by one union leader as an act of "dangerous union-busting ripped from the pages of Project 2025."
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed in a statement Friday that collective bargaining for the TSA's security officers "constrained" the agency's chief mission of protecting transportation systems and keeping travelers safe, and that "eliminating collective bargaining removes bureaucratic hurdles that will strengthen workforce agility, enhance productivity and resiliency, while also jumpstarting innovation."
All the union leaders who supported Trump (like Sean O'Brien) should have to answer some painful questions about Trump rescinding collective bargaining rights for TSA agents.
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— Mike Nellis (@mikenellis.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 10:03 AM
As Huffpost labor reporter Dave Jamieson explained:
Workers at TSA, which Congress created in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, do not enjoy the same union rights as employees at most other federal agencies. Bargaining rights can essentially be extended or rescinded at the will of the administrator.
Those rights were introduced at TSA by former President Barack Obama and strengthened under former President Joe Biden. But now they are being tossed aside by Trump.
"Forty-seven thousands transportation security officers show up at over 400 airports across the country every single day to make sure our skies are safe for air travel," Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in response to DHS announcement. "Many of them are veterans who went from serving their country in the armed forces to wearing a second uniform protecting the homeland and ensuring another terrorist attack like September 11 never happens again."
Kelley argued that President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "have violated these patriotic Americans' right to join a union in an unprovoked attack."
"They gave as a justification a completely fabricated claim about union officials—making clear this action has nothing to do with efficiency, safety, or homeland security," he said "This is merely a pretext for attacking the rights of regular working Americans across the country because they happen to belong to a union."
AFGE—which represents TSA security officers—has filed numerous lawsuits in a bid to thwart Trump administration efforts, led by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, to terminate thousands of federal workers and unilaterally shut down government agencies under the guise of improving outcomes.
"This is merely a pretext for attacking the rights of regular working Americans across the country because they happen to belong to a union."
"Our union has been out in front challenging this administration's unlawful actions targeting federal workers, both in the legal courts and in the court of public opinion," Kelley noted. "Now our TSA officers are paying the price with this clearly retaliatory action."
"Let's be clear: This is the beginning, not the end, of the fight for Americans' fundamental rights to join a union," Kelley stressed. "AFGE will not rest until the basic dignity and rights of the workers at TSA are acknowledged by the government once again."
AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement: "TSA officers are the front-line defense at America's airports for the millions of families who travel by air each year. Canceling the collective bargaining agreement between TSA and its security officer workforce is dangerous union-busting ripped from the pages of Project 2025 that leaves the 47,000 officers who protect us without a voice."
"Through a union, TSA officers are empowered to improve work conditions and make air travel safer for passengers," Shuler added. "With this sweeping, illegal directive, the Trump administration is retaliating against unions for challenging its unlawful Department of Government Efficiency actions against America's federal workers in court."
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South Carolina Carries Out 'Horrifying and Violent' Firing Squad Execution of Brad Sigmon
"By executing Brad Sigmon, South Carolina has also executed the possibility of redemption," said one critic. "Our state is declaring that no matter what you do to make up for your wrongdoing, we reserve the right to kill you."
Mar 08, 2025
South Carolina executed Brad Keith Sigmon by firing squad on Friday evening, drawing international attention to a method that hasn't been used for 15 years in the United States and prompting renewed calls to abolish capital punishment.
Sigmon, 67—who was convicted of beating his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke, to death with a baseball bat in 2001—was shot by a firing squad consisting of three volunteers at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, the state capital, at 6:05 p.m. local time Friday, according to a statement from the South Carolina Department of Corrections. He was pronounced dead by a physician three minutes later.
Gerald "Bo" King, an attorney representing Sigmon, read his client's final statement shortly before his execution.
"I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty," Sigmon wrote. "An eye for an eye was used as justification to the jury for seeking the death penalty."
"At that time, I was too ignorant to know how wrong that was," he added. "Why? Because we no longer live under the Old Testament law but now live under the New Testament. Nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man."
A hood was then placed over Sigmon's head and a bullseye over his heart. The three volunteers then fired their rifles from an opening in a wall 15 feet (4.5 meters) away.
"There was no warning or countdown," wrote witness and journalist Jeffrey Collins. "The abrupt crack of the rifles startled me. And the white target with the red bullseye that had been on his chest, standing out against his black prison jumpsuit, disappeared instantly as Sigmon's whole body flinched... A jagged red spot about the size of a small fist appeared where Sigmon was shot."
"I've now watched through glass and bars as 11 men were put to death at a South Carolina prison," Collins noted. "None of the previous 10 prepared me for watching the firing squad death of Brad Sigmon on Friday night."
King, who also witnessed Sigmon's killing, described the execution as "horrifying and violent."
"He chose the firing squad knowing that three bullets would shatter his bones and destroy his heart," said King. "But that was the only choice he had, after the state's three executions by lethal injection inflicted prolonged and potentially torturous deaths on men he loved like brothers."
"He chose the firing squad knowing that three bullets would shatter his bones and destroy his heart."
A desire to resume executions during a 10-year pause due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs prompted Republican state lawmakers to pass and GOP South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster in 2021 to sign legislation forcing the state's death row inmates to choose between the electric chair, firing squad, or lethal injection (if available) as their method of execution.
King said state officials failed to provide information about lethal injection drugs.
"Brad only wanted assurances that these drugs were not expired, or diluted, or spoiled—what any of us would want to know about the medication we take, or the food we eat, much less the means of our death," the attorney explained.
Sigmon's legal team had unsuccessfully argued that brain damage and mental illness should have spared him from execution.
Rev. Hillary Taylor, executive director of the advocacy group South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (SCADP), said in a
statement Friday that "by executing Brad Sigmon, South Carolina has also executed the possibility of redemption."
"As Brad's spiritual advisor, I can personally attest to the fact that he is a different man today than the person he was more than 20 years ago, when he harmed the Larke family," she continued. "Our state is declaring that no matter what you do to make up for your wrongdoing, we reserve the right to kill you."
"But the question is not whether Brad deserved to die: The question is whether we deserved to kill," Taylor asserted. "In John 8, Jesus had very pointed instructions about which people can kill other people: 'Only those without sin can cast the first stone."
"The last time I checked, no person on this Earth fits that description, not even Gov. Henry McMaster, whose hardened heart remains the reason why executions continue in the first place," she added.
South Carolina has been executing condemned inmates at a rate described by ACLU of South Carolina communications director Paul Bowers as an "assembly line." The state has put four people to death since last September: Freddie Eugene Owens, killed by lethal injection last September 20; Richard Bernard Moore, killed by lethal injection (after changing his choice from firing squad) last November 1; Marion Bowman Jr., killed by lethal injection on January 31; and Sigmon.
State records show 28 inmates on South Carolina's death row.
Across the United States, there are five more executions scheduled this month, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
This is the first of six executions scheduled in six states this month. From the Death Penalty Information Center, one is scheduled for next week and then a horrifying four the week after that. This appears, however, to be more confluence than some big change. deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/u...
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— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Addressing the issue of capital punishment in South Carolina, SCADP's Taylor said Friday that "despite national and international media news coverage, most South Carolinians will go to bed tonight unaware that we have executed another person—let alone with a firing squad."
"That's how little this issue impacts our citizens," she continued. "South Carolina should be known by other states and countries for its radical care of its citizens. Instead, we are known for our state-sponsored violence."
"If executions made us safer, we would be the 9th-safest state in the country," Taylor argued. "But they don't, and we aren't. It is not the state leaders who will reap the consequences of the death penalty: it is the everyday South Carolina citizens themselves. As long as we have the death penalty, we will fail to address the true causes of violence, including poverty, abuse, and neglect."
South Carolina carries out execution by firing squad, first in USA since 2010. A reminder that these 6 MAGA men also intro'd a bill to codify abortion as murder—enabling the horrific scenario that a woman who gets an abortion could be executed by firing squad. www.qasimrashid.com/p/s-carolina...
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— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@qasimrashid.com) March 8, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Yet instead of curtailing executions, many South Carolina Republicans want to expand the category of crimes that qualify for capital punishment. In 2023, more than 20 Republican state lawmakers backed a bill to make people who obtain abortion care eligible for execution.
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This Trump Voter Is Having Second Thoughts After ICE Agents Detained Him at Gunpoint
"They'll only come for those bad people, right?" quipped one observer.
Mar 07, 2025
A naturalized U.S. citizen said Friday that he's questioning his vote for President Donald Trump after he was wrongfully swept up in the Republican president's immigration crackdown.
Jensy Machado told Telemundo 44's Rosbelis Quinoñez that he was driving to work Wednesday with two other men in Manassas, Virginia when they were stopped not far from his home by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, who surrounded his vehicle.
"And they just got out of the car with the guns in their hands and say, turn off the car, give me the keys, open the window, you know," Machado said. "Everything was really fast."
Machado said the officers told him the name of a man for whom they said they had a deportation order, and who had purportedly given Machado's home address. He said he offered to show his Virginia driver's license—a Real ID requiring proof of lawful status to acquire—but "they didn't ask for any ID."
"I was telling the officer, if I can give him ID, but he said just keep my hands up, not moving," Machado told Quiñonez. "After that, he told me to get out of the car and put the handcuffs on me. And then he went to me and said how did I get into this country and if I was waiting for a court date or if I have any case. And I told him I was an American citizen, and he looked at his other partner like, you know, smiling, like saying, can you believe this guy? Because he asked the other guy, 'Do you believe him?'"
Machado said he was uncuffed and immediately released after the officers saw his identification. The two men with him were taken into custody. Machado said he does not know why.
He also said the incident made him second-guess his vote for Trump—who promised to start "mass deportations" on "day one" of his presidency.
"I voted for Trump last election, but, because I thought it was going to be the things, you know, like, just go against criminals, not every Hispanic looking, like, that they will assume that we are all illegals," Machado explained.
It could have been worse. During Trump's first term, Francisco Erwin Galicia, a high school senior and U.S. citizen from Edinburgh, Texas was held by ICE for more than three weeks before he was finally released.
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