Green Party of Sacramento Does Not Support "Left Unity Slate"

March 5, 2022

Nicole Castor

Shutting out two longtime Greens from receiving their party's endorsement, the Green Party of California (GPCA) is claiming support of a "Left Unity Slate” — a slate of candidates consisting of both Green Party and Peace and Freedom Party candidates for the upcoming June 2022 Primary. The problem is, county delegates of the GPCA never voted to support a slate as a whole. Green Party of Sacramento County does not support this slate.

see also: Green Party of Sacramento's Endorsed 2022 Primary Candidates

How did this happen?

It all started in December 2020, when the GPCA Coordinating Committee(CC) approved the formation of a subcommittee to handle candidates. The Statewide Candidates Sub Committee (SCSC) formed, consisting of only one member, and would later grow to include three members. Currently, the SCSC's membership consists of a total of two members.  

GPCA Bylaws say that the state party delegation is the authority on forming committees, but the Coordinating Committee may also approve subcommittees in order to delegate some of the committee's duties. Candidates and campaigns are not within the scope of the CC, however, and this work could have been handled through the existing Campaigns and Candidates Working Group, but was not. The SCSC was formed in violation of our bylaws. 

After the SCSC formed, its members held monthly meetings, and included members of the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP), which is also against our bylaws regarding non-Green committee membership. The PFP participants were supposedly not considered "voting members," but clearly participated as members and weighed in on decision-making. From these meetings, the two Green members made a verbal agreement with PFP to create and support a "Left Unity Slate," and to dictate which party would pursue particular seats in the 2022 Primary. The two SCSC members entered into an agreement on behalf of Green Party, without any vote or approval from the party's delegation.  

Green Party of California has no authority to decide who can run for what seat in any given race, and the CC may not set policy for the party. We may only vote as a delegation (known as the General Assembly, or "GA") to choose who we endorse. 

Eventually the delegation (GA) would come to vote on these individual endorsements, but the only candidates listed on the ballots were the Green and PFP candidates that the SCSC had chosen. Most delegates seemed unaware that there were at least two Green candidates who were not included, even to compete for endorsement against another party's candidates for the same seats, and this information was not disclosed in the proposals. The endorsement voting was held over email and there is no record of the vote, which has also been the case for most decisions made over the last few years.    

After a number of candidates were endorsed individually by the GA, the Green Party of California published an announcement that the GPCA supports the Left Unity Slate. "Left Unity Slate," and any agreements which were made in regard to it, were never offered to the GA as a proposal- only individual candidates were. GPCA claims that since all the slate candidates did receive endorsement, that this constitutes an endorsement for the slate itself. This is of course not true, and the agreements and decisions made inside of SCSC meetings were done without the consent of the party. 

The aftermath:

Both GPCA and PFP continue to promote the "Left Unity Slate," and to falsely state that Green Party agreed to it. Soon, voters will receive their ballots and information books which will show Green Party endorsing Peace and Freedom candidates who are running against Greens. 

The two Green candidates who are known to have been impacted by this are Veronika Fimbres (for Insurance Commissioner) and James "Henk" Conn (for US Senate). Both are longtime, dedicated Greens, registered with the party for many years. Veronika has been registered Green since 2003 and Henk has been since 1991! 

Voters will have the impression that these two amazing candidates do not have the support of their party, but will be unaware that these candidates were shut out from even being considered, through no fault of their own.

It is only a small group within the party who is facilitating what is only the latest of fraudulent actions within the party recently. In July 2021, Green Party Sacramento made a series of complaints and demands for correction over approximately thirteen county parties which were activated in violation of bylaws in 2020. These activations enabled a large portion of the state party's delegation to be controlled by unauthorized delegates. The CC still refuses to acknowledge this decision as invalid, refuses to make corrections, and GP Sacramento has begun legal intervention to halt and reverse these actions. 

Moving forward...

County parties are endowed with the ability to endorse candidates other than what the state party has decided. GP Sacramento has no issue with endorsing PFP candidates... as long as no Greens are running for the same seat. We have endorsed PFP candidates in the past and will continue to do so in the future, and we remain enthusiastic about any collaborations outside of elections which we work on together. For this upcoming primary, we are in fact endorsing a number of PFP candidates who are not running against Greens. We hold no ill will towards PFP, and we do not place any blame for this on them. PFP engaged in these activities according to their rules, and were unaware of rules being violated from the Green side. Even after being notified, they were convinced by the SCSC members that everything was fine. They do not know our party and its rules enough to know what is true and what is not, and had no reason to think the SCSC were being dishonest. 

We encourage all voters to always vote their conscience, and we encourage all registered Greens to vote for endorsed Greens whenever they appear on a ballot! 

If you find the tactics of the SCSC concerning, the County Council of the Green Party of Sacramento County would like to hear from you. You may also contact the state Coordinating Committee, who is known for ignoring complaints and/or responding with mistruths. Greens are encouraged to read bylaws, and check the facts rather than blindly believing a small group which controls most, if not all, party communications.   

We believe the antidote to these types of problems is for Greens to be more involved. We need delegates who pay attention and vote for themselves, instead of voting exactly as someone else tells them to. We are decentralized and have 88,000 registered Greens in our state, yet a group of about five or so individuals control almost all decisions within the party. If you would like to get more involved, please contact us about this.