AP story and other links.
November 8, 2001, 2:57 PM EST
WASHINGTON -- The Green Party has established enough national presence to gain the same legal status as the Republican and Democratic parties, regulators ruled Thursday.
The Federal Election Commission voted 6-0 to recognize the Green Party of the United States as a national committee.
That means the national Green Party can now accept donations of up to $20,000 a year per donor and pass money on to state and local party committees.
[...]
The action does not guarantee the party the federal funds that the GOP and Democratic Party receive to help finance their national conventions every four years.
Also, it does not promise the Greens' presidential nominee the federal money that Republican and Democratic presidential candidates draw for their primary and general election campaigns.
That is because the Green Party has not won the 5 percent of the national presidential vote needed to qualify for federal funds.
Green nominee Ralph Nader collected 3 percent of the popular vote last November. He made the ballot in 44 states.
The Greens last sought national committee status in 1996. The FEC said the party had not met the requirements, which include nominating candidates for various federal offices in several states, engaging in ongoing activities such as voter registration and publicizing party issues nationally.
Nancy Oden is with the Green Party USA (which apparently is not group in the story). [link|http://www.greenparty.org/contacts.html|Here] is info on Oden's group. [link|http://www.floridagreens.org/minutes/2001-08-28-disaffiliation.txt|Here's] a story on a Florida Green group which mentions breaking away from G/GPUSA.
The Green Party of Florida is affiliated with the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP) which is changing its name to The Green Party of the United States ( www.greenpartyus.org ). ASGP hosted the nominating convention at which Nader was nominated, and Nader ran on the Green Party Platform whose creation was coordinated by ASGP (both the nominating convention and the platform included input from State Green Parties who were not affiliated with ASGP).
The Green Party of Florida is also affiliated with a different organization, G/GPUSA (The Greens/Green Party of USA, www.greenparty.org ). In support of unity among Greens, the Green Party of Florida has been affiliated with both groups, however negotiation between the two groups has recently fallen apart with the last negotiated proposal, called the Boston Proposal, failing to get the 2/3rds required to pass at the recent G/GPUSA Congress.
Sheesh. It sounds like it's going to be like the Reform Party soon...
Cheers,
Scott.