Greens Measure Success in More Ways than One

I can't believe I haven't posted since the election! I've been incredibly busy with all the post-election stuff, and I really haven't caught up on my sleep. Not to mention my dismay that Bush was re-elected. But who knows, maybe some voter-fraud cases will be brought to light. I doubt it, but I remain hopeful.

Maryland Greens did extraordinarily well. Our candidates received over 100,000 votes statewide, and our Baltimore City candidates did extremely well. Joan Floyd, who ran for City Council President, earned nearly 16% of the vote, which I believe is the highest percentage a Green has ever received in the state. The average percentage for this group of candidates was 12%.

On the federal level, Maria Allwine earned the expected 1%. I was hoping for more, but it's still 4 times the amount of registered Greens in the state. Theresa Dudley, in the 5th district, had a great showing at over 10,000 votes or 5%. Interestingly, Greg Hemmingway, whose district is dominated by a far-right religious zealot, received over 8,000 votes or about 3%. What's shocking about this is that Greg didn't have a strong campaign. He made a few appearances at civic groups and community forums, but aside from that he did not put out lawn signs, canvass, print up literature or do any of the other typical campaign activities.

On another note, DC Green Ken Sain has this interesting write-up on a PBS documentary that aired tonight. It was about marketing and advertising (not as much about PR as I would have liked), and included a segment on a key Republican marketer who does linguistic focus groups. This is the man responsible for implementing terms like "death tax" and "war on terror."

From a professional perspective, the work and methodology is incredibly interesting. From a political point of view, he's sold his soul.