According to this story, a new party, the Green Mountain Party, has been organized in Vermont and it expects to be on the ballot in 2016.
From the article cited, written by Jasper Craven:
“When we vote, we as citizens think we’ve made changes on a local and state level, but we get the same results,” said 51-year-old Neil Johnson in a press release announcing the formation of the party. “We are frustrated with a non-responsive, dysfunctional, financially out-of-control government that serves everyone but the people who elect them.”
Johnson has no history in politics. He has been in Vermont’s real estate world since 1987, and he owns the Johnson Real Estate Group in Waitsfield, according to a bio from his website.
Johnson said the party’s platform is fiscally conservative, with some libertarian tendencies. In the party announcement, Johnson singled out a number of issues in the state, including the growing influence of lobbyists, government spending and Act 46, a new school reform law aimed at merging districts.
“We are frustrated with the uncontrolled spending from our state house,” Johnson said. “We are frustrated with the latest federal whim becoming our state policy. We are frustrated with an Act 46 program that will close our local school and still increase our local taxes.”
Johnson said he has been working for the past three months to gain recognition as a minor political party in the state. He said a party website would be up in the next two weeks and that he hopes to field candidates for statewide offices in 2016.
Are they centrist? The article claimed they are more libertarian but maybe there’s more to it than that.
The real question should be how many centrist third parties convinced they can deliver the status quo in a much more competent way do we need?
There’s already an LP affiliate there. And a Green Party as well. The VT Greens are not called Green Mountain. The WV Greens are called the Mountain Party. The MA Greens are Rainbow Greens and Maine – Green Independent. On the other hand the Independent Greens of Virginia are not affiliated with the national Green Party and there is a Green Party in Virginia which is. All very confusing, I know. Richard has a good point about party names containing the same word, but I don’t think that is either the question or the issue in this particular case.
Here’s an interesting thought; if this party gets on the ballot there and does very well in elections in 2016 and onward, and not only is very Libertarian-oriented, but is willing to work constructively with the Vermont and/or the National LP- perhaps they could maybe become a future LP affiliate?
Yes?
Vermont, and almost all states, have no rules against a single word being used in two different party labels. Think of all the states that had the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party both on the ballot, for the period 1898-1976. Also American and American Independent. And Socialist Equality, Socialist Workers, Workers World.
I could be wrong, but I thought the Green Party in Vermont was using that same party name. If not, they should have. These guys sound more like Libertarians. What are their differences between them and Libertarians that are so big that they need a separate party? There can’t be that many active Libertarians in Vermont to begin with.