The Green-Rainbow Party (GRP) is the Massachusetts affiliate of the Green Party of the United States and a political designation in Massachusetts officially recognized by the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Up until 2020, it was an officially recognized political party in Massachusetts, losing that status as the result of vote tallies in the November 2020 election.
Originally the Massachusetts Green Party, it was formed in 1996 and recognized in 2000. It merged with the Rainbow Coalition Party in 2002 and rebranded as the Green-Rainbow Party. The GRP has supported Green Party presidential candidates such as Ralph Nader, David Cobb, Cynthia McKinney, Jill Stein and Howie Hawkins. It has also run candidates and pushed for political support at the state and municipal level. As of 2021, there were 9 Green-Rainbow Party elected office holders and a number of other appointed office holder in Massachusetts. As of October 15, 2018, the official party's membership ranks stood at 4,314 members.
Political ideology Like most North American Green parties, the basis of the Green-Rainbow Party's platform stems from the 10 key values. The 10 key values are: grassroots democracy, ecological wisdom, social justice and equal opportunity, nonviolence, decentralization, community-based economics, feminism, respect for diversity, personal and global responsibility, and future focus and sustainability.
Causes and initiatives For some years, the party was involved in co-organizing an annual March to Abolish Poverty. Like many small parties that view the Democratic and Republican parties as creating difficult ballot access laws, the party has also pushed for electoral reforms, particularly ranked choice voting and publicly financed campaigns. The party also champions universal health care and strongly supported marriage equality, long before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision to allow same-sex marriages within Massachusetts. The Green-Rainbow party supports having an economic bill of rights including a right to food, water, health care, housing and education. It supports a far bolder and faster transition from fossil fuels to safe, clean renewable energy than the Democratic and Republican parties. It sees climate change as an existential emergency. It supports racial justice and justice for documented and undocumented immigrants including an end to the incarceration epidemic and community control of the police. In 2019, the Green-Rainbow Party State Committee voted to support the elimination of the United States military.
History Establishment of official party status Founded in 1996 as the Massachusetts Green Party, the party attained official political party status in 2000 when the Greens ran Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke for president of the United States. Official political party status in Massachusetts affects how political groups can use finances, and official political parties are guaranteed ballot access. The Nader ticket received 6% of the vote in Massachusetts, where state law requires 3% during state and national elections for establishing and maintaining official party status. In 2002, the party entered the state gubernatorial race for the first time with Jill Stein as the candidate for governor, Anthony Lorenzen for lieutenant governor, and James O'Keefe for treasurer. Stein and Lorenzen received over 3% and O'Keefe received almost 8% resulting in maintaining state party status in Massachusetts for 2002. An alternate method to establish and maintain state party status in Massachusetts is to have over 1% of voters registered in their party, a threshold that Green-Rainbow has not met either.
Merger with Rainbow Coalition In 2002, the party was renamed when it merged with the Rainbow Coalition Party, which was founded by former State Representative Mel King. King endorsed Stein's 2002 candidacy for governor, saying "Jill Stein is the only candidate who will speak truth to power. She's the only one that makes issues of racism and social justice integral parts of her campaign".
Campaign 2004
In 2004, with David Cobb as its presidential candidate, the Green-Rainbow ticket was unable to meet the required 3% threshold, and subsequently lost recognition in Massachusetts of state party status. Losing state party status has the results that the expenditures on Massachusetts candidates are subject to the state laws regulating political action committees (or PACs). In addition, the party name is no longer printed on voter registration forms as an option to check off, and the party must collect signatures to place presidential candidates on the ballot; state and local candidates always need signatures to be placed on the ballot.
Also in 2004, Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein ran for state representative in the 9th Middlesex District, which included portions of Waltham and Lexington. She received 3,911 votes (21.3%) in a three-way race, ahead of the Republican candidate, but behind Democratic incumbent Thomas M. Stanley.
Campaign 2006
In March 2006, at its nominating convention, the party nominated five candidates for statewide office: Grace Ross for governor, Wendy Van Horne for lieutenant governor, Jill Stein for secretary of the Commonwealth, James O'Keefe for treasurer, and Nathanael Fortune for auditor. In early April, Nathanael Fortune withdrew his candidacy. The races for secretary of the Commonwealth and treasurer were two-way races between the Democrats and Green-Rainbows, with Green-Rainbows polling higher than ever before on a statewide level. In an April 3, 2006 poll by Suffolk University and WHDH, O'Keefe polled at 21% and Stein at 8%. The Ross / Van Horne team, likely to face three other opponents in the election, polled at 2%, before having officially announced.
When Van Horne withdrew from the race in early September, she was replaced by Martina Robinson, a 30-year-old disability and equal marriage rights activist.
Ross and Robinson only garnered 2% of the vote in the gubernatorial election. However Stein won 18% in the race for Secretary of State and James O'Keefe won 16% in the race for State Treasurer. As a result, the Green-rainbow Party once again qualified for ballot access.
Campaign 2010
Jill Stein officially announced her entrance into the governor's race on the steps of the Massachusetts State House in Boston on February 8, 2010. As of February 25, she was polling at 3% in that race. Stein announced on April 3, 2010, that her lieutenant governor running mate would be Richard P. 'Rick' Purcell (born December 21, 1959), an ergonomics specialist from Holyoke. Purcell was born in 1959 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and grew up on the Tohajiilee Indian Reservation in New Mexico. He moved to Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1974 and graduated from Chicopee Comprehensive High School in 1977. He works as an ergonomics specialist with Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. Purcell served as a buck sergeant during the Gulf War. He was also stationed in Korea and Germany. Purcell sought election to the Holyoke City Council in 2002, 2007, 2011 and 2013.
Beyond Stein's run for governor, three additional candidates ran for office as Green-Rainbow candidates: two for the state legislature and one for state auditor. In the state's 4th Berkshire District, Lee Scott Laugenour announced that he would challenge incumbent State Representative William "Smitty" Pignatelli. The state's 3rd Berkshire District saw a race between Green-Rainbow Party candidate Mark Miller and incumbent candidate Christopher N. Speranzo. Nat Fortune rounded out the ticket, running for Massachusetts Auditor.
On election day Mark Miller received 30 percent of the vote in a four-way race, losing by 192 votes, the best result for any Green running for state legislature in the United States in 2010. Miller received 1,748 votes, and was bested by the Democratic candidate Patricia Farley-Bouvier who received 1,940 votes (33%). Two other candidates, Pam Malmurphy(I) (1,325 votes- 22%) and Mark Jester (R) (899 votes- 15%) also ran. In the race for State Auditior, Nat Fortune received 5 percent of the vote guaranteeing the Green-Rainbow Party official party status in Massachusetts for the subsequent two years.
Campaign 2012
In 2012, Green-Rainbow Party leader Jill Stein won the presidential nomination of the Green Party of the United States. Stein received 456,169 nationwide while advocating for a Green New Deal to address climate change and financial crises. In Massachusetts, Stein received 19,672 votes (1%). Because Stein did not receive 3% of the vote statewide, the Green-Rainbow Party lost party status.
Campaign 2014, regaining of official party status
In November 2014, Green-Rainbow Party Statewide candidates Danny Factor (Secretary of State), Ian Jackson (Treasurer) and MK Merelice (auditor) all received more than 3% of the vote which resulted in the Green-Rainbow Party gaining back official party status.
Campaign 2015
The Green-Rainbow Party ran three candidates for office in the November 2015 election: Darlene Elias for Holyoke City Council, Plinio Degoes for Cambridge City Council, and Sean Connell for Fall River School Committee. None of the candidates won their election, but all made strong showings, considering that they were all first time candidates.
Campaign 2016
The Green-Rainbow Party Massachusetts presidential primary took place on March 1. Five candidates appeared on the ballot, the results are as follows:
+ Massachusetts Green Party presidential primary, March 1, 2016CandidateVotesPercentageNational delegates Jill Stein 768 45.7% 5Sedinam Moyowasifza-Curry 78 4.7% 1Darryl Cherney 54 3.2% 0Kent Mesplay 37 2.2% 0William Kreml 24 1.4% 0Others 436 25.9%4No Preference 199 11.8%Blank votes 85 5.0% Total1,681100.00%10
All members of the party were able to apply to be delegates to be sent to the national convention. The number of voters that took part in the election slightly increased from the 1,554 that took part in the 2012 primary. On August 6, 2016 at the Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention in Houston, Jill Stein was nominated as the Green Party candidate for President and Ajamu Baraka was nominated as the Green Party candidate for Vice-President.
In the November 8, 2016 general election, presidential candidate Jill Stein received 1.4% of the vote in Massachusetts, Green-Rainbow Party candidate for State Representative Charlene DiCalogero (12th Worcester District) received 20% of the vote in a two-person race, and Green-Rainbow Party candidate for State Representative Danny Factor (14th Middlesex District) received 3.3% of the vote in a three-way race.
Campaign 2017 On May 2, 2017, Sharon Moss, Green-Rainbow Party member and former Central Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Chapter Co-Chair was elected as a Town Meeting Member, Precinct 8, in Shrewsbury. This was a competitive race with 8 incumbents and 14 total candidates for 10 seats. On May 8, 2017, Green-Rainbow Party member and former candidate for State Representative Charlene DiCalogero was elected Library Trustee for the town of Berlin, Massachusetts. DiCalogero received 648 of the 649 votes cast in the election. On May 9, 2017 Green-Rainbow Party member Damon Jespersen (from the village of Byfield, Massachusetts) was re-elected selectperson from the town of Newbury, Massachusetts in a contested race. This was a competitive race with Jesperson being one of three candidates vying for two seats. Jesperson finished second with 690 votes ahead of the third place challenger who had 611 votes.