The Wisconsin Green Party (WIGP) is one of five recognized political parties in the state of WisconsinWisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (comp.). State of Wisconsin 2015-2016 Blue Book. Madison: Wisconsin Department of Administration, 2015, p. 842. "At the beginning of 2015, Wisconsin had five recognized political parties: Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, and Republican." and is an active member of the Green Party of the United States.
History
The Wisconsin Green Party emerged in the late 1980s when several independent local Green groups combined. Walter Bresette and Frank Koehn of the Lake Superior Greens were instrumental figures in the early years of the party's development. Koehn's election to the Bayfield County board in 1986 was the first time a Green Party candidate had ever been elected to an office in the United States. Dennis Boyer, Richard Latker, Joyce Melville and others established a large chapter in Madison that brought together veteran activists (many of them former members of the Labor-Farm Party, which disintegrated in 1987 after Greens and Marxists in the party failed to agree on a platform) and student activists affiliated with the UW-Madison Greens.
In 2006, the party helped place antiwar initiatives on the ballots in 32 towns (24 of which passed those propositions). In the spring of 2006, nine of 13 Green Party candidates won races in which they ran. John Hardin (Barron County), Ben Farrell (Winnebago County), Bob Ryan (Door County), Barbara Vedder (Dane County), John Hendrick (Dane County), and Kyle Richmond (Dane County) all won re-election to their respective county board seats. Vedder had been appointed to an open seat a few months before the election.
Jeff Peterson (Polk County) and Ashok Kumar (Dane County) took their seats as county board officials for the first time, as did Eric Krszjzaniek (Portage County) who won a recount of write-in votes with an original 5-7 loss turning into an 8-3 win.
On April 3, 2007 a further seven out of 14 Green Party candidates running for office won their elections throughout Wisconsin. This brought the total number of elected Greens in Wisconsin to twenty-two.
The Wisconsin Green Party's headquarters are in Madison.
Statewide nominees Source: 2002 - Jim Young, Governor 2002 - Paul Aschenbrenner, Treasurer 2006 - Nelson Eisman, Governor 2006 - Leon Todd, Lieutenant Governor 2006 - Winston Sephus, Treasurer 2006 - Michael LaForest, Secretary of State 2006 - Rae Vogeler, U.S. Senate 2014 - Ron Hardy, Treasurer
Presidential nominee results Source:
Since 1996, the national Green Party has run a candidate for President of the United States. In that year, Green Party nominee, Ralph Nader was on the ballot as an independent. The party's highest vote total came in 2000, when Ralph Nader received over 94,000 votes. The lowest vote total came in 2004, when David Cobb was the nominee. His campaign received only 2,661 votes. Nader, who was also on the ballot as an independent candidate, received over 16,000 votes.
In the 2024 Presidential election, Jill Stein was the nominee for the Party but only received 12,266 (0.4%) votes in Wisconsin.
YearNomineeVotes1996 Ralph Nader28,723 (1.31%)2000 Ralph Nader94,070 (3.62%)2004 David Cobb 2,661 (0.10%)2008 Cynthia McKinney 4,216 (0.14%)2012 Jill Stein 7,665 (0.25%)2016 Jill Stein31,072 (1.04%)2024Jill Stein12,266 (0.4%)
Notable Wisconsin Greens Walter Bresette Frank Koehn
References
External links Wisconsin Green Party