Wisconsin Green Party


The Wisconsin Green Party is one of five recognized political parties in the state of Wisconsin 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 and student activists affiliated with the UW-Madison Greens.
In 2006, the party helped place antiwar initiatives on the ballots in 32 towns.
In the spring of 2006, nine of 13 Green Party candidates won races in which they ran. John Hardin, Ben Farrell, Bob Ryan, Barbara Vedder, John Hendrick, and Kyle Richmond 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 and Ashok Kumar took their seats as county board officials for the first time, as did Eric Krszjzaniek 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

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.
YearNomineeVotes
1996Ralph Nader28,723
2000Ralph Nader94,070
2004David Cobb2,661
2008Cynthia McKinney4,216
2012Jill Stein7,665
2016Jill Stein31,072

Notable Wisconsin Greens