Tag: Green Party

Column: “Not enough Randy Pauls on this earth.”

On Tuesday morning, Randy Paul’s family relayed the news of his passing.

B Square photo of Randy Paul at a late 2019 organizational meeting of the Green Party.

In the last two and a half years, Paul has been covered by The B Square in connection with at least two significant issues. One was his effort to reorganize the local Green Party. The other was his fight to ensure that polling sites for the 2020 elections were accessible.

The start of the Green Party reorganization came during pre-pandemic days. I remember meeting Paul for breakfast at the Village Deli to talk about it.

He managed to pay the check for our table before I noticed it was done. I did not want to be on the wrong side of the ledger with Paul, and he agreed he’d let me pay for breakfast next time. The pandemic prevented any next time.

So now I will have to find another way to make good on that debt—which was a plate of biscuits and gravy.

Of course, our debt as a community to Randy Paul is bigger than a breakfast. Continue reading “Column: “Not enough Randy Pauls on this earth.”” →

Indiana’s election commission de-certifies write-in Green Party candidate for Monroe County judge after Democratic Party challenge

On Friday morning, Indiana’s four-member bi-partisan election commission voted unanimously to take Al Manns off November’s general election list of certified candidates for Monroe County circuit court judge.

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From left: Jennifer Crossley, chair of the Monroe County Democratic Party; Al Manns, currently a write-in Green Party candidate for the Division 1 circuit court race; Randy Paul, co-chair of the Monroe County Greens.

Manns had filed as a Green Party write-in candidate for the Division 1 seat, after losing the Democratic Party’s June 2 primary to Geoff Bradley.

It was his loss in the Democratic Primary that led the party to challenge Manns as a certified write-in candidate, because he had failed to win the party’s nomination for that same seat in June.

For its challenge, the Democratic Party was relying on a state law commonly known as the “sore loser” law. [IC-3-8-1-5.5]  The statute says that if someone loses a primary election, they’re not able to be a candidate for the same office in the next general election.

So a week ago, Monroe County Democratic Party chair Jennifer Crossley challenged the write-in candidacy that Manns wanted to mount. Continue reading “Indiana’s election commission de-certifies write-in Green Party candidate for Monroe County judge after Democratic Party challenge” →

Democrats challenge Green Party write-in candidate for judge based on loss in primary

cropped crossley paul manns IMG_3953
From left: Jennifer Crossley, chair of the Monroe County Democratic Party; Al Manns, currently a write-in Green Party candidate for the Division 1 circuit court race; Randy Paul, co-chair of the Monroe County Greens.

For the Monroe County Division 1 circuit court race, it’s certain that the November ballot will show two names: Republican Carl Lamb and Democrat Geoff Bradley.

What’s not yet certain is whether a blank will have to appear on the ballot where a voter could write a different name: Al Manns.

On July 6, Manns filed the paperwork required for write-in candidates and indicated an affiliation with the Green Party. He now appears on the Secretary of State’s official list of candidates.

But on Friday morning in Indianapolis at the state election division, Monroe County Democratic Party chair Jennifer Crossley hand-delivered a challenge to the write-in candidacy that Manns wants to mount. Continue reading “Democrats challenge Green Party write-in candidate for judge based on loss in primary” →

Local Greens take next step towards establishing new incarnation of political party

In the early 2000s, Bloomington’s local newspaper, the Herald-Times, was sprinkled with mentions of the Monroe County Green Party—about 50 references from 2000 to 2006. Only a couple mentions are recorded after that—and those are historical references.

In that era, local Green Party candidates included 8th District congressional seat write-in candidate Marc Haggerty in 2000, Jeff Melton as a candidate for the same congressional seat in 2002, and county council candidate Julie Roberts, also in 2002.

That’s based on records from the Monroe County Public Library’s portal to the online NewsBank archives of the Herald-Times.

At the library’s bricks-and-mortar building on Kirkwood Avenue, local Greens followed their first organizational meeting in late October with a second one on Tuesday. Leader of the current effort to achieve recognition as a local party organization, Randy Paul, says he wants the local Green Party to have an influence longer into the future.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the roughly 10 people present elected five interim officers, including Paul as one of the two co-chairs. The other co-chair is Nile Arena.

Rounding out the officer positions are Brandon Drake (vice chair), Amanda Sheridan (communications chair) and Gregory George (treasurer). Continue reading “Local Greens take next step towards establishing new incarnation of political party” →

Monroe County Green Party leaders: “We’re not asking you to join the party, we’re asking you to help organize it.”

On Wednesday night at the Monroe County Public Library (MCPL), around a dozen and a half people attended the first public meeting of the county’s local Green Party caucus.

Among the reasons that organizer Randy Paul and others gave for wanting to establish the Green Party in Bloomington and the rest of  Monroe County is a desire to provide some competition to the Democratic Party. Democrats hold all 11 city offices in Bloomington. Continue reading “Monroe County Green Party leaders: “We’re not asking you to join the party, we’re asking you to help organize it.”” →

New report: Bloomington’s 2018 GHG emissions up compared to 2016, but asterisks abound

Bloomington’s director of economic and sustainable development, Alex Crowley at the podium. (Dave Askins/Beacon)
Lauren Travis and Alex Crowley. (Dave Askins/Beacon)
Bloomington’s assistant director of sustainability Lauren Travis. (Dave Askins/Beacon)

On Tuesday night, Bloomington’s department of economic and sustainable development released a new report on greenhouse gas emissions. Based on data presented in the report, citywide numbers for the gases that are causing climate change have gone up by at least 12 percent since the last inventory was taken two years ago.

But the new report is hedged with caveats throughout, cautioning against comparing figures from the two reports, because of changes in methodology between the two years.

The previous inventory was based on 2016 data.

The new report, which is based on 2018 data, says that Bloomington generated community-wide 1,639,657 metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent emissions that year. That compares to 1,375,237 metric tons reported for 2016.

During Tuesday night’s presentation of the new report at city hall, Alex Crowley, director of the city’s department of economic and sustainable development, said the focus now would be on comparing future years with the numbers in the report released Tuesday. He also said a retroactive effort would be made to compute the inventory for the previous report using the current methodology.

To some extent, the new report already tries to adjust figures from the 2016 report.
The total emissions number reported by Bloomington in 2016 was 1,375,237 metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent. But after adjusting for methodology in the solid waste sector, the report released on Tuesday would put the 2016 solid waste number at 132,400 metric tons, instead of the 47,214 tons that was previously reported. That adjustment puts the emissions total for 2016 at 1,460,422 metric tons.

Compared to the solid-waste-adjusted total number from 2016, the 2018 number of 1,639,657 metric tons is 12 percent higher. The 2018 figure is 19 percent higher, if based on the unadjusted solid waste figure from 2016. Continue reading “New report: Bloomington’s 2018 GHG emissions up compared to 2016, but asterisks abound” →