Dear Coordinating Committee

We are two long-time Green Party members - Carol Bouldin since the GPCA’s founding ballot drive in 1990-1991 and Jane Jarlsberg since right after that.  We are both deeply concerned about the internal divisions in our party - and specifically about a proposal you are considering  at your monthly teleconference e believe will only make it worse by putting us through an unnecessary and divisive endorsement process over statewide Green candidates

We want to share with you our experience with two Greens both seeking the same statewide office. Both each came separately to speak to our county council in San Bernardino County.  One candidate came and spoke positively about the issues and didn’t mention the other candidate. The other candidate had little to offer about the issues, but spent most of his time trashing the other candidate seeking that same office.

On one hand, we were shocked to see this direct personal attack at a formal Green Party meeting. But on the other, it helped us see first-hand what was behind some of our party's internal divisions - the worst divisions either of us are aware of as a state party, since we both got involved - and bringing our party down at exactly the moment we should be taking advantage of, where so many people seeking an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans

Now the Coordinating Committee wants to exaggerate that internal conflict by putting it to a formal vote by proxy, by having both of those candidates placed before the Standing General Assembly for endorsement.  To both of us, such a path is long on divisiveness and short on benefit.

The last thing we need during these next few months is to be spending time fighting over candidates, when we should simply be campaigning for the candidates of our choice in order to advance Green issues and build the Green Party.

Furthermore we don’t believe the state party should be making endorsements in the primary.  Instead we should leave it to our party’s members to select among the Greens running for state office.  That is in keeping with our Key Value of Grassroots Democracy. We also believe that we should allow each candidate to appeal to as many other voters, without the st of a non-endorsement.

For all of these reasons, we implore you not to make the internal divisions in our party worse by putting forward a process forcing us to chose among Greens running for statewide office. If you do that, you will be simply pitting party members against each other, making things even worse than they are now. At this time of internal divisions, we need leadership from the Coordinating Committee to find ways  bring us together, not tears apart.