Minnesota will celebrate 150 years of statehood in 2008, and throughout that time it has been a political maverick. Its independent politics took shape during the 30 years when the frontier closed, corporations ruled the country, wealth concentrated in a few hands, and the Democratic and Republican parties turned their backs on the real issues. Minnesota railroad magnate James J. Hill and the millowners of Minneapolis controlled both of the state’s major parties, and in this setting, strong third parties blossomed.

Beginning in 1873 angry farmers united in the Anti-Monopoly Party, then in the Greenback Party, and by the 1880s, in the Famers Alliance. During the grim 1890s they joined with labor to form the People’s (Populist) Party. Opposition to World War I and the farm crisis of the 1920s produced a new Farmer Labor Party. In northern Minnesota it faced competition from an aggressive Communist movement, but in 1930 it elected a governor and in 1932 a majority of Minnesota congressmen. The death of Governor Floyd B. Olson in 1936, however, robbed the party of its popular leader.

Pressure from New Deal Democrats succeeded in merging the Farmer Labor Party with the Democrats in 1944 to form the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL). Four years later the party split fiercely over the third-party bid for president by Henry A. Wallace. The Democratic faction, led by Hubert H. Humphrey, won. For the next 40 years strong DFL leadership combined with the Cold War and polarization of the state on social issues like abortion kept third parties from developing. Grassroots revolt festered, however, as industrial agriculture wiped out family farms, the DFL moved steadily to the right, and environmental disaster became plainer each day.

In 1984 Minnesota hosted a historic step forward: the U.S. Green movement was born that year from a conference held at Macalester College in St. Paul. Decentralization was one of its values, and it was conceived as a network of local organizations. True to their evironmental roots, the Greens of the 1980s tended to unite along geographic lines. Local examples were the Lake Superior Greens and the St. Croix Valley Greens. But from the beginning there was tension between those who wanted a protest or lifestyle movement and those who favored political action.

By 1991 that tension split the Greens, and in 1992 the national convention held in Minneapolis represented only the movement faction. For Minnesota Greens the event was a disaster, leaving them burdened with debt and burnout. Meanwhile Green political parties had been forming in other states. Faced with the alternative of disbanding in 1994, Minnesota Greens decided to try politics, and a state party was launched in December.

The Green Party of Minnesota supported the nomination of Ralph Nader for president and Minnesotan Winona La Duke as his running mate in 1996. Enthusiasm ran high, and collecting signatures to place them on the ballot brought in new members and new leaders. A year later the party gained its first officeholder, when Annie Young, already serving on the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, left the Democratic Party and was re-elected as a Green. A party office was opened, and locals began to sprout around the state.

In 1998 Minnesota voters rejected the two-party system by electing the Independence Party’s Jesse Ventura as governor. Although less than one percent supported Green candidate Ken Pentel in that election, Ralph Nader, running again in 2000, received slightly over 5 percent of the state’s vote and gave the Greens major party status. The next year they won two seats on the Minneapolis city council.

As a major party in 2002 the Greens held caucuses in 64 of the state’s 67 senate districts and again chose Ken Pentel to run for governor. Many were torn, however, by the nomination of Native American Ed McGaa to oppose Paul Wellstone in the race for U.S. Senate. At the primary election McGaa was decisively rejected, and in the final election the highest Green vote was 3.67 percent for Dave Berger as state auditor.

The delegation to Milwaukee in 2004 was eclectic. The largest group of GPMN delegates was for "no candidate"/NOTA. This included an anyone-but-Nader faction. Behind that group came the Cobb supporters. Following that were the Nader delegates. If memory serves, this last group was a small minority, maybe three to five delegates out of the whole group. Following the convention a splinter group came home and gathered signatures for Nader. Thus both candidates appeared on Minnesota ballots in November.

The following year Green candidates Elizabeth Dickinson and Farheen Hakeem ran strong primary races for mayor in St. Paul and in Minneapolis. Another Green, Cam Gordon, was elected to the Minneapolis city council, but the two incumbents (Natalie Johnson-Lee and Dean Zimmermann), both gerrymandered out of their districts, were defeated. Annie Young was again re-elected and is now serving in her 5th - 4 year term on the Park Board.

Without an automatic ballot line in 2006, the Greens launched an ambitious petition drive and nominated nearly a full slate of statewide candidates. They failed to become a major party but kept legal status as a minor party.

Recently, in 2006, they also won a victory that held great promise for the future of open politics in Minnesota when the City of Minneapolis overwhelmingly adopted IRV - instant runoff voting.

The state party continues to grow as it moved into a new office in early 2007 and continues looking forward to its future which includes hosting the 2008 National Annual and Presidential Nominating Convention.

Green Party Historical Footnote

Come walk the streets Petra Kelly walked! It is interesting that Petra Kelly who founded Die Grunen in Germany spent a substantial amount of time in Minneapolis before leaving the U.S. to return to her native Germany. Sites of interest to fans of Petra Kelly might make an interesting diversion and there are a number of places around town that qualify. It is believed that Petra's time in Minneapolis working on the campaign of Hubert Humphrey, helped shape and spur her determination to find an alternative party after she returned to Germany.