Green Party candidate outlines platform

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By Nancy Hicks

David Cobb, perhaps the only presidential candidate who will visit Nebraska this election season, outlined his party's platform Monday on the Capitol's north steps.

The Green Party, he said, stands for ending war as foreign policy, ending the power of the transnational corporate empire, promoting ecological wisdom, demanding universal health care as a fundamental right and the living wage so people working 40 hours a week can rise above the poverty level.

Cobb, the leading candidate for the Green Party nomination, is touring the nation to build support for his candidacy and party.

"We are succeeding. The Green Party is getting bigger, stronger and better organized with every election," said Cobb.

In 1996, he said, the party was organized in 10 states, was guaranteed a place on the ballot in five states and had 45 elected officials.

Today, the party is an organized party in 44 states -with a guaranteed spot on the ballot in 23 of them -and has 205 elected officials.

That includes Steve Larrick of Lincoln, a member of the Lower Plate South Natural Resources District and the party's candidate for the 1st District House seat.

Larrick will be on the November ballot through a successful petition effort. Successful petition efforts in the other two House districts would allow the Green Party candidate to be on Nebraska's statewide ballot in November.

If the Green Party candidate gets 5 percent of the vote in that election, the party will have an automatic position on the ballot for the next two years without a petition effort, according to Neal Erickson, deputy secretary of state for elections.

A native of Texas and an attorney, Cobb, 41, managed the campaign of Ralph Nader in 2000.

"Every social movement has been brought to you by so-called third parties," Cobb said.

That includes the abolition of slavery, women getting the right to vote, the creation of the Social Security administration, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation and elimination of child labor, he said.

"The entire fabric of what we consider a just and compassionate society was literally woven together by third-party support."

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@;journalstar.com.