A little bit of the backstory:
Arn Menconi, the 2016 Colorado Green Party nominee for US Senate, once said that “Andrea Merida wants absolute control over an organization that has no more power than an average sized bridge club.” Robert Lee Worthey, the 2016 Green Party nominee for US Representative in CD6, said that “Andrea wants to fill every office with herself.”
I see what has happened as an orchestrated hostile takeover of the Green Party by a far left faction. They call themselves “ecosocialists,” but they really aren’t Greens at all. They are totalitarians who have hijacked the Green Party. They oppose democratic process.
It is clear to me that the faction that has taken over the Green Party is diametrically opposed to the values that the Green Party pretends to advocate. They want to obstruct Greens from running on the Green Party’s own ballot line.
The Green Party of Colorado has placed candidates on the ballot for partisan offices in every general election since 1994. The Green Party has had “automatic” ballot status as a recognized minor political party in Colorado since 1998. 2018 was the first general election in which the Green Party of Colorado failed to nominate any candidates for statewide or Congressional offices. The same thing happened again in 2020.
As of March 1, the Libertarian Party of Colorado has 27 announced candidates, and they want to recruit as many more candidates as possible. The Libertarian Party sent out a press release in December 2021 to invite people to attend their 2022 state nominating convention on March 12th. Details about the assembly are clearly and prominently posted on the Libertarian Party’s website.
The Libertarian Party wants people to join them. The Green Party wants to exclude Green Party members from representation and deny them the right to vote.
The Green Party of Colorado has no publicly announced candidates for 2022 and no publicly announced nomination assembly. Up until 2016, Green Party of Colorado state assemblies were considered to be public meetings open to public observation. Now the group that has stolen the political identity of the Green Party of Colorado operates in secret. Previously, any registered Green Party voter could vote on candidate nominations, state party officers, and state party bylaws. Andrea Merida’s faction instituted a Green Party poll tax. They restricted Green Party voting rights to registered, dues-paying Green Party members in “good standing” — as determined by a restricted access, heavily censored online kangaroo court of unaccountable council members. People who were nominated as Green Party candidates for state and Congressional offices in 2012, 2014. and 2016 have been banned from participating in the Green Party of Colorado.
The purpose of a political party is to nominate and support candidates for public office. The group that has seized control of the “Green Party of Colorado” organization blocks potential Green candidates from seeking the Green Party’s nomination.
The faction that has taken over talks about “Left Unity,” but they want to purge anyone who dares to think for themselves. In the early days of the Green Party, we would say “two Greens, two opinions.” Or better yet, “two Greens, three opinions.” Now, there is zero tolerance for dissent; zero tolerance for independent thought.
Think of what has happened as political identity theft. The Green Party has been the leading progressive alternative party in the United States in recent decades. The far left is politically fractured. “Left Unity” has been divided between the Socialist Party, the Socialist Labor Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Workers World Party, the Party of Socialism and Labor, and so forth. None of these parties capture more than a fraction of a percent of the vote for their presidential candidates, nor do they run candidates for down-ballot offices.
Colorado has had a process for minor parties to nominate candidates by party assembly since 1998. No party with the word “socialist” or “communist” in its name has ever been a recognized minor party in Colorado. Socialists were free to join the Green Party. Now Greens are no longer tolerated in the Green Party.
People who have been banned from the Green Party of Colorado include the following:
Harry Hempy, 2014 Green Party nominee for Governor.
Judy Harrington, Former Co-Chair of Poudre Valley Green Party
Robert Lee Worthey, 2016 Green Party nominee for Congress, CD6
Susan Hall, 2012 Green Party nominee for Congress, CD2.
Tom Hall, former Green Party state treasurer.
Michael Haughey, Jefferson County Green Party chair.
Gary Swing, 2010/2012/2014 Green Party nominee for Congress.
Arn Menconi, 2016 Green Party nominee for US Senate.
Scott Lupo, former secretary of Jefferson County Green Party.
Carolyn Bninsky, peace activist, former co-chair of Greater Boulder Green Party.
Kevin Alumbaugh, founding member of the Greater Boulder Green Party and former Green Party of Colorado state council facilitator.
Bill Bartlett, Former Green Party of Colorado State Co-chair.
John Vigil, campaign activist for Arn Menconi’s US Senate campaign.
Jordan J. Oliver-Poche, campaign activist for Arn Menconi’s US Senate campaign.
About half of the local Green Party chapters that were actively involved in the state Green Party up until 2017 had their representation and voting rights in the state Green Party by the controlling faction. This includes the Jefferson County Green Party, Douglas County Green Party, Greater Boulder Green Party, Pikes Peak Green Party (El Paso and Fremont Counties), and Southwest Greens. The Montezuma Green Party refused to affiliate with the corrupt, authoritarian Green Party of Colorado.
Leader of the Hijackers:
Andrea Merida’s Classroon Behavior Has Earned Her a Seat Apart On the Denver School Board
DPS School Board Member Andrea Merida on Romanoff Payroll
Is the DPS School Board’s Andrea Merida an Embarrassment or a Hero?
Teacher union supporter Merida pulls out of Denver school board race
Controversial DPS board member Merida blogs her secret swearing-in
DPS board member Merida on Romanoff campaign’s payroll
What Andrea Merida was misspending-our-tax-money
Attempt to Recall Andrea Merida Fails
Andrea Merida’s expenses show fuzzy DPS policies
Addendum:
Julie Banuelos is a Green Party of Colorado member who ran as a Green Party endorsed candidate for Denver School Board. Her campaign manager was Andrea Merida, the Co-Chair of the Denver Green Party, Co-Chair of the Green Party of Colorado, (now former) Co-Chair of the Green Party of the United States, and campaign manager for Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins.
“But even more remarkable are the expenditures after the election, a clear indication that Banuelos was likely converting campaign funds to private use. Cash came out of an ATM, as well as buying gas on 11/29/17, nearly a month after the election. And while Banuelos spent just $1600 contacting voters, she spend $9500 paying campaign manager Andrea Merida, who had her own issues with money while on the school board nearly a decade ago.”
DPS School board races marked by dodgy characters