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Kane County Green Party

This is the official site of the Kane Greens, the Kane County local of the Illinois Green Party.

Kane Greens Gathering Money for Elgin Food Pantries

We are planning to donate to the Elgin Food Pantries after an article that appeared in the Herald reported low food stocks. If you would like to send money to us, write a check to Kane Greens and place in the memo section "food pantry" and we will place it with our donation. You can send it to us at P.O.Box 188 in South Elgin, IL 60177. Or you could go to the Northern Illinois Food Bank site and donate directly to the food pantry. We will make a donation at the end of January.

Kane Greens guiding policy

Our mission is to work towards fairness and social cooperation in an informed community fostering environmental protection, respect for diversity, responsible corporate behavior, responsible taxation and spending, and peace through justice.

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To search this site, use the search box and button at top right. To browse, follow any of the tabs at the top or any of the news or event items, or see the bulletin of recent changes.

ILGP Statement on the Arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich

The following is the official statement from the Illinois Green Party on the arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich:

We in the Illinois Green Party are deeply troubled by the arrest of Governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief-of-staff John Harris. The Governor is charged with attempting to personally profit from his power to appoint a person to the U.S. Senate. While we recognize that the accused are innocent until proven guilty, we must also admit that we are not surprised by these allegations. We have seen a long pattern of pay-to-play from Blagojevich, and indeed, a long pattern of pay-to-play throughout Illinois politics for years. The long sordid history of corruption in Illinois must finally come to an end.

The Green Party has always stood for accountability, transparency, and clean government through clean elections. We reject all corporate campaign contributions, advocate for public financing, and have long pushed for at least caps on individual contributions, so that our elections will no longer be pay-to-play.

We call on the Illinois General Assembly to hold an emergency session to:

1) Develop legislation to give the people of Illinois the ability to recall their public officials;

2) Consider the impeachment of Governor Blagojevich;

3) Amend Illinois statute to provide for an open process for filling this and future U.S. Senate seats, preferably through a special election, as the process for filling the current vacancy has been irrevocably tainted;

4) Reform the campaign finance system, banning all corporate campaign contributions, and installing caps on individual contributions;

5) Further reform the campaign finance system to eliminate pay-for-play, by barring or severely limiting contributions from political appointees, and mandating that political committees return donations made from individuals subsequently appointed to public office, boards, or commissions.

These are the first steps which need to be taken to help instill integrity, transparency, and accountability to our state government.

Phil Huckelberry
Chair, Illinois Green Party

12/09/08

Former Green Party Gubernatorial Candidate Rich Whitney on the arrest and criminal charges against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich

December 9th, 2008

press release from Rich Whitney

Carbondale civil rights attorney and 2006 Green Party candidate for Governor Rich Whitney has issued the following statement today on the arrest and criminal charges against Governor Rod Blagojevich. Whitney has not formally announced himself as a candidate for governor in 2010
but has publicly acknowledged he is making preparations for such a run:

We’ve all heard the expression, “I hate to tell you but I told you so.” But in this case, I honestly don’t hate to say it: We did tell you so. While I did not make any specific allegations against Mr.
Blagojevich during the campaign, every informed Illinoisan knew that pay-for-play was endemic in our State and that illegal job patronage had not stopped but had gone underground. But it was only the Whitney campaign and the other campaigns of the Illinois Green Party that raised the issue of serious campaign ethics reform, front and center. Indeed, one of my campaign themes was to clean up government, along with cleaning up the environment and the budget mess.

Now we’re even deeper in the hole financially and we have truly hit bottom – I hope, anyway – in terms of corruption in government.

In announcing the criminal charges against Blagojevich today, Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the FBI, stated that they “reveal that the office of the Governor has become nothing more than a vehicle for self-enrichment, unrestricted by party affiliation and taking Illinois politics to a new low. While I understand the sentiment, I would respectfully remind Mr. Grant, and Illinois voters, that there is one political party that has stood up for the principle of not accepting any corporate campaign contributions whatsoever, and that has stood firmly on a platform of making serious campaign ethics reform a top priority. And that is the Illinois Green Party.

I would also remind voters that this problem goes beyond the corruption of one man. This is a systemic problem that demands a systemic solution. The people of this State need to mobilize to gain
control over what is supposed to be their government. And the way to do that is by building a grass-roots political party that is beholden and accountable only to the people, not the same big-moneyed special interests who have made practice of buying and selling politicians.

As an attorney, I have combated illegal job patronage. As a candidate, I called for all non-policy-making State jobs to be selected on the basis of objective criteria by an independent bureau. I also promised to appoint an Inspector General from an opposition party, to prevent and root out illegal job patronage and help remove the cloud of corruption over our State. I advocated the formation of a Citizens’ Budget Review Commission, to review proposed budget proposals to help ferret out wasteful pork spending and political favoritism. And I called for campaign contribution limits of $500 per candidate per campaign.

And of course, as with all Green Party candidates, I declined to accept any corporate campaign contributions – and advocated making a ban on corporate contributions the law of our State.

Today’s news is but the latest symptom of a much more pervasive disease. The Democratic Party has had complete control of Illinois State government for several years now – and everyone can see for themselves that it has given us a completely dysfunctional government that has now led us into the abyss. Yet the Republican Party is just as cravenly supportive of the same corporatist agenda; they have simply been even less effective politically.

If the state of Illinois politics today doesn’t demonstrate the need for the people to embrace and build the Green Party – a true party of, by and for the people – I don’t know what will.

Think Green Party

Answer any of these questions...

Are you for a continuing war in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Do you agree that we should be able to attack countries such as Syria and Pakistan in search of terrorists?

Are you in favor of attacking Iran because they are supposedly trying to secure Weapons of Mass Destruction?

Do you think our nation is doing all it can to prevent global warming or preserve our resources?

Were you in favor of the Wall Street bailout?

Do you think the health care insurance companies are "in your corner" and support you 100%?

Is Illinois government working well for its citizens?

If you answered "NO" to any of these questions, why are you considering more of the same from the Democrats and Republicans?

Consider all your options. It is your right as an American citizen. It is your reponsiblity as an American citizen.

Vote for your hopes, not your fears...

Vote Green!

Green Action

If you are interested in seeing houses using solar energy, see the ISEA website (Illinois Solar Energy Energy Association). Green Party Senate Candidate Kathy Cummings' house will be on the walk!

For info on insulating your home to save coal pollution and energy before getting green power, go here.

Go here for info on a home energy audit .

Illinois Renewable Energy Association link.

If you want more info on the movie Kilowatt Ours, go here.

Like Minded People

Fox Valley Citizens for Peace & Justice will meet at 9AM on the first Saturday of the month at the Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren 783 W Highland Avenue in Elgin. For directions or questions call 847-742-6602.

Elgin Climate Change Organization "...our mission is to explore personal values and habits as they relate to climate change. To understand the history & science of global warming. To empower individuals to take action to curb global warming."

Fox Valley Electric Auto Association: "We promote efficient and clean electric vehicle use and educate the public on these issues. We help our members to become electric vehicle drivers."

Weston A. Price Group in Elgin: "...we venture on this journey of overcoming the pitfalls of our current standard American food chain."

Geneva Green Market: Locally grown food.

Erewhon Farms: Community supported agriculture in Geneva.

Health Care for All Illinois: "...a statewide coalition advocating a single-payer health system to guarantee access to comprehensive, equal health care for all Illinoisians."

Northern Illinois Food Bank: This highly rated charity provides food to food banks in all the counties surrounding Cook County. "Learn more about the efforts of Northern Illinois Food Bank and its mission to provide nutritious food to all those in need through its own efforts and those of its nonprofit partners."

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