Jill Stein

For those of a similar name, see Gil Stein (disambiguation).

Jill Stein
Green Party nominee for President of the United States
Election date November 6, 2012
Personal details
Born	(1950-05-14) May 14, 1950 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Political party	Green Party
Spouse	Richard Rohrer
Children	Ben and Noah
Residence	Lexington, Massachusetts
Alma mater	Harvard University
Occupation	Physician
Website	Jill Stein 2012

Jill Stein (born 1950) is an American physician and candidate for President of the United States in 2012 with the Green Party of the United States. Stein was a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in the 2002 and the 2010 gubernatorial elections. Stein is a resident of Lexington, Massachusetts and a 1979 graduate of Harvard Medical School. She serves on the boards of Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility and MassVoters for Fair Elections, and has been active with the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities.

In October 2011, Stein announced her candidacy for the presidential nomination of the Green Party in the 2012 general election.

Politics

Positions

Stein advocates for the creation of a "Green New Deal", the objective of which would be to employ "every American willing and able to work" to address "climate change...[and the] converging water, soil, fisheries, forest, and fossil fuel crises" by working towards "sustainable energy, transportation and production infrastructure: clean renewable energy generation, energy efficiency, intra-city mass transit and inter-city railroads, “complete streets” that safely encourage bike and pedestrian traffic, regional food systems based on sustainable organic agriculture, and clean manufacturing of the goods needed to support this sustainable economy". The initial cost of the Green New Deal would be funded by various mechanisms, including "taxing Wall Street speculation, off shore tax havens, millionaires and multimillion dollar estates" as well as a 30% reduction in the U.S. military budget. She cites a study of the economic effects of the 1930s New Deal projects by Dr. Phillip Harvey, Professor of Law & Economics at Rutgers School of Law as academic evidence for the Green New Deal.

Principle position, 4-Point "Green New Deal"

Stein's principles are directed towards voters of every political party and independents:

1. The right to a job at a living wage.
2. The transition to a sustainable, green economy.
3. A financial sector serving Americans.
4. Citizen empowerment.

In Stein's words: "We don't need to run America like a business or like the military. We need to run America like a democracy."

The New Green Deal includes an Economic Bill of Rights, pushing for full employment and a decent living wage. The document claims that everyone has the right to education, health care, housing, as well as the right to unionize. Citing FDR and Martin Luther King Jr. as early advocates of an Economic Bill of Rights, Stein claims the US needs an economy that serves people and recognizes their rights.

In an interview with The Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch, Stein describes the Green New Deal as an economic program that is also "an environmental program and also a peace program. It's also a health program because we spend about a trillion dollars as taxpayers on a sick-care system, not a health-care system. To change the sick-care system to a health-care system, you want to have an infrastructure for health in your community, you also want of course a Medicare for all healthcare system, but even before getting there there's so much you can do to prevent illness to start with. Of the trillion dollars we spend every year, 75 percent of that is spent on chronic diseases that are preventable for half the cost. So I would just add as ancillaries to that; forgiving student debt and making public higher education free is a key part of this, and of course downsizing the military and bringing the troops home as well."

Activities

In October 2011, Stein began participating in the Occupy protests at the Occupy Boston peaceful protest. Speaking to the protesters, Stein said, "The Occupy movement is a cry for change from workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas and young people whose future is being stolen from them by politicians intent on serving Wall Street rather than the people...People are being forced from their homes by big banks that defrauded consumers. The planet is being sacrificed to protect profits of polluters."

Stein gave a speech to an Occupy Wall Street gathering in Indianapolis on Super Bowl Sunday, in response to Indiana's governor Mitch Daniels signing a law making Indiana become the 23rd "right to work" state just days earlier. Stein has also supported workers in Wisconsin, who are protesting against Governor Scott Walker's recent decisions, praising their efforts as exemplary and suggesting the rest of the nation should be just as active in defending the rights of workers.

Criticism of Obama

A New York Times interview with Jill Stein in February 2012 expanded on her criticism of President Obama. When asked if the president is deserving of credit, Stein stated "As we found on issue after issue--the war, reappointing George Bush's secretary of defense, sticking to George Bush's timeline on Iraq, expanding the war, expanding the drone wars all over the place. And how about bringing Wall Street in, the guys who created the problem, among his first appointments. It was pretty clear right then that this was going to be business as usual on steroids. We're certainly not more secure, more equitable, more healthy or safer internationally, with what Obama has brought".

Electoral campaign history

Governor, 2002

Stein at a protest against coal.

Stein was the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and finished third in a field of five candidates, with 76,530 votes and about 3.5% of the vote.

Massachusetts House of Representatives, 2004

Following her third place results in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, Stein ran for state representative in 2004 for the Lexington District. She received 3,911 votes for 21.3 percent of the vote in a three-way race but lost to incumbent Thomas M. Stanley, who received 59.6 percent.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, 2006

Stein was nominated for Secretary of the Commonwealth on March 4, 2006, at the Green-Rainbow Party state-wide nominating convention. In a two-way race with three-term incumbent Democrat Bill Galvin, Stein received 353,551 votes for 18% of the total vote. Stein's 18% marked the best finish for a Green Party candidate running for Secretary of State in any state to date.

Jill Stein announcing her candidacy for governor in February 2010

Town of Lexington Town Meeting Representative, 2005 and 2008

Stein was elected to the Town Meeting Seat, Precinct 2 (Lexington, Massachusetts) in March 2005 local elections. She finished first of 16 candidates running for 7 seats receiving 539 votes, for 20.6% of the total vote. Stein was re-elected in 2008 finishing second of thirteen vying for eight seats.

Gubernatorial election, 2010

Main article: Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2010

On February 8, 2010, Stein announced her entrance into the gubernatorial race on the steps of the Massachusetts State House in Boston. She was joined in the race by candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Richard P. Purcell, a surgery clerk and ergonomics assessor, of Holyoke. In May, Stein opened her campaign office in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, near the Fields Corner MBTA station. Stein received 32,816 votes out of 2,287,407 in the November 2, 2010 general election.

Presidential campaign, 2012

In August 2011, Stein gave indication that she was considering running for President of the United States with the Green Party in the 2012 national election. She indicated in a published questionnaire that she had been asked to run by a number of Green activists and felt compelled to consider the possibility after the U.S. debt-ceiling crisis which she called "the President’s astounding attack on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – a betrayal of the public interest...". In the survey, she suggested that she would announce her intentions by the end of September 2011. Stein later stated that she would announce her intentions on October 24.

On October 24, 2011 Stein launched her campaign at a press conference in Massachusetts, saying "We are all realizing that we, the people, have to take charge because the political parties that are serving the top 1 percent are not going to solve the problems that the rest of us face, we need people in Washington who will refuse to be bought by lobbyists and for whom change is not just a slogan".

In December 2011, Wisconsin Green Party leader Ben Manski was announced as Stein's campaign manager.

Stein's decision to enter the presidential race stemmed from a mock election at Western Illinois University where she fared well. The mock election featured the Green ticket of Stein/Mesplay, Democratic ticket of Obama/Biden and Republican ticket of Romney/Ryan, with Stein capturing an impressive 27% of votes, Romney getting 33% and Obama getting 39%. Encouraged by this success, she decided to run to try to win. During an interview with Grist, Stein said "If I can quote Alice Walker, “The biggest way people give up power is by not knowing they have it to start with.” And that’s true, for the environmental movement, the student movement, the antiwar movement, health-care-as-a-human-right movement — you put us all together, we have the potential for a Tahrir Square type event, and [to] turn the White House into a Green House in November".

Stein became the presumptive Green Party nominee after winning two-thirds of California's delegates in June of 2012. In a statement following the California election, Stein said, "Voters will not be forced to choose between two servants of Wall Street in the upcoming election. Now we know there will be a third candidate on the ballot who is a genuine champion of working people."

On July 1, 2012, the Jill Stein campaign reported it had received enough contributions to qualify for primary season federal matching funds, pending confirmation from the FEC. If funded, Stein would be the second Green Party presidential candidate ever to have qualified, with Ralph Nader being the first in 2000.

The Green Party will hold their nominating convention in July in Baltimore.

Endorsements

• Noam Chomsky, author and activist
• Richard Stallman, computer programmer and software freedom activist

Fundraising and position on super PACs

The Green Party's position on fundraising is to know and follow both the laws and regulations of the area.

Stein relies on "ordinary people" and not super PACs financed by billionaires or wealthy firms. As a result of her independence from super PACs and their associated monies, Stein says she is not beholden to special interest groups. Additionally, she is not vulnerable should the Federal court ruling of January 31, 2012 prove to pose serious problems to those that do receive massive donations.

Personal

Stein was born in Chicago and raised in Highland Park, Illinois. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with her husband, fellow physician Richard Rohrer. The couple have two adult sons.

External links

• Jill Stein for President campaign site
• Green Party Platform
• Jill Stein on Facebook