Carey Campbell
Independent Green Party Chairman, Carey Campbell
Carey Campbell is the state chairman of the Independent Green Party of Virginia, and the National Chairman of the Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg. Mr. Campbell is a U.S. Air Force veteran. He worked as at TV anchor, producer at American Forces Network (AFN) in the 1970's and 80's when the Green Party was founded by American University graduate Petra Kelly and elected to government.
Petra Kelly Green Party Founder
Carey Campbell met Petra Kelly in 1978. Campbell studied, covered, and reported on the Greens from their inception, through formation as a Party. More than that, Carey Campbell went to church with Greens, and Kneipen (pubs) with them. Campbell attended the first ever National Green Party Convention in 1980 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Again, as a reporter, Campbell was in Bonn with NBC TV Evening News anchor Tom Brokaw covering, and reporting on election night March 6, 1983 when the Green Party was elected to the federal legislature for the first time. The next day Campbell, and AFN cameraman Charlie Gill, were with Tom Brokaw when he interviewed Petra Kelly live for NBC's Today show. Petra was slightly late for the interview. Brokaw as already talking with Bryant Gumble in New York when a radiant, victorious Petra Kelly smilingly tip toed across TV cables to do the Brokaw interview.
Carey Campbell reported on the massive Petra Kelly Green Party led demonstration in Krefeld. On that day then Vice President George Bush, the elder, visited Krefeld, Germany for celebration of German-American friendship. Carey Campbell and cameraman Charlie Gill were in a green U.S. Army van. Suddenly an auto, a Taunus, in order to avoid another car, cut in front of the Army van. It was only the lightning quick reaction of Charlie Gill at the wheel of the Army van that avoided a crash with the Taunus. In that car were Petra Kelly, with fellow Green Party member of parliament retired Major General Gert Bastian.
Later, during a TV interview, Carey Campbell and Petra Kelly would laugh about the close call, and thank Charlie Gill for his quick reaction.
With TV cameras, and often cameraman Charlie Gill, or camerawoman Sally LaFrado, Carey Campbell trailed Petra Kelly across Germany. Whether it was the big demo in the rain in Mutlangen, in the sun in Saarbruecken with a young Mayor Oscar Lafontaine, in Nueremburg, or in Bonn Petra Kelly was always gracious, and ready for an intelligent rapid response for Carey Campbell's TV cameras.
Campbell's cameras caught a young beautiful Petra Kelly. Petra Kelly was a woman of enormous charisma, extraordinary energy, focus, discipline. The camera loved Petra Kelly because she had a sense of drama, quicksilver intelligence. Simply Petra Kelly had an amazing ability to communicate. Petra Kelly could excite people for positive action with tenderness, and urgency. Petra Kelly's determination to advocate for nonviolence was as vital message then in the 70's, 80's, and 90's as it is now. Petra Kelly and the Green Party she created provided a positive, constructive nonviolent alternative to the violent political groups threatening to explode the society.
Freiburg Green Party Convention - November 2010
In November 2010 Campbell returned to Freiburg, Germany for the Green Party Convention or BDK. Campbell and his family stayed with the Gustav Burger family, the same family Campbell had lived with 30 years earlier as a student at the University of Freiburg.
