Party Strains to Be Heard Now That Its Voice Isn’t Nader’s

Jill Stein, the presumptive presidential nominee for the Green Party, visited an urban garden in Roxbury, Mass., last week.( Charlie Mahoney for The New York Times)

(New York Times) BOSTON — Jill Stein, presumptive nominee of the Green Party, is probably the only candidate on the campaign trail who spends an hour a day cooking her own organic meals — and who was, not too long ago, the lead singer of a folksy rock band. But her distinctiveness does not end there. When Dr. Stein, a former physician, is introduced on the trail as “Jill Stein for president,” she is also very likely the only candidate to be asked, “For president of what?” That’s what Keith Brockenberry, a cook, wanted to know at a meet-and-greet in Roxbury last week.


After one of Dr. Stein’s supporters clarified, “for president of the United States,” Mr. Brockenberry seemed both taken aback and delighted. “Get out of here!” he blurted out. “I had no idea.” What Dr. Stein lacks in name recognition, however, she is trying to make up for these days in high-energy organization and low-cost social media outreach. When she officially accepts the nomination at the Green Party’s convention this weekend in Baltimore, she will be the party’s first candidate to have qualified for federal matching funds — a milestone for this 11-year-old alternative party and potentially a major boost for a campaign that does not accept corporate donations. The Green Party of the United States expects to be on the ballot in at least 45 states and to spend about $1 million on its campaign. At the moment, it has secured ballot access, an organizational test in itself, in 21 states, including the battlegrounds of Colorado, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, where the major party candidates, President Obama and Mitt Romney, who are raising tens of millions of dollars every month, are locked in a tight race. While Dr. Stein barely registers a blip in national polling, experts point to Ralph Nader, the Green Party nominee in 2000, who was seen by many Democrats as siphoning just enough votes from Al Gore in one state, Florida, to tip the election toward George W. Bush, a Republican. Nationally, Mr. Nader had captured only 3 percent of the vote. Could such a scenario unfold again? Unlike Dr. Stein, Mr. Nader, a lifelong consumer advocate, enjoyed high name recognition. But now, more than a decade later, the Green Party has matured to the point at which Dr. Stein’s lower profile may be balanced by a more savvy political operation. “The Green Party only needs to pull a very small number to provide an upset in a state like Ohio, if the balloting is close,” said Peter Ubertaccio, chairman of the department of political science and international studies at Stonehill College, in Easton, Mass. “Then suddenly their insignificant overall numbers become hugely significant in deciding who gets the electoral votes in that state.” It’s a danger to their natural allies, the Democrats, he said. Dr. Stein, 62, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, takes her ultra-long-shot odds in stride and is eager to explain to anyone who will listen “how a nice doctor like me,” she says, “got to be in a God-forsaken place like this.” A general internist who grew impatient with the social and environmental roots of disease, Dr. Stein said, “I’m now practicing political medicine because politics is the mother of all illnesses.” The Green Party’s supporters tend to be young, but the party is also popular with liberals of all ages who are disenchanted with the Obama administration. Emily Winter, 24, is one such voter. “I voted for Obama because he preached change, and he’s done impressive work in the area of women’s rights, heath care and foreign policy,” said Ms. Winter, a Boston University graduate student who approached Dr. Stein on a South End street to ask for a photo. “But I feel like too many other policies are stuck where they’ve been for years.”

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