Thomas MacMillan Photo
Charlie Pillsbury said he had hoped a younger Green Party member would emerge to try to unseat U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro this November. No such luck. So he’s dusting off his 2002 campaign signs, calling for a 70 percent military budget cut, and throwing his hat — gently — into the ring.
Pillsbury (at left in top photo), a longtime community mediator and the prototype for pal Garry Trudeau’s eponymous “Doonesbury” strip hero, made that announcement on Monday night as a united New Haven Green Party convention nominated him to be the party’s candidate in the race to represent Connecticut’s 3rd Congressional District. That seat is now held by 20-year Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. DeLauro.
This year’s will be Pillsbury’s second challenge against DeLauro. In 2002, he mounted a spirited campaign that included biking to all 25 municipalities in the district, squaring off in a televised debate with DeLauro, raising over $100,000, and eventually capturing 5 percent of the vote.
Eight years later, as a self-described “older and wiser” candidate, Pillsbury said he won’t be trying quite as hard. It’s just not worth it to pour Green Party effort into an un-winnable race. His role, as he said he sees it, is to capture the 1 percent of the vote necessary to keep the Green Party line on the ballot. That will continue to raise the profile of the party, so that it can win smaller, local races, Pillsbury said.
Pillsbury, who’s 62, ran the not-for-profit Community Mediation, Inc for 20 years, before stepping down last year. He now works part-time for the international Mediators Without Borders. He’s been a perennial Green Party candidate for office, running for the Board of Aldermen in 2003 and 2005, for registrar of voters in 2008, and against U.S. Rep. DeLauro in 2002.
In the back room of a wood-paneled college bar in Westville, Pillsbury made it clear to the gathered Greens that 2010 is not 2002.
Three middle-aged women and six grey-haired men — half of them bearded, including Pillsbury — caucused in the Westside Bar and Grill on Whalley Avenue. All but two are registered Green in New Haven, making a total of eight voting partisans, including Pillsbury. Tattooed youngsters drank beer to pop music in another part of the bar.
After putting in orders with the waiter — four bowls of gazpacho, ice tea, a glass of red wine, a glass of white, a beer — the Greens settled into business. Party co-chair Jerry Martin read the rules of the nominating convention and opened the floor for nominations, though the choice of Pillsbury was a foregone conclusion.
Allan Brison, former Green Ward 10 alderman, made the official motion. “I’ll nominate Charlie Pillsbury for that office.”
Pillsbury ran as an anti-war candidate in 2002, at the time of the resolution to invade Iraq. As such, he managed to push DeLauro to take a stand against the war, Brison said.
DeLauro announced that she would vote against the Iraq war resolution during her one televised debate with him, Pillsbury said. “That wouldn’t have happened without a real anti-war candidate in the race.”
This year, the Green Party message is still anti-war. Cutting military spending by 70 percent is number one on the “Green New Deal.” That’s the 10-point policy platform that Greens are adopting nationwide. Such deep military spending cuts would save $500 billion, Pillsbury said.
“You could buy a bank with that,” quipped Hamden Green Jeffry Larson.
Military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan should cease completely, Pillsbury said. They simply aren’t working, he said. Al Qaeda is active in 50 different countries. “Are we going to invade all 50?”
Only Greens raise the possibility of complete military withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan, Pillsbury said. And only Greens talk seriously of a single-payer health care system, ending the war on drugs, and amending the Constitution to state explicitly that corporations are not people and should therefore not be protected by the First Amendment.
Pillsbury said it will take about 20 years to pass such an amendment, but it will only happen with Greens pushing candidates from the left.
Pillsbury told his fellow Greens he is ready: “I’m prepared to accept the nomination.”
Larson asked a question: You weren’t willing to commit to the race earlier this year at the state Green Party convention. Why?
“There’s always this dream that a young Green will step up,” Pillsbury replied. “Look around the table. We’re the present of the Green Party but we’re not the future.”
“The best way to advertise the party is to be on the ballot,” Pillsbury said.
“How will you get into the debates?” asked New Haven Green Patricia Kane. She warned that the major parties would try to “freeze you out.”
Pillsbury said he debated DeLauro last time but he had to “raise a ton of money” and open a campaign office to do so. “I’m not willing to do it again,” he said. All Greens need is 1 percent to stay on the ballot, he said.
As the conversation drifted into discussion of billionaires backing the Tea Party, the gazpacho arrived. Co-chair Martin moved to wrap things up by calling for a vote. It was unanimous.
“Thank you for your confidence,” Pillsbury said, as the soup-slurping began.
Larson, who was without gazpacho, asked Pillsbury to say more about his strategy this year, versus 2002.
It’s more of a “stealth campaign,” Pillsbury said. “I’m not going to raise much money.”
The party didn’t even put out a proper press release about the nominating convention, he noted.
Later, as the convention broke up, Pillsbury spoke more about why this year is different. In 2002, he spent six months raising over $100,000. He had a campaign manager and 20 high school interns. He spent five days biking through all 25 towns in the district. “We did a lot of work,” he said. “After all that, we walked away with 5 percent of the vote.”
Now, “older and wiser,” Pillsbury said he sees his task not as winning a bigger percentage, but as simply earning the 1 percent necessary to keep the Green line on the ballot. “It’s like holding your shelf space in the supermarket,” he said.
But don’t you want people to buy the product at some point?
That’s going to happen in smaller races, like Brison’s aldermanic race, Pillsbury said. “Races where you can win.” He said Greens have their eye on the New Haven Registrar of Voters office, a position he ran for in 2008.
“Mine’s a symbolic race,” he said.
He has no plans for fundraising. Nor will he be fighting to gain entry to any debates. He has no campaign events scheduled beyond an upcoming three-district rally in Hartford, Pillsbury said. There he’ll be supporting the two other Connecticut Greens running for U.S. House of Representatives.
While New Haven Greens converged in Westville on Monday night, 1st District Greens in East Hartford narrowly chose to endorse law clerk and journalist Ken Krayeske to challenge U.S. Rep John B. Larson. Former state environmental analyst G. Scott Deshefy is challenging U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney in the 2nd District.
Pillsbury ended the evening by donning an eight-year-old “Pillsbury For Congress” ball cap and T‑shirt that he produced from a bag. He stood next to a 2002 campaign sign propped in the window of the bar.
