Politics

Obama, Romney challenger to visit campus next week

Green Party candidate Jill Stein will deliver a presentation over her running platform, the Green New Deal, in Derryberry Auditorium Nov. 1 at 11 a.m.
Katey Culver, co-chair of the Tennessee Green Party and the state coordinator for the Jill Stein campaign, contacted English instructor and Student Environmental Action Coalition faculty adviser Andrew Smith about Stein’s campaign tour stopping at Tech.
“We are specifically an environmental group,” Smith said. “We are not specifically a political group like, for example, your college democrats or your college republicans.”
The organization seeks to promote a more sustainable society in terms of reducing reliance on nonrenewable resources, exploring resources for alternative energy and promoting environmental awareness.
“What I would really like for [Stein] to focus on is the environmental and the clean energy part of her platform,” Carolyn Huppmann, president of SEAC, said.
Along with outlining plans for a transition toward an environmentally safe economy, Stein’s Green New Deal covers civil equality, including workers’ rights, health care and education, reforms for a “functioning democracy” including military spending and voter rights and financial reform.
“The thing on people’s minds right now seems to be the economy,” Culver said. “The Green Party has a lot of stances that we have stood on for a long time that don’t necessarily get in the mainstream debates, and that’s something she may touch on, but I think that mostly we really want to talk about what’s on the minds of the people today.”
Huppmann said while SEAC members may or may not agree with all of Stein’s platform positions, they do support her position on environmental issues.
However, she said she thinks Stein’s outreach to universities could gain support for the Green Party candidate.
“The college kids will feel like they actually matter to someone because someone is actually coming out of their way to come and speak to them,” Huppmann said.  “I think it will help because a lot of college kids, at least ones that I have talked to, they don’t know exactly who they want to vote for just yet, and so there’s still a chance for a little bit of swaying since a lot of people are very conflicted on the selection.”
Stein has made her way onto the ballot in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Her name will appear as a write-in in nine states, and she is seeking a write-in status in three states.
This will be the first time the Green Party has had a ballot line in Tennessee. In past years, the spot was labeled as Independent.  
In order for the Green Party to keep its ballot line, it has to win 2.5 percent of the votes in either the Presidential race or Senate.