Green Party’s Swing urges voters to write in himself, Melendez, Ralston, Cease on primary ballot

Gary Swing

Submitted image/Gary Swing

OPINION — The Green Party was founded upon the values of nonviolence, ecology, grassroots democracy and social justice. Candidates who don’t represent Green values have petitioned onto the Arizona Green Party primary ballot for governor and secretary of state.

The Arizona Green Party has endorsed these write-in candidates for our primary: Carlos Melendez for governor, Jon Robert Ralston for secretary of state, Mike Cease for corporation commissioner, Gary Swing for U.S. Congress in District 6 and Brendan Trachsel for state representative in Legislative District 6.

We urge registered Green Party members to write in these candidates on their primary ballot.

The Arizona Green Party actively opposes Risa Lombardo for governor and Duwayne Collier for secretary of state.

Green gubernatorial candidate Melendez calls for moratoriums on new data centers and Flock surveillance cameras. He supports public banking, rent control and converting private utilities into public utilities.

Green secretary of state candidate Ralston is running to advocate for multiple candidate elections and a multi-party democracy. He supports sincere voting methods like ranked-choice voting, approval voting or “Score Then Automatic Runoff” voting for single-winner elections, which allows multiple candidates to compete without vote splitting. Ralston also supports proportional representation in multi-member districts for legislative bodies to secure ethnic, religious, ideological and socioeconomic diversity in representation. Political parties should nominate candidates by party convention, with fair ballot access.

Corporation commission candidate Cease proposes sanctioning companies that are complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people. He would also sanction the mining companies destroying the Santa Rita Mountains and Oak Flat, and polluting our groundwater.

As a candidate for Congress, I advocate ending all foreign military aid and all foreign military intervention, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, electing Congress by proportional representation, adopting Medicare for all and establishing a universal basic income. I support an environmentally sustainable economy.

Gary Swift is a candidate for U.S. Congress in Arizona Congressional District 6. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.