Probably
Kent
Smith had more
impact on me than anybody else in my
early days as a Green. During the '93 to '95 time frame Kent Smith and
I carpooled to many
statewide Green Party Meetings. Since California is a big State, this
involved many hours of talking. I learned that Kent really had been
very political for many years. He was part of the effort that put Ron
Dellums in the US House of Representatives. He was a Democratic Party
activist until they wouldn't put a peace plank in the platform for '92.
Then he and Mindy Lorentz and a bunch of others walked out of the
Democratic State meeting and made (or joined the effort to make,
depending on who you talk to) the Green Party more than just an idea.
Somewhere in there he told me "you are a leader of the Green Party
now."
In the spring of 1994 I ran for City
Council in Sacramento and Kent ran
for U. S. Senate. We shared weekly meetings, most of them in Bernice's
living room. Kent would talk about his latest hits of publicity,
running against Barbara Blong for the Green Party nomination. One time
he called up Jerry Brown's We The People radio show, and they
rebroadcast it during the meeting. It was great to hear him on the
radio. Another time we all pitched in to do a fundraising mailing to my
supporters list. Near the end he got a bit depressed because the
writing was on the wall. There were just too many Green voters in San
Francisco that were going to vote for Barbara for him to win. He was
right. Kent was the first person to lose a contested Green Senate
race. After that his involvement in the Green Party tapered off a lot,
and I saw a lot less of him.
The last time I talked to Kent was
during a Statewide Green Party
meeting in San Mateo County, not long after 43's wars had started. I
gave him a
North Carolina quarter. I think he said he was working on
preserving the old growth forests in his area. Clearly he wasn't
planning to run for public office again.
I don't think Kent Mesplay and I tied
for 2nd in the list of Green
Party members to loose Senate races, but I doubt
there were that many contested Senate races between Kent Smiths and
ours.
There weren't any in California that I heard about, and I watch
California's Green Party.
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