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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