VENTURA : Green Party Member to Run as Democrat

Mindy Lorenz, the California Green Party’s first congressional candidate, announced Wednesday that she plans to run next year as a Democrat for an open Assembly seat.

Lorenz said she will compete for the legislative seat being vacated by Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria), who has decided to run for state Senate. O’Connell represents the 35th Assembly District that includes Ventura, Santa Paula, Ojai and most of Santa Barbara County.

In her 1992 congressional bid as a Green Party candidate, Lorenz received nearly 10% of the vote in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. With the backing of a major party, she said she believes she can win.

“I really demonstrated a viability as a candidate and I’ve been urged by many people across the spectrum to keep the momentum building,” said Lorenz, a former Ventura resident who now lives in Summerland.

“This particular seat is important,” she said. “It’s an open seat, in an open field, in a district where I’m well known.”

In a letter to Green Party supporters sent earlier this week, Lorenz said the party was “not politically mature enough to sustain the political goals of winning partisan seats and shaping public policy.”

Lorenz suggested to local party leaders, however, that she run on the Democratic ballot and as a write-in candidate for the Green Party, simultaneously. The Green Party is recognized for its emphasis on peace, ecology and social justice.

“While I support ongoing efforts to strengthen the Green Party and will participate as I can,” she wrote, “it is time to bring my talent and energy into government.”

Lorenz, an art history instructor at Cal State Northridge, was active in helping the Green Party obtain enough signatures to qualify to place its candidates on the ballot.

Local political leaders were skeptical about her decision to switch parties.

“Although I think Mindy Lorenz could possibly be a great candidate, my initial reaction is that I’m not sure becoming a Democrat will work,” said Nels Henderson, former chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee. “The public perception, whether it’s true or not, is that the Green Party is a little more radical. I think she’ll have a hard time overcoming that.”

Gary Orthuber, coordinator of the Green Party in Ventura County, was upset about her shift in allegiance. “She decided to go where the bucks are because she does have a real desire to get elected. She won’t get elected. I doubt the Democrats will even nominate her.”

Green Party member Tom Stafford said he was startled by the decision.

“I’ve worked with Mindy a long time, I feel she’s a very good person,” he said. “But I’m deeply shocked that she would go over to a party whose leader just sent missiles into the middle of a modern city.”