• African American, Carribian and Latino Section
• Drum Beat
• Heather's Section
• Anything Goes
• Humanitarian Corner
• Dynamic Duo
• Gloria's Section
• Betty's Section
• Cultural Section
• Buisness and Politics Section

Grampa Al and the Green Party Campaign of 1998

I’ll never forget coming home from a party in the Spring of 1998 to find our answering machine blinking. My wife, Karen, and I listened to the same message over and over trying to make sense of it. The words were clear, but we couldn’t compute them: “This is the Green Party Nominations Committee… We’ve heard your program on WBAI… and would like to speak to you about running for Governor of the State of New York on the Green Party line.” At first we thought it had to be a joke, one of our actor friends playing a prank. Out of curiosity, we called the phone number left with the message and learned it was real.

The Party was trying to grow. The Republican candidate for Governor was George Pataki; the Democratic Party chose Peter Vallone, a down-state party hack. The Greens looking for a candidate to carry the Party forward, needed someone who could represent the Green Party Principles and deliver 50,000 votes, the number needed to place the Party on the ballot for four years. That’s very important because a place on the ballot means that candidates can shortcut many of the cumbersome requirements of candidacy, such as gathering petitions, a time-consuming practice. I called all of my three sons and, with my wife, asked them if I should run. They told me to go for it.

After many meetings with the key members of the Green Party I was nominated. There were dozens of press conferences, a fund drive, numerous interviews with radio, TV and print media, and trips all over the State. The initial excitement of Grampa Munster running for public office opened doors. The momentum of the campaign built as Al Lewis, a celebrity with name recognition, began to be seen as a contender – one who might steal votes from the bigger fish. There were phone calls begging me to withdraw. My wife received threats from leaders of a minor party, demanding that I quit the race.

We had basically no funds and very little technology. The Green Party didn’t even have an office in New York City! Everything we did was on a shoe-string budget with crazy, frustrating methodology. I got a call one morning to debate the Green Party economic plan at 4 p.m.. I called Howie Hawkins, the candidate for Comptroller, and asked him to get me a full plan immediately. He had to fax it to my wife’s office where a Green messenger picked it up and bicycled it to me an hour before the debate. That’s how everything was done, just like the Minutemen of the American Revolution.

We called on all our friends in the social justice movement to help. Randy Credico, stand-up comedian and political activist, director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justices, stepped forward. All the work we had done around the Rockefeller Mandatory Drug Laws paid off. The organizations that wanted to repeal the laws became interested in my race. Randy became my manager and immediately set up comedy fund raisers at a club in Greenwich Village.

We traveled all over the State delivering the Green Party message of equality, ecological responsibility, equity for the little guy, delivered with fierce in-your-face honesty. I spoke of Joe and Jane Sixpack and how they were neglected by the two-party system, really one party owned by the corporations. These ordinary folks responded. Many hadn’t voted in years because they distrusted both parties and instinctively knew that they were getting screwed. They voted for me, former Democrats and Republicans alike.

In November 1998, Al Lewis garnered 52,000 votes and placed the Green Party on the ballot. Was it worth it? That’s a tough question. In short, it was an excruciatingly difficult ride, which I called climbing Mt. Everest barefooted. We learned so much that I’d have to say it was worth it. In fact, my wife recommends that everyone run for public office, to have the experience of so-called American Democracy in all its aspects, a crucial lesson in citizenship.