February 2, 2008: : This is it: the final days before Illinois's presidential primary. I worked alongside other volunteers last year to collect signatures for Green presidential candidates, and four are on the ballot: Cynthia McKinney, Jared Ball, Kent Mesplay, and Howie Hawkins. Thank you to everyone who signed a petition and helped us put together the first Green primary in Illinois.

I'm supporting Cynthia McKinney. McKinney is an experienced and committed advocate for the values the Green party is based on: grassroots democracy, social and environmental justice, and nonviolence. Her voting record in congress shows leadership on voters' rights, human rights, and environmental and economic policy. And like me, she knows that we need a political party that doesn't just talk about change, but delivers it.

I was happy to see fellow Green Al Weiss come out in support of Cynthia in today's News-Gazette. Thanks to Al and thanks to the News-Gazette for running that letter.

This Tuesday is the culmination of lots of volunteer work trying to get our candidates and issues on the ballot. I want to thank everyone who petitioned for any Green candidate, all the people who petitioned for worthy referenda like IRV for Urbana and the Park District, and all the people who came out to support anti-war and impeachment advisory referenda on the township ballots. I hope everyone will exercise their unprecedented right to take a Green ballot and send the message that Illinois is no longer going to vote for "the lesser of two evils" when we've built a perfectly good political party of our own!