McKinney Joins Greens, Announces Run for President in 2008

Cynthia McKinney knows that you have to be loud to be heard as a third party contender for the presidency, but that's nothing new for the outspoken former Democratic Congresswoman from Georgia. That background could prove beneficial as she seeks the 2008 presidential nomination on the Green Party ticket.

McKinney's announcement this week that she would join the Green Party was not unexpected. There had been speculation that McKinney would run as a Green Party candidate ever since she exited the House for the second time in 2006, fueled by recent comments that distanced her from the Democratic Party. She had also defied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) by supporting Cindy Sheehan and by urging black voters to value “principles over party” and consider third party candidates.

That split was finalized Dec. 19 in McKinney’s official announcement: "The Democrats, no different than their Republican counterparts, eat out of the hands of corrupt lobbyists and feed at the same corporate troughs. I am proud to say that the Green Party is my new political home."

In 2000 and 2004 some members of the Green Party attempted to convince McKinney to seek out the presidential nomination on their ticket. But now that she has officially joined them, the question remains how well McKinney will adapt the issues she has focused on most of her career - including opposing wars and government secrecy - with traditional Green issues, particularly the environment.

McKinney’s career in Washington, D.C., however, has certainly set her up to be a candidate on a more activist ticket. She began in 1992 when she was elected to represent Georgia’s newly created 11th Congressional District. A challenge to that election went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 1995 that the 11th District, which was 64 percent black, was the result of unconstitutional, racially biased gerrymandering. That decision set the tone for a career that would be characterized by a string of controversies and her own outspoken demeanor.

“I had to defend my presence in Washington, D.C. every moment that I was there from 1993 until we lost the Supreme Court decision in 1996,” McKinney recently told a gathering of supporters. The district was renumbered the 4th and the lines were re-drawn to include a mostly white county. Though angered by what she felt was a racially discriminatory ruling, McKinney managed to keep her seat. She was re-elected in 1996, 1998 and 2000.

After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, McKinney held hearings and spoke out about the investigations surrounding the attacks. Her most notable comments came during a 2002 radio interview, when she questioned what the Bush administration, Wall Street traders and others knew before it happened.

McKinney's comments reflected her wider concerns about government secrecy. That same year she introduced legislation that would have released confidential documents regarding the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and in 2005 she wrote a similar resolution regarding slain rapper Tupac Shakur.

“The extreme corruption of our political system by the greedy, unseen hand that comfortably operates in the backrooms of power is turning our heroes into caricatures of themselves,” she said recently.

The resulting controversy caused many Democrats to distance themselves from McKinney, and in 2002 she lost in the Democratic primary to former judge and eventual winner Denise Majette.

Once out of the House, McKinney traveled the throughout the United States and Europe speaking about the Bush administration. She spent significant time addressing Sept. 11, joining citizen groups and victims’ families in calling for the disclosure of government documents and for new investigations.

“I’ve been told to ‘sit down and shut up’ over and over again. Well, I won’t sit down and I won’t shut up until the full and unvarnished truth is placed before the American people,” she said during a 2002 speech.

In 2004, Majette decided to run for the U.S. Senate, leaving McKinney’s former seat open. While McKinney narrowly won the Democratic primary, she easily won the election – though the Democratic Caucus refused to reinstate her seniority.

Upon returning to the House, McKinney continued her focus on Sept. 11. She participated in a panel discussion on Capitol Hill that criticized the 9/11 Commission and during a House hearing on the 2006 Defense budget, McKinney caught media attention for her questioning of then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers. She pressed the two men about allegations of government contractors engaging in foreign sex trade, missing Defense finances, and the activities of the military on Sept. 11.

In 2006 she lost the Democratic primary in a runoff, and as her term came to a close, McKinney introduced legislation to impeach President Bush for the manipulation of facts leading up to the invasion of Iraq and for allowing the government to engage in domestic surveillance of citizens.

In the run-up to Wednesday’s announcement, McKinney seemed to attempt to eliminate doubts about how she would fit her past battles with her possible future with the Green Party and their platform issues - the environment and global warming. Recent speeches have included added emphasis on these issues, but the question remains: Will the Green Party membership support the former Democrat in significant numbers?

During McKinney’s official announcement she reiterated her commitment: “I am a Green because of the Green Party’s commitment to its core principles of peace, social and racial justice, genuine democracy and protecting our precious planet.”

Next summer, the party will decide on Cynthia’s fate with the Greens when it holds its national convention in Chicago to nominate their presidential candidate. With seven candidates already seeking the nomination, it is too early to predict McKinney’s fate with the party, but she will surely continue to speak out, much to the excitement of her growing body of supporters.

Only time will tell if the Greens will give her the opportunity to mount an equally vocal presidential campaign.