Falls Church, VA (November 5) - Green Party candidates made impressive gains on Virginia ballots on Election Day, advancing the party's status as Virginia's alternative to the two major parties.

Audrey Clement, co-chair of the Virginia Green Party, noted that "Election Day 2008 shows that the Green Party of Virginia is making great strides in establishing itself as Virginia's alternative to the two major parties. More and more Virginians are recognizing that the Green Party, both at the local and federal level, is proposing policy solutions on issues such as the environment, health care, and the war that make sense."

According to initial returns, Green Party president and vice-presidential candidates Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente received 2,316 votes in Virginia, easily surpassing the Virginia total of 104 write-in votes for David Cobb in 2004. McKinney's campaign for president focused on calling for rapid U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, ending threats of a U.S. attack against Iran, supporting single-payer national health care, canceling the costly and ineffective war on drugs, abolishing the death penalty, impeaching President Bush, and not giving immunity to telecommunications firms that participated in warrant-less spying on U.S. citizens.

In Arlington County, initial returns gave Green Party candidate John Reeder 23.3% of the votes for County Board. Reeder's vote count of 21,503 exceeded previous Green Party vote percentages in Arlington County of approximately 5% and 10% in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Reeder ran on a platform to promote affordable housing, increase recycling opportunities, and trim government waste. He received favorable press coverage in the Washington Post, Arlington Sun Gazette, and Arlington Connection and received union endorsement.

In addition, in Arlington County, a Green Party-backed referendum to establish a housing authority won 33% of the votes despite the opposition of both Democratic and Republican parties. The campaign to pass this ballot measure placed the Arlington Green Party at the forefront of efforts to increase the County's available tools to address an ever-deepening affordable housing crisis. Additional information on the Arlington Green Party and its efforts to pass the referendum to establish a housing authority can be found here: http://arlingtongreens.org/

Additional information on the Green Party of the United States can be found at: http://www.gp.org
Additional information on the Virginia Green Party can be found at: http://vagreenparty.org/
GPVA Press Secretary: Miriam Gennari