Green Party hopeful as election night continues

Even as election results continued to come in on Tuesday night, the Prairie Greens remained optimistic. Green Party candidates gathered at the home of District 9 County Board candidate Mike Lehman in Urbana. Prior to knowing all of the results, Lehman said he thinks there is a 50-50 chance that he could win.Even as election results continued to come in on Tuesday night, the Prairie Greens remained optimistic.

Green Party candidates gathered at the home of District 9 County Board candidate Mike Lehman in Urbana.

Prior to knowing all of the results, Lehman said he thinks there is a 50-50 chance that he could win.

"I hope to get 50 percent plus one, but there will definitely be a good showing of the Green Party in districts seven, eight and nine," Lehman said.

The Green Party established itself as a legitimate party during the 2006 election, receiving about about 21 percent of the votes in District 7, 25 percent in District 8 (with Futrelle running then as well) and 10 percent in District 9. Statewide, 2006 gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney earned 11 percent of the vote against Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka.

Though a Green Party member candidate could not be considered competitive on a national level in 2008, local members remained optimistic about their own odds.

Lehman said he knows it is hard to run against a candidate with a "D" next to their name.

Joe Futrelle, candidate for District 8 county board, said he could not yet speculate on how the election will go for him, since many people voted early. Still, he felt there would be a positive turnout for the third party, especially since he has improved his campaign strategy by focusing more on issues.

"I knew if I worked really hard, it's a winnable race," Futrelle said.

Walter Pituc, District 7 County Board candidate and senior in LAS, said he is "cautiously optimistic" about his chances of winning, and thinks the Prairie Greens will at least get as many votes in his district as they did in 2006.

"We live in a diverse society, and I'm reflective of that," Pituc said.

Adrien Aaron, member of Campus Greens and junior in LAS, said he thinks the Greens have a decent chance of winning these elections.

Futrelle said that if he does not win, he will work on building the Prairie Greens's membership. He hasn't considered whether he will run again in the next election.

Pituc said he would go back to pursuing a career as a history teacher. Finally, Lehman said he would go back to working on the Living Wage Campaign, on the radio station WRFU and working at the Independent Media Center.

Final poll results were not available at time of press. Eric Heisig and Jennifer Wheeler contributed to this report