A brief history of the Polk County Green Committee:

After the 2000 presidential election, the soon to be founders of the Polk County Green Party, Daryl Northrop and Sam Howells, realized that politics in the United States had changed. The Green Party, via its presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, had excited, mobilized, and motivated millions of participants in the political process, and brought a much needed breath of fresh air to American politics. Social justice, peace, environmentalism, and grassroots democracy are concepts embodied by the Green Party, and it was time to start organizing that vision in Polk County.

After contacting the Iowa Green Party, and affiliating with it, the first website came into being, www.DesMoinesGreens.org and served well as an access point for information and communication. Going forward to the 2002 election cycle, members of the Polk County Green Party met in caucus to approve platform planks, and to support and campaign for our 2002 slate of state-wide candidates: Jay Robinson for Governor, Holly Hart for Lt. Governor, Brian Depew for Secretary of Agriculture, and Tim Harthans for US Senate. 2002 proved a difficult year, with the Iowa Green Party failing to maintain it's official party status with the state of Iowa, due to our candidate for Governor receiving a few thousand votes less than the required number.

Throughout 2002 and 2003, the Polk County Green Party kept active: protesting against the looming Iraq war, and providing an open, honest, entry point into politics for central Iowans who were disgusted by big-money business as usual parties. In 2004, the Polk County Green Party met again to discuss who we would support as the Green Party candidate for President. Initially, support went to Peter Camejo - veteran Green Party organizer and activist from California. However, when Ralph Nader (who ran as an independent in 2004) tapped Camejo for his vice-Presidential candidate, the Polk County Green Party agreed to shift its support to Camejo's fellow Californian, David Cobb.

Also in 2004, co-chair of the Polk County Green Party, Daryl Northrop, decided to run for United States Senate. After accumulated almost twice the number of required signatures, Daryl's campaign was off and running. Besides campaigning across the state from Sioux City to Dubuque and many points in between, Daryl worked full time at a West Des Moines insurance company, and attended Drake University on a part time basis. The 2004 US Senate election in Iowa saw the Iowa City Press-Citizen give the Northrop campaign its endorsement, and Daryl was featured on Jan Mickelson's morning program on WHO 1040am, heard across the state. The Northrop for Senate campaign reached tens of thousands of voters throughout Iowa, and received 15,400 votes - the most votes any Green has received in Iowa for a non-presidential race.

In early 2005, regular monthly meetings were started up, and the website changed to www.PolkCoGreens.org to better reflect our representation of all of Polk County. 2005 and early 2006 have proved to be a year of change for the Polk County Green Party. Under the guidance of Daryl Northrop and Joe Aulwes, the Polk County Green Party successfully ratified by-laws on April 1, 2006 officially converting the organization to the Polk County Green Committee, a political action committee. This transformation was due to restrictive and un-democratic Iowa laws that denied the Greens official party status in Iowa. As a political action committee, we will be able to raise clean money to support Green candidates, educate the public about important issues being ignored by the corporate controlled parties, and provide a new way for citizens to express their political will - free from the distorting effect of special interest donors.

In 2006, and beyond, the Polk County Green Committee will articulate its goal of Making Real Progress for Iowas our #1 goal. But, we need your help. Your participation, passion, intelligence, and desire for progressive people-oriented change are the ingredients we need to make our government accountable to the people. Join us, and help make Polk County, our state of Iowa, and our nation, a better place for all of us.

-Daryl Northrop, Co-Chair
 April 2006