David Cobb
David Keith Cobb ( born December 24, 1962 in San Leon, Galveston County, Texas) is an American lawyer and politician. He was the presidential candidate of the Green Party for the presidential elections of 2004.
Career
After working on a fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico, as a construction worker and as a waiter, he studied until 1993 Law at the University of Houston Law School. He then worked for several years as an attorney in Houston.
In the 1980s he was active in the presidential campaigns of the Democratic Party for Jesse Jackson and Jerry Brown. As a result of this commitment, he was disillusioned by the Democrats and refused to get involved again for them. Instead, he allied himself to issues such as democracy and joined readings, seminars and workshops throughout the U.S. with various citizen groups. He took the view that companies and large companies had become unelected government institutions and that in response a nonviolent democratic revolution was necessary.
2000 asked the Green presidential candidate Ralph Nader Cobb to organize his election campaign in Texas. Cobb closed for even his law firm. The campaign was quite successful and Cobb was Secretary-General of the U.S. Open. 2002 Cobb ran with the support of the Greens as Minister of Justice ( Attorney General ) in Texas. Although he was not successful with it, the Green Party of Texas grew strongly during his campaign.
2004 presidential election
2003 David Cobb has been suggested as a possible presidential candidate of the Green Party, which Cobb - connected to a permanent laying down of his general secretary post - accepted. With the announcement of Ralph Nader in late December 2004 that he would not stand as a candidate of the Green Party, Cobb was regarded as a potential top candidate. On January 13, 2004 David Cobb won the first green primaries of the country, the District of Columbia, where he beat local activist Sheila Bilyeu. Nader announced while on an independent candidacy and sought more like a support of the Greens over for a nomination for them. Just before the nominating convention of the Greens in Milwaukee in June 2004, Nader was the choice Peter Camejo as his vice presidential candidate known for his part a prominent member of the Green Party. At the party finally Cobb were elected ( and Pat LaMarche as Vice Presidential candidate).
Cobb stressed his willingness to lead a campaign that by pursuing a "strategic states" - should go ahead or "smart states " strategy, the further construction of the Green Party, ie to wear as possible the wishes of the individual regional associations invoice. In addition, he wanted his campaign to so-called " safe states" focus in which either Democrats or Republicans had quite a lead in the predictions. These concentrated their campaign to turn the undecided " swing states ".
While some Green calling on their constituents to vote for the Democratic candidate John Kerry to re-election of George W. Bush to avoid calling other Green Party supporters to the voters to vote for Cobb and LaMarche. The two candidates even used the slogan " Vote your conscience " (such as " Choose your conscience " ) and appeared in both " swing states " like Wisconsin and in " safe states" like California.
On 8 October 2004 Cobb was because of, as he called it an "act of civil disobedience ," arrested. He and several supporters broke through a line of police while protesting against Cobb's exclusion from the presidential debates in St. Louis, Missouri. In the election in November 2004, Cobb received nationwide 118 000 votes. After the election, Cobb sought together with Michael Badnarik, the candidate of the Libertarian Party, a recount of the votes in Ohio, although neither of the two candidates claimed victory and Cobb was not even on the ballot in Ohio. Both justified their claim to the fact that they were concerned with the principle and they wanted to make sure that all the votes were counted correctly. They referred to on occasional irregularities. On October 6, presented the Secretary of State of Ohio, Ken Blackwell, stated that George W. Bush had won by 119 000 votes ahead of John Kerry. This was a significantly lower projection than previous censuses had shown.
David Cobb is currently an employee of the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution and is working in as the organizer of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County Association.