David Cobb
Encyclopedia
David Keith Cobb is an American
activist and was the 2004 presidential
candidate of the Green Party of the United States (GPUS).
boat, a construction worker
and a waiter
, Cobb graduated from the University of Houston
Law School
in 1993 and for several years maintained a successful private practice as an attorney in Houston, Texas
. During the 1980s, Cobb had campaigned for the Democratic presidential candidacies of Jesse Jackson
and Jerry Brown
. As a result of his experiences, however, Cobb became disenchanted with the Democratic Party and declined to campaign for them any further. Instead, he turned his activism to the issues of democracy
and corporation
s, appearing at lectures, seminars, and workshops throughout the U.S. with various citizens' groups to promote his view that corporations have become unelected governing institutions and that a nonviolent democratic revolution is needed in response.
In 2000, Green Presidential candidate Ralph Nader
asked Cobb to organize his campaign in Texas
, and Cobb closed his law practice to do so. He coordinated a successful ballot access
drive in the state. Concurrently, Cobb became the General Counsel of the Green Party of the United States.
In 2002, Cobb ran for Attorney General
of Texas on the Green ticket and used his candidacy to "barnstorm" parts of Texas with little Green representation. He was unsuccessful in the election, winning just 0.92% of the vote, but the Green Party of Texas
grew dramatically during his campaign, from four local chapters to 26. The next year, Cobb was tabbed as a possible presidential candidate by a Green committee, and he accepted the challenge, taking an indefinite leave of absence as General Counsel.
in the nation, that of the District of Columbia, beating local activist Sheila Bilyeu
and several write-in candidates and gaining the early lead in the race for the nomination. Nader eventually announced an independent campaign for president and sought the "endorsement" rather than the "nomination" of the Green Party. Shortly before Forward 2004!, the Green Party presidential nominating convention, held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in June, 2004, Nader selected Green Party member Peter Camejo
as his running mate. On June 26, on the second ballot, the convention selected Cobb as the Green presidential candidate. The party also nominated Pat LaMarche
as its candidate for vice-president.
Cobb stated his intention to run a campaign focused on building the Green Party and to pursue a "strategic states" or "smart states" strategy that would take into account the wishes of Greens in each state, and which otherwise would focus on states that traditionally are "safely" won by the Democratic candidate, or "safely" won by the Republican candidate, with a large margin of victory. Such so-called "safe states" are also referred to in campaign literature as "neglected states" because the Democratic and Republican candidates traditionally put most of their campaign energy into more competitive "swing states." Cobb's campaign said that, in each state, the campaign would aim to follow the wishes expressed by Greens in that state. While some of Cobb's erstwhile supporters urged swing state
residents to vote for Democrat John Kerry
in order to stop the re-election of President George W. Bush
, other Cobb supporters encouraged votes for Cobb and LaMarche in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The candidates themselves used the phrase "vote your conscience," campaigning both in swing states such as Wisconsin and safe states such as California.
On October 8, 2004, Cobb was arrested in an act of civil disobedience
, breaking a police line while protesting the Commission on Presidential Debates
for excluding third-party candidates from the nationally televised debates in St. Louis, Missouri
. Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik
also was arrested in the protest.
In the November 2004 presidential election, Cobb placed sixth in the popular vote total nationwide, earning over 118,000 votes (0.096 percent), but received no electoral votes.
nominee Michael Badnarik
sought a recount of the Ohio vote and announced that they would challenge the 2004 presidential voting results in Ohio, even though neither challenger was claiming to have won the election, and even though Cobb had not even been on the ballot in Ohio. The challengers explained that it was an important matter of principle, to make sure all the votes were counted, and counted accurately. They pointed to alleged irregularities of various kinds.
On December 6, 2004, Ohio Secretary of State
Kenneth Blackwell certified that Bush had won Ohio by about 119,000 votes over Kerry. This was a considerably lower difference than earlier unofficial counts had reported, but it still amounted to a margin of about two percentage points. A formal legal challenge to the certified vote could not be filed until the official Ohio certification, which made it official that Bush could expect 286 electoral votes, to Kerry's 252 electoral votes.
's national Corporate Accountability Committee http://www.sierraclub.org/committees/cac/members.asp. Other positions he holds include serving as a Fellow with the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
http://www.libertytreefdr.org/fellows.php, and being on the Steering Committee, of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County http://www.duhc.org/about_whoWeAre.html, along with being the groups campaigns director http://poclad.org/brochures/BioInserts.pdf, and is a Principal with Program on Corporations Law and Democracy http://poclad.org/about.php#whoweare.
David Cobb is currently leading the Move to Amend the Constitution to repeal corporate rights. http://movetoamend.org/
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
activist and was the 2004 presidential
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
candidate of the Green Party of the United States (GPUS).
Career and political activities
After working as a crewman on a Gulf Coast shrimpShrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
boat, a construction worker
Construction worker
A construction worker or builder is a professional, tradesman, or labourer who directly participates in the physical construction of infrastructure.-Construction trades:...
and a waiter
Waiter
Waiting staff, wait staff, or waitstaff are those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers — supplying them with food and drink as requested. Traditionally, a male waiting tables is called a "waiter" and a female a "waitress" with the gender-neutral version being a "server"...
, Cobb graduated from the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
Law School
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
in 1993 and for several years maintained a successful private practice as an attorney in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. During the 1980s, Cobb had campaigned for the Democratic presidential candidacies of Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
and Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
. As a result of his experiences, however, Cobb became disenchanted with the Democratic Party and declined to campaign for them any further. Instead, he turned his activism to the issues of democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s, appearing at lectures, seminars, and workshops throughout the U.S. with various citizens' groups to promote his view that corporations have become unelected governing institutions and that a nonviolent democratic revolution is needed in response.
In 2000, Green Presidential candidate Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
asked Cobb to organize his campaign in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and Cobb closed his law practice to do so. He coordinated a successful ballot access
Ballot access
Ballot access rules, called nomination rules outside the United States, regulate the conditions under which a candidate or political party is either entitled to stand for election or to appear on voters' ballots...
drive in the state. Concurrently, Cobb became the General Counsel of the Green Party of the United States.
In 2002, Cobb ran for Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
of Texas on the Green ticket and used his candidacy to "barnstorm" parts of Texas with little Green representation. He was unsuccessful in the election, winning just 0.92% of the vote, but the Green Party of Texas
Green Party of Texas
The Green Party of Texas is the state party organization for Texas of the Green Party of the United States.-History:The Green Party of Texas began to organize a serious, statewide, grassroots effort in the late 1990s...
grew dramatically during his campaign, from four local chapters to 26. The next year, Cobb was tabbed as a possible presidential candidate by a Green committee, and he accepted the challenge, taking an indefinite leave of absence as General Counsel.
2004 presidential campaign
With the announcement in late December 2003 that Nader would not seek the nomination of the Green Party for President in 2004, Cobb began to be considered by some Greens as the front-runner for the party's nomination. On January 13, 2004, David Cobb won the first Green primaryPrimary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
in the nation, that of the District of Columbia, beating local activist Sheila Bilyeu
Sheila Bilyeu
Sheila Bilyeu was a candidate for the United States Green Party's nomination for President in 2004 in the District of Columbia, losing to David Cobb by a 2-1 margin....
and several write-in candidates and gaining the early lead in the race for the nomination. Nader eventually announced an independent campaign for president and sought the "endorsement" rather than the "nomination" of the Green Party. Shortly before Forward 2004!, the Green Party presidential nominating convention, held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in June, 2004, Nader selected Green Party member Peter Camejo
Peter Camejo
Peter Miguel Camejo was an American author, activist and politician. In the 2004 United States presidential election, he was selected by independent candidate Ralph Nader as his vice-presidential running mate on a ticket which had the endorsement of the Reform Party.Camejo was a three-time Green...
as his running mate. On June 26, on the second ballot, the convention selected Cobb as the Green presidential candidate. The party also nominated Pat LaMarche
Pat LaMarche
Patricia Helen "Pat" LaMarche is an American political figure and activist with the Green Party; she was the party's vice-presidential candidate in the 2004 U.S...
as its candidate for vice-president.
Cobb stated his intention to run a campaign focused on building the Green Party and to pursue a "strategic states" or "smart states" strategy that would take into account the wishes of Greens in each state, and which otherwise would focus on states that traditionally are "safely" won by the Democratic candidate, or "safely" won by the Republican candidate, with a large margin of victory. Such so-called "safe states" are also referred to in campaign literature as "neglected states" because the Democratic and Republican candidates traditionally put most of their campaign energy into more competitive "swing states." Cobb's campaign said that, in each state, the campaign would aim to follow the wishes expressed by Greens in that state. While some of Cobb's erstwhile supporters urged swing state
Swing state
In United States presidential politics, a swing state is a state in which no single candidate or party has overwhelming support in securing that state's electoral college votes...
residents to vote for Democrat John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
in order to stop the re-election of President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, other Cobb supporters encouraged votes for Cobb and LaMarche in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The candidates themselves used the phrase "vote your conscience," campaigning both in swing states such as Wisconsin and safe states such as California.
On October 8, 2004, Cobb was arrested in an act of civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
, breaking a police line while protesting the Commission on Presidential Debates
Commission on Presidential Debates
The Commission on Presidential Debates began in 1987 by the Democratic and Republican parties to establish the way that presidential election debates are run between candidates for President of the United States...
for excluding third-party candidates from the nationally televised debates in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik
Michael Badnarik
Michael J. Badnarik is an American software engineer, political figure, and former radio talk show host. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for President of the United States in the 2004 elections, and placed fourth in the race, behind independent candidate Ralph Nader...
also was arrested in the protest.
In the November 2004 presidential election, Cobb placed sixth in the popular vote total nationwide, earning over 118,000 votes (0.096 percent), but received no electoral votes.
2004 Ohio recount
After the 2004 election, Cobb and LibertarianLibertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
nominee Michael Badnarik
Michael Badnarik
Michael J. Badnarik is an American software engineer, political figure, and former radio talk show host. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for President of the United States in the 2004 elections, and placed fourth in the race, behind independent candidate Ralph Nader...
sought a recount of the Ohio vote and announced that they would challenge the 2004 presidential voting results in Ohio, even though neither challenger was claiming to have won the election, and even though Cobb had not even been on the ballot in Ohio. The challengers explained that it was an important matter of principle, to make sure all the votes were counted, and counted accurately. They pointed to alleged irregularities of various kinds.
On December 6, 2004, Ohio Secretary of State
Ohio Secretary of State
The Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing elections in the State of Ohio. The Secretary of State also is responsible for registering business entities and granting them the authority to do business within the state, registering secured transactions, and granting access to public...
Kenneth Blackwell certified that Bush had won Ohio by about 119,000 votes over Kerry. This was a considerably lower difference than earlier unofficial counts had reported, but it still amounted to a margin of about two percentage points. A formal legal challenge to the certified vote could not be filed until the official Ohio certification, which made it official that Bush could expect 286 electoral votes, to Kerry's 252 electoral votes.
Current activities
Cobb current activities include continuing to serve as a member of the Board of Directors for the Green Institute http://www.greeninstitute.net/about?q=node/64, he serves on the Sierra ClubSierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
's national Corporate Accountability Committee http://www.sierraclub.org/committees/cac/members.asp. Other positions he holds include serving as a Fellow with the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution is an American non-governmental organization "rooted in the belief that the American Revolution is a living tradition whose greatest promise is democracy." Their purpose is to foster a broad-based democracy movement in the United States...
http://www.libertytreefdr.org/fellows.php, and being on the Steering Committee, of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County http://www.duhc.org/about_whoWeAre.html, along with being the groups campaigns director http://poclad.org/brochures/BioInserts.pdf, and is a Principal with Program on Corporations Law and Democracy http://poclad.org/about.php#whoweare.
David Cobb is currently leading the Move to Amend the Constitution to repeal corporate rights. http://movetoamend.org/
Election history
See also
- 2004 United States election voting controversies2004 United States election voting controversiesDuring the 2004 United States presidential election, concerns were raised about various aspects of the voting process, including whether voting had been made accessible to all those entitled to vote, whether ineligible voters were registered, whether voters were registered multiple times, and...
- U.S. presidential election, 2004
External links
- Official Cobb for President website
- Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution website
- Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County website
- 2004 nomination acceptance speech 2004 Green Party Convention
- 2008 Green Party convention speech
- David Cobb discussing third parties Protests outside of 2004 DNC