9-12-07, 9:26 am

(APN) ATLANTA – After months of speculation, former US Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) has withdrawn her name as a candidate for the Green Party nomination, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

'As I'm sure you know, I have been approached by many within the Green Party over the preceeding [sic] year who have asked that I consider seeking the nomination of the Green Party of the United States as its candidate for President of the United States. In 2003, I was similiarly [sic] approached about my potential interest in the 2004 race,” McKinney wrote in remarks dated September 10, 2007, posted on her website.

'I have seriously weighed the options, travelled [sic] extensively holding first private, then more public events with Greens over the preceding year, exploring such a possibility with Greens in at least a dozen state parties, meeting with the chair of your Presidential Campaign Support Committee, with the members of your Steering Committee, and speaking at, and entertaining questions from, the Party's Annual Meeting in Reading, Pennsylvania, this past July. Since the Reading meeting, I have also begun to help Green candidates raise money for their campaigns,' McKinney wrote.

'For months I have answered questions about my intentions for this race in 2008 by saying that while I am not yet in, neither am I out of this race,' McKinney wrote.

'After careful consideration about the political conditions facing our nation, the level of development within the Party, my own readiness to take on such a daunting task, and my own long postponed personal priorities, I write to inform the Party that I must at this time withdraw my name from consideration for the Party's 2008 Presidential Nominating contest,' McKinney wrote.

'I remain committed to our collective work of transforming our nation and to mobilizing peace loving Americans, justice seeking activists, and others disfranchised by the powers which currently control our nation toward that end,' she added.

McKinney’s decision to not run for US President opens up the possibility of her running again for her former US House seat, or possibly another US House seat, as has also been mentioned to Atlanta Progressive News by sources familiar with the matter.

McKinney recently told APN her former Congressional staff was 'hoping for a three-peat,' referring to the fact that she was reelected to her seat in 2004 after being temporarily replaced by former US Rep. Denise Majette (D-GA).

Of course, it’s also possible that she has now since decided to spend more time with her college-age son and/or pursue avenues of political influence outside the legislature.

McKinney has made several previous speeches indicating her interest to run in 2008 for something, although recently she seemed to be hinting that she would run as a Green.

McKinney has spent the last several months traveling and attempting to raise funds to pay off her 2006 Congressional Campaign debt. Much of this fundraising has been at Green Party events.

On March 17, 2007, McKinney declared her 'independence' from the Democratic Party in remarks made during an anti-war march on the Pentagon in Washington, DC.

On March 23, 2007, McKinney told Atlanta Progressive News 'the Dems didn’t bolster their case today, did they?' after the Democratic Congress approved further funding for the US Invasion of Iraq.

On May 25, 2007, McKinney told WBAI radio station in New York, '2008 has not been ruled out, some kind of effort. Certainly now it is questionable as to whether it would come under the banner of the Democratic Party. There is no way with the current crop of Democratic candidates... they cannot speak for me any longer.'

Finally, 'If I do something in 2008, they’ve tried to label me as the violent Congresswoman, but honestly they haven’t seen violence yet. What I’d like to do is violence to the system, violence to the oppression... So if I do something in 2008, and I really do want to do something in 2008, it will be the fullest expression I know of revolutionary love. Because we will make revolution and it will only be about love,' McKinney said on June 09, 2007, during a fundraising event in New York called 'Revolutionary Love.'

From Atlanta Progressive News

--About the author: Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor of The Atlanta Progressive News and may be reached at

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