Thirty-six members of Rhode Island’s Green Party gathered yesterday afternoon and picked a slate of delegates that favors a former Georgia congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, for the party’s presidential nomination.

McKinney, an ardent opponent of the U.S. military presence in Iraq, is among a group of presidential hopefuls angling for the Green nomination in advance of the party’s national convention in Chicago in July.

The Rhode Islanders voted to support McKinney with six delegates and to align the state’s two remaining delegate votes behind another candidate, Jesse Johnson of West Virginia.

That was the outcome of a two-hour caucus in which 27 party members supported McKinney and nine members backed Johnson, said Eric Siegel, the party’s cochairman and one of the eight delegates. The caucus was held at the William Hall Library in Cranston.

The party also designated eight people to serve at the Chicago convention. Siegal identified the other delegates as Tony Affigne, of Providence; Greg Gerritt, of Providence; Paula Moran, of Providence; Donna and Nick Schmader, of Warwick; James deBoer, of Providence; and, Richard Walton, of Warwick.

McKinney is a former Democrat who once called on lawmakers to impeach President Bush for his Iraq policy.

Early in 2006, she made headlines when a Capitol Police officer accused her of hitting him during an exchange at a security checkpoint. The Democrat met defeat later that year in a runoff for her party’s nomination. She later defected to the Green Party.

“Unlike the Democrats and the Republicans, the Greens opposed the war from the outset,” said Siegal, a political science professor at the Community College of Rhode Island. “The money still being spent on the war would be far better spent on urgent priorities like affordable housing, implementing a single payer health-care system, and a sane energy policy.”

Some analysts have warned that withdrawing U.S. troops too soon could leave Iraq vulnerable to ethnic warfare.

Siegal acknowledged the potential for deepening ethnic strife. “But I don’t think we’re preventing it now,” he said. “I’m absolutely concerned about the humanitarian impact of what goes on in Iraq. There are lots of things that can be done to prevent it. But our troops being there isn’t the right answer.”

mreynold@projo.com