Both Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning should be regarded as American heroes.

As a whistle blower, Snowden risked all by exposing the extent to which American rights and freedoms had been attacked by the NSA and other global surveillance programs. For that, he has lived in asylum in Russia now for over 3 and half years. The American government has filed, among others, two counts of violating the Espionage Act, each which carry a possible sentence of 10 years. President-elect Trump has called Snowden a traitor deserving execution. Rep. Mike Pompeo, Trump nominee for CIA Director, called for the death penalty for Snowden. and Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump's nominee for Attorney General, strongly supports the death penalty as well. Edward Snowden does not deserve to live his life in exile. Pres. Obama should issue a pardon now so that he can come home.

Chelsea Manning also has served the nation well as a whistle blower and . . . .

In the midst of the disaster of Trump triumph, our measures and candidates have done well.

A top priority was Multnomah County Measure 26-184, the campaign finance reform measure that passed by 89-11%. Chris Henry so far has 72,000 votes for State Treasurer (5% of the vote). His performance was needed for the Oregon Progressive Party to maintain its status as a recognized political party in Oregon for the next 4 years.

David Delk earned 7.3% of vote against Earl Blumenauer in Congressional District 3.
James Ofsink earned 14% in Oregon Senate District 21.
Sami Al-AbdRabhun earned 15% in Oregon House District 16.
Cynthia Hyatt earned 16% in Oregon House District 15.
Fergus McLean earned 10% in Oregon House District 7.

The above are all record high numbers for candidates of the Oregon Progressive Party.

We also cross-nominated some candidates who are affiliated with other parties.
Peter DeFazio (D) won easily in Congressional District 4.
Joe Rowe (PGP) earned 18% in Oregon House District 44.
Jill Stein (PGP) earned 2% for President.
Brad Avakian (D) earned 43% for Secretary of State but is 4 points behind Dennis Richardson (R) there.

Chris Henry, our candidate for Treasurer of Oregon, addresses crowd on October 23.

Oregon can save over $1 billion per year by creating a state bank, like North Dakota's, and cutting out the Wall Street vultures and their gigantic fees.  See Chris Henry for Treasurer.

Oregon Progressive Party candidate, Chris Henry, discusses the need and benefits from the creation of a state public bank.  He also discusses the projected shortfall in the PERS system and says that the shortfall can be taken care of from the General Fund over a period of time, largely by cutting out the Wall Street middle men from Oregon's financial operations.  Much more at Chris Henry for Treasurer.

Oregon Progressive Party candidate Brad Avakian is interviewed by Oregon League of Women Voters.  We start this video when Brad talks about the need for Oregon to address money in politics, specifically how Oregon needs to implement limits on campaign contributions and, if need be, take those limits to the US Supreme Court in order to overturn Citizens United.  He also expresses his understanding that money is not speech and corporations are not people.

Oregon Progressive Party candidate for U.S. Congress, 3rd District of Oregon, is interviewed by the League of Women Voters Portland.  He discusses his reason for running against U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer who has supported "Free" trade agreements 74% of the time since coming to office 20 years ago.

Oregon Progressive Party candidate for Oregon Senate is interviewed by the League of Women Voters Portland. Among other things, he calls for increased tenant protections with a tenant bill of rights including an end to no-cause evictions, and removal of preemption of state prohibition on rent control.

Oregon Progressive Party candidate, David Delk, is interviewed by Jim Lockhart on A Growing Concern on why he is running to replace Rep. Earl Blumenauer.  David is a single issue candidate; the issue is Earl's long standing support for corporate trade agreements (aka free trade agreements) and his refusal to state opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership.  Learn more about David on his website or on his Facebook page.

The Corvallis-Albany NAACP has endorsed Sami Al-AbdRabbuh for the Oregon House of Representatives District 16 seat. This district encompasses Corvallis and Philomath.

"Through his attendance at our meetings, the NAACP has come to know Sami and his commitment to advance our cause of a just and fair community," said Barry Jerkins, the organization's president. "As examples, he wants the state to make education a priority, and he will advocate for mitigating unemployment. We wholeheartedly support Sami's candidacy."

The Oregon Progressive Party unanimously nominated Sami Al-AbdRabbuh for the State House race. “Sami Al-AbdRabbuh is the most progressive candidate in the race for House District 16 in the coming November election,” said David Hess, a member of the OPP State Council. “His stances on important issues reflect our platform and will move Oregon forward down a progressive path.”

The State Council of the Oregon Progressive Party issued this statement:

The Oregon Progressive Party commends Julie Parrish for doggedly pursuing government ethics reform and transparency in government. The Party endorsed her 5 ethics and transparency bills in 2015, all of which were nullified on party line votes (Democrats voting "no"). She also supports our central priority of achieving campaign finance reform in Oregon, including amending the Oregon Constitution, if necessary, and requiring that political ads identify their funders. She is also a defender of the right of citizens to use the initiative process to enact what the Legislature won't.

The Oregon Progressive Party has endorsed

   ROCK AGAINST THE TPP   

 
Rock Against the TPP is Coming to Oregon!

The biggest challenge we’re facing in the fight to stop the anti-democratic Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement is that too many people still don’t know what it is.

That’s a real problem. And corporate lobbyists are hoping to exploit it to quietly rush the TPP through Congress this Fall.Fortunately, we’ve got a secret weapon to help sound the alarm: the Rock Against the TPP roadshow.

On Saturday, August 20, thousands of Oregonians will come together to demonstrate their unified opposition to the largest free trade agreement ever: the TPP. Join us for an afternoon teach-in at Portland State University covering the environmental consequences of the TPP, then march with us to a free concert and rally at Director's Park in downtown Portland from 5 - 10pm.

2:00 - 3:30pm: Teach In at PSU
4:00 - 4:45pm: March/Bike Ride (S. Park Blocks)
5:00 - 10:00pm: Concert and Rally Against the TPP (815 SW Park Ave)

Rock Against the TPP is a nationwide uprising and concert tour meant to raise awareness about the threats of the TPP and the likely vote in Congress right after the election. This massive event is sponsored by the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, the Sierra Club, Fight for the Future, Firebrand Records, and many others. For more information and to get your free tickets CLICK HERE.

Featuring: Anti-Flag(acoustic), Golden Globe nominated actress Evangeline Lilly, Downtown Boys, Bell's Roar, Evan Greer, Taina Asili, and more

If you want to help before or during the show, please fill out the volunteer form here.
Join us for this family-friendly concert with food carts, a beer garden, trade-themed carnival games, and more! Get your free tickets today!

There are similarities between the Oregon Progressive Party (OPP) and the two other left-leaning Oregon minor parties, the Pacific Green Party (PGP) and the Working Families Party (WFP). But there are some fundamental differences. You can see many of the positions that the OPP has taken at http://progparty.org. OPP supports multi-third party independent politics, and we look forward to many fruitful collaborations, but here we will focus on some distinctions to help clarify who we are and how we uniquely contribute to Oregon politics.

Both the PGP and the Oregon WFP are local affiliates of national parties that have a larger bureaucratic infrastructure. The local branches sometimes must go through the national structure before taking positions on issues. OPP is an Oregon-only party that is not beholden to any national party, which gives us the ability to respond to local issues more quickly and without filtering by a national political agenda. OPP also tends to take on issues that the other parties do not appear to address, such as drone legislation, institutionalized racism, local police affiliation with the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), and various international U.S. military and foreign policy actions.

The Working Families Party is a national party with local chapters.  The WFP does great work on ballot measures and usually cross-nominates the Democratic Party nominees but sometimes does run its own candidates in local partisan elections where the Democratic candidate is overwhelmingly favored. The Oregon WFP has supported at least one successful challenge to an incumbent member of the Oregon House of Representatives, in the 2012 Democratic Party primary election. The Oregon chapter is run by a committee comprised mainly of labor union representatives.  WFP takes positions sometimes very different from OPP.  For example, WFP in 2014 strongly supported a statewide initiative to create a “top two primary” system (Measure 90), which was strongly opposed by the PGP and OPP.

The PGP does run local candidates who are usually quite good. Often the same person receives both the PGP and the OPP nomination for the same office. A candidate in Oregon can list up to 3 nominating parties next to her/his name on the ballot, under a law passed in 2009. PGP does not control the selection of Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, who are determined by the national Green Party structure. OPP is not constrained in these nominations and in 2008 and 2012 chose its own nominees (Ralph Nader and Rocky Anderson).

OPP greatly appreciates the work of PGP and WFP. Let a thousand flowers bloom.

OPP is currently leading a campaign finance reform measure in Multnomah County. WFP has provided important support for that effort, and PGP has endorsed it. Oregon is one of only a handful of states that allows unlimited political contributions to candidates.  We favor strong statewide limits. OPP also closely follows the activities of the Legislature when it is in session, providing testimony on nearly 100 bills per session. WFP and PGP do not testify on most of those bills. Oregonians should not need to rely on a single left-liberal-progressive party to perform all possible functions. In Oregon, each of the 3 such parties contributes in its own way.

If you have any questions, please let us know. Monthly public meetings are the second Tuesday of every month, in downtown Portland 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

Updated July 19, 2016
by Alaina Melville
State Council Member

The Oregon Progressive Party calls for an end to police violence and killings as well as other forms of violence. During the past couple of weeks, the US has seen the killing of yet two more African American men as well as the killing of 5 police officers in Dallas. While America was focused on these killings, 5 Latinos were also killed in police actions. Violence against and the killing of Black and Brown Americans by police must stop.

All forms of violence are denounced by the Oregon Progressive Party. While our attention is usually focused on police violence and killings, we also are opposed to the killing of police officers, as happened in Dallas. The Oregon Progressive Party stands in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and efforts to address racism and institutionalized violence. As first steps, we need training for police officers that empowers them to resolve conflicts constructively instead of escalating violence with a shoot-first mentality. And we need to de-militarize the police.

We commend the civil servants and police officers who work for justice, accountability, and safe communities. Those who do not work for those ideals must be held accountable. We need gun laws that protect our communities. The police shootings, the mass shootings, and the recent targeting of police are all deeply disturbing events that are rocking our nation to the core. They are symptoms of deeper problems that we must address. We need our political system, our government agencies, and our representatives to recognize the problems we are facing and to start being a part of the solution.