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.

Our candidate, Michael Sonnleitner, yesterday won a seat on the Board of Directors of the Portland Community College system, which serves over 90,000 students.

The vote was close.  We conducted a phone bank for Michael on May 5.

Courtney Wilton . . . . . . . . 3,407 30.5%
Anita Yap . . . . . . . . . .   3,435 30.7%
Michael Sonnleitner . . . . . . 4,234 37.9%
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . .      93

Congratulations!

 

A written description of this debate, conducted by the Oregon League of Cities, is available at KATU.  Our candidates are shut out of most televised debates.

OPP candidate for Secretary of State, Bob Wolfe, issued this press release on September 19. It was quoted by the Oregonian at Oregon Secretary of State candidates trade tough words over campaign spending limits.

Kate Brown today announced that her campaign for Secretary of State will limit its spending on the general election to $1 million. "This is a cynical political trick and does not reflect any concern for the huge influence of big money in Oregon elections," said Bob Wolfe, the candidate for Secretary of State of the Oregon Progressive Party.

“Brown has already spent millions promoting her name to Oregon voters, and her pledge won’t restrain limitless spending by public employee unions, her biggest supporters,” Wolfe said. Her pledge does not stop unions or corporations or other entities from making unlimited "independent expenditures" that would not be counted toward the $1 million limit.

In fact, Kate Brown refuses to enforce Oregon Measure 47, adopted by voters in 2006, as a solution to independent expenditures. That requires that every ad funded by independent expenditures prominently disclose the names, business interests, and amounts donated to the independent expenditure campaign by the top 5 donors to the campaign. This would let voters know where the money is coming from, which Kate Brown apparently does not want.

"If Kate Brown were concerned about money in politics, she would be enforcing the contribution limits and other provisions of Measure 47 (2006) instead of attacking that measure in court," Wolfe said.

Kate Brown has already spent over $2.6 million since 2000 promoting her name to Oregon voters. Now she wants all other candidates to comply with her spending limit going forward. That is like cutting the rations for everyone after only you have eaten a series of huge meals.

Brown’s ‘limit’ of $1 million this year comes on top of the $1.2 million Kate Brown spent in 2008. “Kate Brown is a poster child for excessive spending and the current record-holder for campaign spending in Oregon for any State office except Governor,” says Wolfe.

Brown has also avoided all opportunities to reform campaign spending in Oregon. According to Willamette Week (April 25, 2012) , "Brown has been silent on campaign finance reform and otherwise largely invisible."

“She has neither pursued nor accomplished anything on campaign finance reform during her 20 years as a candidate and state office-holder. Now she is suddenly concerned about money in politics? The only reason appears to be that for the first time one of her opponents might outspend her,” said Wolfe.

The Oregon Progressive Party has nominated these 7 candidates for the November 2012 Election:

Rocky Anderson Robert Wolfe Cameron Whitten Chris Henry Steven Reynolds Woody Broadnax Peter DeFazio

President of the United States Secretary of State, Oregon State Treasurer, Oregon Attorney General, Oregon U.S. House of Representatives, 1st District U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District U.S. House of Representatives, 4th District

The Party has also adopted this Oregon Progressive Party Statement for the Oregon Voters's Pamphlet.  Here is the Statement of Robert Wolfe.

The Rocky Anderson ticket includes Luis Gonzalez for Vice-President of the United States.  Robert Wolfe, Cameron Whitten, and Chris Henry are exclusively the candidates of the Oregon Progressive Party.  Steven Reynolds has been cross-nominated by the Pacific Green Party and the Libertarian Party of Oregon.  Woody Broadnax has been cross-nominated by the Pacific Green Party.  Peter DeFazio has been cross-nominated by the Democratic Party and by the Working Families Party of Oregon.

At a press conference in Portland today, Ralph Nader introduced and announced his support for Rocky Anderson as the 2012 nominee of the Oregon Progressive Party for President of the United States.

The Oregon Progressive Party is a ballot-qualified minor party in Oregon.  It was created by voter petition as the Peace Party in 2008 and that year nominated Ralph Nader for President.  The party changed its name in 2009 to the Oregon Progressive Party to reflect its broader platform.

Rocky Anderson is the progressive former 2-term Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah.  He has now obtained the Presidential general election ballot in 3 states--which is 3 more states than Ralph Nader had obtained at this stage in 2008 on his way to appearing on the ballot in 45 states.

CD-1 Race Draws Alternative Views

April Baer | November 20, 2011 | Portland, OR

Another candidate for the general election in the first Congressional District has been nominated.

The Oregon Progressive Party nominated Steve Reynolds, an Army veteran who spent a year teaching English in China. This is his first run for office. He says the debt ceiling debate motivated him to think about how he could improve on the way incumbent representatives handled themselves.

"I got angry, you know? They're doing nothing. And I can do nothing better than they can do nothing as far as I'm concerned."

The Progressive platform calls for protecting Medicare and Medicaid, cutting military spending, and providing universal employment, simialr to the WPA programs enacted during the Great Depression.

Reynolds joins Democrat Suzanne Bonamici and Republican Rob Cornilles on ballots that will be mailed starting January 13th.

The Pacific Green Party of Oregon was scheduled to hold its nominating convention Saturday as well. 

© 2011 OPB

David Wu will soon resign as the U.S. Representative for the 1st District of Oregon.  Governor Kitzhaber must call a special election to fill the vacancy.  He says he will allow sufficient time for the major parties to conduct primaries, which means that the special election to fill the seat will take place sometime 80 days after Wu resigns.  A somewhat likely election date would be November 8, 2011, which is when the normal off-year election will occur in any event.

The Oregon Progressive Party has the right to place a candidate on the ballot for this seat.

The deadline for the Party to choose a candidate is to be set by the Secretary of State of Oregon.  It could be as soon as September 8.

The legal qualifications are simple.  The U.S. Constitution specifies:

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

So a candidate needs to be at least 25 years old, a U.S. citizen for 7 years, and an inhabitant of Oregon at the time of the election.

There is no legal requirement that the candidate be a resident of the 1st District, but it would help.  Here is the current 1st Congressional District of Oregon Map, which we believe will not apply to the special election.  It zooms all the way in to the street level.  The District includes most of Portland west of the Willamette River as well as Clatsop, Columbia, Washington, and Yamhill Counties.  And here is the Redistricted Map of the 1st Congressional District of Oregon, which the redistricting law enacted by the 2011 Legislature indicates is in effect as of July 2011 for congressional elections.  The new boundary lines are very, very similar to the old ones, except that the new district will include the area between Scapoose and NW Portland that is currently in the 3rd District.

If you are interested in being the nominee of the Oregon Progressive Party, please fill out the short Candidate Questionnaire.

Rick Staggenborg for United States Senate
Occupation: Physician

Occupational Background: Psychiatrist, US Army Medical Corps, Medical Director of a County Mental Health Agency, Veterans Administration (VA) psychiatrist and Acting Associate Chief of Staff for Mental Health Services for the Roseburg VA Health Service Center. Currently serving as a volunteer for the national council of the Alliance for Democracy and founder of Soldiers For Peace International.

Educational Background: Woodrow Wilson High School, Portland State University (BS in Psychology and Biology), Oregon Health Sciences Center (completed residency training at the University of New Mexico).

Prior Governmental Experience: No elective office, but extensive familiarity with Federal government bureauocracy through my work with the VA. * * *

Any Oregon voter-age resident who wishes to be nominated or endorsed by the Oregon Progressive Party needs to download and fill out the candidate questionnaire for state office or the one for federal office.  Links to both are below.

Please return your completed questionnaire(s) to info@progparty.org.  If that is not possible, you can print out your answers and fax that to 855-280-0488 toll-free

For Candidates

Anyone who is interested in running as a Progressive Party candidate for public office should contact us directly and fill out our candidate questionnaires.

The Progressive Party Of Oregon is entitled to place one candidate on the general election ballot for each of the following offices:

• President of the United States (not in 2014)
• United States Senator
• United States Representative (in each of 5 districts)
• Governor
• Secretary of State (not in 2014)
• Attorney General (not in 2014)
• State Treasurer (not in 2014)
• State Senator (in each of 30 districts) (15 districts are contested each election year)
• State Representative (in each of 60 districts)
• some county commissioners and any other office that is elected on a "partisan" (by party) basis

Note: To run as a Progressive, you do not have to file 70 days prior to the primary election date, as do persons who want to run as Democrats or Republicans. Instead, you have to receive the nomination of the Progressive Party at least 70 days prior to the November general election.

The Progressive Party of Oregon will offers candidates many of the same services that are offered by the major political parties, including:

- Access to the Oregon voter file, including statewide and district lists.

- The ability to download canvassing lists.

- Contact lists of Progressive Party members in your district.