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!

The Oregon Progressive Party congratulates the voters of Oregon for their overwhelming rejection of Measure 90, the "top-two primary."

With two-thirds of all votes counted, Measure 90 is losing by a vote of 67% NO to 33% YES.

"The out-of-state billionaires spent $4.7 million in order to control Oregon's future elections, but they failed," said Dan Meek (a Portland attorney active in opposing Measure 90).

The "yes" side has reported spending nearly $6 million, while the "no" side spent $1.3 million.  But the "no" side also had many dedicated volunteers who spread the word that Measure 90 would destroy democracy in Oregon.

Former top-level Enron energy trader John Arnold contributed $2.75 million to support Measure 90, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg added $1.93 million.  So over 80% of all the funds for Measure 90 came from billionaires who neither live nor work in Oregon.

John Arnold made his mark on society as one of the top managers of the Enron energy trading operation.  That was the bunch who caused the phony "West Coast Energy Crisis" of 2000-2002 with their fraudulent trades, which resulted in rolling blackouts and huge rate increases.   Later studies have shown that it cost the California economy alone over $42 billion.

"Burn, baby, burn.  That's a beautiful thing."  That is what Enron traders were recorded as saying as a fire approached a major transmission line, because it caused the line to be "derated" or shut off, thus drastically increasing electricity prices.

For information about Measure 90's money and how it would have destroyed Oregon's democracy, see http://saveoregonsdemocracy.org.

The Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2010 created the notion of SuperPACs.  So far, the race to replace David Wu for Oregon Congressional District 1 leads the way in SuprePAC money with almost $2.2 million spent.   That will change over the summer, as races in the November election come into play.

We've had two great days with Ralph and Rocky in town and we'll have our monthly meeting at our office here starting at 7pm tonight. Below is a sampling of the media. Ralph packed 250 people at noon into Powell's, then had more than 600 people pack into Lewis and Clark to see him debate former Bush admin. official and neo-con Jamie Fly (Ralph won that debate easily)! Today we had a great press conference with Rocky & Ralph (video here) , had an article in Oregonian, two TV channels (KATU and KPTV), and Oregon public broadcasting there.  Then we had a successful rally with Rocky at PSU. This is a great kick-off for the Progressive Party and 2012 Elections let's keep the momentum up and firing...go we go...

• NADER & ROCKY PRESS CONFERENCE: http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/04/former_salt_lake_ci...
   
• NADER STEVE DUIN INTERVIEW: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2012/04/st...
   
• NADER AT POWELL'S Coverage http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/04/green_party_staple_...

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.

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.

The Progressive Party of Oregon has nominated the following candidates for the November 2010 general election:

        Oregon State Treasurer:       Walt Brown
        U.S. Senate:                  Rick Staggenborg
        U.S. Congress, 1st District:  Chris Henry
        U.S. Congress, 3rd District:  Michael Meo
        U.S. Congress, 4th District:  Peter DeFazio
        U.S. Congress, 5th District:  Chris Lugo