Forum on 
   
Creating the Democracy Movement to Abolish Corporate Personhood.
With Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap
National Director, Move to Amend

Join Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, National Director of Move to Amend, for an evening to find out how to end corporate personhood and control money in the political system. Move to Amend advocates for a 28th Constitutional Amendment saying

Corporations are not people and money is not speech.

The 2010 U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC expanded spending on elections from corporations and wealthy individuals. Sopoci-Belknap will help local residents understand the more than century-long history behind that decision and how they can work to abolish "Corporate Personhood" and establish a government of, by, and for the people. The program will focus on how Portland can contribute to the growing national movement to affirm that only human beings have constitutional rights and that money can be regulated in elections and is not defined constitutionally as free speech. Sopoci-Belknap will report on and discuss actions that have taken place in hundreds of communities across the nation in support of the federal We the People Amendment, H.J.R. 48 as part of a larger movement of needed fundamental democratic changes.

IN PORTLAND
Date/Time: Thursday 12/7, 7:00:00 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM)
Location:  First Unitarian Church, Eliot Chapel, SW 12th and Salmon St. Portland
More info:  David Delk, davidafd@ymail.com, 503.232.5495

IN ASTORIA
Date/Time: Friday 12/8, 7:00:00 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM)
Location: Alderbrook Hall at 45th and Leif Erickson, Astoria, OR
More info:  Brian P. Halvorsen, brianphalvorsen@gmail.com, (971) 306-1136

Admission Portland and Astoria: Donation $5-20 requested; no one turned away for lack of funds
Co-sponsored by Move to Amend, Oregon Progressive Party, Alliance for Democracy, Oregon Common Cause, Oregon Fair Trade Campaign

OPP adopted this statement at our monthly meeting last night:

LET THE PUBLIC AND THE LIGHT IN

The American public is once again being shut out of negotiations being held in our name and supposedly for our benefit. What do the negotiators of the new version of NAFTA have to hide?

As the first round of NAFTA negotiations between the US, Mexico and Canada conclude, it is clear that the hoped for transparency will not materialize in spite of the promises made by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. In fact, US trade officials have now declared that trade documents will be “classified”, meaning that once again a trade deal involving America's largest, most important trade partners will be negotiated in secret. Even the public stakeholder events which have happened during negotiations of other trade agreements did not, and will not, happen.

Oregonians can only hope that our US Representatives and Senators will join together in calling for openness and transparency in the rest of the negotiations as a first condition for a renegotiated agreement acceptable to the people of all three nations. If not, We the People will reject any resulting agreement produced in dark smoke-filled rooms of corporate lobbyists.

HONEST ELECTIONS MULTNOMAH COUNTY

For immediate release:
August 12, 2017

For more information, contact:

Multnomah County Circuit Court to Hear Challenges
to Multnomah County's Campaign Finance Reform Measure 26-184,
Enacted by Vote of 89-11% in 2016

On August 15 at 9 a.m., Judge Eric Bloch of the Multnomah County Circuit Court will conduct a 2-hour hearing on challenges to the constitutionality of the campaign finance reform Amendment to the Multnomah County Charter (Measure 26-184) approved by the voters of the county by a margin of 89% "yes" to 11% "no" at the November 2016 election.

Tuesday, August 15    9:00 a.m.
Multnomah County Courthouse, Room 508
1021 SW 4th Avenue
Portland, OR

Judge Bloch will decide whether the measure is constitutional in Oregon.  His decision may be appealed to the Oregon Court of Appeals and Oregon Supreme Court.   The Multnomah County Commission asked for this "validation proceeding" and filed briefs on behalf of the county's voters, calling for the Court to uphold the constitutionality of all aspects of Measure 26-184.

The challengers are associations of corporations:  Associated Oregon Industries, Portland Business Association, and the Portland Metro Realtors Association, along with its former President, Alan Mehrwein.  The Taxpayers Association of Oregon is also attempting to participate, after having filed its petition to intervene 38 days after the close of the statutory filing deadline.  These challengers assert that they wish to continue to make unlimited political contributions and expenditures, without identifying themselves in the ads they fund.

The Taxpayers Association of Oregon is actually acting as a local front for the Center for Competitive Politics, a Virginia nonprofit corporation financially supported by the Koch brothers.

Measure 26-184 amended the Multnomah County Home Rule Charter to:

1. Require that each Communication (defined) to voters related to a Multnomah County Candidate Election prominently disclose the five largest true original sources of funding for the Communication, if any of them exceed $500.

2. Limit contributions to support or oppose candidates for public office in Multnomah County elections to $500 per person or political committee.

3. Require any entity that spends more than $750 per election cycle on independent expenditures to register as a political committee, which requires reporting of the sources of its funding.

4. Limit independent expenditures in any Multnomah County candidate race to:

   • $5,000 per individual

   • $10,000 per political committee, but only from contributions by individuals of $500 or less per year.

5. Allow formation of Small Donor Committees, which may accept contributions only in amounts of $100 or less per person per year.  Such committees can then support or oppose candidates without limit.

"We believe that all of the features of Measure 26-184 are constitutional," said David Delk of the Alliance for Democracy and Honest Elections Multnomah County, the group that spearheaded the campaign for Measure 26-184.  Mr Delk is also one of the parties in the validation proceeding.

Demands that Oregon Legislature enact HB 3465 to apply $50 million in accumulated excess premium payments to Medicaid, not to insurance company bank accounts

In 2013 Oregon’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) reinsurance program was set up to offset any abrupt increases in consumer health care premiums during the first three years of the ACA. Under existing law, that fund simply expires on June 30, 2017, but it holds $50 million in excess premiums--money collected from individuals and businesses in premiums but not spent on providing health care. Unless the law is changed, state health officials say they will give the money back to the insurance companies--with no requirement that the insurance companies return any of the money to the individuals and businesses that paid the premiums.

State Rep. Cedric Hayden, R-Cottage Grove, has introduced HB 3465. The other chief sponsors are Knute Buehler (R) and Julie Parrish (R). Brad Witt (D) and three other Republicans are regular sponsors. The Democratic Leadership in the House has not scheduled any hearing or other action on the bill.

HB 3465 provides that the $50 million be applied to Oregon’s Medicaid budget rather than being paid to insurance companies. That is enough to fund care for 9,500 of Oregon’s neediest adults and children.

The Oregon Progressive Party implores the Democratic Leadership--Speaker Kotek and Senate President Courtney--to immediately move and pass HB 3465 and for Governor Brown to sign the bill.

Health insurance companies and others in the medical field are among the largest contributors of money to candidate campaigns in Oregon, giving over $6 million to Oregon candidates for state or local office in 2016 alone.

See the Eugene Register-Guard editorial in favor of HB 3465.