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Oregon
Working Families
Party
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To: All Working Families Party supporters From: The Oregon WFP Steering Committee Working Families Party Update and Endorsements While we do not (yet) have fusion voting in Oregon, many Working Families Party supporters are also registered Democrats and will be voting in the Democratic Party primary. Some very good friends of fusion voting are running in contested primaries so the Oregon WFP Steering Committee has made endorsements in a few key primary races. Our recommendations are: Secretary of State: Kate Brown What about the General Election? And What about Fusion? We are in the process of deciding whether we want to run our own candidates in the general election. The way the election law stands at the moment, a Political Party has two options to remain qualified for the ballot; running a stand alone candidate for statewide office, or having close to 10,000 registrants. We have never wanted to pull our supporters out of the Democratic Party if that is where they want to be, especially as, under current election law, it is the only way they can influence which Democratic candidates come to the General Election. This primary election season has seen many unaffiliated and minor party voters, as well as many Republicans, switching their registration to the Democratic Party because of the close and crucial Presidential race. Given the passions in the Presidential Primary, clearly close to half the voters are going to be very disappointed after the Democratic nominee is announced. The same will probably be true in several statewide races. The danger is always that those disappointed voters simply will not vote in the General Election, or will vote for Ralph Nader or another minor party candidate with little chance of winning, or worse yet, cast a vote for John McCain. This is exactly why we need the option of fusion voting. You might not be happy with the outcome of the primary election, but you know either Democrat is better than McCain. How to vote for the Democrat and have some impact on his, or her, policies? With fusion you could vote for Hillary, or vote for Barack, on the Working Families Party ballot line and send them a message about the issues that matter most to you. If they got enough votes on the WFP line, it would be possible to hold them accountable on those issues. That's the essence of fusion voting. But we don't have fusion, not yet. We came close in the 2007 Legislative Session and we came VERY close in the 2008 Special Session. Passage of the Fusion Voting Bill (HB 3040) was blocked unfortunately by someone who is very likely to be the Democratic candidate for Darlene Hooley's seat in Congress, Kurt Schrader, former co-chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Not likely to receive a Working Families Party endorsement! Without fusion we need to decide whether to run our own candidates in the General Election, or to simply endorse good candidates from another party. We will be deciding on our course of action soon, and if we hold a nominating convention, it will be on June 14 in Portland, so mark that date on your calendar now and stay tuned. All dues paying and/or registered members of the Working Families Party, will be welcome at our nominating convention. However, under current state election law, you can only participate in one Party's nomination process, so if you vote in the Democratic Primary, while you will be welcome to attend the nominating convention, you will not be able to cast a vote for any possible WFP candidate. Whatever else one can say, we sure are living in interesting times. |