Updated OPP candidate list

 The Oregon Progressive Party has endorsed a few more candidates for the May Primary 2022 elections.  This is complete list.  

These candidates have all completed the Party candidate questionnaire and we encourage all Oregon voters to cast their votes for these Progressive candidates.  

Contact your OR US Representative and Senators

 Contact your OR US representatives and senators:  

Find your US/Oregon Representatives/Senators
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member 

Sen Wyden: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/   (202) 224-5244

Sen Merkley: https://www.merkley.senate.gov/   (202) 224-3753

Rep. Cliff Bentz   https://bentz.house.gov/ (202) 225-6730

Rep. Blumenauer: https://blumenauer.house.gov/   (202) 225-4811

Rep. Bonamici: https://bonamici.house.gov/     (202) 225-0855

Rep. DeFazio: https://defazio.house.gov/   (202) 225-6416

Rep. Schrader: https://schrader.house.gov/   (202) 225-5711

Single Signature sheets are available for Initiative Petitions

Sign initiative Petitions by Printing and mailing them yourself 

Several initiative petition campaigns now allow individual supporters to sign their initiative petitions by printing them from their websites, signing them and then mailing them in. 

No reason to wait to find a signature gatherer at some event or on the street. You can do it yourself.

Three initiative petition campaigns which OR Progressive Party supports for the Nov 2022 ballot are among this group. 

Lift Every Voice Oregon has two petitions to end gun violence. Gun violence is ever increasing. The last OR legislature was encouraged by citizens to enact new laws aimed at decreasing gun violence. But as is so often the case, they failed to act. So, the Lift Every Voice Oregon coalition formed to do the legislature's job - enact laws to protect the people of Oregon by writing two initiatives to end gun violence. 

IP 17, titled Reduction of Gun Violence Act aims to stop the proliferation of assault weapons, and IP 18, the Reduction of Harm from Weapons Act, aims to create safer gun owners and less lethal ammunition. Get your single signature sheet for IP 17 here. 

Get your single signature sheet for IP 18 here. 

Visit the Lift Every Voice Oregon website here. 

Oregon Peoples' Rebate has one petition which will increase the Corporate Activities Tax on corporate revenue starting at over $25 million on sales in Oregon and redistribute the resulting increased revenue to each resident of Oregon equally, resulting in a rebate of about $750 per individual Oregon resident annually. That is money which would leave the state, going into the pockets of some of the largest corporations in the nation. It would not affect mom and pop Oregon businesses. Get your single signature sheet for IP 6 here. Visit the Oregon People's rebate website here. 

General instructions on signing these sheets: 

• Print the sheets on standard white office paper (20 pound paper) Provide the signature and other information in either black or blue ink. Never sign with a pencil. 
• Sign each sheet with your signature twice - once as the voter and once as the circulator. Include your printed name and address on each sheet. 
• Do not write in the space labeled "Sheet Number". 
• Mail the sheet to the address provided on each sheet. The IP6 sheet has a different mail to address than the IP 17 and 18 sheets.

 Starnes feeling optimistic about governor run | Elections | nrtoday.com

Starnes feeling optimistic about governor run

• CARISA CEGAVSKE Senior Staff Writer Roseburg News-Review

Patrick Starnes’s optimism about his Democratic primary run for governor has been bolstered by an endorsement from the Oregon Progressive Party.

Starnes, who ran on the Independent Party ticket in 2018, formerly lived in Douglas County, but now calls Brownsville home. He met with a News-Review reporter Friday to talk about how the campaign is going and what he’d like to accomplish if he were elected to the position.

Dedicated to an ideal of getting big money out of politics, Starnes has stayed true to that in his campaign. He’s refused donations from corporate and union PACs, along with donations of more than $1,000 from any individual.  It’s an approach that he said has left him free to pursue the policies the people want rather than the policies big money donors want.

Oregon Progressive Party Endorses Candidates in the Primary Election

The Oregon Progressive Party has endorsed these candidates running in the May 17, 2022, primary election: 

Non-Partisan Office	Candidate
OR Labor Commissioner	Chris Henry
Portland City Auditor	Brian Setzler
Portland City Council	Jo Ann Hardesty

Office Sought in Primary	Candidate
Governor	Patrick Starnes
U.S. Congress #4	Doyle Canning
Oregon House #19	Jackie Leung
Oregon House #44	Eric Delehoy

Run as a OR Progressive Party candidate

You can run as a candidate of the OR Progressive Party (OPP) if you 

 • Are a progressive 

 • Have thought of running for any partisan office (like state representative or senator, Governor Attorney General, or Secretary of State, U.S. Senator or U.S. Representative, or non-partisan office (most city council positions, school boards or other local boards, most county commissions) in Oregon 

 • Recognize that being able to say that you have been endorsed or nominated by the OPP would benefit your campaign. 

  In partisan races, you would be able to skip campaigning during the primary election but yet appear on the General Election ballot, cutting both the time and expense of being in two elections. Yet you could state that you are the nominatee of the OPP. 

  In non-partisan races, you could seek endorsement for office and be able to state that you have OPP endorsement in your campaign literature and/or your voter pamphlet statement. In order to be endorsed or become the nominatee of the OPP, please complete the appropriate candidate questionnaire (Fed, State or local) and return it to the OPP at info@progparty.org. Questionnaire are available at https://www.progparty.org/candidates.html And then schedule a talk with the OPP state council. Contact info at info@progparty.org to schedule.

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.

End US involvement in war on Yemen

While Pres Biden is fanning the flames of war with Russia, there is another war going on in Yemen, and the United States is heavily involved. Pres. Biden promised during his campaign to end our involvement but instead he continues to supply Saudi Arabia and UAE with weapons and intelligence. OR Rep. DeFazio has introduced a bill which would do this. Sign a petition to support this and end American involvement now. Sign the petition here: https://tinyurl.com/3a6tzt2y

Your help needed NOW to get big money out of politics

​A few days ago we learned that the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office is considering using an obscure interpretation to block any chance for getting big money out of Oregon politics in 2022 and we need your help to put pressure on Secretary Fagan to do the right thing.

Can you contact Secretary Fagan's office and tell her the importance of allowing Initiative Petitions 43, 44, and 45 to move forward?
Call: 503-986-1523 (leaving a voicemail is ok)
Email: oregon.sos@sos.​ oregon.gov
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On Thursday we were alerted that Secretary Fagan was considering rejecting Petitions 43, 44, and 45 (three different versions we have been working on to bring sensible limits to money in Oregon politics) on the basis that they do not include the “full text” of the law being amended. In fact all three petitions follow the longstanding precedent of including the full text of the subsections that are being amended, but not the text of the subsections that will not be changed.

As far as we can tell, no other Secretary of State has ever rejected a petition for this reason, despite many following the same standard of only including the subsections being amended. In fact, Initiative Petition 3 is currently collecting signatures and was approved in October of 2020 with exactly this same issue. Ballot initiatives certified under the last several Secretaries of State, both Democrat and Republican, have used this longstanding interpretation. Changing the standard now, with no advance notice, beginning with these petitions to get big money out of Oregon politics, reeks of elected officials applying different standards based on what is favored by the politically connected. During the comment period on these petitions only one party raised this specific concern: the United Food and Commercial Workers, who also donated $50,000 to the Secretary’s 2020 campaign.

An official determination from Secretary Fagan’s Office is expected in the next few days, and hearing from Oregonians now asking her to do the right thing could make a real difference.

Please call or email Secretary of State Shemia Fagan and tell her that you want to see real campaign finance reform on your 2022 ballot and that she should not reinterpret the Oregon constitution to keep Oregonians from being able to weigh in on sensible limits to money in politics.

Call: 503-986-1523 (leaving a voicemail is ok)
Email: oregon.sos@sos.​ oregon.gov
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Some talking points you might use:

War is not the answer!

American war drums continue beating against Russia.

The Russian massing of troops at the Ukrainian border continues to be justification for the beating of the drums of war in the US, in the media and by Democrats in the halls of Congress. What the US media does not inform the American people about is that the Russian nation has a justifiable fear about the expansion of NATO to surround Russia. It is the US and their European partners in NATO that pose a military threat and are the aggressors, perhaps leading to a nuclear confrontation between the two nuclear powers, a confrontation which cannot end well for the peoples of the world.

Columnist Norm Solomon writes about the drum beat and the likely consequences of war between the United States and Russia.in his article: The United States to Russia: Do as We say, Not as We Do. Included in this column is a link to the historical records of what Russia was promised when the US, Russia and others were negotiating the unification of East and West Germany - the US and allies promised Russia that NATO would not move " one step closer to Russia." Yet following that time, it has moved right up to the border of Russia, engulfing most of the former Soviet bloc nations of eastern Europe. And now the United State is not willing to seriously negotiate with Russia.

In the meantime, a bill (S3488 & HR6470: Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022) is being promoted by Democrats in Congress which would authorize the President to impose economic sanctions on Russia. Our Senators Merkley and Wyden are both co-sponsors, while none of our OR Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of the House version.

All co-sponsors in the House and Senate are Democrats except for one Independent in the Senate. Please contact Senators Wyden and Merkley, asking them to remove themselves from the list of co-sponsors. Find their contact information here.