Oregon Independent Party wants a few good candidates:

In this Aug. 13, 2010 file photo, Independent Party of Oregon chairwoman Linda Williams, right,
and Dan Meek, who both founded the Party in 2006, work together in Portland, Ore. The
Independent Party of Oregon, the state's third-largest party, has pledged to take legislators to court
over if they approve a bill that would strip the party of its name. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)

An Independent Movement

• The Independent Party of Oregon, Oregon’s third largest political party with 98,359 members as of October, 2013, is nearing major party status. 

(Editor's Note - I am reprinting this column because I strongly believe that the people need more ballot choices, not fewer choices.  Personally I think the Independent Party of Oregon is making a serious mistake by mostly endorsing "selected" Democrats and Republicans.  Only by running strong independent candidates in key districts can you put the fear of God into the corrupt bought-off major parties.)


By Sal Peralta and Rob Harris
Independent Party of Oregon
From The Oregonian

According to a recent national poll, more voters have positive attitudes towards jury duty, the DMV and even zombies than they do towards the United States Congress. Neither political party enjoys support from even half of the electorate, and a plurality of Americans identify dysfunctional government as the most important problem facing our country.

In order to insulate themselves from growing voter dissatisfaction,  in 2006 Oregon Democrats and Republicans passed a law banning the ballot label "Independent" by unaffiliated candidates who went out and petitioned their neighbors to stand for election to  public office.

In response, Oregonians collected signatures to form the Independent Party of Oregon (IPO).

The IPO now has nearly 100,000 members statewide and is poised to become Oregon's third major party.  Who are IPO members? A common denominator is a sense of deep frustration with Democrats and Republicans and their inability to work collaboratively on policies that will improve the lives of average citizens. Instead, the major parties’ agendas are often dominated by issues that benefit narrow special interests — often to the detriment of the rest of us.

We therefore chose to build the IPO in a different way. Rather than focusing on controversial hot button issues to attract hyper-partisans and money, we set out to learn what our members -- who range across the political spectrum -- agree on.  Six years and nine member surveys later, the party has found broad agreement on common sense solutions that include:

Reducing special interest influence over our legislative process; increasing transparency in government, particularly with how our tax dollars are spent and how the public’s business is conducted in Salem (with emphasis on campaign finance reform); protecting Oregon consumers, particularly with respect to banks, insurance companies and private utilities; providing incentives for small businesses to thrive and for larger businesses to expand  in a way that returns more benefits to the public than it costs.

We believe – and hope – that this is the agenda agreed upon by most IPO members and the 500,000 unaffiliated voters who together make up 30 percent of the Oregon electorate.

The IPO has had successes. The party has helped to increase ballot access, block legislative efforts to water down Oregon’s campaign finance laws; blocked efforts to gut Oregon’s open meetings law; contributed to the debate over PERS reform; and fought for consumer protections.

Politically, we had hoped to use the party to promote greater collaboration between the major political parties. To that end, in 2010 and 2012 we opened our nominating process to candidates, regardless of party, and nominated more than 100 statewide officeholders and sitting legislators through fair, membership-wide, secure online voting.

Does that sound like a fair and reasonable way to work within the system? We thought so.

Sadly, while we were successful at finding Democrats and Republicans who wanted the label “Independent” on the ballot, we’ve been less successful at getting these nominees to actually work collaboratively in service to the IPO membership’s common sense goals.

To be fair, a handful of legislators have worked with us to promote portions of the IPO agenda, but most accepted the IPO nomination then toed their party line once elected.

So, where should we go from here? We believe that there are some great community leaders who want to serve and who can be elected as Independent legislators. Our goal is to elect a few Independents to the Legislature. These representatives would form an Independent caucus and demand effective non-partisan policies. Such a caucus could have an immensely positive impact on policy debate and legislation.

This is your invitation to get involved in your local area and bring real independent thinking to Salem.

We seek great candidates with a record of community involvement who support our members’ agenda.

Are you ready to quit talking and start working? Then join us.

Sal Peralta is secretary of the Independent Party of Oregon. Rob Harris is president of Harris law firm in Washington County.