June 3, 2010

Today, the Independent Party of Oregon announced the names of candidates who are seeking the party's nominations to run for seats in the Oregon State Legislature.

77 candidates are seeking the party's nomination for state legislative office, including 39 Democrats, 32 Republicans, 5 Independents, and a Libertarian. Of these 77 candidates, 60 of them already won their their own major party primaries. 36 of them are incumbent legislators. The party expects to have 20 contested races for its nominations, including 9 in the Oregon Senate and 11 in the Oregon House.     Read more ...

Oregon's Independent Party on cusp of power, identity crisis

by Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian
June 2, 2010

The party's registration growth has been nothing short of explosive. It now has more than 54,000 registered voters, more than all five of the state's other minor parties combined. And if the party doubles in size, which is not implausible given its growth so far, it would gain major-party status, meaning that the state would conduct primary elections for the Independents, just as it does for the Democrats and Republicans.     Read more ...

For Release
May 24, 2010

Today a Democratic Party operative, Michele Rossolo, executive director of the campaign for the House Democrats in Oregon, falsely accused the Independent Party of Oregon (IPO) of selling nominations: "I think our candidates are generally turned off by the idea that to get the nomination, you had to give us money." These operatives have also misrepresented the IPO in communications with Oregon state government officials.

Democrats file complaint against Independent Party of Oregon, question group's "legitimacy"

by Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian
May 28, 2010

Independent Party Chairwoman Linda Williams said the complaint is "pretty baseless" and appears to be a "harassing tool" used by Democrats to crimp the minor party's growth.     Read more ...

May 28, 2010

Today, the Democratic Party of Oregon filed a baseless election law complaint against the Independent Party of Oregon.

After Democratic Party operatives last week complained that the Independent Party was attempting to raise funds in order to pay for its own primary election in July for all of its 54,000+ members, the complaint filed today with the Secretary of State claims that, if the Independent Party does not conduct such an election (which no minor party in Oregon has ever done), then it would be failing to allow enough participation by its members in its candidate nomination process.

"The Independent Party has consistently cooperated with independent-minded Democratic candidates," said chair Linda Williams, "including our nominations in 2008 of Jeff Merkley for the U.S. Senate in 2008 and Ben Westlund for State Treasurer, among others. But we also nominated independent-minded Republicans who supported campaign finance reform. But this year the Democratic Party and its paid operatives seem so afraid they will not capture our party's nominations that they attack us for trying to conduct a primary election . . . and then attack us if we do not have a primary election. The taxpayers pay millions for the Democratic Party's primary election, but there are no government funds available to pay for ours."     Read more ...

The IPO is not currently accepting applications for public office other than candidates seeking nomination in the first congressional district special election.