The Independent Party is looking for a few good men and women to help us organize local meetups around the state. If you are interested in attending a meetup, or helping us host one in your part of the state, please contact Party Secretary, Sal Peralta at 503-437-2833 to help coordinate an event.

An attack from nowhere

by Editorial Board
The Register-Guard
April 19, 2011

The second outrage, however, lives on, and one day could prove serious. No legislator’s name was attached to the bill. House Bill 2442 was filed before the session by the House Interim Committee on Rules with no listed sponsor, and the hearing occurred at the request of no identified committee member. It was presented to Oregonians as a product of immaculate political conception.

Today the Oregonian published an op-ed by a person complaining about his experience with the IPO. We have sent this response to The Oregonian.

Dear Oregonian:

You today published an op-ed by Will Nunn about his experience with the Independent Party of Oregon. His assertions are not accurate.    Read more ...

The War of Independents

House Bill 2442, which would have forced the IPO to drop the word "independent" from its name, somehow made its way onto the agenda of the House Rules Committee without benefit of a sponsor or even one person willing to stand up publicly and support it. That's just as well since the bill was, even by Salem standards, a rare trifecta: dumb, partisan and unconstitutional.

Editorial: What’s next, word police? (with comments)

Or perhaps they learned how to neutralize their opponents at the Joe Stalin Graduate School of Political Maneuvering. Don’t like what the party does? Just ban its name.   

Former Secretaries of State Slam Attempt to Kill Independent Party

The heavy-handed attempt to side-swipe the IPO met with some equally weighty criticism today, particularly in the joint written testimony submitted by former Secretaries of State Norma Paulus (a Republican, who served from 1977 to 1985) and Phil Keisling (a Democrat, who served from 1991 to 1999).    Read more ...

Distinguished chairs, honorable members of the committee;

My name is Sal Peralta. I am here today to testify in opposition to House Bill 2442 on behalf of the Independent Party of Oregon.

This bill is so clearly unconstitutional that I wasn’t sure how seriously to take it. One of our members actually thought it was a prank. I like the tact that the Albany Democrat-Herald took in today’s editorial opposing this bill, that:

The sponsors of this little bit of nonsense seem to have gone to the “Alice in Wonderland Institute of Politics,” where they teach you to change reality by changing what things are called.

Or perhaps they learned how to neutralize their opponents at the Joe Stalin Graduate School of Political Maneuvering. Don’t like what the party does? Just ban its name.

But when a legislator or a group of legislators holds a proverbial gun to your head and tells you to do something, I think the best approach is to take it seriously. So here goes…

We have received written testimony in opposition to this bill from former Secretaries of State Norma Paulus and Phil Keisling. I quote in part from their testimony:

We are aware of no legal precedent in any jurisdiction in the United States that would allow a legislature to ban the use of a word in the name of a political party, and are highly skeptical that the Oregon Constitution, with its broad protections for free speech, would permit such an intrusion on the association and speech rights of a duly constituted political party. Pass this bill -- or even treat it semi-seriously -- and what's next? Bills to ban the word "republican" or "democratic" from other parties because one party in power feels threatened?
…
This bill is cynical, political mischief of the worst, most juvenile kind -- worthy of being thrown on the legislative scrap heap, so this body can get down to the important business at hand.