NOV 9, 2011 – HILLSBORO –The 5-member nominating caucus of the Independent Party of Oregon (IPO) has unanimously qualified State Senator Suzanne Bonamici and Tualatin businessman Rob Cornilles to compete for the Party's nomination for the office of United States Representative for the First Congressional District of Oregon.

The IPO will hold a special primary election from 5pm, November 14th through 5pm on November 29. Under Oregon's fusion voting law, the winner of this election will be allowed to print the name "Independent Party" next to his or her name on the ballot for the January 31, 2012, Special Election to fill the remainder of the term of David Wu, who resigned from Congress in August.

Bonamici and Cornilles have both agreed to participate in a debate as a part of this process. The Party is also planning election kick-off events in in McMinnville and Hillsboro.

The candidates have completed an extensive questionnaire. The IPO will publish their answers on its website, indparty.com.    Read more ...

The IPO Election Process

Starting November 14 and ending November 29, each of the 13,546 members of the IPO residing in the 1st Congressional District will be able to:

• Obtain an individualized official ballot at the IPO website (indparty.com/vote);
• Print out and complete the ballot; and
• Sign it and return it to the IPO (with a copy of a qualifying identity-validating document) by mail, fax, email, or personal delivery

The process is presented in detail at http://indparty.com/2011info.

The IPO will tabulate the results and issue the nomination by November 30.

Oregon residents of the 1st Congressional District who were registered as IPO members as of October 1, 2011, will be eligible to vote.

History of the IPO

The Independent Party of Oregon (IPO) was formed by voter petition in 2006, partly in response to a law passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2005 that removed the word "independent" from the ballot and made it more difficult to run for public office as a non-affiliated candidate. Citizen activists collected 26,000 signatures during 2006 to form the IPO. The party was officially recognized by the Oregon Secretary of State in January 2007.

The Independent Party has 68,000 members statewide and has grown faster than either the Democrats or Republicans in two of the last three years.

In 2010, the IPO became the first political party in the United States to conduct a binding statewide election entirely over the internet. That election was also the largest nominating process ever held by an Oregon minor political party. The party's cross-nominees won the offices of Governor, 8 out of 13 races for the Oregon Senate, and 25 out of 41 races for the Oregon House of Representatives.