FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2009

OEA, Democratic Party Block Ballot Access Legislation

Despite overwhelming floor votes in favor of bills to allow greater competition in elections by minor parties and non-affiliated candidates, the Legislature appears to be holding up those bills so that they cannot receive final passage.

SB 326, which repeals a law enacted in 2005 that makes it far more difficult for non-affiliated candidates to run for public office by getting voter signatures, was passed in the Oregon Senate on a vote of 27-0 on May 13. The bill is currently in the House Rules Committee but has not been scheduled for a vote to send it to the floor, although it would enjoy overwhelming support there.

HB 2414, which passed on a vote of 53-7 in the Oregon House on March 31, allows a candidate who is nominated by more than one political party to have the names of up to 3 such parties next to her name on the ballot. The bill was scheduled for a vote in the Senate Rules Committee on May 22 but was withdrawn by the committee chair, Senator Richard Devlin, after Trent Lutz of the Democratic Party of Oregon sent an email in opposition (long after the period for public testimony had closed). 16 Senators have signed a letter asking Senator Devlin to send the bill to the floor.

The only known opposition to HB 2414 is by the Oregon Education Association (OEA) and the Democratic Party of Oregon (DPO), though neither group testified against either bill during the public hearing process.

Regarding HB 2414, Linda Williams, chair of the Independent Party of Oregon, said, "It is frustrating that a bill that appears to have broad support in the Legislature can't even get to the Senate floor for a vote, even after it has had extensive public hearings and a 53-7 favorable vote in the House."

"The groups that oppose this bill have operated outside of the public process. The only real weapons we have against that kind of access and influence are transparency and public disclosure," Williams continued.

"We have built a broad coalition of legislators, private labor unions, and members of business associations who support this bill," said Sal Peralta, who has led the Independent Party's lobbying effort. "But the OEA spent more than $10 million dollars funding Oregon election campaigns in 2008. None of us come close to matching that level of influence."

Note: According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a total of $55 million was spent on Oregon state and local political campaigns during the 2008 election cycle. The OEA and its national affiliate, the National Education Association (NEA), accounted for more than $10 million of the total.

"This bill protects the rights of minor political parties but is being stopped in its tracks by OEA and Democratic Party of Oregon," Peralta said of HB 2414. "It feels like David versus Goliath"

We have included the following documents:

1) The case for HB 2414 (our issue memo).
2) The letter from Senator Devlin's colleagues asking him to move the bill.
3) The letter from Phil Keisling asking Senators to support the bill.
4) A letter describing the OEA's proposed amendment to the bill with our response.
5) The letter from Trent Lutz (DPO) to Senator Devlin.
6) Our response to the Trent Lutz (DPO) arguments.

Background

SB 326 repeals the law enacted by the Legislature in 2005 that prohibits any Democrat or Republican who casts a ballot in the primary election from signing any petition to nominate any candidate for any partisan office (where candidates run with party labels on the ballot). This had the effect of making it more than twice as difficult to collect the necessary signatures to qualify for the ballot.

For example, it takes 18,368 valid signatures of registered Oregon voters to qualify a person for the ballot for a statewide office. But the 2005 law invalidates the signatures of any Republican or Democrat who votes in the primary election, which in 2008 comprised about half of all Oregon registered voters.

HB 2414 is a clarification of Oregon law that allows a candidate who is nominated by more than one political party to have the names of up to 3 such parties next to her name on the ballot (instead of just one). During most of Oregon's history, any candidate for partisan office has been allowed to show on the ballot the names of all parties that has nominated that candidate. HB 2414 returns to that system,
thus providing more information to voters about the candidate's philosophy. For example, under HB 2414 the ballot would show "Republican, Pacific Green" for a candidate who accepts the nomination of both of those parties for the same office. That surely would provide more information to voters than the label "Republican" alone.

CONTACTS:

Barbara Dudley
503-977-1606 barbdudley@aol.com
chair, Oregon Working Families Party

Linda Williams
503-293-0399 linda@lindawilliams.net
chair, Independent Party of Oregon

Sal Peralta
503-437-2833 sal@salperalta.com
secretary, Independent Party of Oregon

Attachment	Size
HB 2414_documents.pdf	528.63 KB