From the Libertarian Party website:
The Libertarian Party of Oregon issued the following press release on the defeat of the state’s Measure 90 ballot initiative:
Oregonians sent a strong message of support for strong third parties and for the value of a vibrant culture of ideas in their elections, with a crushing rejection of Measure 90. Backed primarily by out-of-state interests, Measure 90 sought to replace the current primary elections system with an “open primary” listing all candidates from all parties, with only the top two vote recipients advancing to appear on the general election ballot.
While proponents of Measure 90 claimed that this would actually be beneficial to third parties, similar schemes in other states have resulted in nearly total exclusion of minority voices from general elections. Indeed, in places where one or the other of the major parties are dominant, this sort of process has seen only two Democrats or two Republicans available to voters on Election Day.
“As a Libertarian, I want voters to be able to express the full range of their opinions on their ballots, instead of having a sterile monoculture of political positions to choose from,” said Lars Hedbor, Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of Oregon. Wes Wagner, Chair of the LPO added, “When you find the Oregon Democratic Party, Constitution Party, and Libertarian Party all fighting against a measure, you know that you have a spectacularly bad idea.”
The Libertarian Party of Oregon operates its own, privately-funded primary elections, and nominated 50 candidates in this election cycle, 33 of which were Libertarian Party-only nominees, with 17 fusion nominations. With the failure of Measure 90, the LPO expects to build on this success in the next election, with the eventual goal of displacing the GOP as Oregon’s second major party.
Said Wagner, “We’re grateful to the voters that they provided a clear message to these out-of-state meddlers — Oregon likes its choices unfiltered.”
I usually don’t read his comments, except by accident, but that made me go back and look. Surprisingly, it was good.
Dave ,
I really appreciate your first comment.
Thank you for making it.
It’s kind of like working people who are out of work.
Richard Winger 11/7/’14
> “The Independent Party of Oregon had some officers who were very active in favor, especially Sal Peralta.”
Richard, can you provide a source where I can obtain this information?
True. Didn’t Bloomberg find them in the yellow pages under “party rentals”?
“It would be an insult to sex workers to call them whores.”
Indeed it would, Paulie! New York has four types of political parties:
1. Actual parties (Democratic, Republican, Green, and Libertarian) which actually run their own candidates.
2. Satellite parties (Working Families and Conservative) whose relationship to an actual party is sort of like Bulgaria to the USSR.
3. Sockpuppet parties (Women’s Equality and Stop Common Core) whose relationship is sort of like Vladivostok to the USSR.
4. Rent-a-parties (Independence). Self-explanatory.
It would be an insult to sex workers to call them whores.
R. Winger:
“They helped Michael Bloomberg get the Independence Party nomination for Mayor, all 3 times he ran. He returns the favor by giving generously to their projects.”
.
Hmmmm, so the NYC Ind Party supported a guy who banned large soft drinks, having no problem continuing the slide of th population into a nation of children. Great.
.
B. Tiernan
Some of the fusion nominees won .. but I don’t particularly care. I am only focused on increasing the votes of our candidates, which went extremely well.
Just out of curiosity, how did Oregon’s slate of fusion nominees do? I take it none won or I would have heard about it already, but did any of them do decent? Was Oregon the only state with fusion nominees on the ballot in 2014?
The Oregon Progressive Party congratulates the voters of Oregon for their overwhelming rejection of Measure 90, the “top-two primary.”
With two-thirds of all votes counted, Measure 90 is losing by a vote of 67% NO to 33% YES.
“The out-of-state billionaires spent $4.7 million in order to control Oregon’s future elections, but they failed,” said Dan Meek (a Portland attorney active in opposing Measure 90).
The “yes” side has reported spending nearly $6 million, while the “no” side spent $1.3 million. But the “no” side also had many dedicated volunteers who spread the word that Measure 90 would destroy democracy in Oregon.
Former top-level Enron energy trader John Arnold contributed $2.75 million to support Measure 90, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg added $1.93 million. So over 80% of all the funds for Measure 90 came from billionaires who neither live nor work in Oregon.
John Arnold made his mark on society as one of the top managers of the Enron energy trading operation. That was the bunch who caused the phony “West Coast Energy Crisis” of 2000-2002 with their fraudulent trades, which resulted in rolling blackouts and huge rate increases. Later studies have shown that it cost the California economy alone over $42 billion.
“Burn, baby, burn. That’s a beautiful thing.” That is what Enron traders were recorded as saying as a fire approached a major transmission line, because it caused the line to be “derated” or shut off, thus drastically increasing electricity prices.
For information about Measure 90’s money and how it would have destroyed Oregon’s democracy, see http://saveoregonsdemocracy.org
Jackie Salit, IVO, and CUIP are not connected with the Independent Party of Oregon.
Seems very cultish to me when I dig into it.
The Independent Party of Oregon had some officers who were very active against Measure 90, and some officers who were very active in favor, especially Sal Peralta.
Jackie Salit has been in the leadership of her group for over 30 years. First the group was the International Workers Party, then it changed into the New Alliance Party, then it dissolved that party and helped form the Patriot Party. Then the members of the Patriot Party went into the Reform Party. The the original group stayed in the New York Independence Party when the New York Independence Party left the Reform Party. Then the head of the New York Independence Party, Frank McKay, turned on the Salit group and drove them out of power inside the New York state Independence Party, but the Salit group retained power within the New York city Independence Party. They helped Michael Bloomberg get the Independence Party nomination for Mayor, all 3 times he ran. He returns the favor by giving generously to their projects.
Independent people that don’t vote could more accurately be called non-voters.
RE: http://independentvoting.org/
“Jacqueline Salit, President of IndependentVoting.org, hosts a bi-monthly national conference call, updating independents on the latest developments of our growing movement.”
Interesting concept, and here, I thought only Libertarians were compared to a herd of cats! But the idea of compatible contradictions isn’t new. That is what Marx argued in his law of dialectics (i.e. +l-1=2-2=3-3=4 ad infinitum). So, clearly all those people without a clue, or even with well defined fallacies can easily be pressed into a can and marketed as “spam”
Does anyone know whether she is connected with Sal Peralta and/or the “Independent Party of Oregon”?
Richard,
Thanks for once again exposing the hypocrisy of the CUIP outfit. To add further to that hypocrisy, as you have pointed out, they are to this day heavily involved with the Independence Party of NY while telling everyone else to be anti-party label of any kind.
RW> Jackie also said the reason Measure 90 was defeated is that (1) independent voters didn’t vote; <
A statement that is ironically "contradictory" on the face of it. IF, these so-called "independent"
voters failed to vote on a measure purportedly written to empower the independent voter, how
does it follow that these "independent voters" actually matter?
There are EIGHT (8) political parties in Oregon; Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Constitution, Pacific Green, Oregon Peace Party (Progressive), Working Families Party, and
a "Independent Party of Oregon" which is NOT the same thing as "non-affiliated" (ie: Independent)
Every Oregon voter, when he/she registers to vote has NINE choices; Consequently, it is much more likely that the "voter" who must remain unaffiliated does so because THEY have no fixed or specific set of political principles, NOT because the "parties" don't offer one.
On the evening of November 6, Jackie Salit, president of Independent Voting (aka CUIP), addressed members of her group on a telephone conference call. Independent Voting not only supported Measure 90, it was given $100,000 by contributors to Measure 90 for the purpose of doing “outreach.” Jackie Salit’s discussion of the defeat of Measure 90 was internally contradictory. On the one hand she celebrated that so many voters around the nation this week voted for minor party and independent candidates for the top office on the ballot. On the other hand, she continued expressing strong support for top-two, even though the result of top-two in the November 2014 election is that the voters of California and Washington (who comprise one-eighth of the entire nation) were not permitted to cast any votes for minor party or independent candidates for the top office on the ballot.
Jackie also said the reason Measure 90 was defeated is that (1) independent voters didn’t vote; (2) that the forces opposing Measure 90 threatened potential supporters with retribution. She didn’t say precisely who threatened, nor how they could threaten. The concept that maybe opposition to 90 is rational and well-meaning was completely lacking in her presentation.
Wes Wagner added, “When you find the Oregon Democratic Party, Constitution Party, and Libertarian Party all fighting against a measure, you know that you have a spectacularly bad idea.”
And when you find Wes Wagner, Lars Hedbor, Richard Burke & Dave Terry all fighting against that same measure, you know that, despite all of our personal rivalries and animosities; all Libertarians march to beat of the same drummers (at least, when they aren’t drowned out by the trumpets and trombones. :>)