An attorney for the Oregon Republican Party has asked the Oregon Secretary of State’s office to block candidates nominated at the Libertarian Party of Oregon’s recent convention from appearing on the state ballot. The attorney argued in a letter dated July 12 that the party nominated candidates under illegitimate bylaws, and placing those candidates on the ballot would violate state law. State Libertarian leadership has pushed back, calling those claims a “GOP plot to stack the electoral deck.”
According to a letter shared with Independent Political Report, the General Counsel for the Oregon Republican Party contacted the Oregon Secretary of State’s Elections Division prior to the Libertarian Party of Oregon’s nominating convention on July 13. The attorney claimed in the letter that the LPO was about to violate state law by “nominating candidates in violation of its organizational documents.”
The letter further alleged that Oregon Libertarians were using organizational documents deemed illegitimate by various legal authorities, including the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Libertarian Party’s Judicial Committee. It argued these documents were improperly adopted and do not comply with ORS 248.009, which requires minor parties to nominate candidates only according to their legitimate organizational procedures.
Instead, the letter emphasized that the party’s legitimate documents are the 2007 Constitution and the 2009 Bylaws and any certificates of nomination resulting from the convention should be rejected by the Secretary of State to avoid legal conflicts. The arguments in the letter hearken back to a 2011 internal dispute within the Libertarian Party of Oregon related to then-competing party bylaws and leadership, which a 2018 court decision ultimately ruled outside judicial jurisdiction.
Notably, the letter was dated around the same time that Oregon Republicans denied their involvement in trying to influence the results of the Libertarian state convention.
Earlier this month, Libertarian Party of Oregon Chair Matt Rowe told the Oregon Capital Chronicle in an article published the day the letter was sent that he had heard “implicit threats” of Republican attempts to influence the party’s state convention. Rowe also mentioned receiving information that Republican activists might change their affiliation for the convention to nominate straw men candidates or no candidates at all. In the same article, the secretary of the Oregon Republican Party reportedly said she hadn’t heard of any plans to keep Libertarian candidates off the ballot, and a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee denied any involvement in registering Republican voters as Libertarian Party members.
In a press release shared with Independent Political Report, Rowe called the letter a “ludicrous, unfounded, and unprecedented attack on the rights of third-parties.” He accused Oregon Republicans of trying to manipulate the Secretary of State’s office to overturn precedent, calling the interpretation “revisionist history,” and describing their actions as a “desperate scheme” to deny Oregon voters an alternative choice.
“The Republican complaint, which misconstrues and omits so many of the pertinent details surrounding the long settled dispute that it reads like a second-rate revisionist history, fails to mention that the Oregon Secretary of State, Oregon Court of Appeals, and Marion County Circuit Court all have previously ruled to uphold the bylaws currently in use by the LPO.” Rowe’s response read.
The full press release response is available below:
Fellow Oregonians,
As we have long suspected within our organization, Oregon Republicans have decided to launch a ludicrous, unfounded, and unprecedented attack on the rights of third-parties by trying to manipulate the Secretary of State to overturn 12 years of precedent within their office in hopes of having all Libertarian candidates stripped from the upcoming General Election ballot. Their claim, which is made with all the good intentions of a fox in a hen house, is that the LPO’s bylaws were fraudulently adopted WAY back in 2011, in a desperate scheme to deny Oregonians an alternative to the duopoly this November.
The Republican complaint, which misconstrues and omits so many of the pertinent details surrounding the long settled dispute that it reads like a second-rate revisionist history, fails to mention that the Oregon Secretary of State, Oregon Court of Appeals, and Marion County Circuit Court all have previously ruled to uphold the bylaws currently in use by the LPO.
Driven by the arrogant belief that Republican nominees are entitled to certain votes and the desperation for political power at any price, this challenge has clearly been brought forward to prevent LPO candidates from competing against GOP nominees in close election contests this November. The two races where Republicans particularly fear our candidates are in the the 4th and 5th Congressional Districts, where warmongering and pro-genocide Republicans Monique DeSpain and Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer hope to steal election victories for themselves by benefiting from the very kind of “lawfare” they so often howl about when utilized against their Orange Messiah.
As usual, it is more contradictions, corruption, and crocodile tears from the party of Trump, Chavez-DeRemer, and DeSpain.
If any LPO members are inclined to vote for, donate to, or volunteer with a campaign of any of the Oregon GOP’s nominees, please remember that doing so will be rewarding a political act of aggression unprecedented in our State’s modern political history and a devious effort to disenfranchise yourself and every other of our 19,800 plus LPO members.
If you stand against the duopoly, forever wars, the deep state, and intrusive/abusive government, I urge you to stand with the LPO in our fight to protect not only the rights of our party members, but of all voters who seek a choice beyond Republicans and Democrats!
With the help and support of our loyal party members and all Oregonians who value fair play and honest elections, I know we will be successful in beating back this GOP plot to stack the electoral deck!
In Liberty,
Matt Rowe
Chairman, Libertarian Party of Oregon
Wrong on almost every count, as usual, except your last sentence.
The Oregon GOP is trying to block candidates nominated for any office by the Oregon LP. Not just presidential candidates illegitimately nominated by a Libertarian National Convention fraught with irregularities, violations and transgressions.
I have no interest in depriving anyone from ballot access, if they have earned it. The LP’s national convention should be done over to establish who is their national nominee.
And state affiliates should be free to nominate a ticket that differs from that national ticket. But that doesn’t mean they national ticket should not be allowed on the ballot.
For example, let Oliver-ter Maat collect enough signatures to run as independents in Colorado. But don’t pretend they are the legitimate LP ticket when the LPCO hasn’t nominated them.
The question remains unaddressed: What makes Oregon different, that GOP face of the uniparty is going after the state LP, rather than the Democrat face as is the case everywhere else during this election?
Nuña, the Oregon GOP is just taking a page out of your playbook. After all, you basically think the whole LP convention vote process was illegitimate and that’s what the Rethugs are saying, too. You ought to support this effort to protect democracy.
And, in reality, maybe not this year, but in years past, Rethugs have also tried to block Libertarians, or others, in select places.
It does seem strange that the GOP is trying to keep the LP off the ballot in Oregon. Pretty much everywhere else, it’s the Democrats who are suing to deny third parties and independents ballot access, or Secretaries of State acting as loose cannons. What makes Oregon different?