Merkley wraps up Independent Party nomination

The Independent Party of Oregon, the state's third largest political party, today announced its nomination of Jeff Merkley for the office of United State Senator from Oregon.

"Jeff Merkley has been a champion for public-interest public policy throughout his tenure in the Oregon Legislature. He is an honorable and capable man who is well suited to help restore Oregon's tradition of electing independent, civic-minded leaders to the United States Senate," said Party secretary, Sal Peralta.

"Jeff has been an advocate of campaign finance reform in Oregon, including limits on political contributions," said Dan Meek, a member of the party's state council. "Jeff recognizes that campaign costs in Oregon have skyrocketed out of control (more than 10-fold since 1996) and need limits, like those in effect in 47 of America's 50 states."

Jeff Merkley is currently running under the campaign finance limits that apply to candidates for the U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court this July invalidated the provision of the 2002 McCain-Feingold Act that attempted to somewhat level the playing field for candidates without personal fortunes. In 1996, Gordon Smith spent nearly $3 million of his money on his first U.S. Senate campaign. Since then he has taken over $23 million in contributions (nearly all from special interests) to pay back his personal account and to spend over $7.4 million on his 2002 campaign and over $10 million on his 2008 campaign. His leading contributors include insurance companies, Wall Street firms, drug companies, electric utilities, oil companies, and gambling operators. The United States Senate should not be reserved for mega-millionaires.

Gordon Smith voted against the McCain-Feingold campaign reform bills in 1997 and in 2002, when he was a prominent Republican spokesman against reasonable limits. He has also publicly denounced campaign finance reforms adopted by Oregon voters.

Jeff Merkley was also a leading advocate of SB 408 (2005), which prohibits electric utilities from charging ratepayers for "income taxes" that the utilities actually do not pay. In the previous decade, the "regulated" private utilities in Oregon, primarily Portland General Electric Co. (PGE) and PacifiCorp, had charged Oregon ratepayers over $1 billion for "income taxes" the companies never actually paid.

ABOUT THE INDEPENDENT PARTY

The Independent Party was formed by petitions signed by over 26,000 Oregonians in 2006. Certified as a party in January 2007, the Independent Party is now the third largest political party in Oregon, with more than 22,0000 members (over 1 percent of all registered voters). For this November's general election, the IPO has so far nominated candidates for the Oregon Legislature, for county commissions, and for the U.S. Congress. "We expect to nominate several more candidates before the August 26 deadline," said Peralta.

By formally nominating, instead of merely "endorsing' these candidates, the Independent Party will be able to more actively support its candidates under federal law.

The Independent Party of Oregon was formed in response to laws enacted by the Oregon Legislature in 2005 to make it more difficult for candidates other than Democrats and Republicans to make the ballot and to win elections.