Hot off the email presses:
The Independent Party of Oregon, the state's third largest political party, today announced the nomination of Joel Haugen as the party's candidate for US House of Representatives in the 1st Congressional District of Oregon. Haugen, a Republican who won 70 percent of the vote in the May primary, joins Democrat Jeff Merkley, the Independent Party's nominee for US Senate, as the second candidate cross-nominated by the Independent Party.
"Joel's appeal to traditional Republican values and his willingness to reach across party lines in service of the public interest place him in a long-line of independent, civic-minded Oregon leaders" said party chair, Linda Williams.
"Joel is using his campaign to try and raise awareness about the fact that there are many politicos in the major parties who have lost sight of the national interest in the fog of partisanship," said party secretary, Sal Peralta. "We support his efforts to try and bring the conversation back to the reasonable middle and encourage all people of goodwill to support his candidacy."
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One other interesting side issue is that the IPO is seeking to have their party label appear next to Haugen's name on the ballot, along with the GOP's (R). The state currently prohibits a candidate from appearing one more than one ballot line (something advocates of fusion voting are attempting to change), but IPO thinks that the law is on their side:
In reviewing the statute on ballot design, ORS 254.135, the Independent Party has taken the position that, although a candidate's name may only appear on a single ballot line, his or her name may be followed by both the name of the party of which he is a registered member and the name of a party of which he is not a member. This was the practice in Oregon prior to 1958.
It is the position of the party that modifications made to the statute in 1995 had the effect of permitting the name of multiple nominating parties to appear next to the candidate's name.
"We remain optimistic that the Oregon Secretary of State will recognize that the current practice is inconsistent with the statutory requirement," said Linda Williams, herself an attorney.
The party supplied examples from the 40s, where multi-party labels were shown. Of course the candidate has to approve the nomination of any party who endorses him, but one expects in this situation, Haugen will accept it with open arms.
This isn't a total surprise, given that the IPO has noted with interest the way Haugen has been treated by the state GOP. But it does make for an interesting race in Oregon's 1st. David Wu has generally won his previous races fairly easily, and this is one of the worst environments for a Republican in many years.
But there is definitely an undercurrent of discontent with Wu in both Democratic and independent circles, and combined with IPO's balancing by nominating Merkley for Senate, the nod may draw voters who are seeking a more universally clean house in Congress. Even before today's nomination, Blue Oregon's Kari Chisholm was already spooked by the prospect .
[Crossposted at Loaded Orygun, Oregon's Progressive Community...]