Working Families Party of Oregon

The Oregon Working Families Party (Oregon WFP) is a minor political party modeled after the national Working Families Party, but is organized locally and is autonomous. It is recognized by the Oregon State Elections Division as a statewide nominating party.

Established in 2006 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Oregon WFP is headed by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Anderson and Oregon vineyard operator Barbara Dudley as co-chairs.

The Oregon WFP uses electoral fusion, sometimes called ‘cross-endorsement’, to nominate candidates from other political parties. A lite version of fusion became Oregon law in 2009, see Gov. Kulongoski Signs Fusion Bill. This means that candidates nominated by the Oregon WFP have the words “Working Families” listed by their name on the ballot. Often, candidates will be listed on the ballot as the candidate of two parties: their own, and the Oregon WFP.

The party nominated J. Ashlee Albies for Oregon Attorney General during the 2008 election, and Bruce Cronk for U.S. Senate during the 2010 election. They also endorsed a number of candidates in other state legislative races in 2008 and 2010.

Issues

The Working Families Party fights to improve the lives of working people and their families by focusing our government on things that make our jobs better, provide security for our families and prosperity for our communities. That includes:

- Affordable healthcare for all Oregonians where our health, or lack thereof, is not dependent on individual wealth and subject to private profiteering; we support national single-payer health care consistent with the principles of H.R. 676 (United States National Health Care Act).

- Opening doors to opportunity through higher education and technical training that does not result in indebtedness for our citizens.

- Affordable housing, a stop to predatory lending practices, investment in new affordable housing development, and protection of existing affordable housing.

- Promotion of green family wage jobs whose legacy leaves a clean, secure, and sustainable environment for our children.

- Supporting fair trade, defending our jobs against outsourcing, wage and benefit cuts, and corporate raiding.

- The right to organize and reach a first contract free of intimidation, discrimination, and illegal terminations.

External links