News
ENLARGE
Volunteers from the Oregon Working Families Party and the Oregon Independent Party joined forces to lobby the Legislature for the right of voters to cross-nominate general election candidates for public office; the cross nominations are said to be fused and the names of all nominating parties (up to three) will appear with the candidates name on the general election ballot.
The two minor parties were able to overcome the Democratic Party of Oregon's efforts to maintain the status quo and ended the hundred-year ban by getting fusion voting passed by the Oregon Legislature. The parties began lobbying the Legislature in 2007 and in the 2009 session a modified version of fusion, (SB326) known as fusion light, returned to Oregon. Sadly, special interests are already working to blunt fusion's impact.
Both Sen. Jeff Kruse and Rep. Tim Freeman voted for the bill.
Once legal throughout the nation, fusion voting is still legal in Delaware, Vermont, South Carolina, Idaho, Utah, Mississippi, Connecticut, and enjoys long-term success in New York.
In the 1880s and '90s the Populist Party (known in Oregon as the Unity Party) often joined forces with the Democratic Party and fused their nominations. They succeeded in electing a number of populist candidates and numerous populist reforms were put in place.
Fusion voting was outlawed in the 1898 legislative session and both major parties protected their power by denying the voters the right to cross-nominate candidates. Third parties were thus relegated to the fringes of Oregon politics.
The resulting two-party system has not been good for working Oregonians. We've seen huge battles over social issues such as who can marry who, evolution vs. creationism, and is campaign spending free speech or is it bribery? These issues were argued endlessly, untold dollars were spent on advertising, and opinion pages were swamped by passionate advocates on both sides of the issues. The intense battles over these social issues became more important than the disappearance of the middle class. Even though working men and women successfully improved productivity and shareholder equity, our standard of living has not improved in the last 20 years.
The Democrats and the Republicans have been content to let us waste our energy on social issues while the unregulated Wall Street gutted our manufacturing base and trashed our economy. The two parties have encouraged legislators who became lobbyists, and consented to the appointment of rip-offs as regulators.
Both parties are equally incompetent representatives of the people. One has only to look at the posturing marionettes droning on and on to wonder why we keep electing these people
In the 2009 Oregon legislative session there was the usual strong resistance from the state Democratic Party and from the special interests whose influence was threatened by the two third parties. But when the fusion bill was joined to another bill repealing a bad law restricting who could sign third party nominating petitions, the combined measure garnered overwhelming bipartisan support and became law.
Will fusion voting cure the evils of the two party system? Not right away, but consider that half the eligible voters don't vote, and there are some 15,000 Douglas County voters who don't belong to a major party. What would happen if these two groups joined together and ran a slate of candidates?
There is a tendency on the part of candidates to make their message more appealing to whichever group they happen to be speaking to. If a candidate claims to be a “strict constitutionalist” then cross-nomination by the Constitution Party in addition to the Republican Party would validate his/her claim. Likewise, a Democratic candidate who claims to be a strong supporter of working families might seek the nomination of the Working Families Party. They would only get the cross nomination if they truly do support working families' issues.
Joining a third party is simple; go to the elections office in the courthouse and change your voter registration. Voter registration is not like getting a tattoo. If you feel you need to vote in one of the major party primaries, go change your registration and while you're there, get another voter registration card so after you vote, you can re-register as a member of a third party. It's one of those rare cases where you can have your cake and eat it too.
We can't outspend the professional lobbyists, but we possess the one thing they can't buy — our voter registration. If major party membership continues falling, and third party registration continues growing, the major parties will change or die
Hopefully, a candidate who is perceptive enough to seek multiple nominations will be more responsive to the parties that nominated him/her rather than following the two party model which encourages the legislator to give greater attention to the interests that contributed the largest amounts to the campaign.
Bruce Cronk of Roseburg is a member of the Oregon Working Families Party. He can be reached at brucecronk@charter.net.
The two minor parties were able to overcome the Democratic Party of Oregon's efforts to maintain the status quo and ended the hundred-year ban by getting fusion voting passed by the Oregon Legislature. The parties began lobbying the Legislature in 2007 and in the 2009 session a modified version of fusion, (SB326) known as fusion light, returned to Oregon. Sadly, special interests are already working to blunt fusion's impact.
Both Sen. Jeff Kruse and Rep. Tim Freeman voted for the bill.
Once legal throughout the nation, fusion voting is still legal in Delaware, Vermont, South Carolina, Idaho, Utah, Mississippi, Connecticut, and enjoys long-term success in New York.
In the 1880s and '90s the Populist Party (known in Oregon as the Unity Party) often joined forces with the Democratic Party and fused their nominations. They succeeded in electing a number of populist candidates and numerous populist reforms were put in place.
Fusion voting was outlawed in the 1898 legislative session and both major parties protected their power by denying the voters the right to cross-nominate candidates. Third parties were thus relegated to the fringes of Oregon politics.
The resulting two-party system has not been good for working Oregonians. We've seen huge battles over social issues such as who can marry who, evolution vs. creationism, and is campaign spending free speech or is it bribery? These issues were argued endlessly, untold dollars were spent on advertising, and opinion pages were swamped by passionate advocates on both sides of the issues. The intense battles over these social issues became more important than the disappearance of the middle class. Even though working men and women successfully improved productivity and shareholder equity, our standard of living has not improved in the last 20 years.
The Democrats and the Republicans have been content to let us waste our energy on social issues while the unregulated Wall Street gutted our manufacturing base and trashed our economy. The two parties have encouraged legislators who became lobbyists, and consented to the appointment of rip-offs as regulators.
Both parties are equally incompetent representatives of the people. One has only to look at the posturing marionettes droning on and on to wonder why we keep electing these people
In the 2009 Oregon legislative session there was the usual strong resistance from the state Democratic Party and from the special interests whose influence was threatened by the two third parties. But when the fusion bill was joined to another bill repealing a bad law restricting who could sign third party nominating petitions, the combined measure garnered overwhelming bipartisan support and became law.
Will fusion voting cure the evils of the two party system? Not right away, but consider that half the eligible voters don't vote, and there are some 15,000 Douglas County voters who don't belong to a major party. What would happen if these two groups joined together and ran a slate of candidates?
There is a tendency on the part of candidates to make their message more appealing to whichever group they happen to be speaking to. If a candidate claims to be a “strict constitutionalist” then cross-nomination by the Constitution Party in addition to the Republican Party would validate his/her claim. Likewise, a Democratic candidate who claims to be a strong supporter of working families might seek the nomination of the Working Families Party. They would only get the cross nomination if they truly do support working families' issues.
Joining a third party is simple; go to the elections office in the courthouse and change your voter registration. Voter registration is not like getting a tattoo. If you feel you need to vote in one of the major party primaries, go change your registration and while you're there, get another voter registration card so after you vote, you can re-register as a member of a third party. It's one of those rare cases where you can have your cake and eat it too.
We can't outspend the professional lobbyists, but we possess the one thing they can't buy — our voter registration. If major party membership continues falling, and third party registration continues growing, the major parties will change or die
Hopefully, a candidate who is perceptive enough to seek multiple nominations will be more responsive to the parties that nominated him/her rather than following the two party model which encourages the legislator to give greater attention to the interests that contributed the largest amounts to the campaign.
Bruce Cronk of Roseburg is a member of the Oregon Working Families Party. He can be reached at brucecronk@charter.net.
