Forward Oregon

Endorsements are generally not a particularly exciting thing, unless you build a community of supporters like Jeff Merkley has. Whether its the 220,000 union households, the environmental stewards of the Sierra Club, the mayors of cities far and wide, or me, Jeff Merkley has shown a remarkable ability to unite progressives across the state.

I really love this video

This is the first post of the new co-writer, atleastimhonest. I wanted a place to discuss everything that I thought should be included here, but Bdunn graciously let me join it instead. I’m interested in creating discourse here about the issues of this campaign cycle that need more attention than they are getting in the major news sources, calling it as I see it, and to generally kicking Bdunn’s ass when needed.

Having a progressive stance on reproductive rights has always made Kate Brown stand out as an exceptional candidate in the Secretary of State race, for me. That is why I am proud to learn that she has recently received the endorsements of both Emily’s List and NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon.

Jonathan Parker, the political director of Emily’s List, highlighted Brown’s legislative experience in their endorsement and stated:

“As the first woman to serve as Oregon State Senate majority leader, Kate Brown has been a role model and trail blazer for women everywhere”.

On her NARAL endorsement, Brown emphasized all she had done for reproductive rights in Oregon:

“For over twenty years, I have worked closely with the pro-choice community and have been a leader in preserving and protecting our reproductive freedoms, fighting for access to birth control and health care for Oregon woman and their families.”

These are important endorsements for her, as even though Brad Avakian has dropped out of the race, there are still two highly qualified candidates running that she needs to be able to distinguish herself from. As a member of the young progressive women voting block, being supportive of reproductive rights is important to me when choosing a candidate. Gaining these endorsements will also differentiate her from the other woman senator in the race, Vicki Walker, and gain momentum with my demographic.

In addition, Brown currently has a small monetary advantage, which is important for her to maintain. Emily’s List will definitely assist her with this as one of their main strategies in perpetuating their progressive platform is to raise money from their members (about 100,00 in the country) to benefit all of their endorsed candidates. They will also help Brown to gain more name recognition, which she needs to compete with Rick Metsger, who currently has the advantage because of his sixteen years as a KOIN-TV anchor before becoming a state senator. Brown has approximately 68,000 constituents, which is considerably less than that of the KOIN-TV viewers.

With these significant endorsements from both NARAL and Emily’s List, Kate Brown will be capable of furthering her campaign in three essential ways: she will be able to compete financially within the race, distinguish herself as a reproductive rights leader from Vicki Walker and increase her name recognition in comparison to Rick Metsger.

The Purple People Have Spoken! With a singular and united voice the Service Employees International Union choose to endorse Speaker Jeff Merkley for the United States Senate.  Despite a significant setback losing the OEA endorsement this last weekend, the Merkley campaign rebounded to win the crown jewel in the race for endorsements.  SEIU’s endorsement is unparalleled in this race in terms of getting boots on the ground, phones ringing, doors knocked, and voters persuaded.

The choice to endorse Jeff Merkley makes sense as Merkley has been a strong fighter for workers and the right to organize in the Oregon legislature.  Merkley was the only member of the House of Representatives to receive straight A+’s from SEIU for his outstanding work during the 2007 legislative session.  SEIU understands that putting someone in the United States Senate who has shown the ability to pass important protections for workers, like majority union sign up, is desperately needed.  Therefore, they turned to Jeff Merkley, the only candidate who has legislative experience fighting and expanding workers rights.

On the electoral end, the endorsement is huge.  SEIU was a force to be reckoned with during the 2006 election, winning every ballot measure that the SEIU took a position on and picking up 8 out of their 9 targeted legislative races.  Their only setbacks were HD-49, where Karen Minnis spent $125 a vote to protect her seat and a ballot measure (M47) that was invalidated by SEIU’s defeat of its companion measure (M46).  Huge victories on the TABOR Measure (M4 also show that when SEIU gets down to business in Oregon, they win.

From state results we know that SEIU is strong in Oregon politics, but it is even stronger the national arena.  The National Journal rated SEIU as the most successful interest group in national politics, batting a stunning .714 during the last election including, winning their two targeted Senate campaigns.  Having previously endorsed Senator Obama for President, SEIU’s endorsement could be an even bigger boon for Merkley.  If SEIU’s mailers for the primary successfully tie Senator Obama, who runs very well in Oregon, at the top of the ticket with Merkley farther down, the potential boost in the primary, let alone in the general, could be enormous.  If SEIU publishes a candidate slate mailer, as they usually do, it could bind Senator Obama and Speaker Merkley in the minds of voters, which is a very good position to be in. Overall, SEIU’s endorsement puts boots on the ground, joining other unions like AFSCME, the Longshoremen, the American and Oregon Nurses Association, UFCW, and the Oregon AFL-CIO to provide a veritable army of ground troops.

Check out the audio clip of Speaker Merkley and SEIU Local 503 Executive Director Leslie Frane talking about Merkley’s history as a strong fighter for working people and the endorsement on KPOJ.