New Working Families political party gains momentum

The campaign to form a new union-backed political party in Oregon continues to gain momentum.

Representatives from a dozen unions and allied organizations have been meeting to plan the launch of the party, which would be called The Working Families Party of Oregon, after a similar party in New York. A similar effort is under way in the state of Washington.

On Jan. 26, the Working Families group filed a statement with the Oregon secretary of state that they intend to collect signatures to achieve ballot-line status as a minor party. Currently, that takes 19,000 signatures. They plan to gather 30,000 by April 25, so as to be able to run candidates in the November 2006 election. The group also formed a political action committee — Oregonians for a Working Families Party — to raise money for the effort. And they put up a Web site — www.oregonwfp.org — where people can get more information and sign up to help.

As of press time, Working Families founders were also weighing whether to try to get an initiative on the November 2006 ballot that would return “fusion” voting to Oregon. Under fusion voting, parties can use their ballot line to run their own candidates or to endorse those of other parties.

In New York, the Working Families Party uses its ballot line to endorse Democrats, and occasional Republicans, who support its agenda, and occasionally runs its own candidates.