Pacific Green Party

The Pacific Green Party of Oregon (PGP) is a political party in the U.S. state of Oregon, recognized by the Oregon Secretary of State[2]. It is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States. The party has routinely elected candidates to public office at the local level.

Pacific Green Party
of Oregon
Governing BodyCoordinating Committee
7 Co-Chairs
State Senate LeaderNone
State House LeaderNone
Founded1997
HeadquartersPO Box 1606
Eugene, OR 97440
Membership (April 2020)7,679[1]
Ideology
National affiliationGreen Party of the United States
International affiliationGlobal Greens
Colors     Green
Local Offices3 (May 2020)
Oregon State Senate
0 / 30
Oregon House of Representatives
0 / 60
Website
pacificgreens.org

The party gained widespread public attention during Ralph Nader's presidential campaign in 2000, which garnered over 5% of the vote statewide.


History
See also: History of the Green Party of the United States

The party was initially founded as the Pacific Party in 1992, largely in response of the perceived failure of the Democratic Party to provide meaningful opposition to the 1991 Gulf War.

Many of the party's early candidates were also highly involved in the forest protection movement. These included candidate for United States Senate Lou Gold in 1994; Joe Keating for Congress and Andy Davis for state representative in 1996; and Blair Bobier for governor and Karen Moskowitz for U.S. Senate in 1998. Davis and Keating were arrested for civil disobedience at the United States Forest Service office building in downtown Portland during the campaign, chaining themselves to a desk along with local activist attorney Stu Sugarman.

Ralph Nader was the party's nominee for President of the United States in 1996, and his vice-presidential candidate, Winona LaDuke, came to Portland and walked a local picket line in support of raising the minimum wage. In addition to running candidates for office that year, the Pacific Party helped pass initiatives to raise the state minimum wage and expand the Portland area light rail system.

In 2004, Teresa Keane, the Green Party's candidate for the United States Senate, won 2.4% of the vote – more than any other Green candidate for the U.S. Senate in that year. In 2006 Keane was elected Chair of the newly formed Green Senatorial Campaign Committee (GSCC),[3] a seven-member committee elected by the National Committee of the Green Party of the United States to raise funds for senate candidates.[4]

Platform

The party's platform emphasizes environmentalism, economic and social justice, peace and nonviolence, and respect for diversity. The party's platform expresses the following positions:[5]

  • Public campaign financing for all campaigns for public office and strict limits on political campaign contributions
  • Support for net neutrality
  • Support for instant run-off voting, proportional representation in the Oregon State Legislature, and proportional allocation of Oregon's Electoral College (United States) votes by Congressional district with the end goal of electing the President solely by the popular vote with the abolishment of the Electoral College (United States)
  • Voting rights for convicted felons and ex-felons
  • Passage of a Single-payer health care system
  • Protection of a women's right to abortion and supportive of legal physician-assisted suicide
  • Establishment of carbon taxes to promote use of renewable energy
  • Opposed to nuclear weapons and to using nuclear power to generate electricity
  • Support for legalization and cultivation of hemp and marijuana
  • Support for a ban on patent claims on naturally originating organisms and plants
  • Support for the establishment of a federal Department of Peace
  • Support for the release of nonviolent drug offenders from prison
  • Opposed to private prisons
  • Abolishment of the death penalty
  • Abolishment of the state's lottery

Current elected officials

There are currently five elected Green officeholders in the state of Oregon.[6]

  • Josiah Dean, City Council, Dufur - term through Nov. 2020
  • Alex Polikoff, Corvallis Rural Fire Protection District - term through May 2021
  • Cindy Johnsen, John Day Water District, Commissioner Position 5 (Clatsop County) - term through May 2021

Presidential election results
Year Nominee Votes
1996 Ralph Nader 49,415 (3.59%)
2000 Ralph Nader 77,357 (5.04%)
2004 David Cobb 5,315 (0.29%)
2008 Cynthia McKinney 4,543 (0.25%)
2012 Jill Stein 19,427 (1.09%)
2016 Jill Stein 50,002 (2.50%)
2020 TBD TBA

See also


References
  1. "Voter Registration by County april 2020" (PDF). Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  2. "Voting In Oregon". Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  3. Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "The Platform of the Pacific Green Party". Pacific Green Party. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  6. "Greens in Office". Retrieved May 19, 2020.
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