Here’s a great Op-Ed from Barbara Dudley, Co-Chair of the budding Oregon Working Families Party. Unofficial results show the Oregon WFP’s candidate for Attorney General, Ashley Albies coming in with an incredible 159,625 votes - nearly 10.67% of the total statewide vote. The WFP has real potential in the Beaver State, and we can’t wait to get to work.
Who will speak up for working families in rural Oregon?
by Barbara Dudley, Guest opinion
Thursday November 13, 2008, 6:20 PM
Last week, as the final votes were counted, rural Oregon received a rude awakening. Not only had the Democrats swept all the statewide offices but neither of our U.S. Senators, none of the statewide officials with the exception of the state treasurer, and none of the new Legislative leadership comes from outside the Willamette Valley.
It is a heavily urban/ suburban Legislature, and viewed from the east or the south, there is precious little voice for people in the rest of the state. This is not about Red and Blue counties, it’s about big cities and small towns, it’s about whether there is an economic future for working people outside the urban centers of Oregon.
In its electoral debut on the Oregon ballot the Oregon Working Families Party made a strong showing in rural counties, racking up 16-17% of the vote from Klamath to Umatilla, Coos to Harney. The Working Families Party is clear about its priorities. It is focused on the economic issues that are so important to working families in Oregon but too often ignored by both of the major parties.
The OWFP platform for 2008 is simple:
• Healthcare for all Oregonians without private profit.
• Debt-free higher education and technical training.
• Creation of green family wage jobs.
• Affordable housing and an end to predatory lending.
• Strengthening workers’ right to organize and negotiate with employers.
It was based on this platform that J. Ashlee Albies, the Working Families Party candidate for Attorney General, received 154,000 votes from across the state, with the largest percentages coming from the reddest of red counties. Why? Because working people in Hermiston, in Klamath Falls, and in Roseburg have been losing jobs for the very same reasons as the workers at Freightliner in Portland. The same global economic forces that are behind our current banking and mortgage crises have destroyed jobs throughout Oregon.
All of our children are facing unconscionable debt just to get that college education which we
tell them is necessary to compete in this global economy. All of us are worried about how we’re going to deal with our families’ medical needs. All working Oregonians deserve family wage jobs, affordable housing, accessible healthcare, and a solid, affordable education. While these simple things seem unattainable to many in the cities, they are many times more difficult to find when you cross the Cascades or head south of Eugene.
All working Oregonians have the same needs, the same dreams. And we all deserve to be
represented in the halls of power.
Barbara Dudley, who lives in Portland, is co-chairwoman of the Oregon Working Families Party.
