Democratic Party of Oregon

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Democratic Party of Oregon




Party Chairman	Jim Edmunson
Senate Leader	Kate Brown
House Leader	Jeff Merkley (Speaker-elect)

Founded	1859
Headquarters	232 NE 9th Ave Portland, OR, USA 97232-2915

Political ideology	American Liberalism Progressivism Center-left
Political position	{{{position}}}
International affiliation	Alliance of American and European Democrats¹
Color(s)	Blue

Website	www.dpo

¹As affiliate of national Democratic party.

The Democratic Party of Oregon is the official Oregon affiliate of the Democratic Party (US), and recognized by the State of Oregon as a Major Political Party.

1 Organization
2 National officeholders
3 2006 Elections
4 History
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Organization

As prescribed by Oregon state statutes governing Major Political Parties, the party is comprised of all registered voters designating their party affiliation as Democrat. In each biennial Primary Election conducted in even-numbered years, such affiliated voters elect members from each precinct to the Democratic Central Committee of their county, who in turn elect delegates to a state convention, charged with organizing the party at the state level, and aranging for the day-to-day conduct of the party.

[edit] Officers

Chair: Jim Edmunson
Vice-Chair: Meredith Wood Smith
Treasurer: Margaret Branson
Secretary: Genie Uebelacker

[edit] County central committees

Each of Oregon's 36 counties has a county central committee, which operates within that county and sends delegates to the State Party and to their respective Congressional District Organizations.

[edit] Congressional district committees

The party has a standing committee for each of Oregon's 5 Congressional Districts, to support the constituent county central committees, and coordinate district-wide party activities and campaigns.

[edit] Party caucuses

The state party officially recognizes 10 party caucuses formed to address specific political issues in their constituent communities:

Black Caucus
Faith Caucus
GLBT Caucus
Gun Owners' Caucus
Latino Caucus
Motorcycle Caucus
Rural Caucus
Senior Caucus
Veterans' Caucus
Young Democrats' Caucus

[edit] Para-party organizations

A variety of organizations of Oregon democrats have been organized to promote particular issues, causes, or factions within the party, or conversely, to promote Democratic Party initiatives and candidates within particular potential constituency groups. These include neighborhood or local "Democratic Clubs," Oregon Democrats for Life, and The Bus Project, among others. They have no official standing within the party.

[edit] National officeholders

Oregon delegations to both the US Senate and the US House of Representatives are divided between Republicans and Democrats. The incumbent Democratic Senator is Ron Wyden, and the four Democrats of the five-member Congressional Delegation are David Wu, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, and Darlene Hooley.

[edit] 2006 Elections

Going into the 2006 elections, Democrats occupied all four of the State's constitutional offices, held a majority in the State Senate, but was in the minority in the State House of Representatives. Of the statewide office-holders, only Gov. Ted Kulongoski was up for re-election. Not only was he successful in that bid, but Democrats were elected to a majority in the House. All four of Oregon's democratic Congressman were re-elected.

[edit] History

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The first state party convention was held in Salem on April 20, 1859, and nominated Lansing Stout for Congress over incumbent Democrat Lafayette Grover in a session that was bitterly divided over the issue of slavery.^[1]