What's Here

We're on YouTube!

A short video of statements (3 min.) by nine Oregon Democrats from
Pendleton to the coast, including our chair Alan Holland, on “Why I’m a
Democrat” was placed on YouTube.com two weeks ago.

(These and the other highlighted buttons will leave our site; use your back buttons to return)

It can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgLolxxeZ7Q

or here on Daily Kos with comments:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/22/185556/738

The video has been watched over 1300 times and has gathered nice comments (especially on DailyKos).

SUPER TUESDAY

Feb. 5 is SUPER TUESDAY. Let's have a party and watch the primary results at Wallery's Pizza in West Salem on Edgewater near Safeway. Wallery's is next to Copy Cats.

Party from 7:30-9:30pm.

For more info, call Alan or Gloria Holland at 503-371-3920

More PCP’s are needed and welcome. PCPs have from now until March 11 to register to get their names on the ballot. Current PCPs will need to re-register! Forms are available
online here: http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/forms/sel105.pdf

Printed forms will be available at the CC meeting in February. The March meeting is after the registration deadline.

Please call Alan Holland and read the information on this site for more information on the duties of a PCP.

Alan Holland, February 1, 2008

2008 promises to be an exciting and historic year in US politics with many interesting challenges for Polk County Democrats. The first African American or the first woman President may win the White House. Democratic momentum may bring a strong majority to control Oregon’s House and Senate. Additionally, strong candidates are challenging Gordon Smith in a targeted race for the U.S. Senate and will need our help to win.

These races and some likely ballot measures demand that we serve Polk Dems with information, voter registration, and candidate support. To these ends we must unify as a county party for fundraising efforts, and the many ways that volunteers can help: each PCP and activist is a valuable resource because direct contact with voters is many times more effective than e-mail, mailings, and ads. An important element will be raising funds to provide a county office to serve as an enduring presence, a base of operations, and a source for information and registration materials. All these things require us to renew our resolve and work as much as we can.

I celebrate the 35 people from 3 counties who spent hours in training on the Vote Builder computer system at LBCC January 26; seven Polk Dems were included. This will increase our ability to target voters with phone lists, and precinct walking maps.

Thanks for all the work done in ’07, let’s win some races in ’08! We can do it together!

Wayne Kinney Featured PCDCC Speaker at Feb. 14 Meeting

PCD-CC Feb 14 meeting speaker, Wayne Kinney, will give us insights into how to be a National Convention delegate.

Wayne Kinney is a member of the Democratic National Committee from Oregon and the chair of the Rules Committee for the Democratic Party of Oregon.

"How to be a Delegate to the National Convention." is a 15-20 minute presentation with plenty of time for questions.

From the DPO website http://www.oregondemocrats.org/wayne_kinney :

DNC Committeeman Wayne Kinney

Wayne Kinney is in his second term as Oregon’s Democratic National Committeeman. He has been a member of the DPO State Central Committee since 1991, and a member of the Executive Committee since 1993. In that time, Wayne has served two terms as DPO Secretary, two terms as chair of the Second Congressional District, two terms as chair of the Platform and Resolutions Committee, and he’s in his second term as chair of the Rules Committee.

He’s also served three times as temporary chair of the DPO, and was secretary of the DPO Platform Convention in 1998. In addition, he’s served as chair of the county parties in Lake and Union counties, and is vice chair of the Deschutes County Democrats.

During Wayne’s time in the DPO, he has been the only party leader who lives east of the Cascades. When Wayne was elected Democratic National Committeeman in 2001, he was the first Eastern Oregonian elected to that position since 1932.

Wayne was born in Bridgeport, Conn., and raised in central Massachusetts. He first moved West in the mid-1970s, and was a reporter and editor for newspapers in Oregon, Idaho and Washington before becoming a property appraiser in Lake County in the early 1990s. There, at the urging of a county commissioner, he became chair of the Lake County Democrats and became involved with the DPO.

In 1996, he joined the staff of newly elected U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, and moved to La Grande to establish a field office there. As Sen. Wyden is fond of pointing out, Wayne was the first-ever rural field representative for an Oregon U.S. Senator. Wayne moved to Bend in 2005, where he covers most of Central and Eastern Oregon from Sen. Wyden’s field office there.

Wayne’s roots are in small-town New England, and his heart is in rural Oregon. He thinks of himself as a rural liberal, and believes strongly in democracy, responsive government and public service. He’s tried to stay true to those values in his work within the Democratic Party of Oregon.

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Pentacle Theater June 4 Benefit for Polk Democrats

The Polk County Democrats are hosting a theatre event June 4, with a performance of "Betty the Yeti" by Jon Klein.

In this comic Call of the Wild, a disgruntled logger, Russ Sawyer, heads for the woods after losing his job and his wife. It takes a lonely bigfoot to finally touch the logger's heart.

It is more than a silly sex comedy about a man and his odd beast. All the characters (Sawyer, his estranged wife Terra Sawyer, her mother Clare Kutz, fiance Trey Hugger, Iko from the Forest Service, even Betty the Yeti) represent points of view. They tangle, and what do you know?: passion for a cause is entangled by special interest groups.

Lots to think about, and laugh about at the same time.

Tickets are $20, and you should purchase them early. Thanks to everyone who is selling the tickets! To join them, and for full information, see Upcoming Events

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CCTV Broadcast of Secretary of State Candidates Night

DVD of event now available!

Recorded live Dec. 13th in West Salem.
Candidates Forum with all four Democratic Candidates vying for Oregon Secretary of State. Hosted by Polk County Democrats, sponsored by Polk, Marion, Linn and Benton County Democratic Central Committees. Producer Wendy Brokaw and her company, Shedlight Productions, covered the event using a sophisticated studio-in-a-box TriCaster complete with three cameras and a computer to live-switch, making for an exciting, professional production.
The film was shown three times in January, and the last showing (Comcast cable channel 21) will be:

February 3rd, 2008 (Sunday) 1:00 pm [21] Oregon Secretary of State Democratic Candidates Forum

DVD's are available from CCTV. To order yours for $7.50, complete with attractive cover as shown here, call (503) 588-2288.

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Monmouth Peace Vigils - every Wednesday

We're still meeting in the same place (Monmouth Main Street Park), and on the same day (every Wednesday), but a little earlier because of the winter light: we now meet from 4:30 until 5:30. Contact Armelle Hofer: Armelle.Hofer@oregonstate.edu.

A note about the Peace Vigil.

The first time I went to the vigil - early summer, 2007 - I was just a little nervous: what will the response be? An hour later I felt much, much, better.
It was unavoidable - feeling better, that is. How could we help it? We'd just had 60 cars or carloads of people drive by and tell us that we doing a great thing: honking their horns, waving, excited. I soon realized I wasn't only expressing myself: we helped a hundred other people express their opinions.
The numbers grew, and we counted more carefully. In August we twice counted 180 cars (more people than that) with positive responses, and 6 negative. (That positive-negative ratio has never been lower than 30 to 1)
We’ve had memorable incidents, all positive:

- The older couple from out of the area who left their station wagon in the east-bound lane, crossed the street and shook our hands individually, "God Bless You."
- The old codger from Texas who parked his pickup across the street, strode directly to Don Dimock with his Impeach sign and declared, "George Bush! I Know George Bush! I used to work with him in the oil fields! ... They should have impeached his sorry a__ long time ago! ... 'course, the Democrats ain't much better..." (sic.)
- The stranger who insisted on arranging us photogenically (see pic to right).
- The wonderful business people from across the street who bring us coffee on the cold and windy days.
- The children delighted and excited to be part of the vigil.And many others.

In the cold winter days, with light and visibility fading, the numbers dropped.
A couple of times we quit early, fighting the wind and rain. But the days are lengthening.

I don't know if it is effective. I don’t know if it is what Gandhi would do. But those people who drive by are really happy to see us, and if you should happen to be feeling down, for any reason, try this cure:
Join in the vigil. How often do you have a hundred people tell you you're doing a good thing? I guarantee it - after an hour you'll feel cheerful. -tp

 

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New Editor/ Wendy Brokaw Leaving

Until now Wendy Brokaw was doing essentially all the PolkDems website work: newsletter, website, calendar, etc. Wendy will be much more involved with her company Shedlight Productions, producing television features and change through illumination via our local cable news channel CCTV.

With this issue Wendy Brokaw passes the newsletter torch to a new editor, Truman Price.
Wendy is passing on a lot more than the torch: the format, the entire layout, the know-how, the files of photos and logos, and lots of detailed coaching ("no, move the cursor down one notch and click twice: now, do you see a highlighted word that says Edit?... poke that and, and, and...").

Thank you, Wendy!

We will split Wendy's PolkDems website duties between several different people.
With her generous help, this crew of people have stepped up to fill the jobs she took on singlehandedly:

Sherry Pittam will return as webmaster. Thank you, Sherry!
Gloria Holland will upload documents to the password protected site.
Alan Holland will do the calendar (still send your information to calendar@polkdems.org).
Lisanne will edit the Upcoming Events page.
Truman Price will edit the newsletter (please send articles to truprice@wvi.com!).

Suzi Price will serve as web director. Continue to send calendar items to Alan and newsletter items to Truman. But please send all other website suggestions, corrections, kudos and complaints to Suzi (shprice@oldchildrensbooks.com) and she will funnel them to the appropriate person.

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Links to Candidate Web Sites

U. S. Senate Race

Jeff Merkley	Candy Neville	Steve Novick

Note: There are three more declared Democratic Candidates for the Senate

David Loera (D) - Mental Health Counselor and Community Activist
Pavel Goberman (D) - Fitness Instructor, Machinist & Frequent Candidate
Roger Obrist (D) - Retired Construction Worker & Frequent Candidate

For a complete guide to Oregon candidates (and some nice old buttons) see http://politics1.com/or.htm

 

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Attorney General (alphabetical order)

John Kroger	Greg Macpherson

Secretary of State (alphabetical order)

Brad Avakian	Kate Brown	Rick Metsger	Vicki Walker

 

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House District Candidates

House District 20 / House District 23

Richard Riggs	Jason Brown