When Sam Sappington ran for Oregon House District 15 against Andy Olson he often mentioned the importance of Benton and Linn County local parties working together on campaigns and common political interests. This resonated with me and soon after our unsuccessful races we both were elected as county chairs. I vowed to work with Sam to make his vision become reality.
Soon we expanded our thinking and invited Wayne Baum, Chair of Marion County, and Alan Holland, Chair of Polk County into our compact. Wayne and Alan were very receptive. We started by working on a joint effort to bring Jimmy Carter to Oregon. On this effort we included Lane County. This continues to be a work in process. We then rather informally decided to attend each other’s central committee meetings and social/fundraising events when possible. We found frequent contact not only to be enlightening and fun but provided us with the opportunity to discuss a variety of strategies and ideas. We noted that our candidates’ districts went across our county lines and that we needed to coordinate our resources and efforts to win elections. We are now actively keeping each other informed about pertinent initiatives and information which is relevant to our Mid-Valley Compact.
Currently our compact is sponsoring a round robin forum for major Democrat candidates in the primary races. To date, Marion County has sponsored the Attorney General (AG) forum and Polk County the Secretary of State forum. Benton and Linn are working jointly on the US Senate and an additional Secretary of State or AG forum. We are also attempting to include Linn-Benton Community College in one or more of the Benton-Linn sponsored forums. In each county forum we are seeking to have Democrats from our respective counties attend. The coordinated county forum concept seems to be well received by the candidates.
Most recently the opportunity for Voter Activation Network (VAN) training came to our attention. Alan, Wayne, Sam and I agreed that it presented us with another opportunity to work together. The training took placeon January 26th at Linn-Benton Community College.
In this, the first note that I am penning to our new website I want to express deep gratitude to my fellow county chairs for the energy and wisdom they bring to our newly formed Mid-Valley Dem Compact (MVDC). We truly have synergy. By working together we have the potential to win in all our Mid-Valley Districts in 2008. We believe this is the year when Independents and many Republicans will recognize that we are the party that represents their interests. Thank you, Sam, for this great vision.
One more word: I want also to thank Bob Heald for making our new web site into a dynamic space where we can all learn from and interact with each other.
Loyd |