We were asked recently to withdraw our Progressive Party candidate by Oregon governor. This is our explanation for our refusal to do so.

Thanks for your note and your heartfelt plea for us to withdraw Chris Henry from the governor's race. We won't do that. Chris Henry would need to do that; even if he did, his name would still be on the ballot and he would still get votes.

Note that those votes are not stolen from Kate Brown. The Democrats do not own our votes; they need to earn them. While many Democrats are progressive people and we might elect to support them (thinking about Bernie Sanders who had the Progressive Party endorsement for Pres or some candidates for state legislature) but that would only be because they have taken stands which support a non-corporate agenda, especially by supporting limits on campaign contributions. I know that Kate likes to talk about her support for limitations but far as we can tell, she did the least possible while she was Secretary of State and during her time as governor to actually enact any. We note that environmentally she does not take strong stands in favor of addressing climate change (she has yet to oppose Jordon Cove LNG or to be a strong advocate for removal of diesel trucks on our roads, or for the inclusion of forests and agriculture in the carbon energy jobs bill). She bargained with Nike and the unions to not increase corporate taxes when enough signatures had been collected to qualify for the ballot. Therefore, voters did not get to weigh in on the question. She is not the kind of leader we need.

Lately, note that every election cycle the same argument is made. You need to support so-and-so; if you run a candidate against so-and-so you will ensure that the other so-and-so will win and the world will collapse. Then, win or lose, after the election democrats fail to support election reforms like proportional representation or ranked choice voting, which would solve the problem and allow everyone to support and vote for the candidate(s) they really want.

We as a party will continue to run candidates. We will not accept blame for the failures of other parties. And we will not remove our candidate for governor.

A written description of this debate, conducted by the Oregon League of Cities, is available at KATU.  Our candidates are shut out of most televised debates.

Chris Henry     Oregon District 1 US Rep. Candidate

Occupation: Teamster Linehaul Driver, Yellow Roadway Corporation (YRC); Executive Director, Portland Metro Greens Chapter (PGP); Undergraduate Student, Portland State University (PSU)

Occupational Background: Union Truck Driver; Union Aircraft Mechanic

Educational Background: Portland State University, Communication Studies, emphasis: Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies; Clackamas Community College, Communications