Rural Organizing Project
PO Box 1350,      Scappoose, OR 97056 

(503) 543-8417              Fax: (503) 543-8419

office@rop.org

Legislative Plan 2007

ROP Legislative Platform                             Endorse the ROP Legislative Platform

Contact Your Legislators                              Details on REAL ID

Rural Organizing Project Summary of Oregon Legislature 2007

THANK YOU!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to stay connected with your legislators this cycle.  Our efforts have made a huge difference!  Together rural Oregon has sent a clear message to our rural legislators that the communities they represent are committed to true democracy, justice, and human dignity for all – and that we will hold them accountable to these same values!

2007 PLATFORM

In 2007, ROP raised up a platform that said NO to the Cost of War and YES to Rebuilding Oregon.  Oregon’s Cost of War totals more than 2.7 billion dollars.  Rather than prolonging this costly and immoral war, we need to Rebuild America. In Oregon, this means investing in vital human needs for all Oregonians, like healthcare, education, living wage jobs, and creating real community safety through strong protections of our civil liberties and civil rights, particularly for immigrants and LGBT members of our communities.

SUCCESSES

As a result of efforts by ROP members in coalition with our ally groups this legislative session, ROP:

·         Blocked multiple efforts to speed up implementation of REAL ID in Oregon

·         Passed a statewide anti-discrimination bill (SB 2)

·         Passed a bill creating domestic partnerships for same sex couples (HB 2007)

·         Passed Homeward Bound resolution (HJM 9) opposing the war in Iraq in the Oregon House

·         Passed memorial (SM1) opposing the war in Iraq in the Oregon Senate

·         Supported dialogue on Fusion Voting as one small step to challenge status quo issues with a 2 party only system.

INFRASTRUCTURE
ROP took a big step forward this year through the creation of additional systems that we used to track key issues, legislative leads on these issues by district, and then motivate the human dignity leadership by state legislative district.  For example, in our efforts to stop implementation of REAL ID in Oregon, we were able to identify key committee members from rural districts, such as Senator Rick Metsger, the Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, who represents Hood River and parts of rural Clackamas County, and then mobilize both grassroots and elected leaders to focus their contacts with him on this issue, resulting in his opposition to REAl ID provisions that would require proof of citizenship to receive a drivers license, a reversal of his earlier position.  This same infrastructure was used across rural Oregon to effectively focus constituent contacts with their legislators on the issues that were both priorities for the district and areas over which the legislator had influence.

By creating the infrastructure and systems to motivate members, track key issues, and target key rural districts, ROP’s legislative highlights include:

·         Calling and writing different legislators representing every region of rural Oregon with report back loops established in 35 seats (a critical step for being able to assess where we are at.)

·         Targeting 11 different legislators for focused repeat contact from their constituents through multiple mechanisms

·         Covering 8 key issues under our overarching NO to the Cost of War and YES to Rebuilding Oregon framework

o        Rural constituents shared their opposition to REAL ID with legislators

o        Legislators from rural Oregon heard from their constituents in support of an Anti-Discrimination and Domestic Partnerships

·         Creating a stellar constituent lobby team of a longtime orchardist, one of the creators of Radio Tierra, the first Spanish language radio station in the Gorge, a Hood River City Councilperson, and a mother and new leader of the Latino community in Hood River.  This group met with Senator Rick Metsger, the Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, resulting in his opposition to REAl ID provisions that would require proof of citizenship to receive a drivers license. 

·         Bringing together an in-district meeting of constituents in Columbia County to meet with Senator Betsy Johnson, a key leader in the Joint Ways and Means subcommittee that oversees electoral change, including Fusion Voting, a solid step toward electoral reform that ROP has supported throughout the session.    

·         Supporting information and action on a host of other legislative topics under consideration for passage.

STRATEGY

ROP exists to build grassroots organizations with the infrastructure to advance democracy on their own and in coordination with one another through ROP.  Our legislative work prioritizes issues where we feel a compelling need to respond based on the issue, our strategic ability as rural Oregonians to affect change on a particular issue, and the absence of other organizations to move an issue.  While we do not maintain a physical presence in Salem, our grassroots lobbying efforts and in-district mobilization throughout the breadth of rural Oregon on multiple issues make ROP a key partner with our legislative advocacy allies.  Our legislative strategy is one of education and mobilization that provides an overarching framework for rural Oregonians to understand multiple issues and how they interconnect; educates, alerts, and motivates ROP members to respond to issues at the legislature; and generates calls, letters, emails, and lobby visits on key priority issues.

MOVING FORWARD

ROP will carry forward the strengthened infrastructure and success in grassroots policy making from the 2007 legislative session into the beginnings of our electoral organizing, including decline to sign and opposition to ballot initiatives that will seek to overturn the gains made in anti-discrimination and domestic partnership as well as anti-immigrant initiatives.  We will also keep the heat on our US Senators and Representatives to end the war in Iraq and the war at home, most specifically by passing comprehensive immigration reform that includes worker protections at home and around the globe, family reunification, a path to citizenship and no new bracero/guestworker program, no militarization at the border, and global economic justice.  We are also prepared to enter the first ever test of an annual session in February of 2008 with even more vim and vigor to enact policies the Dismantle the War at Home and Abroad and move us closer to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of Beloved Community.

Statewide Non-Discrimination and Domestic Partnerships Pass!

In the last decade many of us in the ROP community have hung our heads in shame at the historic headlines that also motivated us to action. We live in an era of rollbacks and backlash. In 1992 Oregon grabbed international attention for being the first voting public ever asked to vote on whether constitutional protections should be removed from a category of people (the infamous ballot measure 9.) Now we fight rollbacks targeting habeas corpus, due process, immigrant communities, and too much more.

But, despite these serious times and the roving game of who to scapegoat next, we have HISTORIC SUCCESSES. These are successes that would not happen without all of us stepping up and staying vocal and organized.

While we celebrate a big success reflecting years of work, it is also nice to inventory other highlights from that journey. Let's remember how our individual lives have been enriched by being forced to step up. In January of 1993, I drove across the state on highway 26 visiting newly emerging human dignity groups through blizzard conditions - my final stop was Boise, Idaho where a man I did not know offered me community housing in return for talking to a living room of folks preparing to challenge the extremist right's effort to launch an attack on queers in Idaho. That man became one of my dearest friends, John Hummel, who just relocated to Oregon this week to start work as the new Executive Director of Basic Rights Oregon. I am not sure that ROP, BRO, or my friendship with John would exist without the venom of the right. What a journey we are on. Let's enjoy all we can because this is life. And today we get to bask in headlines that declare a bit more fairness in the state of Oregon.

Warmly, Marcy

Thanks, ROP! Love, Basic Rights Oregon

Hi Friends:

We just got back from Salem where Governor Kulongoski signed the Oregon Equality Act and the Oregon Family Fairness Act. And I just wanted to write a quick note to ROP activists around the state to deeply thank you for all your great work, courage and leadership in this struggle for equality.

What an historic moment! And what a difference a few years makes.

The Governor and our legislative leaders spoke to a crowd of hundreds gathered on the steps of the Capitol.

Let’s be clear. This victory didn’t come easily. It began years ago when every-day Oregonians stood up for equality, and against the right-wing attacks. Ballot Measure 9, and those that followed. And in the days after the heart-wrenching passage of Measure 36, when our community had the courage to keep fighting. It continued through 2006, when we knocked on thousands of doors and placed thousands of calls to educate the public and elect fair-minded leaders to the Oregon Legislature.

And Oregonians kept up the heat over the last five months as supporters from around the state flooded with letters, calls and visits to the legislators, demanding action.

Our new Executive Director at Basic Rights Oregon, John Hummel reminded me the other day of the words of historian Howard Zinn: "Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment, but as an endless succession....Small acts, when multiplied, can transform the world."

It's these small acts that brave rural Oregonians have taken for many, many years. By writing legislators, talking to neighbors and taking a stand, we changed the course of history.

This struggle isn't over. Opposition groups have already announced their plans to take away these rights, even before the ink is dry on the Governor's signature.

More on the next steps, and the campaign to defend this victory will follow. But for today, please join us in celebrating this sweet victory. We couldn't have done this without the leadership and dedication of the Rural Organizing Project, and Human Dignity groups around the state.

In solidarity,

Thomas Wheatley
Organizing Director
Basic Rights Oregon

Details on REAL ID

This is how it should read….

NO to REAL ID and Legal Presence Requirement

YES to SB 424 A – Engrossed * YES to HB 2827 & HJM 11 * NO to HB 2270

While we are working to stop the war in Iraq, there is a domestic front to that war being waged here at home on the poorest and most vulnerable members of our community in the name of "security." REAL ID passed in 2005 without funding, guidelines, or even debate. It would create the first ever national ID card and require everyone to produce their birth certificate in order to get a drivers license. REAL ID would effectively make it costly, difficult, and even prohibitive for many of us to get valid drivers licenses. Contact your legislators now and share this message. If you take action, please email amy@rop.org or call the ROP office so that we know that your legislators have heard from you on these issues!

Key Talking Points:

* I oppose HB 2270 which would implement the REAL ID Act in Oregon.
* I support SB 424 A – Engrossed and HB 2827 and HJM 11 which would block implementation of REAL ID in Oregon just as Washington, Idaho, and many other states have done.
* REAL ID is an unfunded federal mandate that will cost Oregonians millions of dollars and create a bureaucratic nightmare at Oregon DMV.
* REAL ID claims to make our country more secure, but will expose us to identity theft and invasion of privacy.
* I specifically oppose any legislation that would require proof of legal status to obtain an Oregon driver's license.
* Showing a birth certificate in order to obtain a license would place substantial burdens on all Oregonians, especially immigrants, elderly, low-income, and homeless people and others who are unable to access these documents.
* Legal presence requirements would undermine public safety by resulting in more unlicensed, uninsured drivers on the road.
* Legal presence requirement would target immigrants in the name of "security" while actually making our roads, our communities, and the lives of undocumented immigrant workers less safe and more insecure.

You can find you legislators at http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/ or call the Capitol Switchboard at (800) 332-2313.

Want to do more to stop REAL ID?

Call your State Senator today and tell them to Vote YES on SB 424 A - Engrossed and join the national call for REAL ID overhaul. Keep Oregonians safe and secure by keeping REAL ID out of our state and defending the rights of all Oregonians to access a drivers license regardless of immigration status.

You might notice that earlier alerts said to vote no on this bill - and now it has a longer, funny name. Well, that is the result of your efforts and the work in particular of a team of diverse constituents from Hood River that went to visit Senator Metsger a few weeks ago. SB 424 A - Engrossed has cut out the bad stuff and now rather than implementing REAL ID essentially says we won't do it while it will harm our communities, cost too much, risk privacy concerns, and proof of citizenship to acquire a drivers license. This is a huge victory to get this out of committee with such vast improvements. Now it is up to us to get this bill through the Senate and on to the House, so call your Senator today!

On the House side, we are still fighting HB 2270 which would implement REAL ID and pushing to stop REAL ID through our own bills (Yes on HJM 11 and HB 2827).

Call your State Representative and Committee Members in the House Transportation Committee today!

Tell them to vote NO on HB 2270 which would implement REAL ID in Oregon. And vote YES on HB 2827 and HJM 11 which would block implementation of REAL ID in Oregon just as Washington and many other states have done.

It is particularly important to call if you live in one of these districts, but let's let them all hear from all of rural Oregon!

Terry Beyer*, Chair (HD 12/Springfield) 503-986-1412
George Gillman*, Vice Chair (HD 55/Crook and Lake Counties, Chiloquin and N. Klamath, and Eagle Point and NE Jackson County) 503-986-1455
Tom Butler (HD 60/Baker, Harney, and Malheur Counties) 503-986-1460
Peter Buckley (HD 5/Ashland and Jacksonville) 503-986-1405
Tobias Read (HD 27/Beaverton) (503) 752-6273
Carolyn Tomei, Vice Chair (HD 41/Milwaukie) 503-986-1441
* Co-Sponsors of HB 2827 and HJM 11

If you take action, please email amy@rop.org so that we know that your legislators have heard from you and what kind of response you received!
Visit http://www.causaoregon.org/action-center or www.realnightmare.org for more information on REAL ID.

Endorse the ROP legislative platform?  There is no better way for your group to ready your members and leadership for the Legislative Session than by reviewing what ROP leaders have researched and bring to your group as a lean and mean summary.  So, we ask you to review the ROP Legislative Platform for 2007.  Ideally, you will make notes on what you have questions about or want more information on, but you will also look beyond the details and assess the big vision.  Does the platform speak to a range of relevant concerns that you want to see tracked?  If your group’s answer to this question is yes, please email amy@rop.org with your group’s endorsement.

It’s Time to Contact Your Legislators!
You can find you legislators at http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/ or call the Capitol Switchboard at (800) 332-2313.  Phone calls and letters are great ways to communicate with your legislator.  Emails are okay, but easy to ignore.  Personal visits, in Salem or at home in your district, are the best.  If you take action, please email amy at rop.org or call the ROP office so that we know that your legislators have heard from you on these issues!

NO to REAL ID * NO to SB 424 & HB 2270 * NO to Legal Presence Requirement * YES to HB 2827 & HJM 11

While we are working to stop the war in Iraq, there is a domestic front to that war being waged here at home on the poorest and most vulnerable members of our community in the name of "security."  REAL ID passed in 2005 without funding, guidelines, or even debate. It would create the first ever national ID card and require everyone to produce their birth certificate in order to get a drivers license.  REAL ID would effectively make it costly, difficult, and even prohibitive for many of us to get valid drivers licenses.  SB 424 had its first hearing on Thursday, February 22^nd.  HB 2270 has been introduced in the House, but no hearings have been set.  HB 2827 and HJM 11 which would block implementation of REAL ID in Oregon were introduced on Tuesday, February 27^th.  Contact your legislators now and share this message. If you take action, please email amy@rop.org or call the ROP office so that we know that your legislators have heard from you on these issues!

Key Talking Points:

·         We oppose HB 2270 and SB 424, which would implement the REAL ID Act in Oregon, as well as any legislation to require proof of legal status to obtain an Oregon driver’s license.

·         HB 2270 and SB 424 would:

o        Cost Oregonians millions of dollars:  Maine estimates the law will cost $185 million over the first 5 years, Washington $251m/6 yrs, California $500-750m/5 yrs, Virginia $169 start-up/$63m annually.

o        Be impossible to implement because Federal regulations have not yet been issued for REAL ID.

o        Place substantial burdens on Oregonians to obtain a license, especially immigrants, elderly, low-income, and homeless people.

o        Threaten privacy and pose a risk for identity theft.

o        Undermine public safety by resulting in more unlicensed, uninsured drivers on the road.

·         Real ID is generating widespread resistance in legislatures across the country.  Legislation opposing Real ID is active in Maine, Montana, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming.  The 110^th Congress has legislation introduced to fix or repeal REAL ID, including a bill in the House by Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) to repeal REAL ID and a bill in the Senate introduced by Susan Collins (R-ME) to delay REAL ID and change the rulemaking process.

·         We support HB 2827 and HJM 11 that oppose REAL ID in Oregon.

 Want to do more to stop REAL ID?                                                                                                                           

Call committee members in the Senate Business, Transportation, and Workforce Development Committee and tell them to vote NO on SB 424.

Rick Metsger, Chair:  503-986-1726 (Metsger represents Hood River, so call him especially if you are his constituent!)
Bruce Starr, Vice-Chair:  503-986-1715
Ryan Deckert:  503-986-1714
Larry George:  503-986-1713
Laurie Monnes Anderson:  503-986-1725

Visit http://www.causaoregon.org/action-center or www.realnightmare.org for more information on REAL ID.