BY ANDY TSUBASA FIELD
TURNING RED STATES BLUE
Political activist group supporting out-of-state election candidates
JODI GURTOV AND KAKI BURRUSS FROM
SISTER DISTRICT OR-4 AND MARINA
SALTMAN FROM DEADWOOD RESIST
PHOTO: COURTESY OF LEONORA KENT
onnie Henderson hasn’t forgotten a trip to the
Democratic Party of Lane County’s headquarters
in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential
election.
After picking up a Hillary Clinton bumper
sticker, the Eugene resident says she was asked if she
wanted to volunteer for her desired candidate’s campaign.
She declined.
Henderson, 63, says she felt she was past her prime
to be contributing to election races. In the ’90s, she cam-
paigned against anti-abortion measures, and in 2008 she
phone-banked to elect Barack Obama.
She felt she was “too old,” she says. “I’ve done that
enough.”
But the decision is one Henderson now regrets.
“I have felt bad ever since,” she says, lamenting that
millions of others made the same choice during the 2016
presidential race where Donald Trump’s support in a ma-
jority of states narrowly saw him win the electoral college
vote.
Today Henderson is a leader in a nationwide progres-
sive movement to turn red states blue, heading the local
branch of the Sister District Project. The organization,
started by four women lawyers in San Francisco, works
to elect more Democrats to state legislatures in swing dis-
tricts around the country.
In 2017, the project raised around $700,000 in support
of candidates running for state legislatures and gathered
25,000 volunteers, according to its website. Fourteen of
15 candidates the Sister District Project supported in Vir-
ginia, Washington and Delaware were elected.
Sister District OR-4 is the organization’s branch rep-
resenting Oregon’s 4th congressional district — a solid
blue district held by Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio since
1987. Henderson says that, along with five other district
captains, she manages volunteers living in and around
Eugene, in the Corvallis-Albany area and Oregon’s south
coast.
According to Sister District Project co-founder Lala
Wu, the organization has 165 volunteers in the district
signed up to the project’s email lists.
District captain Leeann Ford, a business manager at the
University of Oregon, signed up to lead the OR-4 branch
after being impressed with the project’s state-level focus.
“What I like about the Sister District Project is how
they do a lot of sophisticated research to try to identify the
races they want to get involved with,” Ford says.
The Sister District Project uses volunteer researchers
to identify races to support based on whether a candidate
B
is running for a seat in: a Republican-controlled legisla-
tive chamber where Democrats are between one and four
seats short of a majority, or a chamber held by a bare
Democratic majority of one or two seats.
The organization also selects races with Republican-
dominated state legislatures where success could sway
Republican supermajorities or impact redistricting two
years from now.
Wu, who helped start the Sister District Project, says
state-level races are critical in responding to gerryman-
dering as well as forming progressive policies around the
country. Six years into Obama’s presidency, Democrats
lost 910 state legislative seats, according to politifact.com.
State legislative races “really are the lynchpin of de-
mocracy,” Wu says. “And Republicans knew this and im-
plemented a strategy to take over state legislatures during
the Obama administration, which is why we are trying to
dig ourselves out of a pretty serious hole.”
After the Sister District Project assigns a campaign
for its OR-4 team to support, the team works any way
a candidate sees fit. The team’s activities include phone-
banking, postcard writing and canvassing from a list of
likely Democratic voters provided by the campaign, along
with fundraising.
In November 2017, Sister District OR-4 supported
Manka Dhingra, a first-time Democratic candidate who
ran for a Washington state senate seat. Her victory over-
turned a Republican majority.
Sister District OR-4 raised $422 for Dhingra at a
screening of the documentary Dolores it held at Eugene’s
Broadway Metro on Oct. 18. The group paid $3 a ticket,
charged $20.18 (to suit a 2018 theme) and donated the
difference to Dhingra’s campaign.
In addition, three Sister District OR-4 volunteers from
Deadwood held a community potluck, silent auction and
square dance in September, raising another $492.82 for
Dhingra. The group, organizers say, also raised $497.82
for Mike Mullin, who was elected to the Virginia House
of Delegates during a time when Republicans controlled
66 out of 100 seats.
Now, having experienced success, the Sister District
OR-4 volunteers are preparing to support Florida State
House candidate Margaret Good for her Feb. 13 special
election. On Jan. 25, they held a kick-off and postcard
writing party at Eugene’s Claim 52 Brewing. A photo
posted on the group’s Facebook page shows 26 volunteers
writing messages to Florida voters.
Although some of the candidates the team supports are
running for office far away, Henderson says she believes
that being a part of the Sister District Project can bring
change.
“I used to think that my own backyard was Eugene,
District 4 and Oregon. But after the 2016 election, I real-
ized that I have an obligation to the rest of the country,”
she says.
“I think progressives are looking for a way to make
a difference,” Henderson continues. “For some people,
that’s showing up to town hall meetings, making phone
calls, or going to rallies or marches. My interest is in
electing more Democrats. That’s ultimately what’s going
to make a difference.”
Learn more about the local branch of the Sister District
Project and its upcoming events on its Facebook group,
Sister District OR-4. You can also volunteer by signing up
at sisterdistrict.com/volunteer.
• One of the largest residential real estate parcels in
the Eugene hills may go on the market this year, according
to unconfirmed rumors. Local timber baron Aaron Jones
died in 2014, and his widow, Marie Jones, owns the gated
14.7-acre property, an 8,000-square-foot home and large
barn at the corner of Chambers Street and McLean Boulevard.
The property is known for its elaborate Christmas lighting
display each December. The Lane County assessor lists the
property’s true market value at $1.6 million, but if this prime
view property were to successfully go through a planned
unit development (PUD) process, it could be worth much
more. Or a new owner could enjoy the spacious landscape
as is, open an upscale bed and breakfast, or even create a
park or community garden on the lawn where the deer and
wild turkeys roam.
One local broker familiar with the property is Ben
Fogelson of InEugene Real Estate. He says it’s possible that
four to six homes per acre could be raised on the lower, more
buildable part of the property — theoretically 40 or more
townhouses. The nearby Braeman Village PUD has 36 units
in approximately six acres. Fogelson says one estimate of
the cost of infrastructure is $45,000 per lot, and the cost to
build a higher-end home or townhouse is about $324,000
($175 per square foot). With numbers like those, he says,
the 14.7 acres, if fully developed, could be worth many
millions.
• Seattle-based düber Technologies is planning to open
a major cannabis distribution center in Eugene. “This exciting
development has the potential to alter the entire business
landscape in the area,” says Lily Seglin, a company
spokesperson. Seglin and others at düber headquarters
declined by press time to answer questions about the
location and size of the center, whether it will be built or
leased, and how many people will be employed. Very little
warehouse space is available in Eugene due to marijuana
enterprises.
The expansion into Eugene is part of a $50 million capital
investment in düber by California-based Vacone Real Estate,
according to the düber website. The company provides a
number of services designed to streamline the flow of
products from growers and processors to retail outlets.
• Classic Touch Hair Design is now located in the
Edgewood Shopping Center at the corner of 40th Avenue
and Donald Street in Eugene. Robert Cecil says he is no
longer cutting hair at his home studio on West 11th Avenue.
The new studio is on the east side of the shopping center
next to the Highlands Brew Pub and Sports Bar.
• The Science Factory near Autzen Stadium has been
renamed the Eugene Science Center. Executive Director Tim
Scott says the rebranding follows a decision in 2016 to
focus more heavily on science, technology, engineering and
math (STEM). The change involves fundraising, program
expansion and renovations to make the center a world-class
interactive museum.
• The Wayward Lamb, Eugene’s “own Queer pub and
event space,” as it billed itself, announced on Facebook Jan.
29 that after three years it will be closing its doors Saturday,
Feb. 3, leaving Eugene again without a dedicated space for
the LGBTQ community. See the post and the saddened
responses from the community at facebook.com/
thewaywardlamb.
Send business news and tips to bizbeat@eugeneweekly.com.
eugeneweekly.com • February 1, 2018
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