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3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2016 Independent Party seeks partners for third-party coalition Looking for alternative for president By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau The Independent Party of Oregon and the Independence Party of Minnesota have joined forces to organize a national coalition to nominate a third- party candidate for president. The parties plan to hold a national conference in late summer to select their nomi- nee, said Sal Peralta, secretary of the Independent Party. A decision by the Oregon secretary of state to require the new party to participate in the presidential primary was the impetus for forming the national coalition, Peralta said. “I think there are a lot of folks out there who are frus- trated with the candidates the two major parties have pro- duced this year, and a lot of vot- ers are frustrated and don’t feel they’re represented,” Peralta said. “It should be no surprise to anyone that activists, donors and a lot of people would like to see a change. I think this really is the beginning of the third party movement.” The two independent par- ties have identiied about 14 other centrist parties around the nation they plan to invite to the conference, which will be similar to the Republican and Democratic conventions. The conference is likely to take place in late August after the Republican National Conven- tion and before the deadline for iling a candidate in Ore- gon, party leaders said. The deadline is Aug. 30. “The Democratic and Republican parties are poised to nominate candidates with the highest negative poll rat- ings in history,” said Rob Harris, a Washington County attorney who was central to the ‘It should be no surprise to anyone that activists, donors and a lot of people would like to see a change. I think this really is the beginning of the third party movement.’ Sal Peralta secretary, Independent Party of Oregon talks between the two parties. “With the two parties nomi- nating historically unpopular candidates, this is a conversa- tion that is long overdue. We believe voters are ready for a change.” Phil Fuehrer, chairman of the Independence Party of Minnesota, said indepen- dents have attempted to form national third-party coalitions in the past. His party joined a coalition in 1996 to nominate third party presidential candi- date Ross Perot, who created the Reform Party. His party cut ties with the Reform Party in early 2000 when the Reform Party nominated Pat Buchanan as its presidential nominee because the party disagreed with the candidate’s social conservative agenda, Fuehrer said. Another attempt to form a national third-party coalition in 2004 never panned out, he said. This presidential elec- tion has shown that voters are interested in nontraditional candidates such as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and business- man Donald Trump, Fuehrer said. “I realized now is the time to move forward with a national third-party coalition and give it another try,” he said. In addition to nominating a third party presidential can- didate, the two parties plan to use the coalition to share best practices and improve ballot access for third parties, Per- alta said. The Independent Party of Oregon had initially tried to opt out of participating in the pres- idential primary. But earlier this spring, the Oregon Secre- tary of State’s Ofice informed the party that because of its size, it is required to offer a ballot line for the presidential primary. The secretary of state rec- ognized the party as a major political party in 2015 because its membership reached a threshold of 5 percent of vot- ers registered in the state. The party has about 104,000 members. The secretary of state has indicated the party is prohib- ited from listing primary can- didates from other political parties — such as Sanders — who have cross party appeal. Without its own primary can- didates, the party was forced to offer members only a write-in option. Oregon law also bars the party from nominating a gen- eral election candidate who lost in the primary because of the state’s so-called “sore loser” law, meaning Sanders could not be the party’s presi- dential nominee if he loses the Democratic primary to former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. Primary opponents for secretary Army Corps rejects of state race go on the offensive new coal terminal By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau SALEM — The Ore- gon secretary of state’s race heated up in the last week, as three seasoned Democrats increasingly went on the attack against each other. Oregon Labor Commis- sioner Brad Avakian; state Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tuala- tin; and state Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Eugene, are vying for the Democratic nomination in the May 17 primary election. Two Republicans are run- ning in the primary, former state Rep. Dennis Richard- son from Central Point and Lane County Commissioner Sid Leiken from Springield. The Republican primary has unfolded quietly, without the types of attacks Democrats recently unleashed on each other. The winner of the Dem- ocratic primary has a good chance at becoming the next secretary of state. Oregon’s last Republican secretary of state was Norma Paulus who served from 1977 to 1985, although Republicans had held that ofice with only a couple exceptions since statehood, according to the Secretary of State’s Ofice. This year’s Democratic and Republican primary winners will face off in the November general election. Tactics shift Until this week, Hoyle and Devlin appeared to share the view that Democrats should vote for anyone but Avakian. They critiqued Avakian’s promises to create renewable energy and civics education programs, which are outside the secretary of state’s role of chief elections oficer, auditor and archivist. Hoyle and Devlin’s appar- ent friendliness ended this week, when Devlin sharply critiqued Hoyle for accepting a $250,000 donation in April from billionaire gun control advocate Michael Bloomberg. A spokesman for Bloomberg told Willamette Week the former New York City mayor appreciated Hoyle’s role in getting a bill passed in 2015 to expand background checks to private irearm transfers. Hoyle’s second largest reported con- tribution was $100,000 from EMILY’s List, which sup- ports pro-abortion rights Democratic women. Hoyle has raised the most Donors have beneited Hoyle has raised the most money in the Democratic pri- mary with nearly $855,000 since 2015, while Avakian has raised $626,000 in that time frame, according to an analysis of state campaign inance reports. Devlin has raised nearly $295,000 since 2015. Hoyle, who will be out of ofice in 2017 unless she is elected secretary of state, is not the only Democrat in the race to raise campaign dona- tions from people or groups impacted by their oficial actions. Avakian, whose current term as labor commissioner extends through 2018, counts food workers and construc- tion unions among his top supporters. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701 gave Avakian’s cam- paign $35,000 in donations since 2015, according to an analysis of state campaign inance data. The union iled two requests in 2015 for Ava- kian to change classiica- tions or expand the type of jobs equipment operators could do on public construc- tion projects that pay prevail- ing wage. As of Monday, state cam- paign inance records showed Avakian received a $5,000 contribution from the union in May 2015, ahead of his July 2015 decision that resulted in ield surveyors getting a large bump in pay • What draws them to teaching? • What are their successes? • What are their ___________________________ frustrations? Sarah Kangas, a physical education teacher at Warrenton Grade School Read the words of our region’s educators starting Friday in The Daily Astorian. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___ ___________________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___ ____________________________________________________________________ Teachers have a big job and a big impact on many government proj- ects. The remainder of the union’s contributions came in February. Avakian’s approv- als of the union’s requests took effect in January. “Brad Avakian has run the Bureau of Labor and Indus- tries with a record of integ- rity and a record of support- ing workers and employers who are playing by the rules,” said Brad Pyle, Ava- kian’s campaign manager. ____________________________________________________________________ Pyle said donors to Devlin’s campaign beneited from bills Devlin helped to pass. “Rich- ard Devlin’s been using his position as the co-chair of Ways and Means to exploit funds from the lobbyist com- munity to support his run for secretary of state,” Pyle said. Devlin, who will continue to serve in the state Senate if he is not elected secretary of state, received his largest con- tributions from groups that represent residential and long- term care facilities and nurses. Those groups beneited from a bill Devlin sponsored earlier this year, which gave nursing home owners additional time to qualify for a state incentive to shut down under-utilized homes. The Oregon Health Care Association, Devlin’s larg- est contributor at a total of $41,000, gave money to his campaign before and after the 2016 session, accord- ing to state data. The group represents long-term care companies. Emily Brixey, Devlin’s campaign manager, said Devlin has longstanding relationships with both the Oregon Nurses Association and Oregon Health Care Association. “I don’t’ nec- essarily think any of the contributions in this cam- paign are correlated with any one speciic bill, as they are in the Val Hoyle campaign,” Brixey said. Richardson has fundraising edge In the Republican pri- mary, Richardson has raised nearly $409,000 and Leiken has raised $178,000, according to state data. Richardson’s largest donor is timber executive Andrew Miller with a total of nearly $19,000. Leiken’s largest con- tributors are Bud Pierce, the Salem doctor running for governor, who gave Leiken $24,000, and the timber company Giustina Resources, which has given a total of $15,000 to his campaign. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. By PHUONG LE Associated Press SEATTLE — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has denied a permit to a $700 mil- lion project to build the nation’s largest coal-export terminal in northwest Washington state, handing a striking victory to the Lummi tribe which argued the project would violate its trea- ty-protected ishing rights. The decision Monday ends the federal environmen- tal review of a deep-water port that would have handled up to 54 million metric tons of dry bulk commodities, mostly coal, at Cherry Point. The ven- ture between SSA Marine and Cloud Peak Energy proposed receiving coal by train from Montana and Wyoming for export to Asia. Col. John Buck, commander of the corps’ Seattle district, said the Gateway Paciic Ter- minal project can’t be permitted because the impacts from the trestle and three-vessel wharf would interfere with the tribe’s treaty rights to ish in its tradi- tional areas. “The corps may not permit a project that abrogates treaty rights,” Buck said. The Lummi Nation said the Corps honored its treaty with the U.S. and recognized that the project would hurt the tribe’s ishing rights. “It’s great news for the Lummi, a great win for treaty rights and Indian country,” said Tim Ballew, chairman of the tribe with more than 5,000 members and one of the larg- est tribal ishing leets in the country. “The record estab- lished, and everybody knew, this project would have neg- ative impacts to treaty ishing rights.” Like many tribes, the Lummi signed a treaty with the U.S. in 1855 in which it ceded its land but reserved the right to hunt and ish in “usual and accustomed” areas. Project developers said Monday that they are consider- ing all alternatives. “This is an inconceivable decision,” Bob Watters, pres- ident of Paciic International Terminal, LLC, said in a state- ment. “Looking at the set of facts in the administrative sum- mary, it’s quite obvious this is a political decision and not fact based.” W A NTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Consult a PROFESSIONAL the Q: Will Windows 10 Medicare Q: Does cover upgrade always be free? LEO FINZI No. After July 29 th , it will cost $119 for the license. We recommend upgrading before then. That is especially true if you have a newer computer running Windows 7. Support for Windows 7 will end Jan. 14, 2020. At that point you will need to buy a license ($119) or a new computer to keep your system secure. Please back up your data prior to any major upgrade to your system. chiropractic care? 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