by Michael Meo | Portland Metro Pacific Greens

One result of State Senator Rod Monroe’s appearance as a speaker at last night’s weekly meeting of the Portland Metro Chapter was his pledge to help our party get bills introduced into the state legislature, on subjects which are vital to our future electoral chances.

Although he specified the legislative sessions scheduled to begin in January, 2011, and despite describing himself as only “fairly sure” that he would be the Democratic Party candidate for the Oregon Senate seat which he now occupies, Monroe promised to work on our behalf to pass election-law reform which promotes the chances of the Green Party and other third parties in our state.

Addressing a small group of Green Party officials assembled at the Bipartisan Cafe on Southeast Stark Street, Monroe was blunt in explaining the failure to pass the reform, promised by Secretary of State Kate Brown in the course of her campaign against Green Party Secretary Seth Woolley last year. “[State Senator] Richard Devlin killed [instant runoff voting] in the last legislature,” averred Monroe, “because the Democratic Party leadership wanted it killed.”

The discussion included the prospects both of a renewal of the struggle to get Instant Runoff Voting implemented as envisioned in the Oregon Constitution, as well as a correction to the flawed arrangements, passed last session, for minor parties to cross-nominate one another’s candidates. “Bring me what you want, and I will help you,” said Monroe. However, there must be, he added, groundwork by the Green Party to enlist assistance, and it must include that of sympathetic sitting legislators.

He suggested specific possible allies we might recruit: Chip Shields, Ben Cannon, Jules Kopel-Bailey, Jefferson Smith, and Jackie Dingfelder. Further, Monroe discussed methods the Green Party might use to promote an initiative to deny corporate personhood within the boundaries of a single municipality (such as, for instance, the city of Portland), in order to tackle directly the corporate stranglehold on the present political process in the United States.