Newly elected State Representative Jeff Reardon, center, talks with Working Families Party canvassers. The WFP made 5,000 voter contacts in his campaign to oust a longtime Democratic representative who had the support of the AFL-CIO and the Koch brothers but often voted against progressive values. On election day, Reardon won with 66% of the roughly 4,000 votes cast. The victory is receiving attention nationally as a victory for unions that took a risk to hold a bad elected official accountable.
[Note: The ILWU works with several labor unions as part of the Working Families Party in Oregon.]
In Oregon’s May 15 primary, progressive challenger Jeff Reardon scored a two-to-one victory over Mike Schaufler, a five-term Oregon Assembly Democrat who appeared safe just months before his defeat. Reardon’s victory relied on support from the labor-backed Working Families Party, in coalition with environmentalists, MoveOn, and unions—though the state AFL-CIO, and some of its affiliates, stuck with the incumbent.
The Working Families Party, a progressive, labor-backed third party, hails Reardon’s victory as a national model. “Winning a race like this,” says WFP State Director Steve Hughes, “in the face of someone that’s funded by the lobbyists as he was, sends a message that we can hold these people accountable.”