November 15, 2024 – Angelita Sanchez
During the short legislative session this year, I was working in Salem, at Senator Cedric Hayden’s office. I noticed a ballot measure that was passed by legislative referral. It was HB2004 or what would now be known now as M117, Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). I noticed it was just pushed through. I thought to myself, I have to do something.
Flashback to October of 2023, when I was attending a Wasco County fundraiser. I had the honor of sitting next to Governor Sarah Palin. We talked at length about RCV and how it was coming to Oregon and what it did to her race in Alaska. Again, I thought to myself I have to do something.
On the flipside, over the course of so many years now, I have seen failed petition attempt after failed petition attempt. It’s such a heavy lift to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures by volunteer effort only. And it makes volunteers and Precinct Committee Persons (PCP’s) feel very defeated.
So I made a plan and researched how to insert opposition statements in the Voter Pamphlet statement. I had felt terribly guilty that #TimberUnity did not include an oppositional statement in the voter pamphlet statement against Measure 113, the quorum absence ballot measure. As a matter of fact, Timber Unity Attorney Shawn Lindsay said in another meeting I attended, “There was no opposition statement against Measure 113 and it was political malpractice.” I thought to myself, I just could not let it happen again, not for this big of a change in our elections process. I felt like all of our hard work would be upended. We have to act.
So I put two and two together. What if the Oregon Republican Party (ORP) spearheaded an initiative that got the PCP’s active and successful in pushing back against RCV? What if the ORP had their first ever oppositional statement? What type of timeframe are we looking at? I thought to myself, how encouraged would everybody be if we did something and were successful?
I called ORP Chair Justin Hwang and Vice Chair Angela Plowhead in February of 2024 and proposed this idea. They loved it. I also talked to my Republican Party Chair in Linn County, Ben Roche. I told him we need to lead this effort and he agreed. So researched the timeline, made a plan and presented a packet of information to the Linn County Republican executive committee.
Next, I posted about it on the ORP PCP online forum on March 2nd. Then I spoke about it at the ORP March 15th State Central Committee meeting and challenged the county parties to act. After that, I spoke with a handful of county chairs and PCP’s about the petition process and oppositional plan, and the rest is history.
I wrote the following message on the PCP forum on March 2nd, 2024:
“I realize that we are all gearing up for the end of session, and the next State Central Committee meeting. But after that, we have to fight for our lives.
Rank choice voting has been placed on the November ballot. I do not know of any PAC’s or any traction from people in our party. If we do not find a way to campaign hard, and campaign effectively on this issue, essentially all the hopes and dreams of taking back our State…or rolling back bad policy…are essentially over.
We desperately need to come up with a game plan. I’m of the opinion that it’s going to have to be a hardcore grassroots effort, as we are the only ones that will lose it all. This is the extreme left selling this idea to voters in this state. And we have a ton of catch up to do…
It’s interesting to me that they are marketing this change as simple and more fair. And with what the voters believed with all the measures they passed last cycle, they will be gullible enough to take the bait. All of our hard work this cycle to replace our walkout hero’s, all the good bills that have passed…all with the potential to be overturned with this one ballot measure. We must STOP RANK CHOICE VOTING
To file an opposing statement in the VPS it’s $1200 or 500 signatures. All 36 counties must make this happen, and all the other opposing PAC’s! It’s critical.”
When the time came to file petitions for opposition statements, we were shovel ready. We gathered the signatures with ease. By the time Chair Roche turned in our Linn County oppositional statement petition into the Secretary of State’s Office, the employee told him that she was processing about 50 opposition statements via petition, ones primarily against RCV. So many that the SOS said they had to set aside a day solely for this, as they had never seen anything like it.
Ultimately that was around $60,000 worth of grassroots effort. And the ORP as a whole gathered more than 15,000 unique petition signatures for all of our statements. Washington County Republicans alone was1 successful in submitting 30 individual statements. Again, I don’t think the state has ever seen something like this before.
When the online Voter Pamphlet Statement was first published, I believe I counted that collectively we published 54 opposition statements by pure grassroots effort and countered their 49 in support. Those supporting statements were primarily written by two people, who were in fact directors of the Yes on Measure 117 effort. Our efforts did catch the proponents way off guard. Just as planned, and they scrambled.
We don’t have a lot of resources but we have a boatload of people power. Think for a second if we would not have taken it upon ourselves to be proactive? All those supporting astroturf statements and very little if any, opposed. We would have surely lost.
And since that Voter Pamphlet Statement was published online, many folks took notice. Influencer @PDXReal was trying to put on a forum that was lacking in participation until the Voter Pamphlet Statement was published online. And because of this, even the Oregonian realized they needed to have a discussion when they saw all the opposition. They reached out to our champion, Representative Ed Diehl and ultimately gave their recommendation of a NO. Representative Ed Diehl was able to get to every forum he could, to be our opposing voice. So when we thought to also reach out to Willamette Week and asked about a forum, sure as all get out, they had one at our request and heard both sides. They also gave a recommendation of NO.
We had won. We had two of the most prominent voices telling Multnomah county to Vote NO. It was surreal.
Our little saplings grew into a forest of opposition, but not without hard work and determination. Last I heard, my PAC “Protect Democracy” spent around $10,000 to oppose, while the “Yes on Measure 117” PAC spent nearly $10 million dollars, of out of state dark money, to try and buy their way in. So much so, even Vice Presidential candidate, Governor Tim Walz tried to endorse the measure to Oregonians as a last minute, Hail Mary. It was unbelievable.
Portland had voted last cycle with a local measure to experiment with this sort of elections this cycle. They had an extreme hybrid of RCV. The Oregonian reported that 20% of voters did not participate in the city council race and that 29% of the poorest folks in Portland also didn’t not participate. Everything we knew to be true, was in fact true. And now everybody knows it. That had to be a deciding factor. And all the stars aligned.
Ultimately, the little engine that could, DID. And Measure 117 went down in flames. A real David vs Goliath situation, right before our eyes. And “We The People” actually won for a change.
True Story.
Editor’s Note: Angelita Sanchez is a Sweet Home, Oregon City Councilor.
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