The Oregon Secretary of State (SOS) Elections Division has abused its authority by interfering in an internal party dispute inside the Pacific Green Party (PGP). Following a highly contested election from the PGP’s February 2024 convention, the SOS was notified by two members of the State Coordinating Committee (SCC), Chuck Fall and Suzia Aufderheide, not to accept a new officers list until an internal dispute was resolved. Rather than respect this request or hear arguments from both sides, Deputy Elections Director, Luke Belant chose to adopt an illegitimate SCC decision to remove Fall and Aufderheide from their elected positions on the SCC, thereby eliminating their ability to sign SEL 110 forms. This decision by the SCC violates the party’s bylaws, while the decision by the SOS violates State law (ORS 248.011), which stipulates the SOS shall not enforce rules adopted by a political party. Belant sided with former PGP party secretary Seth Woolley over his version of the contested election and accepted a new officers list from contested new secretary Justin Filip. The SOS notified Fall and Aufderheide of their removal as party officers. The PGP bylaws state that SCC members can only be removed while serving their term by a two-thirds majority vote of supporting members at a convention.
The party dispute pertains to the February 2024 convention election and the decision of an illegitimate election committee to throw out over half of the votes. The original results were problematic for certain members of the party’s SCC, as it meant a shift in the balance of power. The election committee engineered a unilateral coup by misinterpreting the bylaws to claim that many voters were not properly credentialed. This included de-credentaling the members of the Linn-Benton Chapter (Oregon’s oldest PGP chapter). Seth Woolley, who headed the election committee, should have recused himself because he had six ballot proposals. All of his ballot proposals originally failed, but then passed after he disqualified over half of the voter’s ballots.
In an interview on Whole Community News, SCC member Natalie Paravicini, admitted that “…we could not allow also people who are on the steering committee who behave in that part and who just use party assets and who turn people away. Because I have a list of about six people who are really good organizers who are not going to get involved as long as one or two persons who are on the steering committee are very active because of the toxic behavior. And this is the problem….”
Dan Pulju and Lori Burton were elected to the SCC with a large majority of votes. They were cheated out of their elected positions, thus disenfranchising PGP voters. Natalie Paravicini and others on the SCC could have chosen not to certify the altered ballot results, but instead chose to seat their cohorts, Amy Sacks and Mary Geddry, who received only a few votes. Natalie’s Paravicini’s interview statement exposes her motive to engage in election fraud.
Some Pacific Green Party members refuse to participate in this blatant election fraud and will not accept the corrupt cabal controlling the SCC.
The article didn’t do a very good job of describing the two factions and what is the nature of their disagreement. But the public is never going to vote for a party or candidates when they don’t understand the platform or agenda. Dan is adamant that the Green Party shouldn’t require candidates to adhere to the Green Party platform but instead he supports all sorts of Libertarians and diverse right Wingers. So this article misses the main point of the split in Oregon’s Green Party. I wish there would drop the name Pacific Green Party and just call the green party of Oregon, and adhere to the principles of the green party of the United States and dump these right wingish libertarian factions.
The party dispute was not ideological. It was about the February 2024 Convention election results that were significantly altered by Seth Woolley and the election committee, who disqualified 39 voter’s ballots. The SCC had to certify Seth’s altered election results. There were only 4 remaining members at the time. The vote would have ended in a tie, except Natalie Paravicini invited the old SCC members, whose terms expired in January 2024 to vote. This went against the consent of Chuck Fall and Suzia Audderheide.
You are also incorrect about Dan Pulju not adhering to the Green Party platform. Dan had only one ballot proposal for the February Convention, which was to add “Israel is committing genocide” to the PGP platform. It passed with overwhelming support even after Seth’s voter purge.
Dan was also strongly opposed to Seth Woolley’s 5 “Anti-knowledge removal” proposals that would remove safety warnings about 5G, GMOs, nuclear power and high voltage power lines from the PGP platform. Seth’s misnamed “anti-knowledge” proposals go against the Green Party platform and one of the party’s 4 pillars – Ecological Wisdom”.
All 5 of Seth’s anti-knowledge proposals failed to pass, until he threw out 39 voter’s ballots (over half of the total). These proposals removed important knowledge from the PGP platform and made it a corporate friendly platform compatible with the Democratic Party, the Republican party and the national security state. So Seth is the individual who doesn’t adhere to the Green Party platform and values.
The Green Party and the Libertarian Party are in agreement on some issues: free speech, opposing war and imperialism, opposing unconstitutional surveillance (the Patriot Act) to name a few.
So I don’t know what you are referring to about Dan Pulju not adhering to the Green Party platform or believing that candidates don’t need to adhere to it.
More importantly, Dan Pulju was elected, at the February Convention, to the SCC with the largest number of votes. It was the will of Green Party voters for him to serve on the SCC. Natalie Paravicini didn’t want to work with Dan or have her ruling SCC faction overruled. The cheaters are unfortunately still in power.