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April 27th, 2018

4/27/2018

Judicial candidates to speak May 3 at Linn Dems meeting

ALBANY – Candidates for Linn County Circuit Judge Position 3 will be the featured speakers during the Thursday, May 3, meeting of the Linn County Democrats in the Albany Public Library Meeting Room, 2450 14th Ave. S.E.
A social time, with light refreshments, begins at 6 p.m. The meeting starts at 6:30.
The four non-partisan candidates for Position 3 are:

Jennifer Hisey, an attorney with the Albany office of Legal Aid Services of Oregon.
Rachel Kittson-MaQatish, a trial attorney who litigates criminal, family, and civil cases.
Teri Plagmann, a trial attorney who currently specializes in family law, estate planning and probates,
Rebecca Winters, a family law and bankruptcy attorney and mediator.

Unless one of the candidates receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the May 15 primary election, the top two vote-getters in the primary will advance to the November general election. The winner will succeed Judge Daniel Murphy, who is retiring.
Also invited to speak and answer questions at the May 3 meeting is Democratic candidate Kimberly Koops, who was unable to attend the candidates forum held during last month’s Linn Dems’ meeting.
Koops and Marty Wilde are seeking the Democratic nomination for state representative in House District 11. The winner will face the Republican primary winner, Mark Herbert or Joshua Powell. Phil Barnhart, the Democratic incumbent in District 11, is not seeking re-election.
For more information about the meeting and the Linn County Democrats, contact Linn Dems Co-Chair Graham Kislingbury, 541-974-2075 or g.kislingbury@comcast.net.

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April 25th, 2018

4/25/2018

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Larry Johnson drops out of Linn Commissioner race

Larry Johnson, former Linn County Commissioner, dropped out of the Democratic primary race for Linn Commissioner on April 25, citing health concerns.
Larry said he fully supports the candidacy of Stephanie Newton, who will face Independent candidate Garry Sullivan and Republican incumbent John Lindsey in the Nov. 6 general election.
We thank Larry for his service and wish him the best.

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Merkley to hold Linn County Town Hall on April 30 at LBCC

4/25/2018

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Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley will hold a town hall at 3:30 p.m. Monday, April 30, in the Russell Tripp Performance Center at Linn Benton Community College.

He will update constituents on his work in Washington, D.C., and answer their questions and invite their suggestions about how to tackle the challenges facing Oregon and America.

“In our ‘We the People’ democracy, town hall meetings are an essential tool for me to hear from Oregonians and represent their interests back in D.C.,” Merkley said. “I invite everyone in the county to come and discuss what we need to do to strengthen our state and our nation.”

Since joining the Senate in 2009, Merkley has held a town hall in each of Oregon’s 36 counties every year. This town hall will be his 344th as a U.S. Senator. Details are below.

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April 21st, 2018

4/21/2018

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DNC Files Lawsuit Against Russia, WikiLeaks,
Trump Campaign For Attack On DNC & Our Democracy

Jeanne Atkins, Democratic Party of Oregon chair, emailed the following story to state and county party leaders Friday with this note:

"I’ve been hearing from our members how concerned they are about our electoral system and they want to know what the Party is doing about protecting our elections. Well, here is a big step the DNC is taking. Those who would mess with our basic Democratic institutions need to know they will answer for it. I'm glad to be part of an organization that will step forward to hold wrongdoers accountable. All that being said, please know that we are not fundraising around this effort and this does not represent any retreat from keeping our eyes on the goal of electing Democrats up and down the ticket. – Jeanne Atkins, State Party Chair"

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The DNC filed a complaint in federal court on Friday against the Russian Federation, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU), a GRU operative using a pseudonym "Guccifer 2.0,"  Aras and Emin Agalarov, Joseph Mifsud, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Jared Kushner, George Papadopoulos, and Richard Gates for their brazen attack on our democracy, including the DNC hack and dissemination of stolen documents.

  “During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in Donald Trump’s campaign. This constituted an act of unprecedented treachery: the campaign of a nominee for President of the United States in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the presidency," said DNC Chair Tom Perez.

“No one is above the law and the perpetrators of this attack must be held accountable. They successfully hacked the Democratic Party in 2016 and they will be back. We must prevent future attacks on our democracy, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today. This is not partisan, it’s patriotic. If the occupant of the Oval Office won’t protect our democracy, Democrats will. It is our obligation to the American people.”

Russia found a willing partner in the Trump campaign, which shared their goal of hurting the Democratic Party and electing Donald Trump.  Representatives of all three groups remained in contact with each other as the attack was being executed.

A major component of the Russian interference campaign was the cyberattack on the DNC.  Russian intelligence agents broke into DNC computer systems, stole DNC materials, and used WikiLeaks and fake personas operated by Russian intelligence to disseminate the stolen materials to voters.

The Russian government notified the Trump campaign in advance that it had stolen Democratic emails and other information about the Democratic Party that it was seeking to use in support of Trump’s candidacy.  Rather than reporting Russia's offer to meddle in a U.S. election, the Trump campaign welcomed Russia's help.  Trump’s closest political adviser, Roger Stone, also appeared to have advance knowledge of specific plans by WikiLeaks to disseminate some of this information. Rather than report these plans to authorities, the Trump campaign and its associates cheered them on.  And throughout the campaign, Trump associates remained in contact with individuals closely connected to the Kremlin and Russian intelligence agencies.

This lawsuit is based on facts, admissions of defendants in multiple criminal proceedings, including their own words, records that have been released in legal filings, the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community and widely confirmed news reports.

While it is impossible to fully repair the harm caused by the defendants, the DNC has filed this civil complaint in the federal court in Southern District of New York to hold the defendants accountable for their misconduct and to ensure transparency.

The DNC is represented in this matter by Joe Sellers, Geoffrey Graber, Julia Horwitz and Alison Deich of the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.

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