The Oregon Working Families Party, like the Working Families Party in other states, generally nominates individuals who are also Democratic Party nominees. The Working Families Party only bothers to qualify as a party in states that allow fusion.
However, this year, the Oregon Working Families Party has nominated two member-nominees of the Independent Party. See this story. This is believed to be the first time the Working Families Party in any state has ever nominated a member of a party other than the Democratic, Republican, or Working Families Parties, for any federal or state office.
The Oregon Independent Party must be a liberal party if it is nominating candidates which are acceptable to the Working Families Party.
Or should I just say the state of Oregon is becoming a liberal state?
The Independent Party is a populist moderate good-government non-ideological party. They likely get a lot of registrations from voters who are independent (non-affiliated). In 2008, when there would have been a lot of registration drives, Independent Party voters increased from 13K to 43K, while non-affiliated decreased by 6K.
In contested races where the Republican and Democratic candidates sought the Independent endorsement, mostly Republicans received it.
In one of the races where the Working Families Party made an endorsement, the Democratic candidate, also secured the Republican endorsement as a write-in. She said she couldn’t remember asking for the WF endorsement, saying that there were a lot of forms, and that some parties ask for commitments on their hot-button issues.