On June 5, the Working Families Party turned in 20,000 signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State, so as to qualify as a political party. The state requires 18,381, so there probably aren’t enough valid signatures yet. But the state will check the signatures and tell the party how many more are needed.

The party has no plans to run a candidate for statewide office this year (Governor is the only statewide office up), but may run for a few legislative and county offices. Within a year, the party will need to boost its registration up to one-half of 1% of the state total, in order to stay on the ballot (since it will not have polled 1% for any statewide race in 2006, since it won’t run for Governor).