Don't Lose Your Chance To Vote In This Year's Election!

Hey everyone

If you work in Oregon's Film and TV industry, you probably already saw this post a couple of days ago on http://www.oregonfilmandtvdollars.com/.

While many states' voter registration deadline was yesterday, here in Oregon we've still got until next Tuesday, October 12 to register. It's so so so SO important that you vote this year, folks! Please:

• Check to see if you're already registered on the State of Oregon's Elections web site.
• If you need to change your address, fill out this Online Form and get it in. Your ballot will be sent to your new address.
• Not registered yet? No problem – you can register online here. You’ll need your Oregon driver’s license number for this process… if you’d rather register in person, print off this form and take it to your County Election Office.

Look, folks, we're picking a new Governor this year, as well as electing the entire State House Of Representatives and half the State Senate. Nationally, we're picking our entire Oregon delegation to the federal House of Representatives and one of our Senators.

On the state side, the people we send to Salem this year are going to be in charge of guiding Oregon through the economic mess we're currently in. Whether you're a Kitzhaber or Dudley supporter, though, don't kid yourself - the governor doesn't have much power in this process. It's our legislators who will be writing laws and passing the budget for the next two years - so be sure you're sending people you agree with (I would say "trust," but you know... we are talking Politics here... :) ) to Salem in November. Learn about your district's Representative and Senator, and then find out who's running against your sitting Representative and your sitting Senator. Visit the candidates web sites. Go to a meet-and-greet with the candidates like I did last weekend. Be sure that the person who's going to represent YOU in Salem thinks the way you do!

On the federal side, this election has been called the most important election of our time - and there's some truth to that. Look, just like the state-side, President Obama has no power to write laws that affect the budget of the United States. Sure, he proposes the budget to Congress... but it's the people we're sending to Washington this November who will actually create the budget bill and pass it up to the President for signature.

There's another reason that you need to participate in this year's national election. There's a singular question being asked in just about every house and senate race across the country: are we, as a nation, going to move forward? Or are we going to move backward?

I think the fight over healthcare reform this past year and the fact that Republicans in the Senate have used the Filibuster maneuver more in this past Congress than at any other time in history go to prove that our government is at an impasse until we, the voters, decide which direction we want this country to go in. On one side we've got a party whose only desire seems to be to stop anything and everything the president wants to do, and to go back to running the country the way they did in 1994. On the other side, we've got a party that seems divided in its loyalties and unable to work together, let alone with the opposition and the president (and that's not even mentioning their collective lack-of-spine when it comes to standing up to Republican obstructionism)

You get to decide which option is better this year: return to the "Contract With America" days of the 1990s, or move forward with President Obama by giving him more support in Congress to get new ideas and new solutions past the opposition.

I'm not here to tell you how to vote - if you've been reading my personal blog for any length of time, you've pretty much figured out my politics... but I am here to ask you - to beg you - to show up and do your duty as a citizen on November 2. The United States of America doesn't ask a lot of its citizens, but this is one duty that every American over 18 is expected to do. Vote. Be a part of the government. Help decide which direction our state and our Country heads in for the next two years.

Or, you know... don't - but if you don't, I don't want to hear you complaining about the direction things are going in. You had your chance to make your voice heard...