Associated Oregon Industries
Oregon’s largest business advocate
Supporters of a move to privatize sales of liquor in Oregon have decided to drop back and regroup for another election cycle. On Wednesday, Oregonians for Competition decided that in the face of continuing legal challenges, there wasn’t enough time to collect signatures on their preferred measure.
Supporters were working with two possible versions of their initiative petition, but the one they preferred was tripped up by a May 30 Oregon Supreme Court decision requiring a rewrite of the title. The rewrite and re-review of the new title by the Court would have eaten up another two weeks of signature gathering time. With a July 3 deadline to submit signatures to the Secretary of State, proponents were faced with the choice of gathering signatures on their less-preferred, but qualified version, or withdrawing entirely.
A week ago, proponents planned to go forward with their less-preferred version. But upon further consideration, they decided to delay until the next election cycle, in hopes of ultimately getting the petition language they prefer. In the meantime, Oregonians for Competition has said they will pursue privatization legislation in the 2015 Legislative Session.
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