This weekend, Democrats from across the state have gathered in Eugene to vote on next year’s legislative agenda.

This morning and afternoon, state delegates (of which there are about 350-400 in the state) are meeting in small groups of 20-40 to vote on 13 different topics.

A state delegate can be any registered Democrat nominated by a county Democratic party. Although there are 36 counties in Oregon, there are 26 active county Democratic parties.

An example of one of the 13 topics is Human Rights (which encompasses prisoner rights, immigration policy, abortion issues, etc). Another example of one of the 13 topics is Forest, Field, Range, and Fisheries.

Each topic has 10-15 agenda items. An example of one of the agenda items is:

Ban use of private corporations from military functions requiring use of weapons.

Under the topic of Foreign Policy and National Security

In the small groups of 20-40 delegates, each agenda item is reviewed and modified to best represent the views of the majority. This means discussing/debating the intent and phrasing of each item.

Eventually, each person in the room votes on their top 6 items of the topic. These are tallied and the top 6 items overall are then sent to the main vote (along with the de-prioritized loser items).

The main vote will be held tonight and tomorrow morning. In the main vote, all attending state delegates (there are about 280 here) will be given a ballot and told to vote on their top 6 items in each of the 13 topics.

The weekend will end with the state delegates voting to put the top items in each topic into the Oregon Democratic Platform for 2008.

For the next year, the Platform will be the legislative agenda for all elected Oregon Democrats.