The Independent Party of Oregon leaderships strategy of focusing on State Legislative races will expand beyond helping it’s own candidates in races this primary season according to a high ranking Party leader.

The source said that the IPO will be reaching out to a handful of incumbent Representatives . This group of Representatives purportedly includes both Democrats and Republicans.

“These are districts where the incumbent has been supportive of our party and legislative priorities and where no Independent candidate has filed” said the source. “So, our strategy is to reward these elected officials and if they want to get the IPO write in nomination, we’ll help them.”

There are IPO candidates in 9 of the 60 Oregon house races this year, but the IPO is also recruiting people to mount write in candidacies in some races where no IPO candidate filed before the deadline.

“In those safe districts where the less dominant party doesn’t even field a candidate, we don’t want the dominant candidate to win our nomination by write in, because voters end up with a single choice in November. And that’s no choice at all.” Said the source. “So, for instance in Multnomah County, we may recruit a moderate, or even a Bernie Sanders type candidate to run as a write in for our nomination. And in a deep red district with a far right incumbent, we may recruit a local Mayor, City Council person, or School Board Member to be the IPO write in candidate. We’ll particularly focus on districts where the incumbent has been hostile to the growth of a third party option.”

The IPO wants to be active in all House races, according to the source. So in Districts where there is no IPO candidate and no effort to recruit an IPO member for write in, but there is Democratic and Republican competition, The IPO may send questionnaires to the candidates to determine their level of support for the Party, it’s members and their priorities. With that information, the IPO source says leadership will evaluate the answers and determine whether to get involved in those races by helping the Democratic or Republican candidate get the IPO write in nomination.”

“We’ve got to be strategic.” said the source “We don’t have a big money donor base, or a lot of candidates yet. But we still want the voices of independent voters to have influence in these primaries. Influencing the write in outcomes is no different than cross nominating, which is allowed under Oregon law”

“You have to be creative in a closed primary State where the two major parties control the rules.” said the source. “We’re using their rules to open up the system for all voters, and to provide as many choices as we can in November.”