SALEM, Ore., August 26, 2014—The representative association for the small-business owners of Oregon today announced its endorsement of Dennis Richardson for governor.
“In his 11 years in the state Legislature, Dennis Richardson has compiled a better than 90 percent, pro-small-business voting record on issues vital to the survival of Main Street enterprises,” said Jan Meekcoms, Oregon state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, America’s Voice of Small Business. “He fundamentally gets it that small businesses are not smaller versions of big businesses. They have different difficulties in remaining solvent. That the health of Oregon small business is in his top three priorities shows he appreciates that it is Main Street, not Wall Street, which employs the majority of working Oregonians and generates almost every new job.”
America’s largest small-business association, NFIB has almost 7,500 dues-paying members in Oregon. The endorsement of Richardson was made by NFIB’s SAFE (Save America’s Free Enterprise) Trust, the association’s political action committee, and is based on biennial voting records at the close of each legislative session and answers to the candidate questionnaire, which Richardson scored 95 percent.
“No one knows the state budget and state government better than Dennis Richardson,” added Meekcoms. “He was one of the first to sound the alarm over Cover Oregon, and had the incumbent heeded his warnings, the state might not have embarrassed itself to the point of having the FBI investigating its health insurance exchange.”
Small business is no small matter for the economic future of the state, reports the Office of Advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration. “They represent 97.6 percent of all employers and employ 55.5 percent of the private-sector labor force. Small businesses are crucial to the fiscal condition of the state and numbered 344,722 in 2010 … Most of Oregon’s small businesses … have fewer than 20 employees.”
Brief, single-pages of bulleted information on the power of the small-business vote, what a small business is and the distinctions it has from a big business can be found here.
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For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America’s economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. NFIB’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.
National Federation of Independent Business/Oregon
3340 Commercial St. S.E. Suite 210
Salem, OR 97302
503-364-4450
