Dear Marion County Democrats and our supporters,
In the early morning hours of Friday, July 25, the front door to our downtown Salem headquarters was broken. Thank you to Salem Police for notifying our building owner of the damage at 5:30 AM.
Thankfully, we are not aware of other damage on our block. We have been located in Salem’s downtown core for six years. Our landlord is an extremely kind man who has been supportive and accommodating of our presence.
We have experienced petty vandalism before, like Trump stickers on our front window. Our dedicated volunteer team has been quick to clean this damage. Because of the extent of this most recent damage, our Executive Committee has opted to place multiple surveillance cameras in our office to record any future events.
Last week, we provided testimony to Salem City Council that we feel safe in our location. This continues to be true. We believed our voice was important to add to the conversation due to other testimony that painted downtown as hostile. That has not been our experience.
We are not sure if we were targeted because we added our voice to this conversation. We can’t be sure whether this damage was politically motivated. It may have been random, but we work to be good neighbors and have never experienced this before.
What we do know for sure is that we aren’t going anywhere. Our building owner does not deserve this headache. Our party will work to protect our beloved headquarters and meeting space.
For any future events of vandalism, we will cooperate to the fullest extent to secure accountablity for anyone who perpetrates it. We regret being placed in this position. We will continue to be a vibrant, active location to foster the strength of local democratic values.
The importance of your financial support during times like these cannot be understated. If you’d like to contribute to the Marion County Democrats, please do so via ActBlue: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mariondems
We also invite you to attend our Monte Carlo Night fundraising event this Friday, August 1 aboard the Willamette Queen. Tickets are available for purchase here: https://mcdc.betterworld.org/events/willamette2025
Thank you for your understanding and support.
In solidarity,
Paige Barton
Chair, Marion County Democrats