BREAKING: All Democrats in Oregon congressional delegation now oppose SOPA/PIPA. (Paging Greg Walden...)

Kari Chisholm

A few minutes ago, Congressman Kurt Schrader posted a tweet announcing his opposition to SOPA:

Current laws 2 protect US jobs and consumers from illegal internet activity r insufficient. But #SOPA is not the answer & I wont support it.

This morning, Senator Jeff Merkley announced his opposition as well. Via Facebook:

Thank you for all the calls, emails, and facebook posts. I will be opposing SOPA and PIPA. We cannot endanger an open internet. Protecting intellectual property is important, but we need to carefully tailor the solution. PIPA and SOPA don't cut it.

They join Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio in opposition along with, of course, Senator Ron Wyden - who has been leading this fight nationally.

If elected, Suzanne Bonamici has also indicated that she would oppose SOPA and PIPA. From Facebook, about an hour ago:

Are you wondering? I share the concerns of many Oregonians about SOPA and PIPA and would oppose them. Online piracy and theft is a serious problem that needs to be addressed but open access to the Internet is important to creativity, innovation and rebuilding the economy. We need to get this right, which is why I’ll be looking at Senator Wyden’s bipartisan alternative.

And, for what it's worth, Rob Cornilles has also announced his opposition as well.

That leaves Congressman Greg Walden as the lone holdout in the delegation. I'm not aware that he's announced his position either way. Of course, he's got a pretty powerful perch on the issue. Not only is he a key ally for Speaker John Boehner, but he's also the chairman of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Well, Congressman Walden? We've got a bill here that would break key technologies that underpin the internet, undermine our moral force in dealing with censorship countries like China and Iran, require social media sites to pre-screen all user-contributed content, and give corporations a private right of action to knock sites offline with merely an accusation.

Are you for it or are you against it? Greg?

By Kari Chisholm Jan. 18, 2012