Secretary of state candidate Kate Brown (D-Portland) picked up an endorsement from the Oregon Independent Party Tuesday.

The party’s, which is Oregon’s third largest political party with 33,000 registered members, said that Brown’s record of reform in the state Senate, where she passed legislation to create the ORESTAR system that allows for voters to track campaign finance, was what the secretary of state's office would need.

"Kate Brown has been a champion of reform for her entire political career," said Independent Party Secretary Sal Peralta.  "Her work to expand basic civil rights and her support for ethics reform and elections reforms, such as fusion voting, demonstrate her commitment to an open and inclusive government for all Oregonians.  We all now need to focus on campaign finance reform to ensure that the basic instruments of our government are in the hands of the people."

Brown is the third Democrat the Independent Party is backing for the general election. The party also cross-nominated U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) and state treasurer candidate Ben Westlund (D-Tumalo). It also nominated and began supporting former OR-1 Republican nominee Joel Haugen (I-Scappoose), after Haugen was banned from local Republican Party events because of his endorsement of Barack Obama.