OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2022
Walla Walla debates future of Whitman statue
ical fi gure, a medical mis-
sionary from the 1800s.
While Miller noted in an
interview that she has since
learned Whitman did on
at least one occasion wear
buckskins, it was not his
typical style of dress, but
appeared to be chosen by
the artist to honor a sym-
bolic representation of
“frontier mythology.”
Whitman started mission nearly 200 years
ago west of what is now Walla Walla
By EMRY DINMAN
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
WALLA WALLA —
More than a dozen mem-
bers of the Walla Walla
community and others
spoke in support or in oppo-
sition to the removal of a
statue of pioneer Marcus
Whitman during a recent
meeting of the city arts
commission.
The statue of Whitman,
the physician and mis-
sionary who established a
mission nearly 200 years
ago just west of what is now
the city of Walla Walla,
stands on the campus of
Whitman College, which
bears the fi gure’s name.
Whitman has come
under renewed scrutiny
in recent years for his role
in the colonization of the
region, helping to establish
the Oregon Trail and the
introduction of a measles
outbreak that killed Native
peoples. In 2019, a vandal
defaced the statue with
spray paint, misspelling
the word “genocide” on its
base.
Still, other members
of the community oppose
removing the statue,
arguing doing so erases the
legacy of a founding father
of the region who sought to
heal the sick.
The arts commission
meeting Wednesday, Jan.
19, came in response to
a request to remove the
statue of Whitman that was
started by Emily Tillotson,
a professor at Walla Walla
University.
In 2020, a local team
of art researchers pro-
posed removing the statue
of Whitman and relocating
it to Fort Walla Walla
Museum.
“The statue tells us a lot,
and it has a rich and fasci-
nating history, but again,
that history is not the his-
tory of Marcus Whitman,
it is not the history of the
Walla Walla Valley, and it’s
not the history of Whitman
Arguments against
the statue
Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, File
The Marcus Whitman statue stands at the corner of East Main Street
and Boyer Avenue in Walla Walla in September 2020.
College,” Libby Miller,
director of Whitman Col-
lege’s Maxey Museum and
art history professor, said
during a September 2020
Campaign cash isn’t tied to
rule on bid for governor
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Nicholas
Kristof’s campaign for
governor has raised $2.54
million as of Friday, Jan.
14, even as the Oregon
Supreme Court considers
whether he can run at all.
If the
answer is no,
Kristof will be
able to keep
the cash in his
state campaign
fi nance fund
Kristof
for use on a
future race or to dole out to
other candidates.
Kristof quit his job as
a columnist for the New
York Times to run for gov-
ernor of Oregon. A native
of Yamhill County, he now
lives on a farm in the area.
He formed a campaign
fi nance committee in
October 2021, listing him-
self as a Oregonian and his
occupation as “Journalist,
Author, Farmer.”
The Oregon constitution
says a candidate for gov-
ernor must have resided
in the state for three years
prior to running. The defi -
nition of what consti-
tutes residency is largely
unspecifi ed.
Kristof has argued that
he has always considered
himself an Oregon resident
and off ered hundreds of
pages of comments, writ-
ings and other material to
back up the claim.
But Oregon Secretary
of State Shemia Fagan
announced Jan. 6 that
a review of voting and
tax documents led her to
decide Kristof was a New
York resident for much of
the past three years and
therefore did not qualify to
run for governor.
“The rules are the rules
and they apply equally to
all candidates for offi ce in
Oregon,” Fagan said in a
statement.
Kristof appealed to the
Oregon Supreme Court,
saying the Democratic
establishment in the state
was trying to keep voters
from deciding if they
wanted him in the state’s
top job.
Two top Democrats
from Portland had already
announced plans to run:
House Speaker Tina Kotek
and Treasurer Tobias Read.
Fagan was a Democratic
state senator from Portland
prior to election as secre-
tary of state in 2020.
“A failing political
establishment in Oregon
has chosen to protect itself,
rather than give voters a
choice,” Kristof said.
Fagan supported having
the jurists make the fi nal
decision.
While the legal road-
block has stymied Kristof
for the time being, he’s
continued to campaign and
raise funds. The money
will stay with his cam-
paign operation, no matter
what the court rules.
“At no point is he
required to stop raising
money nor is there a
requirement to return any
contributions,” said Molly
Woon, Fagan’s spokes-
person. The Secretary of
State Elections Division
regulates state political
contributions.
Kristof has declined
to discuss the “what
ifs” of losing his appeal,
including what he would
do with the campaign
funds.
“Having presented a
strong legal case, Nick
is actively campaigning
and expects to be on the
ballot, as do the thousands
of Oregonians in 35 of
36 counties who support
him,” said Melissa Navis,
spokesperson for the “Nick
for Oregon” campaign
committee.
There’s relatively little
to regulate. Oregon has one
of the most liberal cam-
paign fi nance laws in the
nation, due to court rulings
that determined limits are
a violation of the freedom
of speech guaranteed in the
state constitution.
Any person, company,
group or other entity can
give an unlimited amount
of money, as long as it is
reported. Nike founder Phil
Knight contributed over $2
million to the unsuccessful
2018 governor’s campaign
of former Rep. Knute Bue-
hler, R-Bend.
While Kristof’s legal
limbo could stretch to the
end of the month, his fund-
raising hasn’t skipped
a beat. He’s logged 52
reported contributions
since Jan. 1, totaling just
over $134,000.
Kristof has touted
receiving contributions
from thousands of Oregon
voters all over the state.
The amounts are small
enough that the individ-
uals often do not have to be
identifi ed in state campaign
fi nance reports.
But the biggest spenders
on Kristof’s eff ort con-
tinue to be from outside of
Oregon.
Since the beginning of
2022, the campaign has
received $50,000 from
LinkedIn founder Reid
Hoff man of Menlo Park,
California, and former
Disney Co. chair Robert A.
Iger, who lives in Albany,
New York.
Another $10,000
was given by New York
investor Dennis Mehiel.
Other contributions include
$5,000 from Colorado
philanthropist and environ-
mental activist Jill Soff er.
Of the 14 contributions
of $1,000 or more, only one
came from an Oregon resi-
dent: $1,000 from Portland
attorney Robert Schlachter.
Kristof has been
ramping up his cam-
paign spending as well,
with nearly $65,000 in
reported expenditures
since the beginning of the
year, including $10,000 for
Scottsdale, Arizona-based
Brainstorm Consulting.
Berger Hirschberg Strat-
egies consultants in Wash-
ington, D.C., received
$19,300.86, while $6,250
was spent with Wash-
ington, D.C.-based adver-
tising fi rm GMMB.
Bully Pulpit Interactive,
a San Francisco communi-
cations company, received
$10,000. Authentic Cam-
paigns, a consultant fi rm
based in Richmond, Vir-
ginia, received payments
totaling $9,500.
Kristof still has
$1.9 million in the bank,
a campaign fund second
only to the $2.9 million
raised by former Sen. Betsy
Johnson, D-Scappoose, who
is mounting an unaffi liated
campaign for governor.
As an independent can-
didate, Johnson would skip
the primary and plans to
submit about 24,000 veri-
fi ed signatures to the sec-
retary of state by the end
of August. If she meets
the number, she would go
on the November ballot
to face the winner of the
Democratic and Repub-
lican primaries.
Walla Walla Arts Commis-
sion meeting.
The statue, Miller and
her team argued, does
not represent the histor-
During the arts com-
mission meeting, Whitman
College professor Stan
Thayne, speaking on his
own behalf, compared
this depiction to the fi c-
tional monument of Jeb-
ediah Springfi eld on The
Simpsons.
“My point here is that
the coonskin cap fron-
tiersman is a generic form
of monumental-ization
of every-town America,”
Thayne said. “Every town
has their coonskin cap fron-
tiersman, violent killer
who went and did the dirty
work of the town to kind of
clear the way so that white
settlers could come settle
there.”
Tillotson, speaking also
on her own behalf Jan. 19,
spoke in favor of removing
the statue and potentially
placing it in a museum.
Joy Garcia, a licensed
clinical social worker
serving as a therapist at
Yellowhawk Tribal Center
for the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Res-
ervation, argued the stat-
ue’s continued presence
prolongs historic trauma
against the region’s Indige-
nous peoples.
The CTUIR’s web-
site states Whitman was
killed in 1847 by a band of
Cayuse, along with some
of their Umatilla and Nez
Perce allies, for a number
of reasons, including for the
stealing of Native property,
encouraging the increase of
immigration and the belief
that Whitman, a doctor, had
poisoned Native peoples.
The arts commission
will meet again in March to
consider its recommenda-
tion . The Walla Walla City
Council has the fi nal say
over the fate of the statue.
Elections offi cials nix school choice measure
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Oregon
Secretary of State Shemia
Fagan rejected a petition
Wednesday, Jan. 19, to get
a school choice measure on
the November 2024 ballot
because it was not specifi c
to one issue.
The proposed mea-
sure included changes
to the Oregon constitu-
tion that would allow par-
ents to choose any school
for their child and provide
state funding for students
homeschooling or in pri-
vate schools, including
those providing religious
education.
The petition came from
Education Freedom for
Oregon, a nonprofi t based
out of Tualatin, and Marc
Thielman, superintendent
of the Alsea School Dis-
trict. Theilman, who lives
in Cottage Grove, is also a
Republican candidate for
governor.
Thielman fi led the peti-
tion Sept. 29, 2021, with
1,776 signatures along with
written statements of sup-
port from three people.
Reed Scott-Schwalbach,
president of the Oregon
Education Association,
and Jim Green, execu-
tive director of the Oregon
School Boards Associa-
tion, submitted remarks
through an attorney
opposing the measure.
Fagan said in a state-
ment that she rejected the
measure because it vio-
lated the state’s “single
subject rule,” which
requires ballot initiatives
to address a single subject,
topic or issue.
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