INSIDE
ENTERPRISE STANDOUT RUNNER TO CONTINUE CROSS-COUNTRY CAREER AT IDAHO |
SPORTS, A9
DRE AD
April 21, 2022
THURSDAY EDITION
INSIDE EXPLORE AGRICULTURE IN SPECIAL SECTION
Growth
could spur
primary
changes
DROUG ED
CONTIN HT
U
ES
LOCAL RECOGNITION
« Bob Goss, left, sits
with other members
and family of the La
Grande and Baker
American Legion
posts in Baker City
in November 1948.
Goss and the La
Grande Post’s drum
corps marched
in an Armistice
Day parade in
Baker City before
a football game
between La Grande
and Baker high
schools. In 2022,
Goss donated the
uniform he wore
in this photograph
to be preserved
by the American
Legion Post 43 in
La Grande.
Rise in nonaffiliated
voters encourages push
to open Oregon primaries
By JULIA SHUMWAY
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Oregon voters who aren’t reg-
istered with any political party reached a sig-
nifi cant milestone in March: They now out-
number Democrats.
Nonaffi liated voters have long been the
second largest bloc in the state, behind Dem-
ocrats and ahead of Republicans. Their con-
tinued growth, due in part to a 2015 law that
automatically registered people getting or
renewing driver’s licenses as nonaffi liated
voters, could give them more political power.
But they don’t get a say in picking candi-
dates in most primary elections.
When county clerks mail ballots in May,
nonaffi liated voters will see one major state-
wide race for the nonpartisan commissioner
of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Indus-
tries, some state and local judges and pos-
sibly other local races, depending on where
they live. They won’t get to vote on nomi-
nees for Congress, governor or the Oregon
Legislature.
Nonaffi liated voters have until April 26 to
change their party registration and become
eligible to vote in the Democratic or Repub-
lican primary. They can switch their regis-
tration back after that.
News that nonaffi liated voters surpassed
registered Democrats brought more attention
to a pending attempt to change the Oregon
Constitution to allow all voters to participate
in state-funded primary elections. Ed Doyle,
president of Oregon Open Primaries and the
chief petitioner for the proposed constitu-
tional amendment, said he’s been a registered
voter with both major parties at diff erent
points in his life and was always frustrated by
how primaries limited his choices.
“I’ve always kind of been bothered by
the fact that I was limited,” he said. “I’ve
always voted for the person, not the party,
and very frequently I was limited on who I
could choose.”
Doyle and other petitioners gathered
more than 1,000 signatures from Oregon
voters, the fi rst step in getting a pro-
posed amendment on the ballot. They’re
now reviewing a draft ballot title from the
Oregon Justice Department, and once that
ballot title is complete, they must collect
nearly 150,000 signatures from Oregon
voters by July 8 for the measure to appear
on the November ballot.
$1.50
Lisa Goss/Contributed Photo
TOP HONORS
Bob Goss, World War II veteran,
earns American Legion award
Dale Case added to Diamond
Pioneer Agricultural registry
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
By DICK MASON
The Observer
The Observer
A GRANDE — No other La Grande res-
ident can say they have been a member of
the American Legion longer than Robert
“Bob” Goss.
The 97-year-old was recently recognized by the
national branch of the American Legion for 75 con-
tinuous years of membership in good standing.
“We’ll likely never give one of
those out again,”La Grande American
Legion Post 43 Commander Dave
Matott said. “It’s not something we’ve
ever done here, national sent this to us.
It’s a great achievement.”
A World War II veteran, Goss for-
mally received the honor at the La
Goss
Grande Post on Wednesday, March 9.
The American Legion, a nonprofi t organization that
supports veterans and current military personnel,
was founded just 28 years before Goss joined in
1947. Goss is the oldest member of the La Grande
Post 43 and the only local resident to receive such an
award.
During his many years as a member, Goss was
actively involved in the post’s drum and bugle corps.
The band members were honored as state champions
LICEL — Dale Case, an Alicel-area
farmer and agricultural leader, is joining a
select circle.
Case, 80, is being saluted for a lifetime
of achievements by Oregon State University’s Col-
lege of Agricultural Sciences, which has named him
to its Diamond Pioneer Agricultural Achievement
Registry.
“It was a big surprise,” Case
said of his selection. “It was totally
unexpected.”
He added that it is gratifying that
some of the work he has done is being
remembered.
“It is nice to be recognized,” Case
Case
said.
Case received an award commemorating his
selection to the registry on Tuesday, April 19, at a
ceremony at OSU in Corvallis. He was nominated
for the registry by the Columbia Basin Agricultural
Research Center in Adams.
“Dale has a long history of service to Oregon’s
and the region’s agriculture,” the Columbia Basin
Agricultural Research Center said in a press release.
John Howard, a La Grande businessman, noted
See, Goss/Page A8
See, Case/Page A8
L
A
See, Primaries/Page A7
Poll: Oregonians willing to spend on family services
By ZACK DEMARS
MORE INFORMATION
The Bulletin
SALEM — Child and family
wellness programs are widely sup-
ported in Oregon, according to
a new survey from the Oregon
Values & Beliefs Center.
Surveyors asked 1,500 Oregon
residents their opinions on a dozen
diff erent social programs ben-
efi ting children, from aff ord-
able housing to food access, and
whether they would support their
tax money going to those pro-
grams. They found that many
would, despite diff erences in pre-
ferred programs on political and
demographic lines.
Three of the most popular pro-
The Oregon Values and Beliefs Center is
committed to the highest level of public
opinion research. To help obtain that,
the nonprofi t is building a large research
panel of Oregonians to ensure that all
voices are represented in discussions of
public policy in a valid and statistically
reliable way. Selected panelists earn
points for their participation, which can
be redeemed for cash or donated to a
charity. To learn more visit oregonvbc.
org/about-the-panel.
grams respondents supported
included tutoring for students who
need extra support, increasing
access to extracurricular activities
and a state program off ering health
care to eligible children. Upwards
INDEX
Business ........B1
Classified ......B2
Comics ...........B5
Crossword ....B2
WEATHER
Dear Abby ....B6
Horoscope ....B4
Lottery ...........A2
Obituaries .....A5
Opinion .........A4
Spiritual ........A6
Sports ............A9
Sudoku ..........B5
of 85% of those who responded
to the survey said they supported
those programs.
Survey takers felt less positive
about using culturally inclusive
learning materials, cultural aware-
ness and implicit bias trainings for
school staff and oral health care
off ered at schools — though 70%
or more of respondents still sup-
ported those programs.
Political affi liation is a key
factor in determining a per-
son’s support for those programs,
researchers found.
About 91% of Democrats who
took the survey supported using
tax dollars to increase access to
affordable housing, while just
64% of Republicans supported
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Friday
33 LOW
56/37
Mostly cloudy
Still cloudy
the same thing.
The two groups face the widest
gap in beliefs on the question of
using tax dollars to use “cultur-
ally inclusive” learning mate-
rials. Among Democrats, 89%
expressed support, while just
40% of Republicans did the same.
The two groups felt similarly
about requiring cultural aware-
ness and implicit bias training for
school staff .
Noah Scott Warman, 52, a labor
attorney and progressive Dem-
ocrat from Portland, was one of
the survey’s respondents. He said
that while he agrees that diversity,
equity and inclusion are important
See, Survey/Page A7
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 48
3 sections, 34 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com.
More contact info
on Page A4.