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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2019
New plan targets
salmon-eating
sea lions on river
By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press
Claire Withycombe/Oregon Capital Bureau
Visitors at the Oregon State Fair sign a petition to recall Gov. Kate Brown.
A populist push to recall Brown
Two petitions in play
By AUBREY WIEBER
and CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Santa Claus
doesn’t care much for the
governor.
Dressed in a stocking
cap, black boots, red velvet
pants and vest, he signed the
petition to recall Gov. Kate
Brown in between proffer-
ing photos from his holiday
booth in the stifl ing August
heat at the Oregon State
Fair.
“The main thing is being
able to have an opinion
when you think something’s
not right,” Santa said. He
declined to fully identify
himself, saying he fears
being attacked.
Santa had a very spe-
cifi c grievance: He said the
governor’s offi ce imposed a
$400 annual fee on him for
having a water well at his
property east of Salem.
At a time when right-
wing populists from United
Kingdom Prime Minis-
ter Boris Johnson and Bra-
zil President Jair Bolsonaro
to President Donald Trump
have accrued mainstream
appeal , Brown’s opponents
are fi nding an outlet for
their dissatisfaction through
a recall petition. Two, to be
precise.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau interviewed about
30 people signing petitions
at the fair in Salem over
three days. Most were from
the Willamette Valley, many
from more rural areas such
as Molalla or Monmouth.
They carried a variety
of grievances to the two
booths offering recall peti-
tions. They named business
taxes, environmental poli-
cies and legislation allowing
undocumented immigrants
to obtain driver’s licenses.
Brown, they say, is
responsible for turning
Oregon into a tax-happy,
gun-hating, business-killing
liberal haven.
Disliking politicians is
an American tradition, but
the recall process is gener-
ally reserved as a response
to corruption or scandal, not
a rejection of policy. In fact,
no recall of a state offi cial
has ever made it to the Ore-
gon ballot.
The Oregon Republican
P arty claims it is on pace
to get more than 300,000
signatures by the Oct. 14
deadline.
To many seasoned polit-
ical observers, the prospect
of recalling Brown, who
was reelected last Novem-
ber, is as likely as Santa
Claus and eight reindeer fl y-
ing around the world every
Christmas Eve.
Thomas
Wheat-
ley, Brown’s campaign
adviser, believes Republi-
cans are juicing the stats.
“I’m extraordinarily dubi-
ous about this claim, though
they do operate in the world
of alternative facts,” he said.
Gut feeling
The majority of those
interviewed at the fair about
signing the petitions strug-
gled to specify why they
wanted to recall Brown, and
seemed to be doing so based
on a gut feeling.
Most commonly, people
brought up cap and trade —
a failed effort by the Leg-
islature that Brown backed
to curb greenhouse gas
emissions.
“My understanding is
that a lot of people just don’t
think Salem cares about
them right now,” said Adam
Keaton, the Linn County
GOP chairman, pointing
to that county’s agricul-
ture, timber and trucking
industries.
While petition signers
often said Brown isn’t fol-
lowing the will of the vot-
ers, she won re election cam-
paigning heavily for the
policies they oppose .
“We are proud of the
accomplishments from this
year’s legislative session,”
Wheatley said. “Historic
investments in our schools,
stable health care funding,
bold steps to make hous-
ing more affordable, tack-
ling dirty diesel, campaign
fi nance reform and much
more.”
Though some doubted
Brown really did campaign
on such policies.
“You know, I don’t
believe that,” said Lincoln
City resident Dee Right. “I
don’t believe it was in full
detail. I think she lied.”
Right stopped by one
of the fair booths, but had
already signed the petition.
“She’s only benefi ting
the metropolitan areas and
not the rural cities that make
up Oregon,” Right said.
Right was especially
bothered by the cap and
trade proposal, which she
said would kill the logging
and trucking industries.
Right said she’s been a
registered Democrat her
whole life, yet when she
saw a recall booth in Lin-
coln City, she pulled an ille-
gal U-turn to sign it. She’s
never been political, she
said, but spoke with passion
when disparaging Brown.
“She’s making a mess,
and she doesn’t listen to the
people,” Right said.
Two months ago, Right
switched her affi liation.
“Sometimes you gotta
do what you gotta do,” she
said, adding she took sev-
eral sheets to get friends and
family to sign as well.
Michael Anna, visiting
the fair from Beaverton, said
he didn’t like Brown’s poli-
tics and didn’t think she was
good for the state.
He particularly dislikes
cap and trade.
“It’s a big scam, and it’s
not necessary,” Anna said.
“And I read somewhere the
only reason they want to do
it is to say, ‘We’re the fi rst
state to do this.’ There is no
man-made global warming.”
In fact, Oregon’s cap and
trade proposal was modeled
after one that passed in Cali-
fornia years ago.
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Cavalier attitude
Keaton, the Linn County
GOP chair, said Brown
has a cavalier attitude, but
admitted she is not entirely
responsible for policies the
state’s legislators pass.
But, he said, “Brown
does get the fi nal say on a
lot of this stuff.”
“On the whole, I think
it’s a lot easier to focus on
Kate Brown ... making a sin-
gle focus point of the recall
effort is a lot easier than
focusing out into 15 differ-
ent representative, Senate
races,” Keaton said. “So I
think that helps simplify the
effort while at the same time
focusing on someone who
has been rather egregious in
the operation.”
Tom Wallace, of Molalla,
said Brown took away his
gun rights, but struggled to
explain how.
“She’s just taking away
our rights without asking,”
Wallace said.
The 74-year-old was
there with his wife, Linda.
He had on a custom-made
hat that read “old white guy”
— a demographic he said is
under attack.
“Now the old white guys
are sons of bitches, we’re all
evil,” he said.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group,
Pamplin Media Group and
Salem Reporter.
BOISE — More than
1,100 sea lions could be
killed annually along a
stretch of the Columbia
River on the Oregon-Wash-
ington border to boost fal-
tering
populations
of
salmon and steelhead, fed-
eral offi cials said Friday.
The National Marine
Fisheries Service said it’s
taking public comments
through Oct. 29 on the plan
requested by Idaho, Ore-
gon, Washington state and
Native American tribes.
The agency says billions
of dollars on habitat resto-
ration, fi sh passage at dams
and other efforts have been
spent in the three states in
the last several decades to
save 13 species of salmon
and steelhead protected
under the Endangered Spe-
cies Act.
But sea lions have
learned that fi sh bunch up at
dams and are easy to catch,
an opportunity not avail-
able when the Columbia
was free-fl owing.
“The changes in the sys-
tem have created this sort of
pinch-point where sea lions
can take advantage of the
fi sh,” said Michael Milstein,
a spokesman for National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
About 900 California
sea lions and 250 Steller
sea lions could be killed
each year, starting about
110 miles from the river’s
mouth and extending 300
miles upstream. Experts
say sea lions in that area
are exclusively preying on
salmon and steelhead.
The Wild Fish Con-
servancy, which works to
recover and conserve wild
fi sh, opposes killing sea
lions. The group says hab-
itat destruction, dams and
overharvest have far greater
impacts.
Killing sea lions “is a
kind of scapegoating when
there are a lot of other
actions we are choosing
not to do that would have a
larger impact,” said Emma
Helverson, spokeswoman
for the group.
The National Marine
Fisheries Service already
allows up to 92 California
sea lions to be killed annu-
ally at Bonneville Dam,
which is within the stretch
of river in the new plan.
The new plan expands
the area where sea lions
can be killed, allows tribes
to take part in removing
sea lions, and adds Steller
sea lions for removal. Cur-
rently, state and federal
workers live-capture Cali-
fornia sea lions near Bon-
neville Dam and they are
later euthanized.
Last year, Steller sea
lions outnumbered Califor-
nia sea lions at Bonneville
Dam. Nearly all the sea
lions are males bulking up
on fi sh before heading back
to the Pacifi c Ocean and
then to breeding grounds.
California sea lions,
which can weigh 1,000
pounds, are heading south
to the Channel Islands off
the California coast. Steller
sea lions, which can reach
2,000 pounds, are heading
north to breeding areas.
California sea lions
number about 300,000,
and the eastern population
of Steller sea lions about
52,000. Neither population
is listed as threatened or
endangered.
Port of Astoria holds
town hall meetings
The Astorian
The Port of Astoria is
hosting three town hall
meetings to share its s trate-
gic b usiness p lan.
P ublic comment is
welcome.
The events are scheduled
for the Astoria Library, Flag
Room, 450 10th St., at 6 p.m.
on Tuesday; Seaside Library,
Community Meeting Room,
1131 Broadway, at 5 p.m.
on Wednesday; and Knappa
Fire Station, Community
Room, 43114 Hillcrest Loop,
at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
Additional details and a
digital copy of the s trategic
b usiness p lan are available
at www.PortofAstoria.com