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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, MARcH 23, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
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GUEST COLUMN
Oregon partisan politics at play
S
hould Oregon legislators still
get paid if they don’t show
up for work (i.e., the minority
Republicans)?
Conversely, should legislators still
get paid if they show up but merely go
through the motions of collaboration
and bipartisanship (i.e., the majority
Democrats)?
Which brings us to an
excellent question from
a Bend reader: How
should success be mea-
sured for a legislative
session (i.e., success for
Oregon as a whole)?
These questions arise
DICK
because Friday was the
HUGHES
60th day of this year’s
160-day session, and
— no surprise — life is not particularly
happy in the Capitol.
This week, the House will resort to
day and evening floor sessions — nearly
20 hours total — because House Repub-
licans are effectively slowing the pro-
cess. On the other side of the Capitol,
the Senate is considering rule changes
aimed at punishing Republican sena-
tors if they walk out again. The House
adopted such rules already.
With a supermajority in each cham-
ber, Democrats can rewrite the rules
over Republican opposition. Mean-
while, Republicans are asking why leg-
islators get $151 per diem even on days
when they work from home.
Ah, partisanship. Depending on one’s
point of view, each side is standing up
for democracy and their constituents, or
is being self-righteous and obstreperous.
Things could come to a head when,
or if, the Senate votes on Senate Bill
554, which would allow the Legislature
and local governments to ban almost
anyone, including holders of concealed
weapon permits, from carrying fire-
arms in public buildings. Two years ago,
the Democrats’ gun control legislation
contributed to the Senate Republicans’
walkout that blocked the Senate from
passing bills.
SB 554 is at the desk of state Sen-
ate President Peter Courtney, D-Sa-
lem, after being approved in February
by a Senate committee on a 4-3 parti-
san vote. Rumors are that it could go
to a Senate vote this week. However,
the Senate president’s communications
director, Johnmartin Sherman-Lewis,
told me that Courtney had no comment
on when that might happen.
On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
was among those who testified remotely
to the state Senate Rules Committee,
supporting Democrats’ proposed bal-
Sarah Zimmerman/AP Photo
Oregon’s minority Republicans have used walkouts as a political tool in Salem.
AH, PARTISANSHIP. dEPENdING ON ONE’S POINT
OF VIEW, EAcH SIdE IS STANdING uP FOR
dEMOcRAcy ANd THEIR cONSTITuENTS, OR IS
BEING SELF-RIGHTEOuS ANd OBSTREPEROuS.
lot measure that would reduce the quo-
rum requirement for conducting legisla-
tive business.
Oregon has an unusually high bar.
Two-thirds of members must be present
for the Senate or House to vote on bills.
Senate Joint Resolution 4 would lower
that threshold to a majority of members,
thereby preventing the superminority
Republicans from blocking business.
The proposal resonates with die-
hard Democrats. But most Oregonians,
regardless of party affiliation or inde-
pendence, pay little attention to the Leg-
islature. House Majority Leader Bar-
bara Smith Warner, D-Portland, told
constituents last week that gaining voter
approval of such a ballot measure would
be difficult. Everyday Oregonians, who
are not highly engaged in the political
process, see the high quorum require-
ment as protecting democracy.
Reading, reading and more read-
ing: Smith Warner and other Demo-
crats have criticized the House Repub-
licans for demanding that bills be read
word-by-word on the House floor before
being voted on. That takes up so much
time that House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland, has decided that the House
will meet four days during the week.
The House had been meeting only on
Monday and Tuesday mornings, with
the rest of the days reserved for commit-
tee and caucus meetings. Little business
is conducted on Fridays.
Slowing the legislative process is
how Republicans seek to block bad
laws and instead gain greater compro-
mise from Democrats. House Republi-
can Leader Christine Drazan, in a recent
floor speech, said Democrats were try-
ing to marginalize Republicans’ partici-
pation. “We are not here to facilitate the
ease of the passage of someone else’s
agenda that harms my community and
my state long term,” Drazan said.
Survey says: Oregonians may pay
little attention to life at the Capitol, but
they’re typically not hopeful about the
outcomes. In November 2020, DHM
Research and the Oregon Values and
Beliefs Center reported: “A recent poll
found 80% of Oregonians are ending
the year worried about our state’s future
and concerned about the continuing
impacts of COVID-19, homelessness,
racial injustice, riots, lawlessness, cli-
mate change and more.
“What’s even more disconcerting
is only 33% of us feel we can come
together next year as Oregonians —
urban and rural, Republican and Dem-
ocrat, whites and communities of color
— to make progress addressing these
challenges and resetting Oregon.”
That “next year” is now, and DHM’s
current survey found that Gov. Kate
Brown’s favorability ratings among
Oregonians had dropped further. As
DHM’s John Horvick told Oregon Pub-
lic Broadcasting: “She has never been
particularly popular. … She has been
polarizing. She is as disliked by Repub-
licans as Democrats dislike Donald
Trump.”
In the survey this month, 11% of
Oregonians held a very positive impres-
sion of Brown. Overall, only 37% had
a very or somewhat positive impression
of the governor, compared with 53% for
President Joe Biden.
Balance in Congress: Oregon has
five seats in the U.S. House, all but one
held by Democrats. We are projected to
gain a sixth seat because the 2020 cen-
sus results are expected to show that
Oregon has gained population relative
to other states.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of
the latest DHM survey is that a plurality
of respondents — 37% — said the most
reasonable partisan makeup would be to
have those Oregon congressional seats
held by three Republicans and three
Democrats.
Meanwhile, the process of drawing
new legislative and congressional dis-
trict boundaries is in limbo while states
await the delayed census results. In a
complicated political and judicial pro-
cess, the Legislature has sued Secretary
of State Shemia Fagan, although the two
sides say they’re actually cooperating.
A court filing from the Oregon Attor-
ney General’s Office, which represents
the secretary of state, argues that the
Legislature can go ahead without wait-
ing on census data, such as by temporar-
ily employing statistics from the Popu-
lation Research Center at Portland State
University.
In contrast, We Draw Oregon, an
organization involved in the process,
last week asked the Legislature to slow
down. In a letter to key legislators, the
group wrote:
“We Draw Oregon, the next phase
of We Count Oregon, and communi-
ty-based partners are concerned about
how the redistricting process is unfold-
ing. The hearing schedule appears to be
politically motivated versus driven by a
sincere interest in community insights.
The schedule and potential use of alter-
native data undermine the democratic
process we urgently need to catalyze
trust and civic engagement.”
dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Lobbying transparency
was surprised to read in the March 13
Astorian that the Clatsop County com-
mission has hired a lobbying group “to
help protect and advance policy inter-
ests in Salem” — $45,000 of the peo-
ple’s money that could be used directly on
projects here in the county is nothing to
sneeze at.
As I read about Pac/West Communica-
tions, I began to wonder exactly what pol-
icy they are going to be advancing.
In 2006, the lobbying group was hired
to represent Alaska in their success-
ful campaign to gain access to the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge for oil explora-
tion. That was consistent with an earlier
effort Pac/West made to reduce the protec-
tions of the Endangered Species Act.
Their current president, Mark Truax,
has a “special interest” in oil and natural
gas. He helped in the successful effort to
defeat Proposition 112 in Colorado, which
would have expanded setbacks from water
sources and housing sites for oil and gas
development.
Pac/West’s website asserts that they
“bring rural Oregonian voices to the cap-
itol.” That resonates with the wishes of
the #TimberUnity-leaning majority on the
commission, for whom “rural representa-
tion” is a mantra.
Could defeating climate measures,
like cap and trade, that #TimberUnity
opposed, be a policy advanced by our
lobbyists?
This is a time for full transparency by
the commission and thorough scrutiny
by the public of how, and for whom, our
money is being spent on a lobbyist.
ROGER DORBAND
Astoria
I
Awe
I
would like to acknowledge and thank
the many volunteers that are helping to
get Clatsop County vaccinated. The orga-
nization was much improved for my sec-
ond vaccination, and I am in awe at the
massive effort that is going on all over the
country. Thanks again for your service.
DEBORAH ALBRECHT
Gearhart
No doubt
have documented a number of reasons
not to wear the required masks, how-
ever I will try to explain but one.
I
No doubt masks do have a few posi-
tive results, but they should be weighed
against the detriments. Few enjoy the ben-
efits, while all suffer from the negatives.
In my youth, I had an acquaintance
who was thinking about his dissertation.
He started a preliminary study, with his
own funds. He rounded up some subjects
in mask-wearing populations. He tested
them in ways several months apart, find-
ing mental degeneration.
I finished my work and moved away,
losing contact.
It is well documented that the brain is
one of the most oxygen-hungry organs in
the body. Wearing a mask interferes with
the free exchange of the air we breathe. I
suspect that, if one investigated this phe-
nomenon they would find, in the long run,
a steadily increasing percentage of car-
bon dioxide, over that of oxygen, behind
the mask.
I think it is but logical that something
as delicate as the brain might be damaged
if forced to function in an atmosphere
deficient in oxygen.
BENJAMIN A. GREAVES
Seaside