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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, JuNE 29, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
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GUEST COLUMN
Behind the scenes with first-time legislators
S
uzanne Weber recalls when the
Oregon Capitol hallways were so
crowded with lawmakers, lobby-
ists and other folks that she had to edge
her way through sideways.
That was when she was a local gov-
ernment official coming from the coast
to talk with lawmakers. The former
mayor of Tillamook now is a legisla-
tor herself, but is working in a quiet,
uncrowded Capitol. For
health protocols, the
Capitol remained closed
to the public as the 2021
Legislature toddled
toward adjournment
over the weekend.
To take readers
DICK
behind the scenes of
HUGHES
this year’s session, I
interviewed five first-
time legislators this week: Rep. Weber,
R-Tillamook; Democratic Reps. Max-
ine Dexter and Lisa Reynolds, of Port-
land, Republican Rep. Bobby Levy,
of Echo, and Republican Sen. Dick
Anderson, of Lincoln City. I also
requested interviews with several other
Democrats and Republicans. I hope to
write a future column or two with their
stories.
During previous legislative sessions,
issues frequently got resolved when
lobbyists and others talked and walked
alongside legislators who were scur-
rying between meetings. In contrast,
2021’s Capitol atmosphere is strange.
“It’s quiet and lonely,” Anderson
said.
Good staffs, constant learning
“This has been a really exhilarating
experience,” Weber said. “I hadn’t real-
ized all the work that went on behind
the scenes and all the people who were
involved in what goes on behind the
scenes.
“I have learned so much about the
process of government. It’s challeng-
ing. It’s mind-boggling — but not in a
bad way.”
Said Anderson: “I’ve been
impressed. The people are well-in-
tended. In the most cases, good staffs,
very cooperative. … I’ve felt good
about how I’ve been treated and the
The 2021 legislative session ended over the weekend.
intent of people.”
New legislators face an enormous
learning curve. “I have been inspired
and humbled by the process,” Dex-
ter said. “What I realized is truly we
have enormous capacity to make real
change.”
Anderson was surprised by how
often the party caucuses lock up legis-
lators’ votes, so outcomes were deter-
mined along party lines. As mayors, he
and Weber were used to operating on a
nonpartisan basis.
Reynolds noted that the vast major-
ity of bills pass with strong bipartisan
majorities. For the most part, she said,
Democrats and Republicans have more
in common than they do differences.
“People show up every day ready
to work hard to do what they think is
the best thing overall for Oregonians,”
she said. “People really put their heart
and soul into making Oregon a better
place.”
Of these five new legislators, Dex-
ter is the most experienced. She was
appointed a year ago to fill the vacancy
created by the death of Rep. Mitch
Greenlick, and was elected last fall to a
full two-year term.
Dexter said last year’s special-ses-
sion legislation on police reforms pro-
vided insights into bipartisanship. She
cited the collaborative work of Rep.
Janelle Bynum, D-Happy Valley, and
two Republicans who are former police
chiefs, Ron Noble, of McMinnville,
and Rick Lewis, of Silverton.
Closed Capitol
Getting to know colleagues and their
staffs was challenging this year with-
out the impromptu conversations in
hallways and elsewhere. Committee
meetings were conducted via video-
conference, and some personal interac-
tions were restricted by the COVID-19
protocols.
“I’m a one-on-one kind of person
— smaller groups — and I knew that
was going to be a handicap, getting to
know senators on a one-on-one basis,”
Anderson said.
Still, connections get made.
“There are colleagues that I wasn’t
expecting to have so much interper-
sonal trust and relationship-building
time with,” Dexter said. “That’s been
really important to the work that we’ve
had to do in these extraordinary times.”
As for House Republicans, Levy
described them as a tight-knit cau-
cus that was inclusive of newcomers:
“I have never felt better about a group
of people — and I’ve worked with
lots of groups of people — and more
welcome.”
She has made lifelong friends,
including some Democrats.
Levy believes the session would
have played out differently if the public
had been in the Capitol, enabling more
conversations that find middle ground.
“We all love our district. We all want
something for our district. We just can’t
seem to find someplace in the middle,”
she said.
It’s difficult being in the minority
party and not from an urban area.
Republicans say urban Democrats
don’t understand rural life but assume
they do. “If we talk about our side of
the state — so I’m in Eastern Oregon
— they don’t get it and they don’t try
to get it,” Levy said.
Public involvement
Weber’s early morning routine
includes perusing her emails to see
what trends have emerged in how peo-
ple feel about issues. Some topics draw
hundreds of comments.
For Dexter, one surprise was that
many people don’t realize the capac-
ity that legislators have to help constit-
uents with government issues and that
legislators have staff — paid with tax-
payer dollars — to do so.
When some Oregonians are unhappy
with her, Dexter tries to heed Geen-
lick’s advice about not taking things
personally: “Nothing is personal as far
as how it comes at me, but everything
is personal in how people engage as far
as from their perspective.”
And as Levy said: “It’s a learning
experience every single day for me.
And I enjoy it because I think it’s really
important that the people in my district
have somebody to speak for them.”
dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The way we were
ll this talk about “getting back to the
way things used to be” just serves
to remind me that blatant bigotry, epic
misogyny and systemic racism are our
societal norms.
DONNA LEE ROLLINS
Astoria
A
Let us vote
eorgia passed a law making it ille-
gal to give water to citizens wait-
ing in line to vote. It seems this law has
become the face of other laws some states
are trying to enact, apparently for lack of
a logical reason, to make voting harder.
Stunned? Keep reading.
In some places, citizens are waiting 11
hours, in the heat, to exercise their consti-
tutional right. Logic asks, why not open
more polling places?
In Oregon, we used to stand in line.
Now we mail it in. Yee hah! For your
information, Oregon’s safeguards are so
good, voter fraud is virtually nonexistent.
Yee hah again!
In marathon races, 26 miles, volunteers
offer water to competitors during the race.
It’s not illegal — it’s humane. Runners,
like voters, want to achieve the finish line.
A race determines the fastest person. Vot-
ing determines the direction of our county,
state and country for years.
The right of every citizen to vote should
not be a chess pawn. In Washington, D.C.,
the Senate must pass the For the People
and the John Lewis Voting Rights acts to
restore sanity and protection to our elec-
tion process. You know — one person, one
vote, all votes count equally.
This is one vote that should be a 100 to
0 slam dunk.
You can message senators at 202-224-
3121. The right of all citizens to have their
say by voting is one of the most sacred
gifts the Founding Fathers gave us. Either
we live our American values, or we don’t.
History is watching.
CARL DOMINEY
Astoria
G
Octogenarian wisdom
want to say hello to my neighbor, and
see a big beaming smile coming back at
I
me. If it’s OK with the government, if we
have been vaccinated, why are we so slow
in returning to normal?
The COVID-19 country shutdown is
probably the strangest thing I have seen
in my life. Let me tell you about another
strange situation: The cars lined up at gas
stations in the 1970s. They went around
the block, and even further. Gas prices
went up. Sometimes there was no gas
available.
I’ve always been a writer. I wrote this,
probably many years later, for a skit, as
humorous satire.
Newscaster: “The president has been a
busy man. Recently he returned from the
country of Mexico with future details of
the incidents occurring between our two
nations.
“Since Mexico has recently discovered
a newfound wealth through their oil, prob-
lems are developing. Underpaid Ameri-
can laborers are quietly slipping across the
border in search of higher pay. Mexican
authorities say they can only do so much.
“The president, under advisory of his
foreign affairs offices, has suggested to
Mexican officials that they should con-
struct an 8-foot wall along their side of the
river.
“The president has now dropped his
original proposal for a $60 million wall
along the American side, and has said, ‘It
is no longer our problem!’”
DeLORES MAY RICHARDS
Astoria
Get it promptly
E
arly in June, the American Medi-
cal Association surveyed 301 prac-
ticing physicians nationwide, and found
that 96% of physicians have been vacci-
nated against COVID-19. Of the 11 phy-
sicians not yet vaccinated, five planned to
get vaccinated.
Those who know the most about
COVID-related illnesses and vaccines are
the most likely to want the vaccines.
When COVID-19 vaccines were intro-
duced, we knew they would keep vacci-
nated people from dying — but, at first, we
weren’t confident whether they would also
stop transmission of the virus.
Now we know more about COVID-
19 vaccines and transmission. COVID-19
vaccines prevent illness, and they keep us
from spreading the virus to each other —
but only if everyone who can get the vac-
cine gets it promptly.
DAVE CUNDIFF
Ilwaco, Washington