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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, JANuARy 11, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
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GUEST COLUMN
Oregon government is losing leadership
O
regon is losing its leadership.
State House Speaker Tina
Kotek stunned the political world
by announcing Thursday that she was
resigning as of Jan. 31. That move enables
the Portland Democrat to concentrate on
her gubernatorial campaign.
House rules would have blocked
Kotek from fundraising once the 35-day
legislative session begins on Feb. 1. Her
campaign treasury pales
in comparison with
those of potential Dem-
ocratic candidate Nich-
olas Kristof and inde-
pendent Betsy Johnson.
However, Kotek’s immi-
nent departure, a reversal
DICK
of her previous pledge,
HUGHES
will hand the House to an
unproven leader for the
2022 Legislature.
For better or worse, Senate President
Peter Courtney and Kotek are the lon-
gest-serving presiding officers in Oregon
history. On Wednesday, Courtney texted
his colleagues that he would retire at the
end of the year instead of seeking reelec-
tion. The Salem Democrat has been a
moderating counterweight to Kotek’s lib-
eral policies and those of the increasingly
liberal Senate Democratic Caucus.
Meanwhile, of course, Gov. Kate
Brown already is on her way out, barred
by the Oregon Constitution from seeking
another term.
I referred to Kristof as a “poten-
tial” candidate because Secretary of
State Shemia Fagan on Thursday morn-
ing announced that the Oregon Elec-
tions Division had found him ineligible to
run. That announcement came two hours
before Kotek made hers. Coincidence?
The dispute boils down to what it
means to be an Oregon resident.
Kristof said the legal case for putting
him on the ballot is clear. That is true. The
former New York Times columnist grew
up outside Yamhill, spent considerable
time here while living in New York or
abroad, and probably knows more of the
state than many folks do.
Yet, also clear is the legal case that he
is not qualified because he won’t have
been an Oregon resident for the required
Sam Stites/Oregon Capital Bureau
House Speaker Tina Kotek and State Senate President Peter Courtney made big political
announcements last week.
three years before this year’s general elec-
tion on Nov. 8. The key factor, according
to Fagan and her elections officials, was
that he voted in New York as recently as
2020.
Of all the political announcements
this week, Kotek’s legislative depar-
ture was the most surprising and Court-
ney’s the least. But Fagan’s was the most
intriguing.
Fagan, like Kotek and Brown, sol-
idly sits in the progressive — that is, lib-
eral – wing of Oregon Democrats. A late
replacement entry in the 2020 secretary of
state’s race, she narrowly won the Demo-
cratic primary with massive support from
public employee unions. People have
since wondered how she might govern her
office. Would she push progressive poli-
cies or be more even-handed?
She reportedly was under pressure
from unions, Kotek supporters and per-
haps others to declare Kristof ineligible.
So, in recent days, Kristof’s campaign put
forth media pieces from former Demo-
cratic secretaries of state, a retired judge
and others who reasoned he should be on
the ballot.
On the one hand, that seemed a public
relations effort designed to sway Fagan’s
decision. On the other hand, it potentially
provided Fagan with political and legal
cover if she did defy expectations and
allow Kristof to run. For her part, Fagan
said Thursday that she did not interfere
with the Election Division’s clear-cut
determination that Kristof was ineligible.
Speaking at his own press conference
three hours later, Kristof did not make
a rousing defense of why he meets the
three-year residency requirement. Instead,
he said the Elections Division ruling
defied case law and common sense and
was done to protect the status quo politi-
cal establishment from his candidacy.
The residency issue always seemed
destined to end up in court. Sure enough,
Kristof vowed to appeal.
Kristof smartly sidestepped a reporter’s
question of whether he thought “the fix
was in.” I do find it surprising that 1) the
Secretary of State’s Office made the deter-
mination so quickly after receiving the
Kristof campaign’s hefty legal submission
on Jan. 3, and 2) Fagan and elections offi-
cials felt there wasn’t time to get a formal
legal opinion about his residency from
the Oregon Department of Justice, relying
instead on phone calls for advice.
Fagan and election officials said the
Jan. 3 submission included little new
information from Kristof.
Kristof emerged as a formidable can-
didate among Democrats. If I were
Kotek, I’d be concerned about his finan-
cial advantage. I would worry even more
about any perception — accurate or not
— of maneuvering to keep him off
the ballot.
So, does Kristof belong on the Demo-
cratic primary ballot in May? The answer
seems far more muddled than either side
contends. I’d been thinking that his voting
in New York obviously meant he wasn’t
an Oregon resident. I do wonder whether
Kristof adequately took that into account
before leaving the New York Times last
year to enter politics.
Now I’m leaning toward a broader
interpretation of residency. Kristof voted
in the New York election but he mailed
that absentee ballot from here in Oregon,
where he was residing.
I wonder whether the determination of
residency should be left to voters. Putting
Kristof on the ballot allows them to make
that decision through whom they elect.
Keeping him off the ballot deprives them
of that opportunity.
Bear in mind, however, that I’m not a
legal scholar and my bias is that a Kris-
tof campaign would contribute to a robust
political discussion about Oregon’s future.
According to an online survey last month
by the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center,
three-quarters of Oregonians worry about
the state’s future.
Meanwhile, legislators must deal with
the present. They begin their work soon
under triple clouds of uncertainty: the
pandemic, a lame-duck Senate president
and an unknown House speaker, whose
selection could spur political infighting.
Continuing concerns about COVID-19
mean that legislators will meet by video
when they partake in workplace con-
duct training and then hold three days of
pre-session committee meetings. Three
people who have been diagnosed with
COVID-19 were in the Capitol last week.
Any additional health and security pro-
tocols for the February session have yet to
be announced. The Capitol is expected to
remain open to the public in some form,
but with committee meetings conducted
by video conference. The main committee
hearing rooms, located on the Capitol’s
south side, are unavailable due to ongoing
renovation.
If 2022 already has a political theme,
that theme is uncertainty.
dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Something to chew on
T
here is so much negative going on in
the world right now that I keep find-
ing myself looking at all of the positives
around us to give us a little balance.
One of the great positives in our lit-
tle town of Astoria is about to have their
one-year anniversary on Valentine’s Day
and that is our little Italian kitchen, Gae-
tano’s Market & Deli, located at the cor-
ner of Commercial Street and 10th Street.
Do you know how rare it is to have a
“real” Italian kitchen in our town? I’ve
been up and down this coast many times
and I’ve never found any place like our
Gaetano’s. I have a good amount of Ital-
ian blood in my veins and I can tell you
that Matt Gaetano, Julie Hoffman and
Rachel Gaetano know what they are
doing in the kitchen. Their dishes are so
close to my own grandmother’s and my
own that I think we must be related!
Truly, try anything and you will be
pleased. This is not an ad. I’m not being
paid for my opinion, I just wanted to
give these fine folks a shoutout and tell
them that we appreciate them, their great
Italian cooking and we are so blessed
that they chose our little town of Astoria
to make their home!
MARY HADREAS
Astoria
Ignore the nonsense
T
he “Good ol’ days” Jan. 4 writer
blames “freedom” as the cause of
this perceived “lying, cheating and steal-
ing … ‘new reality.’”
It should be pointed out that these
evils have been well documented for
50,000 years of human existence under
all kinds of kings, queens, tsars and,
indeed, all forms of government. All
have tried to eliminate the problem
with various types of laws. None have
succeeded.
However, the letter does hit on a
new element in the battle, the electronic
media — where any idiot can opine,
and be heard by millions. This may be
the cause of yearning for the “good ol’
days.” The cure is easy. Do not listen to
their rants.
The problem is not freedom. The
solution is not slavery. What stands
between freedom and chaos is moral-
ity. Individuals making good decisions
in their daily activities and jobs. There is
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to The
Astorian. Letters should be fewer
than 250 words and must include the
writer’s name, address and phone
number. You will be contacted to
confirm authorship. All letters are
subject to editing for space, gram-
mar and factual accuracy. Only two
letters per writer are allowed each
month. Letters written in response
still plenty of that.
It seems the letter writer does know
the difference between right and wrong,
even with today’s media blathering. It
can be done. It is up to each individ-
ual to exercise good judgment in each
decision they make, and to ignore the
nonsense.
ROBERT LIDDYCOAT
Seaside
to other letter writers should address
the issue at hand and should refer to
the headline and date the letter was
published. Discourse should be civil.
Send via email to editor@dailyasto-
rian.com, online at bit.ly/astorianlet-
ters, in person at 949 Exchange St.
in Astoria or mail to Letters to the
Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR.,
97103.
Not just a vacation rental
M
y husband and I are the owners of
the “Vacasa rental home” featured
in “Year in Review: Seaside housing is a
study in opposites” in the Seaside Signal.
While this is indeed a vacation rental,
first it is our family vacation home. My
grandparents purchased the property on
the Prom when my father and his siblings
were in college.
When my grandmother passed away in
2008, she left the property to my father. He
lived in the house from then until his death
in 2017. As his only child, I inherited the
property.
My husband — an Astoria native —
and I had plans to remodel so our kids
could grow up spending summers on the
Oregon Coast as we both did as children.
But, as the house was built in 1900, it was
just too old to remodel.
So, rather than sell the property, we
poured our life savings into creating a retreat
that our family can enjoy, and that one day
our children’s families can also enjoy.
It’s not just a vacation rental. It’s a
house for our family to make memories in;
renting it while we’re not using it helps us
pay property taxes and rebuild our savings.
It’s not a property we purchased to flip
or make money off of, but rather one that’s
been in my family for decades. And, hope-
fully, it will be for decades more.
RHIANNON WEST CHAMBERLAIN
Portland