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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, MARcH 29, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
SHANNON ARLINT
circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
GUEST COLUMN
Who will lead Oregon next year?
A
s the Oregon Legislature takes a
collective breather from this year’s
up-and-down session, a question
hangs over everyone’s heads: Who will be
in charge next year?
The answer has two parts.
First, the Democrats are likely to retain
control. Democratic lawmakers wrote the
redistricting plan that reconfigured legis-
lative districts to account for population
changes under the 2020 census.
But who knows what will happen in
the next seven months leading up to the
November general election?
Republicans are likely to make some
headway, especially in the state House.
Democrats hold a 37-23 majority over
Republicans in the House and an 18-10
advantage in the Sen-
ate, with two other sen-
ators caucusing as
independents.
Surveys, as well as
coffee shop talk, under-
score that Oregonians are
in a foul mood about our
DICK
state’s direction, the econ-
HUGHES
omy and other matters.
Those attitudes could hurt
the majority party at the polls — actually,
the kitchen table or wherever the mail bal-
lot is being filled out.
Actually, the majority party in the Leg-
islature isn’t the majority among voters.
As of March 18, Oregon’s 2.9 million reg-
istered voters included over 1 million who
chose no party affiliation. That could be
because they have no interest in any polit-
Sam Stites/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Dan Rayfield, a Corvallis Democrat, took over as state House speaker this year.
ical party — or no interest in voting at all.
The largest party remains Democrats
with over 1 million voters, followed by
Republicans with 723,728 and the Inde-
pendent Party with 139,674. The remain-
ing voters are spread among smaller
parties.
Second, the practicality of “who’s in
charge” comes down to the presiding offi-
cers, who control everything from com-
mittee assignments to the route that legis-
lation takes.
When the 2023 Legislature convenes,
the Senate will elect its first new presiding
officer since 2003. Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-Salem, is retiring from that
role and from the Legislature. The House
already elected a new House speaker this
year after Tina Kotek, a Portland Demo-
crat, resigned to focus on her gubernato-
rial campaign.
Oregon is not unique. Arizona, Col-
orado, Florida, Michigan, Missouri and
Montana also are losing both of their top
legislative leaders. A number of other
states are seeing at least one presiding
officer leave, according to the National
Conference of State Legislatures, which
says such turnover is typical in an elec-
tion year.
Courtney and Kotek both held those
roles longer than any predecessor. It had
been the norm, especially in the House,
for a presiding officer to serve only a few
years. There is precedent for Speaker Dan
Rayfield, D-Corvallis, to continue in 2023
but also for the House to choose someone
else. Of course, first he must be reelected
in House District 16. Democrats do hold
a 3-1 advantage among registered voters
there.
Each chamber selects its presiding offi-
cer. The party in power decides whom
to nominate. An intriguing factor in the
House is that at least a third of the mem-
bers are being elected for the first time
this year, although some have been serv-
ing through appointment.
In the Senate, it will be a free-for-all
for presiding officer. The list of poten-
tial candidates runs long, with a heavy
emphasis on urban liberal Democrats.
Centrist Courtney no longer will be a
moderating force. Under Courtney, it
was sometimes said of the Senate, “a
place where progressive bills go to die,”
although his influence diminished in
recent years as liberal Democrats grew in
number.
Regardless of who is in charge, the
personalities and politics will be different.
Of the three powerbrokers in the Capitol,
there at least will be a new governor and a
new Senate president.
dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Wake-up call
arch 24 was World Tuberculosis Day, commemo-
rating the approximately 1.5 million people killed
by this horrible disease every year.
In 20 years, global efforts to eradicate tuberculosis
and other preventable diseases, led by groups like The
Global Fund, have made enormous progress. The Global
Fund alone has saved 44 million lives since 2002.
That progress is now in jeopardy. When the world
shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it dis-
rupted access to diagnostics and treatments for tuber-
culosis. One million fewer people were treated for TB
in 2020 than in 2019 and, for the first time in a decade,
annual tuberculosis deaths rose.
This must serve as a wake-up call. Members of Con-
gress, including U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley, must go on the record in support of a $2 bil-
lion per year pledge from the U.S. at The Global Fund
replenishment conference this year, so it can continue its
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vitally important work.
2022 can be the year we end COVID-19 once and for
all, but it must also be the year we get the world back
on track to end tuberculosis, and other preventable dis-
eases, by ensuring everyone, everywhere has access to
lifesaving tests and treatments.
MICHAEL KALKOFEN
Beaverton
Redeemable coupons
y wife likes to save coupons that are redeemable at
stores like Fred Meyer. She has no doubt that when
presented, they will be honored and redeemed.
There are two passages in Scriptures. One says, “I know
that my redeemer lives”; the other, “I go to prepare a place
for you that where I am, you, too, will be.”
If we have faith in such a little thing as taking coupons to
Fred Meyer to be redeemed, how much greater and import-
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ant for us to realize that we are not left in the dark as to our
destiny, but to know that our redeemer does live! Thank you,
Fred Meyer, and thank you, Lord!
JIM BERNARD
Warrenton
Avert
f you were an Astoria police officer, committing your
life in service to our community, how might you feel
upon discovering an advertisement in an insert in The
Astorian for assault rifles?
It is arguably just a matter of time, unless we change
things, before we suffer a tragedy compounded of these
weapons and mental illness.
Please, we need to do everything we can to try to avert
such an event.
ROBERT ADAMS
Astoria
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