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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 2018)
NORTHWEST East Oregonian Page 2A Friday, November 16, 2018 Oregon gets OK to kill sea lions at Willamette Falls help save threatened winter steelhead and spring Chi- nook salmon, state officials said. Analyses show that sea lions ate about one-fourth of the steelhead run last year and about 7 to 9 percent of the spring chinook salmon, officials said. “The unfortunate reality is that, if we want to prevent extinction of the steelhead and Chinook, we will have to lethally remove sea lions at this location,” Shaun Cle- ments, a policy analyst for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in a statement. Opponents say killing the sea lions won’t solve the problem of declining salmon, which also face SALEM (AP) — Ore- gon wildlife managers on Thursday received federal approval to trap and kill California sea lions that eat protected fish. The National Marine Fisheries Service approved the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s request to trap and euthanize up to 93 animals a year on the lower Willamette River. With their numbers grow- ing, the sea lions are ventur- ing ever farther inland from the Pacific Ocean, and state officials say they’re inter- cepting fish on their way to spawning grounds above Willamette Falls south of Portland. Removing them will AP Photo/Don Ryan, file In this March 14 file photo, a California sea lion that was trapped at Willamette Falls in the lower Willamette River, waits to be released into the Pacific Ocean near Newport. other problems such as hab- itat loss and dams, and have called the move unethical. The Humane Society of the United States opposed the state’s request and ques- tioned whether killing sea lions would boost fish runs. California sea lions’ numbers dropped dramat- ically but have rebounded from 30,000 in the late 1960s to about 300,000 in 2016 under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. Killing California sea lions requires special authoriza- tion under that law. Clements said the state has tried using non-lethal methods for several years to keep California sea lions away, but those efforts didn’t work. There are cur- rently a dozen at Willamette Falls and many have been there for years, he added. Some 50 to 100 sea lions are seen at the falls at some point in the year. Under the federal authori- zation, wildlife officials can only remove individually identified sea lions that have been observed between Wil- lamette Falls and the mouth of the Clackamas River for two days, or are seen eating salmon or steelhead. The marine mammals would be captured and transferred to a facility where they would be euthanized. Washington, Idaho and Oregon wildlife manag- ers currently have federal authorization to kill prob- lem sea lions that eat salmon in the Columbia River near Bonneville Dam. Total voters increased by large margin in 2018 election every time they apply for or renew driver’s licenses. This year, about 91 percent of eli- gible voters are registered, roughly 20 percent higher than before the law. “That means there’s hun- dreds of thousands of new people who are registered to vote who most likely would not have been if not for auto- matic voter registration,” said John Horvick, vice president and political direc- Portland pollster analyzes results, with equal turnout from Democrats and Republicans By JACK HEFFERNAN EO Media Group Oregon’s motor voter law, enacted in 2016, auto- matically registers voters tor of Portland-based polling firm DHM Research, at the Columbia Forum speaker series in Astoria on Tuesday night. While registered voter turnout in Oregon in mid- term elections typically ranges between 69 percent and 71 percent, as it did this year, the number of eligible voters who participate typ- ically flat lines at 52 per- cent. This year, roughly 63 Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY Times of clouds and sun Mostly sunny and chilly Mostly sunny and chilly Plenty of sun, but chilly Mostly sunny and chilly 48° 32° 42° 26° PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 44° 29° 43° 26° 43° 26° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 50° 32° 43° 28° 43° 27° 43° 28° 45° 26° OREGON FORECAST ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 56/42 47/27 52/24 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 47/32 Lewiston 56/39 49/30 Astoria 56/44 Pullman Yakima 46/25 54/36 51/31 Portland Hermiston 56/44 The Dalles 50/32 Salem Corvallis 56/37 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 52/32 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 56/40 58/31 55/34 Ontario 53/32 Caldwell Burns 53° 28° 51° 33° 72° (1995) -12° (1955) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 58/38 0.00" 0.01" 0.56" 6.46" 8.33" 7.84" WINDS (in mph) 53/33 54/17 0.00" 0.10" 0.65" 8.25" 14.40" 10.64" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 49/29 59/39 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 48/32 54/35 56° 33° 49° 33° 71° (1896) -6° (1955) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 55/35 Aberdeen 42/24 46/30 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 56/42 Today Medford 63/34 Sat. NE 4-8 NW 4-8 Boardman Pendleton NNE 4-8 NW 4-8 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 59/24 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 6:56 a.m. 4:23 p.m. 1:45 p.m. none Full Last New First Nov 22 Nov 29 Dec 6 Dec 15 NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 86° in Tamiami, Fla. Low -6° in Antero Reservoir, Colo. percent of eligible voters participated. “So for an apples-to-ap- ples comparison, it makes more sense to look at the percentage of eligible vot- ers who turned out in past elections, and we’ll compare that to 2018,” Horvick said. “Turnout was exceptionally high here in Oregon.” Oregon Republicans have turned out to vote at a higher rate than Democrats since at least 1964. This year, both political parties turned out at an 80 percent rate. “That actually is con- sistent with the national story,” Horvick said. “Dem- ocrats turned out, and so did Republicans.” With voter rates being equal in both parties, Repub- licans face a significant chal- lenge due to the overall num- ber of registered Democratic voters. A massive population of Democrats lives in and around Portland and, since they live bunched together, can be easier to energize. “They are so much better organized. It is night and day compared to what Republi- cans have, in terms of, the unions are organized, pro- gressive groups are orga- nized and they worked hand in hand to get the vote out in 2018,” Horvick said. “It’s just the turnout, you know, machine is much stronger on the Democratic side.” As a result, Republicans generally face about a 9 per- cent incline at the start of every election, Horvick said. That impacted the strat- egy of state Rep. Knute Bue- hler, a Bend orthopedic sur- geon, in his failed bid to upset Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat. Governor’s race Buehler needed to tar- get suburbanites, moderate Democrats and independent voters rather than playing to a more right-wing base, Horvick said. He focused on convincing them that Brown had failed on the issues they cared about like education, foster care, housing and homelessness. “The Democrats in power have failed,” Horvick said in summarizing Buehler’s mes- sage. “Moderates, liberals — the candidates that you’ve supported in the past are not delivering on the things that you care about. Try some- thing new.” In January, 65 percent of Oregonians hadn’t heard of Buehler. Brown’s strat- egy, then, was to define and disqualify him, using large sums of money from labor unions and progressive groups to do so. “It was a blank slate,” Horvick said. “So one of the things that she had to do … (was to) do what she could to define him, to tell voters who he is before he had an opportunity to do it for him- self and define him in a way that was going to be negative to the average voter in Ore- gon, which right now means Republican. It means Trump. It means Washington, D.C.” In speaking with Demo- crats, Horvick noticed that they were generally not upset with the governor but could name few, if any, of her accomplishments. “Satisfaction, but not ela- tion,” Horvick said. “She was doing OK, but they weren’t super excited about her either.” As a result, Horvick said, she needed to tap into her actions as governor that would energize a left-wing base — minimum wage increases, paid family leave, clean energy policies and the $5.3 billion transportation package. One major factor work- ing in Brown’s favor was the economy. Because of an economic upswing this decade, the percentage of Oregonians who identified jobs and the economy as the state’s top issue plummeted from 30 percent to 9 percent in the past five years, Hor- vick said. “So this wasn’t going to be an election that Knute Buehler was going to be able to say, ‘The incumbent has ruined the economy,’” Hor- vick said. “So he’s going to have to run on some other things.” The strategy didn’t pro- pel Buehler to a win. Hor- vick noted, though, that eco- nomic concerns have not gone away, largely due to the cost of housing and other things. Partisanship On top of polarized answers to specific ques- tions, including economic concerns, Horvick presented data that highlighted exactly how much bitter partisanship has spread in Oregon. In 1994, 16 percent of Democrats held a “very unfavorable view” of Repub- licans, and Republicans felt that way about Democrats at a 17 percent rate. Now, those numbers have skyrocketed to 43 percent and 45 percent. “Voting, more and more, has been about who you dislike more than who you like,” Horvick said. “I don’t have an answer to that — what we should do, how to change it. But I show these to help remind us that not everybody in this room is going to think like us.” Corrections Admission for the Pendleton Altrusa Bazaar on Satur- day is $2 per person. Conflicting information appeared in Thursday’s East Oregonian. The EO regrets the error. NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY SATURDAY NOV 17 Pendleton Convention Center 9 AM - 4 PM Only $2 Admission! OVER 100 VENDORS! RAFFLE TICKETS FOR: $2,000 Cash, Gift Baskets, and Door Prizes! Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s ice 50s cold front — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. 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