Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 2019)
A8 OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian Wednesday, December 4, 2019 Independent Party looking for help from unaffiliated voters By JAKE THOMAS Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — As the num- ber of Oregon voters unaf- filiated with a political party rises, so has the number of voters locked out a key part of the electoral process. Oregon’s third-largest polit- ical party sees an opportu- nity in that. The Independent Party of Oregon, the state’s larg- est third party, is opening its primary to the state’s 948,697 voters not regis- tered with a party — a third of the state’s electorate. “They’re the largest group of voters and the most disenfranchised group of voters and they deserve to be heard,” said Sal Peralta, the party’s secretary. Under current law, the two major parties could let unaffiliated voters partici- pate in their primary elec- tions but don’t do so. The number of vot- ers who chose not to pick a party for voting purposes has grown since Oregon enacted its Motor Voter Act in 2016. The law automati- cally registers eligible Ore- gonians to vote when they renew a driver’s license or ID card. Voters are automat- ically registered as unaffili- ated with the option to later select party. In December 2015, there were 527,302 unaffiliated voters — about a quarter of the state’s 2.17 million vot- ers at the time. Now, there are 2.8 million registered voters and a greater propor- tion are unaffiliated. The Independent Party lost its major party status earlier this year when its less than 5% of voters picked the party. The result was it no longer was qualified to con- duct primary elections at public expense. But Peralta said the party is comfortable with its return to a minor party because it means the party has free reign in how it con- ducts its primary. “We want to use it as an opportunity to build coa- litions and promote alter- native voting systems,” he said. “It’s a great organizing tool.” The Democratic and Republican parties hold their taxpayer-funded pri- maries in May. The Inde- pendent Party, which now has 124,777 registered vot- ers, expects to conduct its primary in March using the internet to deliver ballots. Oregon allows for “fusion voting” where can- didates can be the nomi- nee for several parties. One candidate, for instance, can be the nominee for both the Republican and Indepen- dent parties. Peralta said his party’s nomination holds sway in competitive elec- tions, and that more than 60 legislators, both Democratic and Republican, are backed by the Independent Party. The party intends to con- duct its primary using alter- native voting designed to factor in the second and third choices of voters. The party’s primary will feature candidates for statewide offices and president, and allow any unaffiliated voter to participate. The party intends to con- duct its primary using one of several forms of alternative voting designed to factor in the second and third choices of voters. The party will still use a caucus, restricted to its voters, to select candidates for legislative offices. Peralta said that notify- ing the state’s 948,697 unaf- filiated voters will be a chal- lenge and the party will use paid social media to reach them. The Democrats and Republicans have both tried open primaries. Most recently, the Repub- lican Party opened its pri- mary in 2012 for races for secretary of state, attor- ney general and treasurer. Kevin Hoar, spokesman for the state Republican Party, said that there are no cur- rent plans to open the par- ty’s primary. Molly Woon, spokes- woman for the Democratic Party of Oregon, said the party’s central committee earlier this month decided not to open its primary. Changes: CTUIR’s other big acquisition was the Pendleton Country Club Continued from Page A1 But the CTUIR wasn’t directly involved in Hamley’s until 2014, when George said the owners approached the tribes about buying the down- town Pendleton property. George said the tribes rejected the offer, but the CTUIR was poised to buy it in 2016. The deal never came together as the busi- ness partners that ran Ham- ley’s engaged in a protracted legal battle over control of the business. The tribes finally acquired the property at a July 25 auc- tion for $3.6 million. Fol- lowing years of waiting, the CTUIR and the team at Wild- horse only had about two weeks to assume control of the complex’s operations. Once Wildhorse took over, the company started making assessments about the health of Hamley’s. “When we purchased the properties, the steakhouse was doing fine as a business, but the western store had a lot of shortfalls,” George said. “They were sitting on a lot of inventory that we just needed to unload, so to speak.” Hamley Western Store has held several sales over the past few months to sell off excess inventory, and George said Wildhorse is interested in bringing in a western store consultant to make a long- term action plan for the ven- erable store. Besides the western store, the tribes’ purchase also Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Shelves of leather goods and cases of jewelry fill the Western Store at Hamley’s on Nov. 26, 2019. included the property’s meet- ing rooms, cafe, steakhouse and bar, saddle shop, and more. George said Wildhorse intends to keep those oper- ations mostly the same, but there have been some slight changes at the steakhouse. Now that the CTUIR maintains businesses off the reservation, George said the tribes have had to apply for various licenses from state agencies. That includes Oregon Lot- tery, which has removed its machines from the steak- house while the tribes apply for its license. George said the applica- tion process has been interest- ing because the CTUIR isn’t applying as an individual or a traditional business, but as a sovereign nation. He added that there’s also been some discussion around whether the lot- tery machines will affect the tribes’ gaming compact that only allows it operate one gaming establishment. In an email, Oregon Lot- tery spokesman Chuck Bau- mann said the tribes are work- ing on setting up a business entity to apply for a retailer contract so the CTUIR wouldn’t have to contract with the lottery directly. Baumann said the lottery hasn’t spoken with the tribes in more than a month, and isn’t aware of where they are in the process. While the CTUIR seeks to get its lottery machines back, the nude paintings that used to hang in the bathroom will likely stay gone. George said the paintings were person- ally owned by one of the prior owners and he took them back before the changeover. The CTUIR’s other big summer acquisition was the Pendleton Country Club. Beyond the economic development potential, George said the tribes’ main interest in the property was conservational. Birch Creek runs through the property and the tribes have restoration projects up and down the waterway. Wildhorse was only required to operate the prop- erty as a golf course through the end of the year, but the tribes are now finalizing long- term plans to keep it that way. George said Wildhorse has already presented a draft of a business plan for the golf course to the CTUIR Board of Trustees, with a revised draft coming sometime in the first quarter of 2020. Under the plan, Wildhorse would turn the property from a private country club into a public golf course. Wildhorse would still offer people memberships for use of the golf course or the prop- erty’s other amenities like pool or meeting rooms, but members would no longer have a vested interest in the property. George said Wildhorse has already increased staff- ing levels at the golf course and facility, but the property will need more infrastructure investment. “I think the clubhouse was built in the early 1960s,” he said. “It shows its age. We just need to bring it up to date.” George said the Board of Trustees seemed receptive to the plan, and if board mem- bers give it the go-ahead, the Pendleton Country Club will undergo a name change. To reflect its status as a public golf course, George said starting in 2020 the new name of the property is the Birch Creek Golf Course. Summit: ‘We’re trying to undo 500 years of erasure and colonization’ Continued from Page A1 Instead, Wildhorse is looking to expand its enter- tainment center to include a bowling alley and other amenities by September 2020, and add another hotel tower and event center by 2022. “That entertainment dol- lar, that’s what we’re going for,” he said. George said Wildhorse did its due diligence before embarking on the bowling alley expansion. While a bowling alley by itself was likely to fail, Wildhorse’s research showed that a bowl- ing alley that was included as a part of a resort could be successful. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Res- ervation wasn’t the only tribe trying to diversify its enterprises. Travis Hill, the director of hospitality operations for the Umpqua Indian Devel- opment Corporation, said the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians spent the past year investing in a heavy equipment com- pany and starting their own hemp farm. But economic develop- ment wasn’t the only press- ing issue for tribal leaders. During an introduc- tory panel, tribal chairmen and councilors shared con- cerns over salmon preserva- tion, climate change, tribal behavioral services and the preservation of tribal tradi- tions and rights. One way the state is try- ing to help out with the latter issue is through Senate Bill 12, a law passed in 2017 that requires school districts to teach lessons on tribal cul- ture and history. All nine tribes were asked to participate in creat- ing their own curriculums, a process that includes the CTUIR. April Campbell, an Indian education advisor for the Oregon Department of Education, said the state was organizing a train- ing for later this month to develop 90 trainers to teach the new curriculum to local educators. Multiple members of the panel mentioned the coun- try’s dark history of tribal education, whether it was through boarding schools or suppression of cultural lan- guage and expression. Shadiin Garcia, the exec- Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Oregon Gov. Kate Brown claps as Gary Burke, chairman of the CTUIR Board of Trustees, thanks those in attendance at the annual Tribal-State Government-to-Government Summit at Wildhorse Resort & Casino in Mission on Tuesday morning. utive director of the Edu- cator Advancement Coun- cil, said it was a large issue with deeper cultural impli- cations for the state’s educa- tion system. “We’re trying to undo 500 years of erasure and col- onization,” she said. Profiling: Report finds blacks twice as likely to be searched by Portland police Continued from Page A1 reason for the stop, as well as the gender and age of the person. The analysis found no dis- crepancies for the Clacka- mas County Sheriff’s Office or city departments in Med- ford, Eugene and Gresham. However, it found that the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, Wash- ington County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon State Police and Salem Police Depart- ment were more likely to issue citations to minori- ties during stops. Beaverton police were slightly more likely to search, arrest or cite blacks or Hispanics. The Oregon Associa- tion Chiefs of Police and the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association didn’t respond to requests for comment. Among the larger dis- parities, Hispanics were 7% more likely to be cited, searched or arrested by the Hillsboro Police Depart- ment than others. The Ore- gon State Police had a sim- ilar disparity for blacks and Hispanics. The report described the Portland Police Bureau as the “sole outlier” compared to other police forces for its disparities. The report found that African Amer- icans were more likely to face arrest and twice as likely to be searched by Portland police. Despite African Americans being more likely to be searched, Portland police were less likely to find contraband on them. The report also com- pared how likely police offi- cers were to find contraband in searches of white to black and Hispanic suspects. While the report found no or “small differences” in search outcomes for most agencies, it again called out the Portland Police Bureau. The report found that 25.5% of white individuals searched by Portland police officers had contraband while the rate for blacks was 10.9%. The report comes on the heels of a critical report by the W. Haywood Burns Institute on racial dispari- ties in Multnomah County. The Portland Police Bureau said in a statement last week before the report was released that it was look- ing into improving training, among other measures. “We recognize that data demonstrating overrepre- sentation by race in stops, arrests, and other areas in the criminal justice system creates distrust and fear within the community,” said Portland Police Chief Dan- ielle Outlaw in the state- ment. “It is time we move beyond reporting out on the data and into implementa- tion of intentional strategies in an effort to create mean- ingful change.” The state report rec- ommended that research- ers more deeply examine the bureau and get techni- cal assistance from the state police training agency. Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Jus- tice Resource Center, said that such reports affirm the experience of minorities across the state. But he said that too often the response by policymakers is “mud- dled” or “passive,” focused on nuance or small pol- icy changes when a bolder approach to institutional racism is needed. “At what point is there enough data to say, ‘This is enough; we have to confront this systemically and holis- tically,’” he said. Frederick called for a shift in the mindset of police officers from want- ing to “catch the bad guys” to protecting and serving everyone. “That’s got to be part of basic training,” he said.
