OREGON
Thursday, April 8, 2021
Oregon Senate Republican leader faces
recall effort for not leading a walkout
By DIRK
VANDERHART
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SA LEM — Senate
Minority Leader Fred Girod
and five of his Republican
colleag ues
com m it ted
an act that
some in their
party felt was
a betrayal:
They showed
up for work.
As the
Girod
chamber took
up a proposal on March 25 to
ban firearms in state build-
ings and pave the way for
other bans, six of the Senate’s
11 Republicans showed up to
the floor, ensuring the cham-
ber had the minimum 20
members present required to
take up business.
That bill passed over
lengthy and fiery Republican
objections, and Girod, R-Ly-
ons, now faces more than cries
of outrage from those who
believe he should have once
again led a Senate walkout. He
might have to defend himself
against a recall.
A Molalla resident named
LaVaedra Newton filed
a prospective petition on
Monday, April 5, to bounce
Girod from the Senate seat
he’s held since 2008. Newton
and others say Girod abdi-
cated his duty by not blocking
the gun bill.
“In the face of an onslaught
of dangerous and crippling
legislation, Oregon’s Repub-
lican Senate Leader has
refused to stand up to protect
his constituents,” Newton
wrote in a form submitted
to the Oregon Secretary of
Andrew Selsky/Associated Press, File
Oregon Senate Minority Leader Fred Girod, R-Lyons, is fac-
ing a recall effort after committing an act that some in his
party feel was a betrayal — showing up for work.
State’s Office. “Faced with
legislation that threatens the
safety and financial stability
of Oregonians, Senator Fred
Girod had refused to use the
single tool available to defend
the people who elected him.
He needs to be replaced with
a real leader.”
To successfully force a
recall election, Newton will
need to collect at least 8,922
valid signatures from voters in
Girod’s district by July 6.
History suggests that will
be a tall order, particularly
during a pandemic and work-
ing within a district that was
heavily hit by 2020′s unprec-
edented wildfires. In recent
years, recall petitions against
two state legislators — former
Democratic state Rep. Tiffiny
Mitchell of Astoria and
Republican state Sen. Chuck
Thomsen of Hood River —
have come up short. So have
five petitions to recall Gov.
Kate Brown.
Girod on Tuesday, April 6,
said he was not worried about
bucking the trend.
“I just stood for election —
in a three-way race I got 67%,”
he said. “If they want to spend
a bunch of money trying to
take me out, they’re welcome
to do it. I don’t think they’ll be
successful.”
Rather than focus on the
recall, Girod said he would
work on getting relief to his
fire-ravaged district, passing
a new two-year budget and
steering billions of dollars in
new federal aid.
“The last thing I’m going to
do is pay a bunch of attention
to this initiative,” he said.
Newton, the chief peti-
tioner behind the recall, did
not respond to inquiries about
plans for circulating recall
petitions. His filing says back-
ers will not pay signature gath-
erers.
Newton’s petition also
names Rob Taylor, a Bandon-
based conservative talk radio
host, as an “authorized agent”
for the effort. Taylor, who lists
the Oregon Firearms Feder-
ation among his sponsors,
recently blasted Girod and
other Republicans for show-
ing up to the Oregon Capitol
on March 25.
“Some of the Republicans
seem not to want to do their
job,” Taylor said on a March
29 show in which he mischar-
acterized some aspects of the
gun bill. “It should never have
gone to discussion because
all of the Republican senators
should have walked out.”
Taylor did not respond to a
query about the recall effort.
The petition reflects a
new reality for Republican
lawmakers who have walked
away from the Capitol repeat-
edly in the past two years to
block legislation that was
unpopular in their districts:
The bar for using that tactic
has been lowered in the
public’s mind. Democrats
hold 18 seats in the Senate,
with a required quorum of 20
members.
“People now expect it for
all bills that, from a Republi-
can perspective, are seen as a
bad bill,” Girod said, adding
that his caucus had discussed
staging a walkout on Senate
Bill 554. “The problem that we
had is trying to walk for 3½
months just was not doable.”
Despite that conclusion,
nearly half the Senate’s 11
Republicans did not attend
the session where SB 554 was
debated. Sens. Dallas Heard,
Dennis Linthicum, Kim
Thatcher and Art Robinson
all were marked as absent. A
fifth Republican, Thomsen,
was listed as “excused.” Also
granted an excused absence
was Sen. Brian Boquist, who
recently changed his regis-
tration from Republican to
Independent and no longer
caucuses with the GOP.
East Oregonian
A9
Senate expands list of
who should report child
abuse, human trafficking
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon
Senate on Monday, April 5,
expanded the list of those
who should
re por t
possible
child abuse
to include
hoteliers,
and those
who should
re p or t
Findley
suspected
human trafficking to include
employees of restaurants and
bars.
“Sexual exploitation
crimes often go unreported
and victims don’t have the
resources they need to find
help,” said Sen. Lynn Find-
ley, R-Vale. “The more
reporting the community
does, the better.”
Both bills on the matter
were introduced by members
of the Republican Senate
caucus and passed with
bipartisan support. They
now go to the House for
consideration.
Senate Bill 515 requires
employees of bars and
restaurants to report reason-
able belief of suspected
human trafficking or unlaw-
ful employment of minors.
The bill passed 27-1, with
all Democrats supporting the
legislation and Rep. Dallas
Heard, R-Roseburg, voting
no.
“By all of us taking a
little responsibility for the
most vulnerable in our
communities, we can make
a difference.” said Senate
Minority Leader Fred
Girod, R-Stayton.
Senate Bill 535 makes
hotelkeepers and innkeep-
ers mandatory reporters of
child abuse. It also requires
computer tech nicians
and processors to imme-
diately report suspected
child pornography found
on devices or systems they
work on.
“Trafficking and sex
crimes are happening in
our own backyard, and we
need more tools to fight
them,” said Sen. Tim Knopp,
R-Bend. “These employees
can play an important role in
reporting.”
The bill passed 26-2, with
all Democrats voting yes,
while Heard and Sen. Brian
Boquist, a longtime GOP
lawmaker from Dallas who
has declared himself an inde-
pendent, both voted no.
During the initial call of
the vote, Senate Majority
Leader Rob Wagner, D-Lake
Oswego, asked Senate Pres-
ident Peter Courtney for a
“Call of the Senate.” This
impels senators to come to
the floor to vote. In the initial
roll call, neither Heard or
Boquist responded to the roll
call. In the last roll call, they
both voted no.
Heard, who is also the
chair of the Oregon Repub-
lican Party, has voted “no”
on every bill in committee
and on the floor as a protest
against what he says is the
Democrats’ manipulation
of the session agenda. That’s
caused Heard to be absent for
a bill that made displaying a
noose a hate crime, as well as
his votes on the crime report-
ing bills.