A12
OREGON
East Oregonian
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Push to recall GOP lawmaker fails Oregon lawmakers to
By DIRK
VANDERHART
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — State Sen.
Lynn Findley, R-Vale, was
the second Senate Repub-
lican targeted for recall
because he showed up to
oppose a gun-control bill.
Detractors wanted Findley to
walk away from the Capitol.
Earlier this year, gun
rights supporters launched
a recall attempt against state
Sen. Lynn Findley because
he showed up to work, voting
against a controversial gun
control bill.
It appears Findley, R-Vale,
will be able to keep showing
up.
With a deadline to
collect 8,289 valid signa-
tures approaching Monday,
Sept. 13, the chief petitioner
behind the recall told OPB
the effort had failed.
“I think we’re going to
fall just a smidge short,” said
Patrick Kopke-Hales, the
Mount Vernon veteran who
initiated the petition.
Kopke-Hales declined
repeatedly to offer an esti-
mate of how many signa-
tures he and other recall
supporters collected, but
said the vastness of Findley’s
Senate district combined
with a resurging COVID-19
used repeatedly in 2019 and
2020 to block climate change
legislation.
But while some GOP
senators did refuse to attend
the SB 554 vote, Findley and
five other Republican sena-
tors showed up to argue
strenuously against the
proposal, allowing Demo-
crats to pass it. The bill is
scheduled to take effect Sept.
24, though a referendum
campaign is underway that
could allow voters to have the
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/Oregon Public Broadcasting final say next year.
“Whether he chooses to
Sen. Lynn Findley, left, R-Vale, conferences with Sen. Bill
Hansell, R-Athena, on the Senate floor at the Oregon State believe that he was fighting
for us, the best way would
Capitol on Tuesday, May 18, 2021.
have been denying the Senate
pandemic had doomed the crats passed the session’s Democrats quorum on this
petition.
signature gun-control bill bill,” Kopke-Hales, the chief
“Everybody went back to out of the Senate. That bill, petitioner, wrote in a state-
having to wear masks,” he Senate Bill 554, created new ment in July. “He knew he
said. “It just made life harder requirements for gun owners was fighting a losing battle.”
all the way around.”
to secure their weapons when
Also involved in the recall
Findley expressed doubts not in use, and banned fire- push was HollyJo Beers of
the recall effort nearly arms from the state Capitol Milton-Freewater, who is
succeeded, saying he knew and Portland International affiliated with the Umatilla
no one within his district Airport. It also allowed County chapter of the Three
who had even seen a recall schools to create their own Percenters, a militia-style
petition.
firearm bans.
group that promotes gun
Gun rights support- rights. A political action
“I find that hard to imag-
ine,” he said. “I’d not heard ers, including the hardline committee affiliated with
of any efforts to even gather Oregon Firearms Federa- the recall petition had not
tion, had pressed Repub- reported raising any money
signatures.”
The movement to bounce licans to walk out over the as of Sept. 13.
Findley arose after the bill, which would have
Findley is the second
Eastern Oregon lawmaker denied Democrats a quorum Senate Republican to face a
attended a March f loor needed to conduct business. recall threat in connection
session, in which Demo- That’s a tactic Republicans with the gun control bill.
School boards warned: Follow the law, like it or not
BY BETSY HAMMOND
The Oregonian
SALEM — Leaders of
the Oregon School Boards
Association recently admon-
ished school board members
across the state to uphold
their oaths of office and
follow all laws, even those
they disagree with.
They conveyed that
message in an open letter —
signed by the association’s
executive director, president
and the head of its board
members of color caucus
— that took clear aim at the
notable number of school
board members who have
directed school employ-
ees to defy mask mandates
intended to keep children
safe from COVID-19. It also
called out, without naming
them, the four members of
the Newberg School Board
who directed their super-
intendent to ban displays
of Pride and Black Lives
Matter symbols in Newberg
schools.
“We are … lamentably
seeing a remarkable number
of board members doing
their very best to ignore the
law or openly defy it,” Direc-
tor Jim Green, President
Maureen Wolf and members
of color caucus head Sami
Al-Abdrabbuh wrote. “Such
behavior is simply unaccept-
able. We are duly elected
leaders of our communities,”
the three, all of whom have
also served on local school
boards, continued. “We set
examples for young people
… We call on Oregon’s more
than 1,400
school board
members
to
care-
fully weigh
the conse-
quences of
Green
your actions,
to heed your
oaths and to lead by exam-
ple.”
The letter comes on the
heels of dramatic school
board actions to defy what
some members feel is unac-
ceptable overreach by Gov.
Kate Brown, the Oregon
Department of Educa-
tion and the Oregon Health
Authority. Oregon has a long
tradition of local control of
public schools, which are
governed by elected local
school boards, but also
subjects schools to state
laws, executive orders and
administrative rules.
Brown and the two state
agencies have required
universal mask wearing in
schools, made being vacci-
nated a condition of employ-
ment for school employees
and required school boards
to pass “every student
belongs” policies that call
for full inclusion of students
regardless of race, disability,
gender identity and sexual
orientation.
In addition to anti-
LGBTQ+ and anti-Black
votes by the Newberg board
this summer, the Albany
school board fired Super-
intendent Melissa Goff
after she championed racial
equity, and the school board
DON’T FORGET TO
WEAR PINK
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH
Huge thank you
to all of the sponsors
That made this event possible!
Wolf
Al-Abdrabbuh
in Adrian fired its superin-
tendent after he indicated
he would enforce mask-
ing rules. In Redmond, a
packed crowd cheered as
the five-person school board
considered a resolution to
defy mask rules.
Since firing its superin-
tendent, the Adrian school
board approved a letter to
all district families that said
in part, “Although in our
view Oregon’s pandemic
steps have been consis-
tently wrong, we believe that
complying with the mask
order is in the best interest
of our students,” the Oregon
School Boards Association
reported.
The letter the statewide
association’s leaders sent
to all Oregon school board
members is notable in part
because the association
and its leaders have always
shown or voiced aware-
ness that they represent an
extremely diverse member-
ship. Oregon’s roughly 200
school districts range in size
from two students to 47,000,
encompass rural, suburban
and big or medium-size city
communities, and range in
political leaning from very
conservative to very liberal.
debate political maps
Gov. Kate Brown
officially calls for
special session
By DIRK
VANDERHART
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — With a dead-
line to approve new politi-
cal maps fast approaching,
Oregon lawmakers will
convene in Salem on Monday,
Sept. 20, to try to find agree-
ment on new legislative and
congressional districts.
Gov. Kate Brown on
Sept. 10 made official what
lawmakers have been plan-
ning on for months, calling a
special session and request-
ing that lawmakers work
“expeditiously” to pass a
redistricting plan.
What’s not yet clear:
Whether the public will be
invited to attend.
With COVID-19 surg-
ing in the
state, House
Speaker
Tina Kotek
and Senate
President
Peter Court-
Courtney
ney elected
last month
to eliminate
planned
in-per-
son hea r-
ings where
members of
Kotek
the public
c o u l d
comment on proposed polit-
ical maps. Instead, those
hearings have been held
virtually — like nearly every
legislative hearing since the
pandemic took root in 2020.
But the state Capitol is
open to visitors.
After being closed since
March 2020, the statehouse
reopened July 12, when
Brown had already eased
statewide restrictions. Court-
ney and Kotek had made no
announcement as of Sept. 10
that they’d seek to reshutter
the building and implement
the distancing measures
they’ve employed at other
recent sessions.
The timing of the special
session comes during an
interesting time at the Capitol
in Salem. Lawmakers have
been forced to move out of
their offices because of ongo-
ing construction, limiting the
places they’ll be able to spend
time in the building while not
on the floor.
And the session is set to
occur days before a new law
banning firearm posses-
sion in the Capitol is set to
take effect. That raises the
specter that members of the
public could openly carry
weapons in the building
during the politically charged
debate over how to draw new
districts — a possibility that
some lawmakers would
object to, in light of an incur-
sion by far-right protesters in
December.
Lawmakers have until
Sept. 27 to pass a new plan
for redrawing the state’s 90
legislative districts and six
congressional districts, but
there is little sign the two
parties can find agreement.
Proposed maps released by
Democrats and Republicans
last week have drawn criti-
cism by both sides that the
other is attempting to gerry-
mander to lock in politi-
cal advantages for the next
decade.
Despite that, Brown
sounded a note of optimism.
“This special session is an
opportunity for legislators to
set aside their differences
and ensure Oregon voters
have their voices heard at the
ballot box,” the governor said
in a statement. “Based on my
conversations with legisla-
tive leaders, and the ongoing
public testimony we are hear-
ing from Oregonians across
the state this week, I believe
the Legislature is ready to
begin the next step of the
redistricting process.”
If lawmakers do not pass a
plan by the deadline, Demo-
cratic Secretary of State
Shemia Fagan will take
control of drawing legisla-
tive maps. A panel of judges
will be tasked with approving
a congressional map.