A8
STATE/NATION
East Oregonian
Candidates for
Congress aren’t waiting
for court’s green light
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Lori Chavez-DeRemer
was 150 miles from home on
Thursday, Nov. 11, marking
Veterans Day in Bend and
Redmond.
“I’m grateful to be over
in Central Oregon to honor
America’s heroes,” Chavez-
DeRemer said. “I thought
it was important that if I am
running for Congress that it
would be an honor to be there
to honor our veterans.”
The former mayor of
Happy Valley in Clackamas
County and stalwart conserva-
tive is among potential candi-
dates who aren’t waiting for
the Oregon Supreme Court to
rule for or against new polit-
ical districts approved by the
Legislature in late Septem-
ber and targeted with Repub-
lican-backed lawsuits last
month.
Chavez-DeRemer
announced she would run for
the 5th Congressional District
seat held by U.S. Rep. Kurt
Schrader, D-Canby, since the
2012 election. When redis-
tricting pivoted the district to
the east and over the Cascades,
Chavez-DeRemer pivoted
with it.
“Really, the only differ-
ence is the demographics,”
Chavez-DeRemer said. “It’s
a new chapter. The goals are
the same for me — make the
community whole.”
Less than 15 minutes
away from the Redmond
event, Democrat Jamie
McLeod-Skinner of Crooked
River Ranch is planning
her own campaign against
Schrader.
But where Chavez-
DeRemer is a law-and-or-
der Republican who finds
Sch rader too liberal,
McLeod-Skinner is a Demo-
crat who sees Schrader as too
cozy with Republicans, siding
with them on pharmaceutical
price controls and limiting
President Joe Biden’s Build
Back Better plan.
Next door is the proposed
6th Congressional District
awarded Oregon because of its
10% jump in population over
the past decade. As an open
seat with no incumbent, it’s
a once in a generation chance
for politicians to get in at the
beginning and win jobs that
can last for decades.
Under the redistricting
plan approved by the Legis-
lature and Gov. Kate Brown,
the 6th District would include
all or parts of Polk, Yamhill,
Marion, Clackamas and
Washington counties.
For me r Mu lt noma h
County Commissioner Loretta
Smith declared her candidacy
for the seat. Rep. Andrea Sali-
nas, D-Lake Oswego, said last
week that she was running for
the seat too.
A w r i n k le sh a r e d
by C h ave z -D eRe me r,
McLeod-Skinner, Smith
and Salinas: None live in the
districts where they plan to
run.
State lawmakers have to be
a resident of their district —
one of the main reasons most
candidates for the Legislature
are waiting for a decision from
the Oregon Supreme Court
that could order further revi-
sions.
That’s not a problem for
candidates for congress. The
U.S. Constitution specifies
that U.S. House members
do not have to reside in their
districts, just the state they
will represent. While most
end up living where they are
elected, it’s not uncommon for
candidates to run, then move.
Schrader considered the
option until last week, saying
that he was deciding whether
to run in the 5th District, with
the numeral that makes him
the incumbent. Or the 6th
District, where voters would
likely be more familiar with
him. His home in Canby is
in the far western edge of the
new 5th District.
In the end, Schrader opted
to stick with the 5th, even
though it now included a swath
that crossed the Cascades in
Bend, Redmond and Sunriver
in Deschutes County.
“It’s going to be tough,”
Schrader said told Oregon
Public Broadcasting on Nov.
6. “I’ve lost half of the folks
I used to represent — over
half.” Schrader said the race
will be an “opportunity” to
win over new voters.
Schrader’s 2018 general
election foe, Republican Amy
Ryan Courser, had fi led for
a rematch against Schrader.
When the new district maps
came out, her house was in
the new 6th District. On Nov.
1, she revised her statement
with the Federal Elections
Commission to switch from
the 5th to the 6th.
A Smarter
Way to Power
Your Home.
Thursday, November 18, 2021
Blumenauer: Feds must do more
to prepare for climate disasters
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
WASH I NGTON —
U.S. Rep. Earl Blume-
nauer, fresh from a global
climate-change conference
in Scotland, said the federal
government will have to do
more to avert the natural
disasters posed by wors-
ening wildfi res, fl oods and
heat waves.
Blumenauer said in
an era of climate change,
people who lose their homes
to wildfi res and fl oods will
have to rebuild under more
stringent requirements — or
even rebuild elsewhere — to
mitigate the possibility of
future disasters.
“We understand we are
not going to be able to guar-
antee everybody in areas
that fl ood or are prone to
fire, in the same way we
have higher standards for
earthquakes,” the Oregon
Democrat told reporters
Monday, Nov. 15, in Port-
land. “People are going to
have to make these adjust-
ments because we cannot
aff ord to be able to pick up
the pieces for people who are
behaving recklessly.”
He did so as he unveiled
a report listing priorities and
principles for preparedness
and mitigation of disasters
fueled by climate change,
such as the 2020 Labor Day
wildfi res in Oregon and the
four-day heat wave in June,
when 100-degree-plus
temperatures in the North-
west killed hundreds, many
of them in Portland.
Blumenauer spoke as
President Joe Biden signed
Oregon Department of Corrections/Contributed Photo
The Oregon State Correctional Institution near Salem on Sept. 8, 2020, was evacuated be-
cause of wildfi res. U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, is pushing governments to re-
quire people living in disaster-prone areas to adopt safety measures, such as defensible
space and vegetation control.
legislation for $1 trillion in
spending on public works
projects, including measures
to alleviate the effects of
climate change. He is a
senior member of the House
Ways and Means Commit-
tee, which has authority over
tax legislation,
“What we are doing is
nibbling around the edges,”
he said. “The money we
spend on disasters is the
largest inf rast r uct u re
program the federal govern-
ment has. We are going to
be spending far more in our
response to disasters. We
need to be more thought-
ful in how we make those
investments. We need to
make sure we are dealing
with the disparities aff ect-
ing low-income people and
people of color.”
He has worked on legis-
lation to reshape the federal
flood insurance program
during his 25 years in the
House.
“ Si nce com i ng t o
Congress, I have continued
to work toward common-
sense reforms that prioritize
mitigation and preparedness
in the face of increased risk
of disasters,” he wrote in the
introduction to his report.
“I have led the eff ort for
f lood insurance reform,
improved disaster manage-
ment, and thoughtful land
use to minimize risk and
damage, all to save costs and
prevent future loss.”
Blumenauer, in respond-
ing to questions, said his
goal was not to displace
people already living in
disaster-prone areas but to
have governments require
them to adopt safety
measures, such as defen-
sible space and vegetation
control.
“We are not going to go
in and throw people out of
places they have lived for
years,” he said. “But the
more you build in the fl ame
zone, the more likely it is
that you are going to have
additional fi res.”
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