STATE
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
East Oregonian
A9
Groups petition Oregon to
regulate air emissions from dairy
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Jaime Valdez/Pamplin Media
From left, Republican nominee Christine Drazan and Democratic nominee Tina Kotek, lis-
tens to unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson speak during a governor’s debate July 29,
2022, that the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association hosted at Mount Hood Oregon
Resort in Welches.
TOSS UP
GOP hopes stoked
in Oregon even
as party hits West
Coast low point
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — A new elec-
tion forecast says there’s
wobble in Democrats’
40-year hold on the Oregon
governor’s office, even as
Republicans hit a historic
low point along the West
Coast.
The Center for Poli-
tics at the University of
Virginia on Thursday,
Aug. 18, moved the Nov. 8
race for Oregon governor
from “Leans Democratic”
to “Toss-Up.”
“This is despite the
state’s blue lean and the fact
that Republicans have not
won a gubernatorial race
there since 1982,” wrote
Kyle Kondik, the center’s
managing editor.
The key change is the
near certainty of a three-way
race for governor that might
trip up Democrats seeking
to hold onto a job last held
by a Republican when Vic
Atiyeh won a second term
40 years ago.
Former Democratic State
Senator Betsy Johnson of
Columbia County turned in
nominating petitions with
over 48,000 signatures on
Tuesday — more than twice
the minimum needed to get
on the Nov. 8 ballot as an
unaffiliated candidate.
Secret ar y of St ate
Shemia Fagan has until
Aug. 30 to verify a random
sampling of petition signa-
tures in time to officially
add Johnson to the general
election alongside Demo-
crat Tina Kotek of Portland
and Republican Christine
Drazan of Canby.
“The race sets up an
unusual situation where
the winner may not need to
crack even 40%,” Kondik
wrote.
Three candidates
— and no ‘centrist’
nomination
Much of the election
debate has centered around
who Johnson would most
hurt, Kotek or Drazan. All
three served as late as last
year in the legislative lead-
ership. Kotek as House
speaker, Drazan as House
minority leader, and John-
son as a swing-vote Demo-
crat and co-chair of the
budget-writing Joint Ways
& Means Committee. All
left office early to run for
governor — with Johnson
also dropping her Demo-
cratic party affiliation of 20
years.
Adding to the scrambled
election math is a decision
by leaders of the Indepen-
dent Party of Oregon —
known as the IPO — to
forego an alliance with one
of the candidates.
“There will be no
cross-nomination on this
one,” Independent Party
board member Andrew
Kaza of Redmond said Aug.
18.
A cross-nomination by
the self-described “centrist”
Independent Party is usually
used by a candidate as
symbolic of being the less
partisan choice in a race.
So far in 2022, the
Independent Party has
cross-nominated 52 candi-
dates for federal, state, and
local offices. Cross-nom-
inations were awarded
to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden,
D-Oregon, and two Demo-
cratic candidates for open
U.S. House seats: Terre-
bonne attor ney Jamie
McLeod-Skinner in the 5th
Congressional District and
Rep. Andrea Salinas of Lake
Oswego in the 6th district.
The Independent Party of
Oregon has heavily favored
Democrats in 2022. Still,
Sen. Bill Kennemer, R-Or-
egon City, and Rep. Mark
Owens, R-Vale, are among
five GOP candidates to win
the IPO nod.
‘THE RACE
SETS UP AN
UNUSUAL
SITUATION
WHERE THE
WINNER MAY
NOT NEED TO
CRACK EVEN
40%.’
— Kyle Kondik, managing
editor for the Center for
Politics at the University of
Virginia
Kaza said Independent
Party leaders are free to
announce their personal
preferences. But no one in
the governor’s race will be
able to have the party’s iden-
tification added to their ballot
line that a cross-nomination
would allow.
The Center for Politics
forecast said the undulat-
ing national political scene
and three strong candidates
was enough to put a question
mark next to the Democrats’
historic win streak for the
Oregon governorship.
“Outgoing Gov. Kate
Brown (D) is deeply unpop-
ular, and there may be
some desire for change in
the Beaver State,” Kondik
wrote. “Johnson, the inde-
pendent, would still be the
most surprising winner, and
Kotek and Drazan both will
be working to try to prevent
their voters from flocking to
her banner.”
Two other major national
forecasters — the Cook Polit-
ical Report and FiveThir-
tyEight — have previously
moved the Oregon gover-
nor’s race from a likely
Democratic win to the less
certain leaning Democratic
victory.
GOP misses
early chance to end
West Coast shutout
The Oregon election
speculation came on the
heels of Washington voters
earlier this month ensuring
the official end of a 56-year
winning streak by Republi-
cans for the office or Wash-
ington secretary of state.
The Aug. 2 Washington state
primary cemented Demo-
crats’ hold on every execu-
tive state office on the West
Coast states of California,
Oregon and Washington.
Kim Wyman, a Repub-
lican, won a third four-year
term as Washington secre-
tary of state in 2020, retain-
ing the office held by the
GOP since the 1964 elec-
tion. In 2021, she resigned
to accept an appointment by
President Joe Biden to over-
see federal election security
efforts.
Washington Gov. Jay
Inslee appointed Wash-
ington Sen. Steve Hobbs, a
fellow Democrat, to the posi-
tion.
“This is pretty surreal for
me,” Hobbs said when sworn
in last November.
What was surrealistic for
Hobbs was infuriating to
state Republicans. Unlike
Oregon, Washington did not
have a law requiring that the
governor appoint a replace-
ment from the same party.
GOP officials said the
interruption in the line of
Republicans in the office
would be swiftly reversed
with the special election in
2022 to fill out the remainder
of Wyman’s term.
Washington uses a
system that includes an open
primary. The top two candi-
dates, regardless of party
affiliation, would advance to
the Nov. 8 general election.
Seven candidates, includ-
ing three Republicans,
ran against Hobbs in the
primary.
Hobbs finished with 40%
of the vote. In the scrum of
others, unaffiliated candi-
date Julie Anderson finished
second with 13%.
There would be no
Republican on the ballot.
Anderson, the Pierce
County auditor, would be the
first secretary of state with-
out a party affiliation to win
the office since 1896.
Hobbs would be the
first Democrat to hold the
office since Victor Aloysius
Meyers, described by the
Seattle Times as a “former
Depression-era jazz-band
leader” lost his bid for a third
term in 1964.
Gov. Arnold Schwarz-
enegger was the last state-
wide Republican office-
holder in California, leaving
office in 2011.
Secretar y of State
Dennis Richardson was the
last Republican elected to
statewide office in Oregon,
winning the 2016 election,
but dying in office in 2019.
Under Oregon law, Rich-
ardson’s replacement had
to be from the same party,
and Gov. Kate Brown, a
Democrat, appointed former
House Speaker Bev Clarno
of Redmond to fill out the
remainder of the term.
Clarno did not seek elec-
tion to a full term in 2020.
Fagan, a Democratic state
senator from Clackamas
County defeated Sen. Kim
Thatcher, R-Keizer.
How the historic trends
and state shutouts and crum-
bling consensus plays out
out in 2023 still has more
than 11 weeks left to play out
until the generation election
on Nov. 8.
SALEM — A coalition
of 22 environmental, public
health and animal welfare
groups is petitioning Oregon
regulators to adopt new rules
targeting air pollution from
large-scale dairies.
The petition, filed Aug. 17
with the state Environmental
Quality Commission, seeks
to create a dairy air emissions
program that would apply to
farms with 700 or more mature
cows, which the federal Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency
defines as a “large” operation.
Under the program,
proposed and existing dairies
would be required to obtain
an air quality permit and curb
harmful emissions. They
include ammonia, methane,
hydrogen sulfide and particu-
late matter, among others.
Opponents argue the
proposal is misleading, and
would include family farms
that can ill afford more costly
regulations.
Emily Miller, staff attorney
for Food and Water Watch, esti-
mated the proposal would apply
to 91 dairies in Oregon. That is
39% of all Grade A dairies and
have 84% of all cows.
“For too long, the state
has sat idly by while Oregon
mega-dairies have been spew-
ing toxic pollution into the air,
wreaking havoc on our natu-
ral resources, climate and
communities,” said Miller, the
petition’s lead author. “This
head-in-the-sand approach
must change.”
The commission has 90
days to respond.
Confined animal feeding
operations such as dairies are
jointly regulated by the state’s
Department of Agriculture and
Department of Environmental
Quality.
However, the agencies are
only responsible for ensuring
the manure handled by CAFOs
does not contaminate surface
or ground water.
As early as 2008, a
state-convened Dairy Air Qual-
PETITION TO EQC
Twenty-two organiza-
tions have petitioned the
Oregon Environmental
Quality Commission to
create a dairy air emissions
program that would regu-
late farms with more than
700 cows.
Petitioners include:
• 350 Eugene
• 350 Deschutes
• Animal Legal Defense Fund
• American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals
• Beyond Toxics
• Center for Biological
Diversity
• Center for Food Safety
• Columbia Riverkeeper
• Comunidades Amplifying
Voices for Environmental
and Social Justice
• Environment Oregon
• Humane Voters Oregon
• Farm Forward
• Farm Sanctuary
• Food & Water Watch
• Friends of the Columbia
Gorge
• Friends of Family Farmers
• Mercy for Animals
• Northwest Environmen-
tal Defense Center
• Oregon Physicians for
Social Responsibility
• Pendleton Community
Action Alliance
• Public Justice Foundation
• World Animal Protection
ity Task Force recommended a
dairy air emissions program
in its report to ODA. Fourteen
years later, Miller said, almost
nothing has been done.
“Meanwhile, these opera-
tions keep getting bigger and
bigger, and keep emitting
more pollution into Oregon’s
atmosphere,” she said. “This
program is long overdue.”
Food and Water Watch’s
analysis of state and federal
data shows dairies with more
than 2,500 cows in Oregon
collectively release more than
17 million kilograms of meth-
ane every year, equivalent to the
emissions from 318,000 cars.
Miller said not only are
methane emissions exacerbat-
ing climate change, but pollut-
ants can also cause health
problems for employees and
nearby communities. She
said more than one-third of all
dairy cows in the state are in
Umatilla and Morrow counties.
The largest dairy, at
Threemile Canyon Farms, has
70,000 cows about 15 miles
west of Boardman along the
Columbia River.
Mary Anne Cooper, vice
president of public policy for
the Oregon Farm Bureau, said
the petition is a new tactic from
groups that have long opposed
large dairies.
In 2017, legislation was
introduced in the state Senate
directing the EQC to establish
a dairy air emissions program.
That bill, SB 197, died in
committee.
Cooper said dairies have
already voluntarily adopted
best management practices to
minimize air emissions, such
as a methane digester built at
Threemile Canyon Farms,
which is used to generate elec-
tricity and renewable natural
gas.
The petition, Cooper said,
claims to address so-called
“mega-dairies,” yet the thresh-
old of 700 or more cows is
“very much family-scale oper-
ations in this state.”
“You cannot support a
family on a couple hundred
milk cows,” she said. “Their
costs already exceed what
they’re getting on the market
for their product.”
Between added costs due to
inflation and the passage of a
state law mandating farmwork-
ers be paid overtime, Cooper
said it has already been a diffi-
cult year for producers.
“This (air emissions
program) will have a real
impact on people and on
families,” she said. “We have
an industry with such tight
margins. They’re already trying
to figure out how to accommo-
date a number of new regula-
tory burdens this year alone.”
Re-worked commission fires
Oregon’s public defense head
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Chief Justice
Martha Walters has appointed
four new members and reap-
pointed five others to the state
commission that oversees
legal representation for indi-
gent criminal defendants.
She moved to remove all
nine members of the Public
Defense Services Commis-
sion after the panel failed to
fire Stephen Singer after eight
months as executive director
of the Office of Public Defense
Services. Singer’s defenders
said he has put new energy into
that troubled system, but his
critics say he is abrasive with
some officials.
The new commission
scheduled a closed-door meet-
ing Wednesday to review
Singer’s performance, and
another meeting on Thurs-
day, Aug. 18. to continue that
review — and possibly act to
remove Singer.
Under a 1963 decision of
the U.S. Supreme Court, crim-
inal defendants are entitled to
legal representation in state
and federal courts as a consti-
tutional guarantee under the
Sixth Amendment. But some
criminal defendants, particu-
larly in Multnomah and Wash-
ington counties, have lacked
such representation.
The Legislature did release
$100 million withheld from
the agency budget, approving
what amounts to a $13 million
patch to the system. But legis-
lative leaders and Gov. Kate
Brown say more work needs
to be done.
The agency is part of the
judicial branch, but its budget
is not under the control of the
chief justice of the Oregon
Supreme Court, who leads the
state trial and appellate courts.
Walters released this letter
after she announced the new
commission on Aug. 16:
“The issues before the
commission are complex and
demand a level of expertise,
lived experience, commitment
to public defense, and demon-
strated ability to work collab-
oratively across the different
branches of government and,
as importantly, with the people
directly involved in delivering
public defense services to the
people of Oregon.
“Many people have import-
ant roles in the delivery of
those services, including not
only the lawyers who repre-
sent eligible clients, but also
the dedicated staff at OPDS
whose work is necessary to
ensure that the system func-
tions, and the judges who must
respond when individuals seek
the legal counsel to which they
are constitutionally entitled.
All deserve our recognition,
respect and gratitude.
“I am appointing each of
you because of what you bring
to this mission and vision.
I also am appointing you
because I believe that, collec-
tively, this body can build on
the decisions and commit-
ments already made and move
forward to achieve the neces-
sary changes with an inclusive
and respectful approach that
unites us in our common goal.
“This change in leader-
ship occurred quickly, and
our work will commence as
quickly. These issues are too
important to delay.”
Within a couple of hours
of their removal on Aug. 16,
Walters named four new
members. They are in alpha-
betical order:
• Peter Buckley, former
state representative from
Ashland (2005-17) and
former House co-chairman of
the Legislature’s joint budget
panel (2009-17). He is a project
manager at Southern Oregon
Success, a nonprofit consor-
tium serving children, youths
and families in Jackson, Jose-
phine and Klamath counties.
It is overseen by the Southern
Oregon Education Service
District.
• Jennifer Nash, a lawyer
in Corvallis who specializes
in criminal and family law,
but does not provide public
defense. She has been on a
governor’s task force on the
issue, administered the public
defense services contract in
Benton County, and sat on
the pay parity committee of
the Oregon Criminal Defense
Lawyers Association.
• Jennifer Parrish Taylor,
director of advocacy and
public policy for the Urban
League of Portland. She also
is a public member of the state
Board on Public Safety Stan-
dards and Training.
• Kristen Winemiller, a
lawyer in Portland who led the
Oregon State Bar task force on
indigent defense in 2000 and
is a life member of the Oregon
Criminal Defense Lawyers
Association.
The reappointed members
are:
• Per Ramfjord, chair, a
trial lawyer at the Portland
firm of Stoel Rives, Oregon’s
largest private firm.
• Paul Solomon, vice chair,
and the executive director
of Sponsors Inc., a prisoner
re-entry program based in
Eugene.
• Alton Harvey Jr., an
addiction services mentor for
Volunteers of America, based
in Portland, and one of four
commission members who
opposed the firing of Singer.
• Lisa Ludwig, a lawyer
with the Portland firm of
Ludwig Runstein.
• Max Williams, outgo-
ing president of the Oregon
Community Foundation, a
lawyer, and former state repre-
sentative (1999-2004) and
former director of the Oregon
Department of Corrections
(2004-11).
All commission terms are
four years. The chair and vice
chair will serve for two years.