A8
LOCAL/STATE
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Oregon GOP lawsuit challenges congressional redistricting
Republicans charge Dems with
‘egregious’ gerrymandering of districts
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — A single
challenge has been fi led
by Republicans to the map
of six U.S. House districts
that Democratic majorities
pushed through the Oregon
Legislature.
The deadline for Mar-
ion County Circuit Court
to receive challenges was
Tuesday, Oct. 12. The law-
suit was fi led the previous
day. But a special panel of
fi ve retired circuit judges
named by Chief Justice
Martha Walters, not a sit-
ting circuit judge, will con-
sider whether the congres-
sional plan has “factual
and legal defects” and how
to remedy them.
The panel has until Oct.
22 to set a schedule for con-
sideration of written (and
potentially oral) arguments
for and against the plan
enacted in Senate Bill 881.
Oral arguments are not
required. The procedure
was set out in separate leg-
islation that passed in the
2021 Legislature, which
had to act after the U.S.
Census Bureau delayed
release of census-block
data used in mapmaking
past the deadlines.
The panel has until Nov.
24 to decide on the law-
suit fi led by four people:
Former Secretary of State
Bev Clarno of Redmond,
also a former speaker of
the Oregon House; Larry
Campbell of Eugene, also
a former House speaker;
Gary Wilhelms of Tigard,
a former House Republi-
can leader and a redistrict-
ing consultant to House
Republicans in 2001, and
Jim Wilcox of The Dalles,
a real estate broker.
Secretary
of
State
Shemia Fagan, a Democrat
who succeeded Clarno on
Jan. 4, is the named defen-
dant in her role as Oregon’s
chief elections offi cer.
One of the two lawyers
representing the plaintiff s
is Shawn Lindsay, who
as a Republican represen-
tative from Hillsboro in
2011 was a co-leader of the
House redistricting panel,
also evenly split between
the parties in a 30-30
House. Back then, the con-
gressional and legislative
redistricting plans passed
the Legislature and were
not challenged in court.
Flawed process alleged
In their lawsuit, the
plaintiff s said the pro-
cess was as much at fault
as the results. Democrats
and Republicans had an
equal number of members
on the House Redistricting
Committee as a result of a
tacit compromise during
the 2021 session. But the
counterpart committee in
the Senate did not — there
were three Democrats and
two Republicans — and
after SB 881 passed the
Senate on a party-line vote
on Sept. 20, House Speaker
Tina Kotek created a sep-
arate panel of two Dem-
ocrats and one Republi-
can to advance that bill to
a vote of the full House. It
passed on a party-line vote
Sept. 27.
“The result of this
highly partisan process is
a clear, egregious partisan
gerrymander, as has been
widely acknowledged both
in Oregon and across the
country,” the lawsuit says.
“Under the Demo-
crats’ gerrymandered map,
enacted as SB 881-A, the
Democrats are projected to
win fi ve of the six congres-
sional seats in Oregon in a
typical year. If SB 881-A
stands, Oregon’s Consti-
tutional and statutory pro-
hibitions against partisan
gerrymandering are eff ec-
tively meaningless.”
Based on competing
maps that the parties sub-
mitted for the congres-
sional districts — Ore-
gon gained a U.S. House
seat for the fi rst time in 40
years — each party sought
to carve out an advan-
tage for the 2022 elec-
tion and beyond. That’s
despite a redistricting stan-
dard that says no district
shall be drawn for partisan
advantage.
Each new district must
be within fi ve people of the
new average of 706,209.
Federal courts have been
more strict about equal
populations for congres-
sional districts than for
state legislative districts.
According to the non-
partisan website fi vethir-
tyeight.com, both parties’
plans give clear registra-
tion advantages to Dem-
ocrats in the 1st and 3rd
districts and to Republi-
cans in the 2nd District, as
they are now. The Demo-
cratic map makes the other
three districts competitive,
but favoring Democrats.
The Republican map gives
the GOP more competitive
hopes in those districts.
The Democratic map
gives Democrats a shot at
fi ve of Oregon’s six seats,
one more than they have
now.
The Republican map
gives Republicans a shot at
four of the six seats, three
more than they have now.
In general, Washing-
ton County on Portland’s
westside and Deschutes
County in Central Oregon
gained population during
the decade faster than
the statewide average of
10.6%.
Washington
County
was at 13.3%, Deschutes
County at 25.7%. They are
trending Democratic.
But most of Oregon east
of the Cascades and south
of the Willamette Valley,
except for the Rogue Val-
ley, lagged in growth. That
vast region usually sides
with Republicans.
Competing maps
The Democratic map
includes parts of the Port-
land metropolitan area
within four of the six dis-
tricts, excluding the 2nd
and 4th districts. The new
5th would extend into
Bend and Redmond; the
new 6th would extend
from southern Washington
County into Yamhill and
Polk counties, and part of
Marion County including
Salem.
The map proposed by
Republicans would have
confi ned the 1st Dis-
trict largely to Washing-
ton County, though it’s not
quite large enough pop-
ulation-wise for its own
district, and the 3rd Dis-
trict largely to Multnomah
County, though it’s too
large for a single district.
If the panel of retired
judges decides that the
congressional redistricting
plan approved by the Leg-
islature does not comply
with state constitutional
and statutory requirements,
it can create its own plan.
If the panel upholds the
plan, any appeal will go
to the Oregon Supreme
Court, which is the ulti-
mate arbiter of that plan
and a legislative redis-
tricting plan. Appeals of
the latter go directly to the
high court; the fi ling dead-
line is Oct. 25.
The high court must
make a congressional plan
fi nal no later than Feb.
7, one month before the
March 8 fi ling deadline for
the May 17, 2022, primary.
The panel for review
of the congressional plan
consists of Richard Bar-
ron of Coos County,
Paula Brownhill of Clat-
sop County, William Cra-
mer
of
Harney/Grant
counties, Mary James of
Marion County and Kath-
erine Tennyson of Mult-
nomah County. James was
appointed by Chief Justice
Walters to lead the panel.
Enterprise City Council puts
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Ordinances
OK’d defi ning,
restricting
the rentals
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
controversy over vacation
rentals in Enterprise was
eff ectively put to rest Mon-
day, Oct. 11, as the Enter-
prise City Council made
changes in the city code
governing them, according
to a press release.
The council held a work
session prior to the meet-
ing to discuss the proposed
changes.
Two ordinances were
passed to make the changes.
One defi ned a vacation
rental as “a furnished apart-
ment, house, condominium,
complex or recreational
vehicle rented out on a tem-
porary basis to tourists/
travelers as an alternative
to a hotel/motel.”
City
Administra-
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tor Lacey
McQuead
said in an
email that
prior to the
ordinance,
there were
L. McQuead
no previous
definitions
within the city code, so this
addition is new.
The other ordinance
added
vacation
rent-
als to code sections gov-
erning them. Restrictions
include what zones they are
allowed in and under which
conditions.
McQuead
said
the
actions should put to rest
the controversy over vaca-
tion rentals that began this
spring, as the actions came
with a fi nal public hearing
on the issue. It also ends
the 90-day moratorium
extended Aug. 9 on any
new vacation rentals. That
would have expired in early
November.
In other business at
the Oct. 11 meeting, the
council:
• Approved a resolu-
tion on water and sewer
rates. This came after hear-
ing a report from Coun-
cilor Jeff Yanke who, with
McQuead, had met with
Natalie Millar, CEO of Ter-
minal Gravity Brewery.
Yanke said TG has agreed
to separate its water lines,
allowing for a more accu-
rate understanding of the
amount of water the brew-
ery uses. McQuead recom-
mended further review of
breweries prior to the coun-
cil approving its next reso-
lution on water and sewer
rates.
• Approved a $2,000
motel tax grant to the Wal-
lowa Valley Community
Ice Rink, based on a recom-
mendation of the Motel Tax
Committee.
• Heard a presentation by
Angela Mart and Zeb Burke
of the Wallowa Mountain
Bicycle Club. They pro-
posed a “pump track” south
of the Enterprise City Park.
According to www.bicy-
cling.com, a pump track is
a looped sequence of roll-
ers and berms (swoopy,
banked turns) for bike rid-
ers. It’s designed to max-
imize momentum, so the
rider can ride with mini-
mal pedaling. After a con-
versation between staff
and the council, and public
input from Shannon Emel,
the council agreed to table
the discussion until the
November meeting. Before
then, McQuead will facili-
tate a meeting between the
club and the Public Works
Committee.
• Gave McQuead the
go-ahead to begin planning
Winterfest. This year it is
expected to be held Satur-
day, Dec. 11. Last year’s
regular downtown version
of Winterfest was canceled
because of the COVID-19
pandemic and it was lim-
ited to a drive-thru version
at the fairgrounds.
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