LOCAL & STATE
6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, MAY 8, 2021
Bill would ban legislators from serving as party officers
Malheur, Baker and Morrow
Counties Republican Execu-
tive Committees.”
EO Media Group
Hansell said he was recently
SALEM — A long-sim-
contacted by a group of mostly
mering feud among Oregon
Republicans regarding Heard
Senate Republicans surfaced and Linthicum. The group
on Wednesday, May 5, with
voiced concerns about whether
the introduction of a bill pit-
the state’s strict ethics and
ting the main factions of the
campaign laws permit their
11-person caucus against each election, telling Hansell that
other.
“you’re walking a fi ne line
Senate Bill 865, co-spon-
when you wear two hats,” he
sored by Sen. Bill Hansell,
said.
R-Athena,
Hansell said that he and his
and Sen. Lynn
colleagues sought advice from
Findley, R-Vale,
co-legislative counsel who said
would make it a
that there was potential for
fi neable offense
ethics violations for the sena-
to serve simul-
tors elected to the committee.
Findley
taneously as a
He added that the bill would
state offi ceholder
mirror laws in other states.
and an offi cer of a state central
committee of a political party. ‘You make a choice’
The move for the bill, Han-
Violators would be fi ned $250
sell said, became especially
per day. The bill has a clause
motivated when Heard voted
that would make it law as
“no” in protest of all the bills in
soon as it was signed by the
the committee, which include
governor.
bills to fi ght child pornography
While generic in its offi cial
language, the bill’s most imme- and sex traffi cking that have
diate effect is to challenge Sen. received widespread Republi-
can support.
Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg,
“When you’re representing
who earlier this year was
the ORP, are you just repre-
elected chair of the Oregon
senting Douglas County? Are
Republican Party. It would
you representing the state?”
also take aim at Sen. Dennis
Hansell said. “Enough people
Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls,
a Heard ally who was elected said, ‘He doesn’t represent me
the state GOP party treasurer. and he’s making these state-
ments and making these votes,
The bill says it was in-
and we need to have some
troduced “at the request of
By Bryce Dole,
Jayson Jacoby and
Gary Warner
separation.’ It reached the
point where we had Republi-
can folks supporting a bill like
this, and because of the prior-
ity deadline Sen. Findley used
a priority bill to move it.”
Hansell said the response
from Republicans so far has
been mostly positive, but the
move has nonetheless upset
some offi cers from the ORP.
“You make a choice,” he said.
“You can do one or the other,
but you can’t do both. Because
it’s a confl ict of interest and the
different diffi culties that arise
from that.”
Senate Majority Leader Rob
Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, later
signed on as a co-sponsor and
then moved to chief spon-
sor, indicating the bill would
likely have the votes to pass
if it came up for a vote in the
Senate.
Findley said he spoke with
the chairs of several other
county Republican central
committees in his district
who supported the bill but
had not had time to convene
their executive committees.
Those counties, unlike Baker,
Malheur and Morrow, are not
listed on Senate Bill 865.
Suzan Ellis Jones, chair of
the Baker County Republican
Party, said in a May 6 state-
ment that the county party
executive committee supports
the move.
“The Baker County Repub-
walk out of the vote and deny
a quorum. When they refused
and showed up to the fl oor to
oppose the bill, some senators,
including Hansell, received
threatening emails from gun-
rights advocates, which had
to be turned over to the state
police. And some senators, like
Hansell and Sen. Minority
Leader Fred Girod, R-Stayton,
faced recall efforts for showing
up that day.
“There is a fringe group out
there that is sure not welcome
in my offi ce,” Girod said. “It is
not OK to threaten people’s
lives, their staff. It’s not an ap-
propriate way to lobby.”
The seven “no” votes were
cast by six Republicans: Han-
Gun bill shows dispute
sell, Finley, Girod, Sen. Dick
The bill was introduced
Anderson, R-Lincoln City, Sen.
the same day that the Senate Tim Knopp, R-Bend, and Sen.
voted 17-7 to approve House
Bill Kennemer, R-Canby. Sen.
revisions of Senate Bill 554,
Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose,
a gun control measure whose joined the opposition.
provisions include a ban on
Four Republican senators
fi rearms in the state Capitol
were not present for the vote:
and rules requiring gun locks Heard, Linthicum, Sen. Kim
on weapons.
Thatcher, R-Keizer, and Sen.
Hansell told the East Orego- Chuck Thomsen, R-Hood
nian that the GOP caucus was River, were marked as absent
approached prior to the fi nal
or excused.
vote in March by representa-
Also not voting were two
tives of the Oregon Firearms
former Republican lawmakers
Federation, which calls itself
who had bolted the Republi-
“Oregon’s Only No Compro-
can caucus earlier this year
mise Gun Rights Organiza-
and declared themselves as
tion.”
independents: Sen. Brian
The senators were fi rmly
Boquist, I-Dallas, and Sen. Art
asked by the interest group to Robinson, I-Cave Junction.
lican executive committee
is supporting the efforts of
our Republican state sena-
tors Lynn Findley and Bill
Hansell,” she said. “This bill
simply implements a similar
structure in Oregon to what is
seen already in place in other
states.”
Findley said he believes the
bill is important because leg-
islators “can’t serve two mas-
ters” but said he can’t cite any
specifi c examples of confl icts
that resulted from Republican
lawmakers also serving as offi -
cials in the Oregon Republican
Party. Hansell also said he is
not yet aware of any specifi c
confl icts of interest.
Those who voted and those
who skipped the fl oor session
form the outlines of a rift in
the Senate Republican caucus
that became more heated
this session with the original
vote on SB 554.
The Senate currently has
18 Democrats, 10 Republi-
cans, and two independents.
Democrats had the votes
to pass the bill. But the Or-
egon Constitution requires
each chamber of the Legisla-
ture to have at least two-
thirds of its members answer
the roll call of attendance to
establish a quorum to do any
business.
Oregon is one of a handful
of states where the presence
of a majority of members is
not considered a quorum.
Senators had walked out
in previous sessions over
tax legislation and a carbon
cap bill that opponents said
would harm the state econ-
omy. Those walkouts were
led by then-Senate Minority
Leader Herman Baertsch-
iger Jr., R-Grants Pass.
Baertschiger stepped down
from his Senate seat at the
end of the walkout-shortened
2020 legislative session to
successfully run for Jose-
phine County commissioner.
Baertschiger was also elected
GOP state party vice chair-
man in alliance with Heard
and Linthicum.
Lawmaker accused of letting protesters into Capitol has COVID
the fi rst degree and
criminal trespass in
SALEM — A Republican state
the second degree for
lawmaker who authorities say let
the Dec. 21 breach of
violent protesters into the Oregon
the state Capitol by
Capitol in December says he is ill
people protesting coro-
Nearman
with COVID-19.
navirus restrictions.
“I have a really bad case of CO-
Both are misdemean-
VID and I’m kind of on the mend a ors, but carry possible jail time.
little bit,” Rep. Mike Nearman said
Nearman said this week on the
on a conservative radio talk show.
Lars Larson Show that he will seek
Nearman faces a hearing in Mari- a jury trial.
on County Circuit Court on Tuesday
“The Oregon State Police spent
on charges of offi cial misconduct in over four months investigating me.
By Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
... Do you think these guys have
anything better to do?” Nearman
said.
The Republican, who is from the
town of Independence near Salem,
did not further discuss having
COVID-19. On April 20, the Oregon
House of Representatives canceled
all fl oor sessions for that week
after someone at the Capitol was
diagnosed with COVID-19 and may
have exposed people in the chamber.
Despite having gotten sick, Near-
man told Larson that mask wear-
ing, shutdowns and other edicts
should be voluntary.
“Let’s set up some options where
people have freedom to do what they
want,” Nearman said. “If you want to
be masked and you want to be quaran-
tined, go be quarantined. If you want to
be out in public and that’s an accept-
able risk to you, then you can do that.”
Safety restrictions like wearing
masks, however, are not aimed only at
protecting the wearer, but to prevent
an infected person from spreading the
virus.
The breach of the Oregon Capitol
was a precursor to the Jan. 6 assault
on the U.S. Capitol.
While lawmakers were meeting in
emergency session inside the building
in Salem to deal with economic fallout
from the pandemic, fl ag-waving
supporters of then-President Donald
Trump, backers of the false Q-Anon
conspiracy theory and anti-maskers
were outside, demanding to be let
in. The building was closed to the
public to prevent spread of the
coronavirus.