Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2018)
State Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, March 7, 2018 A7 Oregon Republicans downplay Trump, tout issues By Claire Withycombe Capital Bureau Capital Bureau/Claire Withycombe Former Trump campaign adviser and self-styled ‘provocateur’ Roger Stone was the headline speaker at Saturday’s Dorchester Conference in Salem. He is shown with a conference attendee. Capital Bureau/Claire Withycombe Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, talks with Oregon College Republicans Saturday at the Dorchester Conference. Dennis Richardson told con- ference attendees in a speech Saturday morning that their identity as Oregonians should come before their identity as Republicans if they wanted their party to win. Richardson speaks from experience: In 2016, Richard- son was the first Republican to win statewide office since 2002, besting Democrat Brad Avakian, the state’s labor commissioner. “I would not be here unless I got Democratic votes, Green Party votes, Independent par- ty of Oregon votes, Working Family Party votes and votes from non-affiliated Orego- nians,” Richardson said. “And why? Because they wanted to elect somebody who would keep his promise to do that which was best for our state. I said when I was elected you wouldn’t be able to tell if there was an ‘R’ or a ‘D’ be- hind my name, and I hope that you can see that I’ve tried to live up to that.” Smith, the gubernatorial candidate, also argues that Republicans can win state- wide elections by homing on issues that voters in Portland SESSION Continued from Page A1 “Really, the session worked the way it should,” said House Speaker Tina Kotek. “There were emerg- ing issues. We dealt with them, and we did strategic investments for communi- ties that needed some things. We balanced the budget. We also were able to take on some of the bigger issues facing the state.” Republican leaders Rep. Mike McLane of Powell Butte, and Sen. Jackie Win- ters of Salem said the short session remains “broken.” “Oregonians sent us here to adjust budgets, make minor policy tweaks, and respond to emergencies. Instead, the majority party introduced significant par- tisan policy changes that were impossible to properly vet in such a short amount of time,” they said in a joint statement. “While thankful- ly many of these bills failed to make it to the Governor’s desk, it’s hard to escape the reality that the short session is increasingly becoming more about political postur- ing than good policy mak- ing.” Health care Lawmakers passed two bills aimed at understanding the high price of prescrip- tion drugs and shining light on coordinated care organi- zations, which provide gov- ernment-subsidized health care to indigent Oregonians through the state’s version of Medicaid. House Bill 4005 requires pharmaceutical manufac- turers to disclose reasons for increases in the price of prescription drugs when the increase exceeds 10 percent. House Bill 4018 makes public the meetings of the state’s 15 CCOs and requires the organizations to give at least three months’ notice before ending a contract care about, such as health care, education and homeless- ness. State Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, who is also jostling for the governor’s mansion, also criticized focusing too much on the White House: He claimed in a speech that while he was solving local problems in the Legislature, Demo- cratic Gov. Kate Brown was “fixated on divisive national politics.” The Saturday-night head- liner was former Trump cam- paign adviser and self-styled “provocateur” Roger Stone, who gave a speech touting what he believes to be the accomplishments of the pres- ident and condemning Dem- ocrats. He is a controversial figure who remains in the national limelight for his ties to Trump. A former adviser to the campaign, which he part- ed ways with in August of 2015, Stone has also lobbied on Trump’s behalf on Capi- tol Hill and says he urged the New York real estate tycoon to run for president first in 1988. Stone got his start in national politics working on Richard Nixon’s Committee To Re-Elect The President (CREEP). Stone claimed the presi- dent brought African-Amer- ican employment to the low- est level on record, said the president is committed to free trade, and celebrated the con- tributions of alternative right- wing media outlets and social media to Trump’s campaign. “The rise of a vibrant, ro- bust alternative media, the rise of social media, Twitter, Facebook and so on, is what allowed for the election of an outsider candidate who the mainstream media sought to destroy,” Stone said. Stone also warned of what he described as a “tech left” that he believes seeks to cen- sor right-wing perspectives on social media platforms. The Atlantic reported last week that Stone had corre- sponded directly with radi- cal-transparency organization WikiLeaks, which is suspect- ed to have ties to Russia, be- fore the 2016 election. The magazine reported Stone had told the committee under oath he’d corresponded with Wikileaks through an “inter- mediary.” Stone, who on Saturday would have on the state’s small businesses. The bill was intended to stem state revenue losses from federal tax reform late last year. The change is ex- pected to result in $244 mil- lion in tax dollars in the ex- isting two-year budget than if the state had allowed the deduction. the principles of “net neu- trality.” That means con- tractors may not block, slow down or charge more for cer- tain content. Net neutrality Portland Tribune/Jaime Valdez The 2018 Oregon Legislative Assembly at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem. Legislative leaders Saturday celebrated several accomplishments this year and a marked increase in bipartisanship and efficiency. with the state, an effort to stabilize the health care sys- tem. on vetoing the bill. She raised some concerns during session over the impact it State lawmakers have no authority to regulate inter- net companies. However, they can pass laws to use the state’s buying power to encourage certain business practices. In this case, they required that internet providers that contract with government entities in the state abide by Climate change An ambitious proposal to enact a cap-and-invest program this year moved through the session without legislative action. The program would have charged companies for emit- ting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and invested the proceeds into projects designed to offset global warming. Kotek and Courtney said they want to pass the legis- lation next year during the Legislature’s five-month- long session. They also an- nounced the creation of a new Joint Legislative Committee on Carbon Reduction. Lawmakers also added $1.4 million to the state bud- get as part of the budget rec- onciliation bill to create a car- bon policy office in the state Department of Administrative Services. Health care Portland Rep. Mitch Greenlick’s third try to refer a constitutional amendment to voters to make access to affordable and effective health care a fundamental right was blocked in the Sen- ate. Opponents were con- cerned about potential cost and litigation that could re- sult from the constitutional provision. Guns A bill to strip gun rights from convicted stalkers and intimate partners convicted of abuse passed both cham- bers. Known as closure of the “boyfriend” or “intimate partner” loophole, the fix was a priority of Gov. Kate Brown for this session. Housing Lawmakers boosted rev- enue to fund affordable housing by raising the real estate document recording fee from $20 to $60. The fee is the state’s only source of revenue dedicated to paying for affordable housing. The increase is projected to generate an additional $60 million every two years. Business taxes Lawmakers eliminated a federal deduction for busi- nesses on state tax returns. While the state’s income tax code is largely tied to federal code, business own- ers with “pass-through” income on their personal income taxes will not be allowed to deduct up to 20 percent of their income in 2018. It was unclear Saturday whether the governor plans 43561 Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Smith claims he’s got a winning strategy, one that he’s willing to share with his competitors: Don’t talk about Trump. “I am working hard to con- vince them that the issue is not Donald Trump,” Smith said, standing in front of his booth at the 54th annual Dorchester Conference, the annual gath- ering of Oregon Republicans, in Salem on Saturday. “The issue is winning.” Although Smith is less- er-known among the broad bench of Republicans seeking the GOP nomination for gov- ernor, he’s confident enough that he says he bet the cam- paign manager for fellow candidate Sam Carpenter — whose slogan is “Make Or- egon Great Again” — $100 that he beats Carpenter in the primary. “Should I make it $1,000?” he asked a reporter. Following the online publi- cation of this story, Jeff Smith and David Gulliver, manager of the Sam Carpenter cam- paign, contacted the Capital Bureau to clarify that they did not bet on the outcome of the Republican primary. In- stead, they say, Smith agreed to donate $100 to Carpenter’s campaign if Carpenter wins the GOP primary, and Gulli- ver agreed to donate $100 to Smith’s campaign if he wins the primary. It is illegal under Oregon law for a candidate to bet on the outcome of a race, or for any person to bet to in- fluence the result of an elec- tion. Smith’s is one of a spec- trum of opinions about the role of partisanship and the president at the conference, about eight months ahead of the 2018 election, when state legislative races, congressio- nal seats and the governor’s seat will be up for grabs. Meanwhile, the top Re- publican in statewide office urged attendees to identify as Oregonians before they iden- tified as Republicans. Oregon Secretary of State dismissed what he called “the Russian collusion delusion,” told the magazine he provided the full exchange to the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating wheth- er the Trump campaign co- ordinated with Russia to un- dermine Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. The main speaker Friday, Fox News commentator, au- thor and radio host Kevin Jackson, likewise praised the president and lambasted “left- ists.” “What a world you peo- ple created on Nov. 8, 2016,” Jackson said, referring to the day Trump was elected pres- ident, to applause. “I’ll never forget the look on those sis- sies’ faces.” He disparaged feminists, prioritized the rights of Amer- ican citizens first and “human beings second,” and criticized the study of the humanities and social justice in the na- tion’s colleges. “I’m done with feminists,” he said. The chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Oregon, Jeanne Atkins, said in a state- ment earlier this week that the choice of speakers for the conference was “appalling.” “Republicans are increas- ingly out of touch with voters and their promotion of speak- ers who are known for hate speech and public deceit is frightening,” Atkins said. Greg Astley, president of the conference, defended the choice of speakers such as Jackson and Stone and said that the Dorchester Confer- ence was a “big tent.” The value of the confer- ence, he said, was that Ore- gonians from across the state could interact face-to-face with prominent figures, re- calling how, attending the conference at 14, he met for- mer Gov. Vic Atiyeh. If attendees disagreed with a speaker’s views, they could go talk to them directly or ask questions, Astley said. “If we shut down all that kind of conversation, I don’t think we’ll be any better than the progressive far left,” Ast- ley said.