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STATE MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, July 10, 2019 A7 Rural Oregonians from #TimberUnity visit White House Growing political group points to similarities with their movement and Trump’s populist rise By Sierra Dawn McClain EO Media Group Oregon Capital Bureau/Aubrey Wieber State Sen. Brian Boquist Legislators reject legal advice, allow Boquist to work in the Capitol Senator must notify officials 12 hours before entering building By Aubrey Wieber and Claire Withycombe Oregon Capital Bureau State Sen. Brian Boquist will have to alert officials before he arrives to work in the Capitol so additional state troopers can be put on duty — steps in reaction to his threatening remarks in the closing days of the legislative session. The Senate Special Committee on Conduct on Monday also warned the Republican from Dallas not to retali- ate against anyone who reported being fearful to work in the Capitol because of his statements. He also was directed to not act out against anyone who par- ticipates in the ongoing investigation into his conduct. Committee chair Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, said the com- mittee’s decision was effective imme- diately and doesn’t need full Senate approval. Others joining Prozanski in a unanimous vote to impose the condi- tions were Sen. Alan Olsen, R-Canby; Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend; and Sen. James Manning, D-Eugene. The unusual hearing comes on the heels of two statements Boquist made June 19. He reacted to Gov. Kate Brown’s announcement she would send state troopers after Republican senators threatened a walkout. They made good on their threat. In comments on the Senate floor in June, Boquist, who maintains state police can’t come onto his property to arrest him without a warrant, laid into Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem. “If you send the state police to get me, Hell’s coming to visit you person- ally,” he said. Shortly after, Boquist gave inter- views to reporters, giving the now-infa- mous quote to KGW, which posted it on Twitter. If Brown sends police, Boquist said, they better “send bachelors and come heavily armed.” Attorney Brenda Baumgart of Stoel Rives, hired by the Legislature to han- dle workplace complaints, concluded in a recent report that Boquist’s statements caused a workplace issue and concerns over safety were credible, recommend- ing Boquist be kept out of the building until the investigation was completed. She testified at the hearing Mon- day, saying her legal advice was in line with practices in the private sector, and would relieve the Legislature of liabil- ity if Boquist caused new issues at the Capitol. Disciplining an elected official is dif- ferent than an employee. Neither Court- ney, nor the conduct committee, can fire Boquist. Courtney could limit his power by removing him from committees, but that’s largely the extent of his power. The Senate as a whole can vote to expel a member with a two-thirds vote, but that has never happened. The Senate could also censure Boquist — essen- tially publicly condemning his actions — but that hasn’t happened since 1971. The committee voted against propos- als to bar Boquist from the Capitol or require he be escorted by police when in the building. Instead, it imposed on him a requirement to notify Senate offi- cials 12 hours before he expected to be in the building. Boquist declined to comment fol- lowing the hearing, which quickly turned into partisan sniping as Dem- ocrats expressed more alarm over the statements and Republicans said safety concerns were overblown. Knopp said he doesn’t believe there is a safety issue. “I share an office wall with Sen. Boquist, so if anyone ought to be con- cerned, it should be me,” he said. Prozanski said that Boquist has been back in the building several times since the comments were made without incident. “I believe the workplace is OK for the employees to be in,” he said. Baumgart said she is glad the legis- lature is reminding Boquist to not retal- iate, but that people working in the building could still be fearful. Manning also made that point, saying a fellow senator texted him during the hearing to express concern. “There are people here that have real fear,” he said. Baumgart said she didn’t interview Boquist, Courtney or state troopers as part of her initial investigation. Baumgart said she based her con- clusions about Boquist’s conduct on his statements, not how Boquist meant them or how they were received. A rea- sonable person, she said, could fear going to work in the Capitol following those statements. She said that, in private business, an executive would be placed on leave pending an investigation, and if the reports were found credible, they would be fired. Baumgart said multiple reports about workplace safety were made by legisla- tors and staff, some through email and some verbally. None came directly to her. Manning said the statements, both videotaped, are clear. “There is no other interpretation of that, no matter how hard we try to gas- light it,” he said. Boquist gave a brief statement to the committee but walked away after Prozanski asked if he would take questions. Boquist alleged the committee hadn’t followed due process. Last week, he requested from Courtney’s office records showing concerns with his statements. On Friday, he sued Court- ney in Marion County Circuit Court, seeking to compel disclosure of records he said hadn’t been provided. Boquist claimed in his court com- plaint that public records were “denied, hidden and blocked from release by Legislative Counsel” and others serv- ing under Courtney. “It was clear that zero due process had existed, and that very clearly a large stack of public records existed some- place,” the lawsuit maintains. Boquist said his family “received multiple death threats” after disclo- sure of Baumgart’s initial investigation results. “The facts of the present situa- tion, and continued endangerment of my family and staff, merit an immedi- ate court order directing the release of withheld public records, to establish the facts of the matter,” Boquist’s suit states. Two representatives of Ore- gon’s #TimberUnity move- ment were at the White House Monday, where they had been invited to hear President Don- ald Trump deliver remarks on “America’s environmental leadership.” The president had invited Todd Stoffel of GT Stoffel Trucking and Marie Bow- ers of Bashaw Land & Seed to represent Oregon’s truck- ing, logging and agricultural industries. “It’s not very often that you get invited to the White House, especially as a rural Oregonian,” said Bowers. “Just the honor of that was pretty astounding.” The president’s invitation came after the 2019 Oregon Legislative session, which brought thousands of rural Oregonians — along with their tractors and trucks — to the Capitol in Salem to pro- test controversial climate bills such as House Bill 2020, a bill to limit carbon emissions. The group #TimberUnity, which Stoffel and Bowers rep- resented at the White House Monday, started as a grass- roots effort to fight HB 2020 and is now a registered polit- ical action committee devoted to standing up for loggers, ranchers, truckers and other working-class Oregonians. In his speech Monday, Trump focused on his admin- istration’s environmental achievements. He said his pri- orities were promoting the “cleanest air,” “crystal clean” water, reducing carbon emis- sions and “being a good stew- ard of public land.” The president invited his various administration offi- cials, including Environmen- tal Protection Agency Chief Andrew Wheeler and Inte- rior Department Chief David Barnhardt, to take turns at the lecturn. Trump has raised the ire of environmental groups by roll- ing back more than 80 envi- ronmental regulations and withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate change accord. In his speech, the presi- dent said he withdrew from the Paris agreement because it disadvantaged American workers and taxpayers. “Punishing Americans is never the right way to pro- tect the environment,” he said. “We will defend the environ- ment, but we will also defend American prosperity.” Trump also said that he does not support the “Green New Deal” Democrats in Congress are pushing for, which he claimed would cost the U.S. nearly $100 trillion. “That’s not affordable even in the best of times,” he said. Bowers, who helped lead the fight to kill HB 2020 in Oregon, said she agrees with the president. “My biggest takeaway from this weekend is that you shouldn’t ‘fix’ the environ- ment at the cost of jobs,” she said. “The two aren’t mutually exclusive.” Bowers said that she and Stoffel, along with the rest of the #TimberUnity movement leaders, are continuing to for- mulate what their movement means and what it will stand for moving forward. Contributed photo/Marie Bowers Marie Bowers, right, a fifth-generation Oregonian grass seed farmer, with Ivanka Trump. “There are a lot of issues we could stand for that don’t get attention,” she said. “The main thing is that we’ll be advocat- ing for natural resources and working people.” Stoffel couldn’t be reached for comment after the event but said last week there are parallels between #Timbe- rUnity and the national upris- ing of rural, working-class Americans who have become more vocal since Trump took office. “This is a voice for rural Oregon, rural America, that we’re tired of being steam- rolled, which is what a lot of the policies seem to do for us. The stuff that’s passed is about the big cities, espe- cially in Oregon. There are other parts of the state of Ore- gon other than just Portland.” The Timber Unity move- ment casts itself as purely grassroots, according to sev- eral Republican lawmakers and protesters. However, they are in part financed by Stimson Lum- ber CEO Andrew Miller, a frequent GOP donor who is prominent on the Timber Unity Facebook page and has a letter explaining his $5,000 seed donation on their website. Stoffel said he didn’t know what their current funding level is. Its political action committee shows $31,457, according to state campaign finance records. A GoFundMe campaign that popped up when the group was getting organized received money from several sympathetic business part- ners, though the group has moved to a direct funding channel on their website. Stoffel said Timber Unity shut down the GoFundMe as organizers learned it didn’t comply with state require- ments to report political spending and contributions. Timber Unity’s website shows its organizers as three truckers: Jeff Leavy, Adam Lardy and Scott Hileman. The White House invi- tation is the apparent cul- mination of several weeks of national attention on the Republican walkout, which was picked up by outlets from the New York Times to Vice to Fox News. At least one environmen- tal advocate worried it could “deepen” divides between parties on the issue of how to tackle climate change. “Growing up here, there was not this strong, parti- san us-versus-them divide,” said Meredith Connolly, Ore- gon director for Climate Solu- tions, which was a strong sup- porter of cap and trade. “And I think adopting this man- tle of Trump’s White House and his agenda, I fear, will deepen those divides here in Oregon, and I want us to be moving forward toward solu- tions that work for all of Ore- gon. And I think the more this is influenced by Donald Trump’s divisiveness, I worry this will take us in the wrong direction.” Stoffel said issue is rural versus urban, Republican ver- sus Democrat. He said Democrats at the Legislature “snubbed their noses” at loggers and truckers who wanted to understand the bill. Republicans embraced them, he said. But it was Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, who ended the walkout and stand- off over cap-and-trade by announcing that his own cau- cus didn’t have the votes to pass the bill. “The rural parts of this country have been ignored for years,” Stoffel said, add- ing Trump’s election proves that. “The majority of Ameri- cans are tired of the same old, same old.” Stoffel said he under- stands the majority of vot- ers put Democrats who ran on cap and trade in office, but said that’s because rural voters have routinely been pushed down. They stay home because they know they will be “steamrolled” by the Democratic agenda, he said. Democrats and environ- mentalists pushing climate legislation said House Bill 2020 was tailored to protect rural Oregon, driving dollars from the cities to projects in rural communities. Stoffel said that could be true, and many might be mis- understanding the bill, but if so, that’s on Democratic law- makers for not taking the time to clearly explain it. “If you read the bill and you read all the legal jargon, the normal person cannot fig- ure out what they are saying,” he said. “When we were in the House and Senate chambers, they read so fast and push everything so fast, that you can’t understand what’s going on.” Stoffel said the invitation shows rural voices in Ore- gon and other states across the country are being heard. No Matter how big or small your trophy was or if you just want to share a hunting adventure, send or drop off your best hunting photos or stories to 195 N Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845 • kim@bmeagle.com Your photos could be published in this year’s EAGLE HUNTING JOURNAL Please have them to the Eagle by August 8.
