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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2021)
A12 NEWS Blue Mountain Eagle GOP Continued from Page A1 and Britain’s Guardian newspaper. Twitter and Facebook spread the story around the globe. In an extraordinarily swift and unanimous rebuke, the 23 mem- bers of the House Republican caucus signed a letter rejecting the Oregon Republican Party’s official statement. “There is no credible evidence to support false flag claims,” the let- ter said. “Oregon is in crisis. Vac- cines are not going to our most vul- nerable, our students are still not in a safe classroom setting, main street businesses are in a tailspin, our health data is a mess and here we are, talking about a political party resolution.” It wasn’t the first time law- makers had to respond, dismiss or explain some action of a state polit- ical party whose decades-long polit- ical right-turn had outpaced even its increasingly conservative state rep- resentatives. As the party’s size and influence has declined, the tension between those who carry the GOP banner outside and those inside the Capitol trying to influence policy has stretched nearer to a breaking point. The lawmakers’ letter didn’t mention the House members or Trump’s debunked claim that the election was stolen by President Joe Biden. But with the Republicans facing a Democratic supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature just as the 2021 session began, many GOP lawmakers complained the state party was trying to score national political points instead of working to win Oregon elections. “It’s none of our business what Wednesday, February 3, 2021 US House Representatives from ocratic values and institutions perpe- issues rather than trying to decide on launching recall efforts against other states do” Rep. Bill Post, trated by right-wing conspiracy the- whether some given candidate Gov. Kate Brown that never got R-Keizer, wrote in a blog post orists, extremists, and supporters of meets some litmus test,” he said. enough signatures to even trigger demanding an agenda reset. “Focus, former President Trump. That is a “The party doesn’t pick the candi- a vote. Julie Parrish, a former GOP dates, the voters do.” fact,” the ADL said in a statement. please.” Critics within the party say the House member who is now a polit- The Republican lawmakers said The Senate did not make a group statement, but some also were angry they were blindsided by the Oregon hard right turn on the current ver- ical consultant, said in 2019 that a with the timing, topic and tone of Republican Party pronouncement. sion of the Republican Party would recall was a sign of a party leader- They were never consulted or even reject Oregon icons like Gov. Tom ship low on good ideas. the attack. “We need a strategy, and a recall “I have not seen any credible told in advance what was coming McCall and Sen Mark Hatfield, who evidence to suggest that the riot from the party’s 22-member execu- spearheaded environmental reforms isn’t it,” she said. The ultimate fallout on the con- and equal rights issues. at the United States Capitol was a tive committee of GOP activists. The Oregon State Committee has No Republican has won the gov- troversy won’t be known for a while. ‘false flag,’” said Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend. “I do not support the Ore- provided fuel for a feud with GOP ernorship since Vic Atiyeh in 1982. Voters don’t go to the polls again gon Republican Par- for major partisan ty’s resolution. I offices until the May find it disheartening “THE BIGGEST IMPACT OF THE ‘FALSE FLAG’ ASSERTION 2022 primaries. Jim Moore, a that while Orego- WILL BE IT DRIVING MORE MODERATE REPUBLICANS professor nians are struggling, at Pacific University, stud- these political dis- OUT OF THE PARTY — THOSE THAT ARE STILL LEFT ies public reactions tractions get in the way of helping them AFTER FIVE YEARS OF TRUMP AND DECADES OF A PARTY to politics as out- reach director from a recover.” MOVING TO THE RIGHT ON ALL ISSUES.” base named after one Findley, R-Vale, Jim Moore, a professor at Pacific University of those long-ago released a separate Republicans: The statement Jan. 27 Tom McCall Center that said he does not support the state party’s resolution, lawmakers before. The party hosted The state has supported the Demo- for Civic Engagement. “The biggest impact of the ‘false which he described as “an unfortu- conservative political firebrand cratic candidate for President, win or nate distraction.” Roger Stone at its 2018 conference lose, back to Mike Dukakis in 1988. flag’ assertion will be it driving more “I can’t say that it was, I can’t say in Salem. A squad of Proud Boys, the The governor, both senators, moderate Republicans out of the that it was not (a false flag opera- right-wing group with a reputation and four of five members of Con- party — those that are still left after tion),” Findley told the Eagle. “What for violence, served as Stone’s body- gress are Democrats. So are all five years of Trump and decades of I can say is the more time I try to guards, flashing “white power” hand the state executive offices: attor- a party moving to the right on all ney general, treasurer, secretary issues,” he said. figure out and sort that out, is less signs at a party after his speech. Winning elections is tough for Despite the sharply conserva- of state and labor commissioner. time I’ve been able to spend on get- ting Oregon back to work, protecting tive tone of the statement, state GOP The Democrats have 37-23 major- Republicans in Oregon today. But businesses and getting vaccines in chairman Bill Currier has been criti- ity in the House and 18-12 in the the party’s scant presence in Salem cized by some activists as not being Senate. everybody’s arm.” and Washington was given a jolt by Republican lawmakers running the claims. The uproar intensified when the conservative enough by requiring a “That all being said, the Oregon Anti-Defamation League harshly litmus test on issues important to the in 2020 found themselves shar- criticized Republicans for misappro- party’s increasingly Trump-oriented ing a ballot and sometimes a stage Republican Party is getting interna- priating the Reichstag fire, a prelude base. with Jo Rae Perkins, a QAnon tional notice with its incendiary pub- to the Holocaust, to buttress an argu- Currier said he believes the party conspiracy believer, who was eas- lic pronouncements,” Moore said. ment that those who were the target needed to be a “big tent” that can ily defeated by Democrat Sen. Jeff “The measure of how that is working of the attacks were the perpetrators. create winning coalitions with unaf- Merkley. Without strong statewide out will be simple — does it bring in “The violence at the US Capi- filiated voters and disenchanted candidates, Currier and the party money to the ORP coffers.” tol on January 6th was a large-scale Democrats. The Blue Mountain Eagle con- committee have been called out by physical assault on our nation’s dem- “We need to be more focused on some in the GOP for a “fixation” tributed to this report. COVID Continued from Page A1 Lindsay said the state lab reporting system had many issues the first week of January, and lab infor- mation was lost. The county hoped the labs would even- tually show up with the cor- rect reporting date but had to manually enter all of the cases Jan. 14 after there was no resolution, she said. According to correspon- dence sent with the letter to Owens, Jessica Wine- gar, the health department’s clinic manager, emailed an OHA staff member on Jan. 12 saying over 20 cases from Grant County had not been reported by the state. After confirming those cases were not new, the OHA staffer said, “I’ll com- municate to our leadership here that these cases did not all have onset yesterday and the issue was delayed labo- ratory reporting.” Lindsay said she has since met with OHA offi- cials, challenging the deci- sion to move the county into moderate risk. After that was unsuccessful, she and the county court members sent the letter to Owens. “This has a significant negative impact upon our residents and businesses,” the letter said. “...Please reconsider this decision.” Owens’ Chief of Staff 110 Continued from Page A1 He said Grant Coun- ty’s current caseload num- ber is 47, though it fluctuates weekly. During his tenure as director of Community Cor- rections, he saw it get as high as 64. According to the 2020- 2021 budget, Grant County’s Community Corrections Fund received about $285,000 in Eagle file photo Kimberly Lindsay, Grant Coun- ty public health administra- tor, during a session of Grant County Court in November. PMG file photo Pat Allen, Oregon Health Authority director, at a press conference in 2020. Andrea Dominguez attached the county letter to an email sent to OHA Director Patrick Allen and a member of the governor’s staff Thursday morning. “It is our understanding that Grant County was put into the ‘medium risk’ cat- egory,” Dominguez wrote. “Rep. Owens would appre- ciate knowing if this was accidental, as the num- bers do not seem to sup- port that categorization? If not he would appreciate knowing what information was used in the decision to move Grant County to the ‘medium risk’ category.” OHA Public Information Officer Tim Heider said Friday afternoon, however, that it doesn’t matter when the positive tests occurred, only when the “cases” that are reported to the state are created. “(Grant County) pub- lic health became aware of and entered several cases during that period that tested prior to the two week period, so they would like them taken out of the cal- culation,” he said. “We had “DO I SEE THE NUMBERS GOING LOWER? I SURE DO. THAT’S WHAT I’M TRYING TO PREPARE FOR BECAUSE WE JUST DON’T KNOW SO IT’S LIKE ONE OF THOSE THINGS WHERE WE HAVE A CHANCE AT THE MOMENT TO SIT BACK AND LOOK AT IT, SAVE A FEW DOLLARS AND SAVE THE COUNTY SOME MONEY.” —Todd McKinley, Grant County sheriff and Community Corrections director state “grant-in-aid” in 2017- 2018 and 2018-2019. For 2019-2020, $250,000 was budgeted, and in 2020-2021, $240,000 was budgeted. Fur- ther reductions in workload could reduce these payments. McKinley said there have been rumblings statewide to combine multiple probation Eagle file photo State Rep. Mark Owens offices, either by putting them under the Department of Cor- rections or by regionalizing them. He said knowing that is a possible option gives the county time to wait and see how things play out and make a better decision. McKinley said, while the several discussions with local public health that the data is based on when the cases are created; we have not manually examined any county’s data to determine date of onset or testing as that is not the basis of the metric.” case count number will likely decrease, it is crucial to emphasize that there are still many unknowns at this point. “Do I see the numbers going lower? I sure do,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to prepare for because we just don’t know so it’s like one of those things where we have a chance at the moment to sit back and look at it, save a few dollars and save the county some money.” TOM CHRISTENSEN CHRISTENSEN TOM (541) 410-0557 • (541) 575-0192 CCB# 106077 Shawna Clark, DNP, FNP 541-575-1263 S222305-1 CONSTRUCTION REMODELS • NEW CONSTRUCTION • POLE BUILDINGS CONCRETE EXCAVATION • SHEET ROCK • SIDING ROOFING • FENCES • DECKS • TELESCOPING FORKLIFT SERVICES S228520-1 Accepting new Patients! Go to: www.canyoncreekclinic.com S225937-1 235 S. Canyon Blvd. John Day, Oregon 97845 137 E. Main St., John Day • 541-575-1637