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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
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