STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
A7
Oregon GOP: Facing the elephant in the room
Atiyeh: ‘I never left my
party. My party left me.’
Department, an estimated 60 judges
in about 100 lawsuits — often dis-
missed because of a lack of evidence
— and the Republican-controlled
U.S. Senate.
But then came Jan. 6, when sup-
porters of President Trump listened to
several stirring speeches, then marched
on the U.S. Capitol and invaded it by
force, in an effort to overturn the will of
the voters. Five people died. Many of
the attackers used social media to brag
about the incursion — in real time —
while security cameras and the Wash-
ington press corps caught countless
photos and videos of the effort to over-
throw the election.
Despite all that, the executive com-
mittee of the Oregon Republican Party
took a stance saying Trump actually
won, and adopted a resolution brand-
ing the violent breach of the Capi-
tol as a “false-flag operation” by par-
ties other than the ones who bragged
live on Facebook and Twitter as it was
happening.
That’s when Knute Buehler, the
2018 Republican nominee for Oregon
governor, left the party altogether.
Buehler, a physician and former
state representative from Bend, says
there is a route for Republicans to win
again — but not by embracing “wacky
conspiracy theories.”
“Our political system works best
when there is a balance of power, and
By Peter Wong
Oregon Capital Bureau
When Vic Atiyeh was in the last
year of his life, he was happy to accept
an accolade from a former aide calling
him “Oregon’s last great governor.”
But as his personal archive was
opened in 2013 at Pacific University
— where he had been a trustee — Ati-
yeh also said he did not want his leg-
acy to be the last Republican governor
of Oregon.
Yet voters have elected only Dem-
ocrats to the governor’s office since
Atiyeh, formerly a state legislator
from Beaverton and a businessman in
Portland.
It’s the longest streak for either
major party in Oregon history.
Republicans dominated statewide
offices when Atiyeh was governor 40
years ago. They were led by Oregon’s
U.S. senators of that era — Mark Hat-
field and Bob Packwood, each with
five victories — but also the secretary
of state, state treasurer and attorney
general, even though Democrats con-
trolled the Legislature.
Republicans have become a threat-
ened species at the statewide level. Just
two Republicans have been elected
Contributed photo
Knute Buehlerr
to statewide office in the past two
decades.
Their ranks are shrinking further.
Knute Buehler once carried the
GOP banner in Oregon. Now
he’s left the party.
In November, Democratic presi-
dential nominee Joe Biden won the
race for the White House, unseat-
ing one-term incumbent Republican
Donald Trump. The win was certified
and recertified after several statewide
recounts, and was acknowledged by
states’ elections officials, governors,
secretaries of state, the U.S. Justice
not when one party dominates, espe-
cially for such a long duration,” Bue-
hler said. “Things get unbalanced and
you do not get good policy. Instead
you get a lot of people who are disen-
chanted, who feel shut out of the pro-
cess and disregarded.
“But,” Buehler added, “it is a pretty
hard route for a Republican right now,
especially with the events in January.”
Decline and fall
Bob Packwood’s rise to the U.S.
Senate in 1968 coincided with con-
tinued Republican dominance in Ore-
gon over a couple of decades, despite
a Democratic voter registration edge
dating back to 1956. “But we have
no bench” of potential candidates
for statewide office, Packwood said,
either in the Legislature or elsewhere.
Thousands more have left the
party without fanfare.
According to the Oregon secre-
tary of state, whose office compiles
figures at the end of each month,
registered Republicans statewide
dropped by almost 8,500 from
November to January. Republicans
now constitute just 25.5% of all reg-
istered voters, compared with 36%
20 years ago.
Oregon’s share of registered Dem-
ocrats also declined during those
decades, even as their totals surged
past the 1 million mark, from 39.4%
in 2001 to 35.5% in 2021. The share
of voters not affiliated with any party
grew from 21.7% to 31.8%.
In those two decades, voters have
elected Republicans statewide only
twice.
One was Gordon Smith, who
won a second term in the U.S. Sen-
ate in 2002 but lost six years later.
He became president of the National
Association of Broadcasters. He
maintains a home in Pendleton, but
has said he will not seek public office
again.
The other was Dennis Richardson,
a former state representative who lost
to Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber
in 2014, but was elected secretary of
state two years later. Richardson died
of cancer in 2019.
One of Richardson’s early endors-
ers for governor in 2013 was Atiyeh,
who knew about second chances. He
was elected governor on his second try
in 1978 (he lost four years earlier) and
was re-elected in 1982.
He endorsed most of the subse-
quent GOP nominees, with the likely
exception in 1998 of Bill Sizemore,
who won just 30% in a landslide loss
to Kitzhaber.
But Atiyeh never endorsed his par-
ty’s rightward drift and focus on social
issues.
“I never left my party,” he said in
2012. “My party left me.”
Grace period given to counties that fall to COVID-19 ‘extreme’ risk level
Grant County remains
in lower risk category
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
risk level, the top of the four-
tier rating system that also
includes high risk, moderate
and lower. The higher the risk
level, the more restrictions are
in place on businesses, dining
and activities.
It was a dose of good news
after a period in which most of
the state had been in extreme
risk at one point or another.
“For the second time in a
row, we are seeing great prog-
ress in stopping the spread of
COVID-19 across Oregon and
saving lives,” Brown said Feb.
23.
Of the counties on the
extreme risk rating prior to
Feb. 23, Brown announced
seven had dropped one step to
higher risk: Crook, Jackson,
Lane, Marion, Polk, Umatilla
and Yamhill counties. Mal-
heur and Union dropped to
medium, while Wasco fell all
the way to lower.
Five counties: Benton,
Coos, Douglas, Jefferson and
Josephine are currently on the
extreme list.
Risk level adjustments
are made every two weeks.
But measurements are taken
every Friday and analyzed
each Monday. The numbers
are published weekly, with the
period between reassignments
called “the warning week.”
With the next assign-
ment of risk levels set to be
announced March 9 and go
into effect March 12, state
officials evidently saw some
counties trending back up to
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holiday period highs. A third
vaccine, made by Johnson
& Johnson has arrived in the
state and the first 100 doses
sent to each county, with a
total of 34,000 expected to
immediately follow.
But there was caution-
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extreme risk.
Brown’s office did not say
what counties were of con-
cern. The “warning week”
numbers indicate trends, but
the final status would also
be determined adding in the
as-yet unknown statistics of
this week through Friday.
The drop in infections was
part of the recent good news
that has seen overall new
infections down their winter
TOM CHRISTENSEN
CHRISTENSEN
TOM
S232614-1
Counties that might fall
back into the state’s most
restrictive extreme risk level
for COVID-19 spread will be
given a two-week grace period
on heightened restrictions,
Gov. Kate Brown announced
Thursday.
Brown said the state’s low
overall infection rates and its
steep trend downward since
the winter holidays allowed
for “a bit more time” for some
state trouble spots.
The state currently ranks
49th of the 50 states in new
infections per 100,000 people
— only Hawaii scores better.
With a positive test rate
of 3.9%, Oregon is firmly
on track for numbers to con-
tinue downward statewide,
and 1 million vaccine shots
have been administered to
residents.
The governor said she
made the decision to waive the
restrictions “recognizing the
challenges businesses encoun-
ter when facing a switch back
and forth between extreme
risk and other risk levels.”
The drop to the high risk
level meant that restaurants
could offer limited indoor din-
ing, a key change during the
cold, wet winter months that
have stretched into March.
Higher numbers would
have required a return to the
tighter restrictions on busi-
nesses, dining, and activi-
ties. Brown’s message did not
include any changes to rules
covering counties already in
the extreme risk level.
Brown had announced
Feb. 23 that 10 counties had
dropped out of the extreme
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