NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Findley
Continued from Page A1
district in the Salem area that
was nearly a toss-up in the last
election, with the outcome
decided by only about 400
votes. The new map protects
the Democratic incumbent by
nearly 8 percentage points.
Ultimately, Findley said,
red districts got redder and
blue districts got bluer. How-
ever, he said, there are more
blue districts in the state.
That, he said, is the basis
of a lawsuit fi led last month
in the state Supreme Court to
overturn the legislative redis-
tricting plan.
The congressional map,
Findley added, is being adju-
dicated in a separate process
by a fi ve-judge panel of state
circuit court judges.
Findley said it is early
in the process, but a deci-
sion would need to happen
at “rocket speed” to beat fi l-
ing deadlines for upcoming
elections.
Findley said the changes
to his own district make sense
geographically. For instance,
his district now includes
Crook County but he no lon-
ger represents Wasco County.
Nonetheless, he said he
is looking at redistricting
through the lens of the pub-
lic, which, despite 22 virtual
sessions, had no meaningful
input in the process.
The lack of transparency,
coupled with the partisanship
of the contentious special ses-
sion, has, in his opinion, given
the public yet another rea-
son to distrust the political
process.
“You had many people
who provided input and they
were ignored,” he said. “Now
they think, ‘Well, what’s the
sense in me voting? What’s
the sense in me participat-
ing in any more hearings?
What’s sense of participating
at all? They going to do what
they want to do, and it doesn’t
matter.’”
The fi x, according to Find-
ley, is to form an independent,
nonpartisan redistricting com-
mission, as roughly 20 other
states have done.
“We need to take politics
out of it,” he said. “We need
to take everything out of it and
just do the facts and fi gures.”
Petitioners are working to
put a measure creating such a
commission on the ballot next
year.
According to Common
Cause Oregon, a nonparti-
san public interest group,
the redistricting commission
would consist of 12 Orego-
nians, vetted to rule out con-
fl icts of interest and neutralize
partisan power. The commis-
sion would include four Dem-
ocrats, four Republicans, and
four registered voters unaffi l-
iated with either major party.
Findley said if the roles
were reversed and Republi-
cans had the majority in the
Legislature, he would like
to think they would not have
done something similar. That
said, he added, an indepen-
dent process that removes
partisan politics is the right
thing to do.
“I just think it’s the right
thing to do for the process,”
he said.
Questions on aquatic
center
John Day resident John
Morris raised concerns about
the new aquatic center being
planned for the Seventh
Street Sports Complex, citing
issues with transparency and
fi nances.
Parks and Rec, which is
not affi liated with the city,
has partnered with the city to
cover maintenance costs and
build the pool on a piece of
land the district owns.
Morris also said he has a
problem with the 1% adminis-
trative fee that John Day City
Manager receives for writing
grants.
Findley, who secured $2
million in state funding to
help pay for the project, said
while he does not disagree
with Morris’s sentiments,
he nonetheless believes in
the pool. He said in Mal-
heur County, 90% of children
can swim because they have
access to a community. How-
ever, in Nampa, where the
community is without a pool,
just 10% know how to swim.
He said when he was
approached about pushing
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
for the state funding he was
assured the project was essen-
tially shovel-ready.
John Day Mayor Ron
Lundbom said Green typi-
cally receives a 1% admin-
istrative fee on grants that he
brings in, adding that if there
is a fee, it comes out of the
grant funding and not out of
the city’s general fund.
Lundbom has previously
defended the practice, not-
ing that it is not unusual and
pointing out that Green has
been highly successful in
bringing funding into the city.
Move Oregon’s border
In May, Grant County
voters passed a referendum
requiring County Court mem-
bers to discuss moving Ore-
gon’s border to allow the
county to join Idaho.
Grant County resident
Sandie Gilson, vice president
of Citizens for Greater Idaho,
asked Findley if he would be
willing to push for secession
in the Legislature.
Findley said he has men-
tioned the desire of counties
in his district to secede from
Oregon to join Idaho three
times on the Senate fl oor.
Findley said while the
likelihood of seceding is slim
at best, he would push for it in
the Senate if Grant County’s
commissioners made a formal
request.
“I work for the constitu-
ents in my counties,” Findley
said. “If the counties request
it, I will carry (a bill) on the
Senate fl oor.”
Findley noted that Ore-
gon and Idaho’s legislatures
would have to agree to the
move, as would both houses
of Congress. Even then, he
said, the president could still
veto the proposal.
Not all of the constituents
at the event were in favor of
Findley pushing for the bor-
der shift.
Katy Nelson, a Prairie City
resident, told Findley that if
he ends up taking the matter
to the fl oor of the Senate that
he should grandfather in those
who wish to remain part of
Oregon.
“I will be seceding my
acres ... if they join Idaho,”
she said.
Bennett Hall/Blue Mountain Eagle
Ethan Kowing, an Oregon state trooper from John Day, speaks at a Grant County Conservatives
rally Saturday, Oct. 30, in the Trowbridge Pavilion of the county’s fairgrounds.
Conservatives
Continued from Page A1
The day’s fi rst speaker was Paul Sweany,
a John Day insurance adviser. He called the
Grant County Conservatives “a work in prog-
ress” led by a core group of 15 or 20 people
who have been meeting weekly since May.
He said the GCC-PAC was formed as a
way to “galvanize Grant County residents” and
raise money to support political candidates who
will bring conservative leadership back to our
county and the cities in our county.”
The political action committee was formed
on Sept. 23 and so far has not reported any con-
tributions or expenditures, according to records
on fi le with the Oregon secretary of State’s
Offi ce. Sweany and Shaun Robertson are listed
as the PAC’s directors.
Sweany called for qualifi ed and commit-
ted conservative candidates to enter upcoming
races for city council seats, mayoral positions,
a spot on the County Court and the positions of
district attorney and county clerk.
“We believe we have to pull together and the
time to do so is now,” he said. “We hope you’ll
join us.”
Ethan Kowing of John Day, who was placed
on leave from his job as an Oregon state trooper
after posting a video from his patrol car in
opposition to mask and vaccine mandates, said
he felt compelled to take a stand.
“I could no longer stay silent because I was
watching our tyrannical leaders take more and
more away from us without any real resis-
tance,” he said. “The freedoms you surrender
today are the freedoms your grandchildren will
never know.”
Kowing got a standing ovation from the
crowd, with several people calling for him to
run for sheriff of Grant County, and a quilt auc-
tion brought in $600 to help him cover expenses
as he fi ghts to keep his job.
A number of Saturday’s speakers made the
drive over from La Grande, including Blake
Bars of the Union County Freedom Alliance,
who painted vaccine and mask mandates as the
fi rst step toward authoritarianism.
“This has never been about health,” he said.
“This has always been about money, power and
control.”
Dr. Jason Kehr, a La Grande chiropractor,
urged people to stand up against laws they see
as unjust or unconstitutional.
“Americans have become slaves to a mas-
ter they call the federal government,” he said.
His father, Dr. Dan Kehr, a chiropractor
from Monument, struck a similar tone.
“Ronald Reagan said it: Freedom is one gen-
eration away from extinction,” he said. “This is
about fear, control and submission.”
Several speakers expressed frustration with
the state government, saying the concerns of
rural Oregonians are often brushed aside by a
legislature dominated by politicians from the
urban centers of Western Oregon.
Mike McCarter and Sandie Gilson talked
about Move Oregon’s Border, a movement that
seeks to address those frustrations by detach-
ing a number of Eastern and Southern Oregon
counties from the state and making them part
of Idaho.
McCarter, a La Pine resident who serves as
president of Citizens for Greater Idaho, noted
that Grant was one of seven Oregon coun-
ties that have already passed ballot measures
expressing the desire to secede from the state.
Harney County residents were scheduled to
vote on a similar measure on Tuesday, Nov. 2,
as the paper was going to press, and at least two
more counties are expected to weigh in on the
issue next year.
“It can happen,” McCarter said, “and it is
moving like a freight train right now.”
Gilson, who lives in John Day, is the group’s
vice president. She said state Sen. Lynn Find-
ley, who represents a large swath of East-
ern Oregon in Salem, has promised to carry a
secession bill in the Legislature if county com-
missioners write letters asking him to do so.
“It’s time for all of us to step up and be a
part of this and make sure our county commis-
sioners do what we’ve asked them to do as our
elected offi cials,” she said.
Other speakers included Mark Simmons
of La Grande, a former speaker of the Ore-
gon House of Representatives; Marc Thiel-
man, the Alsea school superintendent, Republi-
can gubernatorial candidate and chief petitioner
behind the School Choice Amendment initia-
tive; Hugh Johnson, a retired corrections offi -
cer from La Grande; Stephen Joncus, a Port-
land-area lawyer who is suing the state over
vaccine mandates; and Marine Corps veteran
Angela Hove and her husband, Kyle Hove, a
retired Oregon State Police sergeant, both of La
Grande.
While some of the rhetoric was heated, there
were no calls for violence, with several speak-
ers reminding the audience that Grant County
residents whose opinions diff er from theirs are
still their neighbors and emphasizing the impor-
tance of having calm, non-threatening conver-
sations about controversial issues.
S261936-1
A16
S267687-1