Knopp key to productive 2023 legislative session

His unquestioned conservative credentials combined with his political maturity make him a perfect match for a rookie Senate President

Sen. Tim Knopp

Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp got the 2023 Oregon legislative session off to a rousing start when he described incoming Senate President Rob Wagner as “untrustworthy, deeply partisan, and doesn’t have the necessary skills to run the Senate in a bipartisan fashion.”

Wagner admittedly has a tough job filling the shoes of the state’s longest serving Senate President, Peter Courtney, who didn’t seek re-election in 2022. Wagner readily admits he didn’t picture himself as the Senate’s biggest cheese. “I never thought that my career would necessarily go this direction,” Wagner told a friend. (Read Mark Hester’s column on Wagner here.)

Yet, Wagner and Knopp are the two leading actors in how the Senate will perform in the 2023 session with a 17-13 Democratic to Republican split – a difference large enough to allow Democrats to pass legislation, but not revenue increases without Republican votes.

After Knopp’s initial warning shot, Wagner wandered over to his counterpart’s Capitol office to meet. The Oregon Capital Chronicle reported they met over sandwiches ­– “a ham on white for Knopp and a cheese and pickle for Wagner” – to discuss their respective goals for the session.

​​”Now, every single week we’re gonna get a sandwich together and just talk about issues,” Wagner told reporter Julia Shumway. “If people are saying stuff, I feel like it’s my job, especially in this position, to go and just meet them where they’re at, and so I’m going to continue to do that work.”

“The key to any legislative relationship is that everybody’s voice has to be heard, and we obviously had a track record of that with Senator Courtney for 20 years in the Senate who built a reputation for trust and integrity and for making sure that the minority voice was heard and respected,” Knopp said. “Senate President designee Wagner doesn’t have that and hasn’t had the time to build that up.”

His blunt remark about Wagner was more than political bombast. It had a purpose, and it worked.

Knopp the legislative veteran

Knopp is one of the most senior lawmakers in the 2023 session. If the red wave had materialized and Republicans picked up two more Senate seats, Knopp may have had a shot to replace Courtney as Senate President.

Knopp was an aide to former GOP Rep. Bill Witt before winning a Bend-area House seat in 1998. He served three terms, including one as House Majority Leader, before taking a job with the Central Oregon Builders Association. Knopp is married with four children.

He kept an oar in the political waters by serving as president of the Deschutes Republican Central Committee and, by 2012, Knopp felt financially and politically secure enough to challenge incumbent Republican Senator Chris Telfer. He won with 68 percent of the GOP primary vote to Telfer’s 32 percent, then sailed to victory in the general election.

By 2014, Knopp was named deputy Senate Republican caucus leader. There is little glory in being a minority caucus leader in Oregon politics, but Knopp’s position reflected a confidence in his judgment. Republican senators in Oregon are at their best opposing things. They trusted Knopp.

During the 2020 legislative session, Senate Republicans walked out to deny a quorum for Democrats to vote on a controversial vote-and-trade bill. The only Senate Republican at his desk on the Senate floor was Knopp.

“I think I’m representing my district, that they feel like they need to have somebody here to work on those issues and those issues are important to me,” Knopp told The Oregonian, adding “my decision is day to day as to whether or not I’ll be here.” Knopp, who represents a Senate district with a growing Democratic constituency, was the 19th senator still in the Capitol. Democrats needed 20 to conduct business.

Eleven Senate Republicans, including Knopp, walked out twice during the 2019 regular legislative session. Knopp fled to Idaho where he gave radio interviews from his lakeside cabin hideaway.

2019 marked a change in Knopp’s approach

Whatever the cause, 2019 marked a change in Knopp’s legislative approach. As reported by the Bend Bulletin, Knopp joined centrist Democrats to approve a joint resolution asking voters to place limits on campaign contributions and supported a temporary fix for the hemorrhaging Public Employees Retirement System. He also worked with Democrats to strengthen workplace harassment rules and support paid family leave. He was one of the first Oregon Republican leaders to rebuke former President Trump’s election denialism.

Knopp expressed the most pride in passage of Kaylee’s Law that required campus security to get rid of police-style uniforms and equipment, and mandated background checks and psychological evaluations for applicants. “We made something great happen – protecting our student’s safety – out of a tragedy,” Knopp told the Bulletin.

Meanwhile, Knopp remained a vocal advocate of red-meat GOP issues such as opposition to tax hikes, abortion, gun control and mandatory vaccination of schoolchildren.

Knopp narrowly won re-election in 2020. In the 2021 legislative session, his committee assignments included the vice chairmanship of the Senate Redistricting Committee. Largely due to his efforts, congressional and legislative redistricting maps developed by Democrats were modified, avoiding legal action and acrimony, and ultimately allowing Republicans to pick up legislative seats and another congressional seat in the 2020 election.

Knopp’s rock-ribbed Republican credentials have never been in doubt. What has evolved is his willingness to work across the political aisle. That political maturity will be badly needed in the 2023 legislative session with a new Senate President, a new Governor and many challenging  and confounding issues. Knopp knows about housing issues, a top 2023 session priority, and serves on the board of First Story, a Bend nonprofit that builds affordable housing.

If he needed a nudge toward conciliation, Knopp witnessed the chaos as U.S. House Republicans struggled to elect a Speaker at the hands of their own hard-right caucus members. Oregon voter approval last November of an initiative that punishes legislators who walk out removes a tool Republican minorities have used to block bills they strongly oppose. Knopp has the skill, experience and patience to pursue more productive approaches to leading a minority. How productive the 2023 session turns out to be will depend on it.

Conkling has been a newsman, congressional aide and public affairs professional for more than 50 years.