The Liftoff: Former state legislator makes big political announcement
PLUS: Treasury's risky investments make the NYT; Capitol renovation budget quietly balloons; drama between Mult. County and the City of Portland; more legislators sound off on PAC-12 move; and more!
Welcome back to The Liftoff!
We have grown our readership /reach a lot since we launched in August of 2020—and we have many exciting things planned. Want to support us more? Email Alex (Alex@or360.org) for advertising/partnership opportunities, or help sustain us by upgrading your subscription today:
And, one correction: In last week’s Liftoff, we incorrectly attributed a story about Columbia River salmon (“Billions spent on hatcheries, habitat fails to help native Columbia River salmon, study finds”). The story was written by Alex Baumhardt of the Capital Chronicle; OPB picked up the Chronicle’s story.
1. Former GOP state legislator announces challenge to Salinas (and other Republicans in the news)
In one of her biggest decisions yet, new Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade announced last week that the ten Republican and Independent senators who participated in a six-week walkout cannot run for reelection, and she has instructed the Oregon Elections Division to not accept reelection filings from any lawmaker who skipped that much work. This fight isn’t necessarily over. Will these 10 Senators turn to the courts?
In a statement Griffin-Valade said: “My decision honors the voters’ intent by enforcing the measure the way it was commonly understood when Oregonians added it to our state constitution.”
Former GOP state legislator Denyc Boles is the first Republican to announce a run against U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas. On Monday, Boles announced she is running for the Republican nomination in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District. Boles, who was appointed to fill the late Sen. Jackie Winters’ seat, lost in 2020 to now-Senator Deb. Patterson.
Last cycle’s GOP nominee, Mike Erickson, has indicated that he is likely to run again, too. Erickson was able to significantly self-fund in his last race.
This race could mean the difference between a Democratic or Republican majority in Congress, so expect the Republican winner of this primary to receive national political support and funding.
2. More drama between Multnomah County and City of Portland (and other PDX news)
The state’s largest county, Multnomah County, had a busy week. But, not all of the headlines were good. We’ll jump right into it:
More drama between the Multnomah County Commission and the Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. The Oregonian outlined growing unease between Wheeler and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson over the city’s new mass shelter. As a result, the mayor’s office says they had to scramble to line up services, turning to nonprofits Central City Concern, Health Share of Oregon, and CareOregon
“Officials in Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office allege the county left them high and dry on a suite of social services county officials had promised to provide at the shelter, prompting rounds of testy exchanges and a last-minute scramble by the city to secure some of them.”
“One staff member in Vega Pederson’s office…had recently emailed her to say that Multnomah County Animal Services could ‘provide one time pet food’ at the shelter site while another sent a few potential ‘referral partners for behavioral health services.’”
WW’s Nigel Jaquiss broke news that Multnomah County recently hired a former employee as a consultant to oversee replacing the downtown sobering center which closed in 2019. The project is called the behavioral health emergency coordination network (BHECN).
The issue? Julia Dodge, who is reporting to Chair Vega Pederson directly, was the county’s former interim director of behavioral health and resigned from her $167,325 county position Dec. 16. On Jan. 2, the county signed Dodge to a $225-an-hour, no-bid consulting contract to develop BHECN.
From WW: “Dodge resigned under a cloud from her high-level position at the county last year only to be rehired immediately on a no-bid consulting contract to lead a project so critical that Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson is directly overseeing it herself.”
More Portland News:
Multnomah County will start fining American Medical Response for slow ambulance response times after trying to improve performance through other means, reports The Oregonian. In a statement Chair Vega Pederson said, “My patience is exhausted. AMR’s ambulance response times are unacceptable and they have not met performance metrics in months, requiring that we take action.”
From KOIN: “The Multnomah County Health Department found a massive increase in synthetic drug overdose deaths — reaching over 500% between 2018 and 2022 — while the county has also seen BIPOC communities disproportionately impacted by the deaths, KOIN 6 News has learned.”
Governor Kotek is launching and co-charing a new task force to address downtown Portland’s problems. The Portland Central City Task Force will focus on crime, homelessness, trash problems, and tax issues that create barriers to doing business in Portland.
Kotek is co-chairing with Dan McMillan, CEO of The Standard. Task force members will be announced soon according to a press release from the Governor’s office.
From OPB: “It’s not clear whether (Mayor) Wheeler has been involved in the creation of Kotek’s task force plan, but his office said he will be ‘an active member’…In a statement, Wheeler said he welcomed Kotek’s involvement but underscored other ways the state could be actively helping address the city’s issues.”
3. Author Marc Johnson on how Mansfield and Dirksen used political power to solve big problems in turbulent times
The YouTube video for this podcast will be uploaded next week—until then, enjoy it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and Google Podcasts!
Majority Leader Mike Mansfield and Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, with opposing parties, leadership styles, and personalities, were two of the most impactful figures in America in the 1960s. During a period of political turmoil—global superpowers on the brink of nuclear war, the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK Jr., war, and racial strife—two men from different parties shepherded monumental legislation (the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Great Society, etc.) through the Senate with bipartisan consensus. How did they pull it off?
In this episode, we talk with author and historian Marc Johnson about these two men, their leadership styles, their relationship with each other (and with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson), and their accomplishments. Importantly, though, we talk about whether or not it's possible in today's political environment to do what they did the way they did it. We talk about the lessons that political leaders, including those in Oregon politics, can learn from these two men—and how specifically their approach might have been fundamentally different than most politicians' today.
If you enjoy The Oregon Bridge podcast, you will love this book ("Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate"). For young people who have only ever known a dysfunctional Congress, it's a beautiful portrait of two fascinating leaders who guided the US Senate during turbulent times. For everyone, it's a reminder of what's possible when exceptional leaders use political power to solve big problems.
4. Sponsored Message from Harrang Long P.C.: Harrang Long’s Political Law Practice
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5. Capitol renovation budget balloons, risky investments at Treasury, Gov. Kotek signs more bills, and other state agency news
Construction at the Oregon Capitol is almost $100 million over budget. And, according to OPB’s Dirk VanderHart, the ballooning costs were never mentioned during the legislative session.
From VanderHart: “The new expenses, tucked away in budget bills passed late in the legislative session, were not mentioned in committee hearings or outlined in written testimony. They were approved and voted on without discussion. The result is that taxpayers are now expected to pay nearly $465 million for what has been billed as a $375 million endeavor without any explanation.”
According to analysis from the New York Times, the Oregon State Treasury “routinely understate” the risks of their investments in private equity funds. According to Michael Markov, a mathematician who runs a financial technology company: “Oregon’s pension fund is over 40 percent more volatile than its own reported statistics show”.
More State Government News:
The OLCC, which has been in the process of building a new warehouse and HQ in Canby, is pulling the plug on its new headquarters.
An eye-popping figure cited by WW: “OLCC estimates it would cost $19 million to build the new headquarters, compared to renting space from the Oregon Department of Administrative Services in Salem for about $250,000 a year.”
Governor Kotek signed six mental health related bills last week. The legislation will make opioid overdose reversal medication more available, expand fentanyl drug education in public schools and start a 40-cent phone line tax for the 988 state hotline and mobile crisis response teams that help people in crises, reports the Capital Chronicle.
From the Oregonian: “Contractor delayed disclosure of hack that exposed Oregon Health Plan members’ data, state officials say”
According to Willamette Week, a new audit from the Secretary of State’s Office on the Oregon Racing Commission found that the agency has “sleepy oversight”, “a lack of accountability”, and “poor record-keeping”.
From the Oregonian: “Documents undermine state’s case that Oregon Labor Bureau manager who complained of race discrimination lacked credibility”
Environmental groups are not happy with Gov. Kotek's housing council’s plans to possibly reduce certain wetlands protections to build more housing, reports WW. Oregon has 1.3 million acres of wetlands, and the panel recently said that based on new U.S. Supreme Court guidance, “Oregon now has a viable path for development of marginal or degraded wetlands to allow for needed housing development.”
From the Oregonian: “Gov. Tina Kotek yanks 5 commutations; asks law enforcement to tell her of other cases that should be revoked”
6. How are Oregonians doing? Data from OVBC paints a picture
Thanks to the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center for this data on the health and well-being of Oregonians, which shows 29% of Oregonians are not doing well when it comes to being able to afford basic needs.
7. Three big challenges to watch
The Cost of Day Care
The average annual day care cost for a toddler in Oregon is more expensive than some college tuition at $13,007, according to a national report. That’s $1,200 more than current in-state tuition at Portland State University, reports Axios Portland.
Chronic Absenteeism
From the Oregonian: “Oregon’s chronic absenteeism rate 1 of nation’s most alarming”
Department of Corrections Transparency
From the Capital Chronicle: “Corrections officials say they do not have information on the number of complaints filed against corrections staffers, how often a prison goes on lockdown or how often inmates suffer opioid overdoses. In email exchanges over the past two weeks, the agency’s communications staff said it does not track data for those areas.”
From Gov. Kotek’s Office: “The governor believes DOC needs more transparency.”
8. News Roundup: Ballot Measure 110 gets positive national press, Oregon’s newest city, and the lawsuit against Brown Hope
Ballot Measure 110, which decriminalized drugs, was profiled in Esquire with the title “The Land Beyond the Drug War”. Here’s the lede: “Every state in America has a fentanyl problem, but only Oregon has decriminalized drugs and sent hundreds of millions in legal-weed tax dollars to organizations that are trying to heal people. In Portland and a rural county nearby, there is both chaos and hope.”
Have you heard of the new Central Oregon city called Mountain View? It doesn’t exist…yet. More from the Bend Bulletin.
From Willamette Week: “Former Chief Operating Officer Files Lawsuit Against Brown Hope and CEO Cameron Whitten. Brondalyn Coleman alleges Whitten pushed her to fire an employee ‘too white to be in leadership’ and demanded she use drugs and sign false tax documents.”
From Pamplin: “Harsh weather, California leaves Oregon sweet cherry growers on brink of disaster”
More legislators are weighing in with concern about the Ducks’ departure from the PAC-12. Check out the OPB article with quotes from Rep. David Gomberg, Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, Rep. Shelly Boshart-Davis, Rep. Janelle Bynum, and Rep. Paul Evans.
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About the Authors
Ben Bowman is the state representative for Oregon House District 25 (Tigard, Metzger, and South Beaverton) and a member of the Tigard-Tualatin School Board. In his day job, he works as an administrator for a public school district. Previously, he worked as a legislative aide for former Reps. Margaret Doherty and Val Hoyle. He also co-hosts The Oregon Bridge podcast. In the newsletter and podcast, he speaks only for himself.
Alex Titus is a small business owner and consultant to businesses, nonprofits, and associations. Previously, he served as an Advisor in the Trump Administration and as a Policy Advisor to President Trump’s Super PAC. His writing has appeared in National Review, Fox News, The Hill, RealClearPolitics, and other publications.
Kristina Edmunson has been everything from press assistant for Governor Kulongoski, media advance associate for Vice President Biden, and communications director for Attorney General Rosenblum. Born and raised in Eugene, she has been involved in some of the biggest policy and legal decisions in Oregon over the last decade. Today, she runs her own communications practice. She speaks only for herself in her contributions to The Liftoff.