The Liftoff: The great re-shuffling of Oregon leaders continues
PLUS: Pete Buttigieg's texts to Ted Wheeler; brace yourself for a recession; key agency leaders announce their departures; two new Oregon freshmen bump into each other in D.C.; and more!
Welcome back to The Liftoff! From the team here at Oregon360 Media, we hope you have an excellent Thanksgiving week. After a rowdy and exhausting campaign cycle—for participants and observers—we all deserve a chance to recharge with friends and family.
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1. The Great Legislative Re-Shuffling: Wagner will be Senate President, Lieber is Majority Leader, Campos makes history—and other legislative news
The great re-shuffling of Oregon leaders has been completed—at least among elected leaders (big changes at state agencies are expected in the coming months). Senate Democrats have nominated Majority Leader Rob Wagner to be the next Senate President. Sen. Kate Lieber was picked to replace him as the next Majority Leader. Wagner’s election comes on the heels of Senate Democrats winning a better-than-expected 17 seats.
After Speaker Dan Rayfield, House Majority Leader Julie Fahey, and Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp were re-nominated to their posts last week, the legislative re-shuffle is officially complete (pending the House Rs caucus vote)—and it was a far more consequential re-shuffling than normal.
Consider this: Just two years ago, in 2020, not a single one of the new presiding officers or caucus leaders were in their new roles. In January 2023, a new chapter in the history of the Oregon State Legislature will officially begin.
At 26-years-old, Rep. Wlnsvey Campos will be the youngest state senator in Oregon history when she takes her new office in January. Check out our interview with Rep. Campos—back when she was just the youngest woman ever elected to the legislature!
Rep. Mark Meek will be the next senator from Clackamas County, after defeating Sen. Bill Kennemer by a razor-thin margin of just 373 votes. According to WW, it was the most expensive senate race in Oregon history, costing $4.84 million.
Stoel Rives is billing the state legislature $141,659 for conducting the investigation of Tina Kotek following Diego Hernandez’ complaint. From Willamette Week: “After interviewing just five witnesses in a probe that lasted more than 600 days, Stoel Rives issued a nine-page report in late September clearing Kotek, a finding upheld by the House Conduct Committee last month.” At least one legislator isn’t pleased; according to WW: “State Rep. Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles) says the bill is excessive and tardy. ‘The state should dispute that bill,’ Bonham says.”
2. Transition Watch: Kotek’s five priorities—and Pat & Steve Allen depart OHA
Oregon Health Authority Director Pat Allen, who was criticized by all three gubernatorial candidates, will step down after five years on the job. He’ll leave before Governor-Elect Tina Kotek takes office. Steve Allen, the OHA Behavioral Health Director, will also step down. OHA is one of the largest state agencies with an all-funds biennial budget over $30 billion.
Willamette Week outlines the challenging predicament that Kotek finds herself in: “Few of Kotek’s predecessors have inherited a bigger mess or done so with less of a public mandate.” The article outlines five big commitments from Kotek—and offers reasons why Kotek may be just the person to deliver on them. Here are Kotek’s goals (taken verbatim from WW):
Clean up the streets and attack Oregon’s housing crisis.
Expand access to mental health and addiction treatment services.
Get big money out of Oregon politics.
Narrow the state’s urban-rural divide.
Get tough on state bureaucrats.
3. “Mild” recession and record kicker coming— how elected leaders responded to the revenue forecast
State economists are predicting a mild recession within the next year that could cause a 1.2% decline in jobs (a loss of 24,000) and a rise in unemployment from today’s 3.8% to 5.4% in 2024. According to Josh Lehner at the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis: “Such a cycle would be one of the shallowest, and shortest recessions on record.”
At the same time, Oregon will pay out a record $3.7 billion in the kicker.
You can read what state leaders had to say about the forecast, including Governor Kate Brown and legislative leaders, thanks to Pamplin.
4. The Agora Journalism Center joins the podcast to talk about Oregon’s news and information ecosystem
This week on the podcast, we interview Regina Lawrence and Andrew DeVigal from the Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon. We talk about the state of Oregon’s news and information ecosystem—and some of the innovative ideas from across the state that could change the future of news. This conversation is about journalism, but specifically for a more politics-focused audience.
If you haven’t yet, we highly recommend you read Agora’s recent report (or at least the Executive Summary!): Assessing Oregon’s Local News & Information Ecosystem 2022. Oregon’s information ecosystem plays a huge role in our politics—if you care about a healthy civic culture, you should care about access to state and local news.
5. Chavez-DeRemer and Salinas bump into each other at freshmen orientation
Congresswomen-Elect Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Andrea Salinas ran into each other in Washington D.C. as the two attended freshmen orientation for new members of Congress. Chavez-DeRemer and Salinas both made history as the first Latinas ever elected to represent Oregon in Congress.
Some early recriminations are already happening in CD5, where Chavez-DeRemer won a tight race against Jamie McLeod Skinner. Some national voices are blaming McLeod Skinner for primarying Kurt Schrader, while others are blaming national Democrats for failing to adequately support McLeod Skinner.
6. Pete Buttigieg’s texts to Ted Wheeler—and more Portland news
Read the genuinely fascinating OPB report that explains how thousands of public record text messages went missing, including those between Mayor Ted Wheeler and Pete Buttigieg—and then how they were found. The report also describes why, in a text from 2020, Wheeler wrote to his colleague Jo Ann Hardesty: “I feel deeply betrayed by you.”
Mayor Wheeler and the Portland City Council have allocated nearly $30 million to jumpstart the city’s new approach to homelessness (which includes a ban on camping outside of city-designated sites).
Wheeler also announced a “re-grouping” of city bureaus that he will assign to commissioners (he hasn’t yet announced which commissioners will oversee which clusters). Here’s the list of clusters, courtesy of Pamplin:
Community Safety: Portland Police Bureau, Portland Fire & Rescue, Bureau of Emergency Communications, Bureau of Emergency Management.
Economic Development: Portland Housing Bureau, Joint Office of Homeless Services, Bureau of Development Services, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, Prosper Portland.
Utilities: Water Bureau, Bureau of Environmental Services, Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Administration: Office of Management and Finance, Budget Office, Office of Government Relations.
Community Services: Office of Civic & Community Life, Open and Accountable Elections, Portland Parks & Recreation, Office of Equity and Human Rights.
7. Oregonians agree: more climate action
Thanks to our friends at the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center for this week’s graphic that shows a consensus from most Oregonians that more action is needed to address climate change.
8. News Roundup: Read supports divestment by 2050, Brown gets COVID, and more!
From OPB: “State Treasurer Tobias Read wants the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, a pension serving about 160,000 people and valued at about $90 billion, to stop investing in companies that emit planet-warming greenhouse gases by 2050.”
Gun sales are skyrocketing prior to the implementation and start of Measure 114, which will begin on December 8, 2023.
Measure 111 has officially passed, making Oregon the first state in the country to provide a right to healthcare in a state constitution.
Read WW’s list of election winners (including “politicians in exile”) and losers (including “Portland plutocrats”).
Governor Kate Brown and her husband tested positive for COVID. The governor recently came back from a trip to Vietnam where she inked a trade agreement with the country.
Thank you for reading.
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About the Authors
Ben Bowman is the chair of the Tigard-Tualatin School Board and state representative-elect for Oregon House District 25 (Tigard and Beaverton). 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.