The Liftoff: What DeFazio's retirement means for Oregon politics
PLUS: Special session is coming; new GOP leader; Governor's race tightens; a tough week for Portland; and reasons to be optimistic about Oregon's future
Welcome back to The Liftoff!
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1. Rep. Peter DeFazio, longest serving Oregon congressperson, to retire
Legendary Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio has announced he’s retiring. The Oregon Capital Chronicle has the best coverage here. There are a lot of incredible DeFazio stories out there and I hope they all get told over the next few months. My favorite: When I was in college, he came to speak at an event and I followed him out afterward to ask about the time President Obama called him out in front of 150 house Democrats. He recounted it with a big smile. You can read the story for yourself here.
So what happens next in Oregon’s 4th Congressional District?
On the Democratic side, Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle is in. Other rumored or potential candidates include Sen. James Manning, Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, and Rep. Marty Wilde.
Mandatory Self Promotion: Want to learn more about Commissioner Hoyle? Check out our recent episode with her on the Oregon Bridge podcast.
On the Republican side, Alek Skarlatos confirmed to the Liftoff in a statement that he was “officially in” for Oregon CD4. Skarlatos has been endorsed by Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and has already put up impressive fundraising numbers. You can listen to him on the Oregon Bridge here.
Why this development matters: Two big reasons.
First, in this national political climate and in Biden’s first midterm, Republicans are likely to have an advantage. Oregon has three congressional seats that could conceivably be won by either party (depending on many factors). In effect, these three races in Oregon could determine whether the next Speaker of the House is Nancy Pelosi or Kevin McCarthy.
Second, Hoyle running for Congress opens up a statewide elected position at BOLI—which could have a domino effect in the legislature. There are lots of rumors swirling about who might run, including several legislators who are in the hunt to succeed Speaker Tina Kotek. Stay tuned!
2. Buckle up for another special session
Governor Kate Brown has officially called for a special session to protect renters. The Oregon Capital Insider has great coverage here.
Senate President Peter Courtney sums up the stakes well: “Special sessions are the most difficult of all sessions. Everything must be carefully planned. We have a lot of work to do. I hope we will be ready.”
The two housing committee chairs, Rep. Julie Fahey and Sen. Kayse Jama, have been crafting a legislative proposal. Here is their description: “After months of work, we have developed a proposal to extend the state's bipartisan safe harbor protections and provide additional funds for direct rent assistance that will benefit both tenants and housing providers.”
One big question: Will Republicans walk out to prevent the legislation from passing?
3. New GOP Leader in the House (and other state legislature news)
House Republicans have a new leader: Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson. Breese-Iverson succeeded former Rep. Mike McLane in the House in 2019, representing a large portion of central and southern Oregon. Like her predecessor, Rep. Christine Drazan, her elevation to the caucus leader position happened incredibly quickly.
Legislative leaders are preparing to tackle school district leadership instability, including the situation in Newberg: “It would be irresponsible of us not to take action,” said Sen. Michael Dembrow, chair of the Senate Education Committee.
Former Rep. Diego Hernandez’ lawsuit against legislative leaders has been dismissed by a federal judge.
Sen. Akasha Lawrence-Spence is officially the newest Oregon state senator.
Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin is raising red flags about special education students’ civil rights being violated by the loss of special education teachers.
Gelser Blouin also just won a national award after being nominated by Secretary of State Shemia Fagan.
4. Finally, someone who *isn’t* running for Governor: Rosenblum staying as AG
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum will not run for Governor. In several polls earlier this year, Rosenblum had the highest support (and name recognition) among Democratic voters. With Rosenblum out, the field is essentially set on the Democratic side.
In other important news in the gubernatorial race, the Cook Political Report has moved the Oregon governor’s race from “Solid D” to “Lean D”—meaning they believe the race is trending towards the GOP (but still likely to be won by the Democratic nominee).
5. The case for feeling optimistic about Oregon’s future
The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis offers a few reasons we can be optimistic about Oregon’s future. Here are some excerpts:
“Oregon’s median household incomes are still 0.9% above the U.S. median, continuing the pattern seen in recent years. You have to go back to the 1960 Census to see a time, other than recent years, when Oregon’s median incomes were higher than the U.S.”
“Oregon’s poverty rate in 2020 stood at 10.95% which was a decline of 0.45 percentage points. This is the lowest poverty rate in Oregon since the 1970s.”
“Overall, the racial poverty gap stood at 4.0 percentage points in 2020, the smallest on record.”
And in unrelated but very welcome news: ”Salmon flood upper Clackamas River in largest run since 1958” from Pamplin.
6. Another rough week for Portland
Last week was another wild one for Portland. First, a Portland Police Bureau Commander was reprimanded for promoting the recall of Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt while on the job during a neighborhood association meeting. The commander made the highly critical comments while in full uniform and during work hours. Tess Riski has the full story at Willamette Week.
Portland is also set to pay $125,000 to settle an “excessive force” lawsuit from a man who was hit in the head by a flashbang grenade during a August 2018 protest. Aaron Cantu, who led the lawsuit against the city, had his skull fractured and experienced serious brain damage. The city’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit was knocked down by a federal judge. Maxine Bernstein at The O has the full story.
While the Portland Police Bureau continues to struggle, private security forces are on the rise and Rebecca Ellis with OPB has a wild three part investigation into the firm Echelon Protective Services—which the city, businesses, and prominent nonprofits have been outsourcing security services to. This is definitely on the must-read list—here’s some key quotes from the piece:
“Business owners say they have been so satisfied with the company’s performance that they’ve reprogrammed their burglar alarms to ping Echelon — not 911 — if there’s a problem.”
“Private security firms in Oregon are notoriously underregulated, and their employees are required to receive a fraction of the training and oversight as public law enforcement.”
“[Echelon’s] client list is a roster of civic heavy-hitters. The head of the Downtown Development Group, one of the largest landowners in Portland, has used them. So have the University of Oregon, the Lan Su Chinese Garden and Harsch Investment Properties.”
Additionally, Portland is on track to break the record for traffic fatalities. To round it off — the Multnomah County auditor is out with a report highlighting how the country exaggerated its number of homeless people housed by nearly 20%.
7. Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten Joins The Bridge; talks defying COVID mandates and “common-sense” solutions for Oregon
This episode unexpectedly became the one with the most downloads in its first 24 hours.
Kerry McQuisten is the Mayor of Baker City and running as a Republican for Governor. McQuisten made national headlines for declaring Baker City a "common sense sanctuary" from Governor Brown's COVID-19 measures and hopes to use the popularity of her policies with the conservative grassroots to ride through the Republican primary and into the governor's mansion. We talk about everything from COVID-19 mandates to homelessness to urban-rural divide and Critical Race Theory.
From Alex: Ben and McQuisten also do a little left vs. right philosophy when it comes to key policy differences in education, so prepare for some nerdiness.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Audible, or watch on YouTube.
8. Would you pay more for smaller class sizes?
Just about half of Oregonians would pay more in taxes for smaller class sizes. The margin is largest among urban Oregonians, but even rural Oregonians say they would pay more by a margin of 47% in favor to 41% opposed.
9. News Roundup
Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has named Lisa Udland her new Deputy AG
Why does it take so long to change offensive names of geographic sites in Oregon? Here’s your answer.
Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici shares some news that will make a lot of public servants with student loan debt very happy
The Portland Association of Teachers offered a proposal that included once-per-week asynchronous days in high school and late starts in K-8. The district pushed back.
The pendulum swings: UO student leader wants to require critical race theory for all students
More Blazer Drama: Neil Olshey has been fired as Blazers GM
Oregon’s paid leave program is far behind schedule
Environmentalists sound the alarm on ODOT; ODOT disagrees
Christmas trees will cost you a little more this year
You should know about prison gerrymandering, from the East Oregonian
Thank you for reading.
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