Oregon state Rep. Diego Hernandez (D) resigned from his seat before he could be expelled over allegations of harassment, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.
Oregonian: “An independent investigator’s report released last month stated that at least three women said Hernandez had created a hostile workplace through continued pressure on the women to have a romantic relationship despite their having told him they were not interested and having asked him to stop.”
“The chairman of the Oregon Republican Party on Monday filed paperwork to launch a recall against Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, citing some of the laws Democrats passed in the 2019 legislative session,” the Oregonian reports.
“Organizers now have 90 days to gather 280,050 valid signatures from voters… That’s a high bar: it’s not unusual for campaigns to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars collecting signatures to qualify initiatives for the ballot.”
“If recall supporters gather enough signatures, a special election could be scheduled sometime in November.”
“Oregon Senate Republicans plan to return to the state Capitol and resume voting on bills Saturday morning,” the Oregonian reports.
Caucus leader Herman Baertschiger (R) said lawmakers “have an obligation to pass budget bills, and he believes lawmakers can complete that work by the midnight Sunday deadline for lawmakers to adjourn. Democrats have a slate of other policy bills they also want to pass, and Baertschiger would not say whether Republicans would waive procedural rules to allow votes on that legislation in the waning hours of the legislative session.”
“Republicans have shut down the Oregon Senate for more than a week, by walking out and denying Democrats the 20-member quorum they need to conduct business.”
“A legislation-stalling walkout by the 11 Republicans in the Oregon Senate continued Monday, with no end in sight,” the Oregonian reports.
“Rumors of reported sightings of the absent lawmakers abounded over the weekend, but no credible accounts surfaced by the time the Oregon Capitol opened for business Monday morning.”
The Wall Street Journal has a good piece on the fugitive Republicans, including details on them using “burner phones” in an attempt to avoid detection.
Oregonian: “If the state Senate approves the landmark plan, Oregon would join seven other states with paid family or medical leave, Williamson said. That seemed likelihood, given House Bill 2005 was negotiated by businesses and paid leave advocates.”
“But it was thrown into doubt this week when Senate Republicans staged their second walkout this session, this time to block a scheduled vote on a climate change bill.”
“Republicans’ absence could kill not only that carbon-capping plan, House Bill 2020, but also paid family medical leave and a slew of other policy proposals, since any bills that have not passed both chambers would be wiped out after the June 30 state constitutional deadline for the Legislature to adjourn.”
“Oregon’s Democratic governor, Kate Brown, has dispatched state troopers to find missing Republican senators and bring them back to Salem to legislate,” the Oregonian reports.
“All 11 Republican senators are in hiding, at least some of them out of state, in order to prevent the Senate from having the quorum it needs to operate. They can’t abide the Democrat-backed carbon cap and spend bill that is up for a Senate vote today.”
“Oregon Republican senators have left the Capitol and scattered in various directions outside the state in order to avoid being rounded up by troopers for a high-profile climate bill vote scheduled today,” the Oregonian reports.
“Democrats hold a supermajority in both chambers of the Oregon Legislature but they still need Republicans to achieve the quorum necessary to conduct business, which is 20 members in the Senate.”
“The Oregon Senate voted to join a movement designed to award the presidency to the winner of the popular vote,” the Oregonian reports.
“If the bill is approved by the Oregon House and signed into law, Oregon would join 14 other states and the District of Columbia in the National Popular Vote compact. The idea behind the compact is that state legislatures would award their state’s Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide.”
Oregon lawmakers are pushing a bill that would amend the state’s constitution to lower the voting age in the state from 18 to 16, the Oregonian reports.
“They hope to put it before voters in 2020.”
“Pressing issues affecting young people have brought the voting age down before. It used to be 21 before the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1971, lowered it to 18. The amendment was fueled in part by teenagers facing the draft for the Vietnam War, which had become increasingly unpopular.”
Oregon state Sen. Jeff Kruse (R) said that he was resigning after an investigation “determined he had harassed women in the Capitol building with prolonged hugging, groping and other unwelcome physical contact,” the AP reports.
A Hoffman Research Group poll in Oregon shows Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 43%, followed by Ted Cruz at 26% and John Kasich at 17%.
John Kasich “isn’t featured in Oregon’s voters’ pamphlet for the May primary election — an embarrassing blunder for any major campaign,” the Register-Guard reports.
“It’s up to candidates to get their photos and statements into the pamphlet, which is one of the most cost-effective political advertising tools in the state. Each Oregon household — roughly 1.5 million in total — gets a free copy of the pamphlet. Presidential candidates pay $3,500 to put their half-page statement in the pamphlet, or else submit 500 supporters’ signatures and get their statement included for free.”
“Kasich’s failure may throw a wrench in a coordinated strategy announced publicly Sunday night… Ironically, the Cruz campaign got its presidential statement included in Oregon’s voter pamphlet.”
“Republican presidential candidates are staying mum as an armed group has taken over part of a national wildlife refuge in rural Oregon — even those who supported the father of at least one of its leaders, who had his own standoff with the government in 2014, and have called for limits on federal control over Western land,” the Washington Post reports.
“There was relative quiet from some more conservative Republican presidential candidates who had previously called for the government to release more of the land it owns. The issue has become a larger one in the GOP primary as states such as Colorado, Idaho and Nevada may play a bigger role in determining a nominee in a large, fractured field.”
The Fix: Why aren’t we calling the Oregon militia terrorists?
“The IRS has partnered with the FBI in the broad-ranging federal investigation of former Gov. John Kitzhaber and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes,” the Oregonian reports.
Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown (D) will become the first openly bisexual governor when Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) resigns from office next week, the Washington Post reports.
“It would be a milestone for LGBT elected officials. An LGBT governor has never been elected, although New Jersey did have an openly gay governor briefly in 2004, after Gov. Jim McGreevey (D) came out as gay and admitted an affair with a man he had appointed to a key job. He resigned three months later.”
“Brown is married to husband Dan Little; she has publicly discussed her bisexuality in past campaigns. She is already arguably the highest-ranking bisexual elected official in America; Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ.) became the first bisexual member of Congress in 2013. There are about 525 openly LGBT public officials in office at all levels of government, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.”
Gov. John Kitzhaber’s private attorney, Jim McDermott, “sought to tamp down a flurry of speculation that the governor was planning to resign,” the Oregonian reports.
Said McDermott: “I have every reason to believe the governor will stay in office.”
“Sepculation about the governor’s future was fueled Wednesday morning after Secretary of State Kate Brown cut short a trip to Washington, D.C. to return to Oregon. The governor’s office has not responded to requests for comment about whether he was getting ready to leave office amid controversy over fiancee Cylvia Hayes’ consulting contracts and how he and his aides handled them.”
“A new batch of emails released Friday show Cylvia Hayes directed state employees how to implement a new policy while she was being paid $25,000 by an advocacy group to promote it,” the Oregonian reports.
“The emails appear to erase any doubt that, as first lady, Hayes was taking money in her private role and pushing the same policy in her public one. The governor’s office has conceded only that Hayes’ roles as first lady and policy adviser to Gov. John Kitzhaber and as a private consultant put her in a gray area.”
Emails show Oregonian First Lady Cylvia Hayes asked Gov. John Kitzhaber’s (D) staff to help with mundane tasks like sneaking cats into a hotel room and complaining to an airline, the Oregonian reports.
“The 500 pages of records capture communications between Hayes on her personal email accounts and a scheduler in Kitzhaber’s office. They were released as the governor’s office continues to whittle away at a months-long backlog of public records requests.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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