OUR VIEW: The voters spoke, but politics as usual played out anyway (PRINT copy)

Published 6:00 am Friday, May 19, 2023

our view

There are times when you just find yourself rooting for that perennial political candidate, the Giant Meteor.

Take the current session of the Oregon Legislature … please.

The current stalemate — or, if you prefer, stall-mate — in the Senate has a lot of tendrils; but, ultimately, at its roots this is about nothing nobler than run-of-the-mill politics.

And that, fellow voters, should tick us off — particularly since we thought we voiced our opinion loud and clear last fall about such shenanigans. Now, as the walkout continues, two state senators whose districts include portions of Jackson County might wind up being precluded from serving future terms.

It’s enough to make us mutter under our breaths. Or as state Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, stated so eloquently in his recent newsletter to constituents:

“What the #*%@! is happening in Salem these days?”

Golden, being a student of both politics and “politics,” obviously knows what’s going on as the state struggles to get its literal Senate and figurative house in order. He knows what we all know — that the party in control wants to push through its agenda, and the minority party is doing what it can to forestall that from happening.

It’s the lather-rinse-repeat cycle of Oregon governance — the “repeat” portion of the process (this time) is the walkout by Senate Republicans aimed at two significant pieces of legislation.

We’ll get to those in short order; but first, let’s jog the old memory banks, shall we?

Remember 2019, when the GOP left the Capitol in Salem in order to prevent HB 2020 from passing into law?

Remember what HB 2020 was about? No worries, no one really does — and those who say they do looked it up on Wikipedia.

Well, that spirited example of government inaction so riled up the populace that last fall we overwhelmingly (68%-32%) approved Measure 113, which would disqualify legislators from re-election if they had 10 unexcused absences.

And that’s how a legislative session that’s gone off the tracks now threatens to derail the careers of GOP senators Dennis Linthicum and Art Robinson.

Members of what state Republican leaders have dubbed “Oregon’s 13,” Linthicum and Robinson have participated in the walkout staged in protest of controversial bills coming before the Senate that cover abortion rights, gender-affirming health care and gun measures.

A lawsuit on the abortion and gender-affirming bill, filed by Rep. Emily McIntire of Eagle Point and others, challenged the legislation’s legitimacy because it did not adhere to state law requiring it to be written in language understandable by someone with a middle-school education.

“When government attorneys cannot even understand the contents of the bill,” McIntire said, “there is a clear problem.” 

Less clear, perhaps, is how several earlier pieces of legislation — some bipartisan, others passed by the Democratic majority — made their way to Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk before the walkout began, without being challenged on middle-school literacy grounds.

As for the political fates of Linthicum, Robinson and the other members of “Oregon’s 13,” that issue doesn’t appear to be cut and dried, either, due to (what else?) language.

A political action committee has been formed in their defense, and court challenges to Measure 113 are expected over its intent and implementation, including an explanatory statement on last fall’s ballot stating that a disqualified candidate “may run for office … and win, but cannot hold office.”

As you try to untangle that head-spinning web, one thing about this entire exercise is clear — on some level, Jeff Golden speaks for all of us.

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