IS OREGON’S POLITICAL DIVIDE AN EXAMPLE OF THE NATION’S DIVIDE?

…Empty Oregon Senate Seats

Once again, Oregon Republican lawmakers abandon their duties as the state’s lawmakers.

There is an on-going  story about how some states have attempted to stop from allowing bills to be passed in their states.  That situation is happening again today in the state of Oregon, which I will get to later, but here is some history of what other states parties have done to avoid passing bills they didn’t like, while the other party had all the power.

Back in the late-1970s, a man-hunt had occurred for absent state senators in Texas.  The Washington Post told the story at the time like this: “The hives of the Texas ‘killer bees’ remained undisturbed today ... After four days of deadlock, the ‘worker bees’ are invoking the heroes of the Alamo, the ‘queen bees’ are under 24-hour surveillance and the ‘bumble bees’ are simply trying to defend themselves.”

The “killer bees”, were apparently, the 12 liberal senators who took off hoping to sabotage the legislature’s quorum and to block a bill they opposed. The “worker bees” were those lawmakers who stayed behind, while the “queen bees” were the wives of the missing men, whose houses the Texas Rangers, or the “bumble bees”, were staking out as they searched for the senators.

Now, roughly 10 years after that, US Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) ordered the Capitol police to search for a group of Republicans that had taken off to block the passage of campaign finance reform.  Sen. Robert Packwood, an Oregon Republican had barricaded himself in his office.  (This is according to an official history of the event.)  After officers pushed through the barricade, Packwood made them a deal: he’d go with them, but they had to carry him back into the chamber feet first in a theatrical protest.

However, more recently, a group of Wisconsin Democrats left their state to thwart a 2011 anti-union bill.  Police were also dispatched to search for them.

In another event in Oregon, as the authorities sought his Republican colleagues, state Senate President, Peter Courtney issued a request from the chamber floor.  “I beg and beseech my fellow legislators to come to the floor. I need you, the legislature needs you, the people of Oregon need you to pass budgets to take care of our citizens.”

But many lawmakers were already on their way out.  The newspaper, The Oregonian, reached out to one of the lawmakers just after 7AM as he sped out of the state.  “In a few moments,” Sen. Cliff Bentz told the paper, “I will not be in Oregon.”

Well now, in Oregon state, it’s all happening again.

Outside the Oregon State Capitol, small groups of protesters were jockeying for position. There were loggers there who opposed the cap-and-trade bill up for a vote that morning. And there were many young millennial climate activists who said the legislation was vital to preserving the world they would soon inherit.  But there were a few crucial components missing from the political drama unfolding in Salem, Oregon, that day.

Namely, you guessed it, the lawmakers.

Inside the statehouse, the Senate chambers were very quiet.  The clerk called the roll, but a third of the room’s seats were empty.  The Republicans, in attempting to face-down a Democratic super-majority that was intent on passing bills to combat climate change, the GOP senators resorted to their last-ditch political arithmetic.  That being: no senators, no votes.

Without the 11 GOP colleagues, Senate Democrats couldn’t reach a quorum, and their legislative agenda would therefore grind to a halt.

So the Republicans had taken off and they left the state, heading over to Idaho.

However, that wasn’t the end of it.  The state Democrats, who control the legislature and the state executive branch, had a last resort of their own, and  they used it.

Gov. Kate Brown called the cops.

Brown instructed Oregon State Police to track down and round up any lawmakers on the lam, an order that authorizes authorities to put the elected officials in patrol cars and drive them back to the Capitol.  The state police department however, said that  it would instead opt for using “polite communication.”

The governor went on to  accuse the senators of abandoning their posts in the face of a potentially historic vote, one she said would put Oregon at the forefront of the nation’s fight against global warming.  “It is absolutely unacceptable that the Senate Republicans would turn their back on their constituents who they are honor-bound to represent here in this building,” Brown said. “They need to return and do the jobs they were elected to do.”

However, the Oregon Republicans said their boycott was the only way they could advocate for the people that voted them into office that were against the bills.  They spoke of a deepening divide between the state’s ultra-liberal urban enclaves and its sprawling rural counties with proud libertarian streaks.

I can say personally that what these Republicans were saying about a divide is very true in Oregon.  When I was traveling through Oregon during the 2008 presidential campaign, in the city areas of Portland and Salem Oregon, there were many lawn signs in support of the then candidate Barack Obama.  But once you traveled out of Oregon’s urban areas, all you saw were lawn signs in support of John McCain.

Oregon Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger, Jr.  said in a statement: “Protesting cap and trade by walking out today represents our constituency and exactly how we should be doing our job.  We will not stand by and be bullied by the majority party any longer. Oregonians deserve better. It’s time for the majority party to consider all Oregonians, not just the ones in Portland.”

Sen. Brian Boquist, one of Baertschiger’s colleagues, sent a warning to any search party that might come looking for him.  “Send bachelors and come heavily armed,” Boquist said he told the superintendent of the state police. “I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”

Oregon state senator Brian Boquist said that if the Republicans walk out to stop a vote on Cap and Trade and Oregon Governor Brown sends state police to bring him back, they should be: “single and well armed”.

Critics of the cap-and-trade bill vigorously oppose it because they say it will have a disproportionate effect on Oregon’s rural communities.

Under the plan, greenhouse gas emissions would be limited and carbon-producing businesses would be required to purchase pollution credits. Over time, the state would decrease the number of credits available, thereby lowering the level of emissions allowed.

Those against the legislation argue that industry will likely pass the extra cost on to consumers, and the price of fuel would dramatically rise, putting a strain on industries outside the cities such as trucking and logging.

The two sides spent hours hashing out their disagreements and, as the governor said, they only reached “an impasse.”  Senator Baertschiger called the negotiations “fruitless.”

This is the second time in this session that Oregon Republicans walked out in the face of a stalemate. But last month, Democrats were able to coax them back with what is called a “legislative carrot”, rather than the state trooper approach.

But this was just another example of the divide between the Oregon Dems and the Reps, and it is just another installment in the country’s storied history of police officers chasing down lawmakers who have refused to do their jobs.

So get ready folks.  This won’t be the last of the bizarre episodes that develop from a sorely divided country’s two political parties.

Copyright G. Ater  2019