Make the McKenzie Connection!
Make the McKenzie Connection!
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In May, state Sen. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, area lost her bid for reelection to the legislature, the first such incumbent loss since 2018. Multiple reasons contributed to Sollman’s loss to union-backed challenger Myrna Muñoz, but a pivotal and new factor was data centers. Those massive buildings, consuming vast amounts of electricity and water and producing compute, serving as the physical location of much of the internet cloud and especially the locus of fast-growing artificial in...
Oregonians have a front-row seat to watch, though not vote in, an obscure congressional race that could say much about the reshaping of partisan politics in this state and beyond. I'm not talking about Washington's 3rd Congressional District, now held by Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, which saw the state's closest congressional elections for the past two election cycles and may again this year, though, it's certainly a race to watch. No, the Evergreen State contest of greatest interest ahead...
The Trump administration's take on monopolies, mega-mergers and related activity, among the most important economic actions available to a government, often has been buried under many of the other national headlines in the last year and a half. But the Oregon attorney general's office - with counterparts in other states - may be about to launch a significant effort in the area. The general purpose of anti-trust laws has been "to protect the process of competition for the benefit of consumers,...
Not everything in the newly-released report of the Governor's Prosperity Council is uncontroversial, or should be, or points specifically to major systemic problems that limit Oregon's economic growth. But some do. Two general proposals especially, which may at first sound almost like anodyne boilerplate, seem on reflection like matters of real significance and specific relevance to the way Oregon works, or doesn't. And in theory at least, both ought not to be non-controversial because they...
Oregon and the Northwest generally have gotten off light so far this year when it comes to wildfires. That can change and probably will, because wildfires tend to take a worsening turn in the month or so ahead. But starting this year, we may have some new tools for planning for their arrival. As of June 25, the National Interagency Fire Center has reported a total 35,118 fires nationwide burning 2.9 million acres - both numbers considerably higher for this point in the year than any year in the...
My wife volunteered for years in dog rescue efforts around the region, and her experiences made clear to me that Oregon's animal cruelty and mistreatment laws were inadequate and needed strengthening. So when Initiative Petition 28, billed as doing something like that, pulled the mass of signatures neededfor ballot status, it sounded welcome. Then I read proposed law and descriptions - especially from the advocates themselves - of what it would actually do. Even its backers acknowledge it's unli...
After Robert Packwood, the long-time U.S. senator from Oregon, died last weekend, news stories about him flowed around the country. Most had a common theme. Many led with, and focused on, the tawdry and extensive sexual harassment and abuse scandals that in 1995 ended his Senate career. "Maverick Republican Sen. Bob Packwood of Oregon, who resigned after sexual harassment scandal, dies" ... "Bob Packwood, longtime Oregon Senator marred by scandal, dies at 93" - headlines like these were...
A couple of decades ago, the comedian Chris Rock led a TV series called "Everybody Hates Chris," its name a spin on "Everybody Loves Raymond". Not to pile on too much, but did Oregon just see the "Everybody Hates ODOT" election? The context is that practically everyone in the state seemed to expect the transportation tax and fee law passed last year by the legislature to be given the boot by the voters; the only question was how strong that vote would be. It turned out to be overwhelming: as of...
Does anyone in Oregon think Measure 120, sustaining last year’s legislation on transportation taxes and fees, will pass? Anyone? Anyone who does seems to be well hidden, just like any supporters of the measure, the substance of which passed just last year with majority support in the legislature and signature by the governor. The state’s Democratic political leadership appears to have abandoned it completely. And the Oregon Department of Transportation, where most of the money raised is int...
Just how deep the antipathy - in Oregon at least - toward both major political parties actually is, may be tested seriously in this year's elections. The test may not involve outright wins and losses, but the percentages will be worth watching. What's new is the changed electoral strategy of the Independent Party of Oregon, the state's third largest with 154,862 registrants. That's not a huge portion of all Oregon voters, well behind the Democrats' 981,358 and the Republicans' 730,080. But...
On March 26, Gov. Tina Kotek declared a drought emergency in Deschutes, Umatilla and Baker counties at the request of county governments. Call that the first drop of what may soon be a flood of drought-related actions. This may be the most challenging large-scale drought year Oregon has seen in decades. Kotek's executive order hinted at that. It also said "forecasts suggest that below normal precipitation and streamflow conditions are likely to continue through summer in all counties following...
Last August, I wrote of the upcoming contest for the Republican nomination for governor that legislator Christine Drazan, the party's 2022 nominee, started in the preeminent position and that "any discussion of major contenders for the 2026 Republican nomination for governor has to start with her." In the last couple of months the field has changed, to the point that another legislator who last summer wasn't even on the radar appears to be claiming front-runner status. As of the end of...
Another legislative session is over and new laws are about to go into effect that will change things, some things, in Oregon. Right? What people around government know and everyone else should, is that passing a law is one thing and getting it to work as intended is a whole different matter. Consider legislation from nine years ago and working only in part: the red flag law. A decade ago, many Second Amendment advocates argued that the problem with persistent shooting deaths was not so much the...
The plain meaning of Article II, Section 2 in the Oregon state constitution seems to be eluding a lot of people in high office in the state. And that's a little puzzling because the words seem basic: "Every citizen of the United States is entitled to vote in all elections not otherwise provided for by this Constitution." It does go on to restrict voting by residency and registration, and allow the Legislature to impose limitations on some financial ballot issues to taxpayers. But the rule is...
Conventional wisdom in and far beyond Oregon is that the state's Measure 110, an initiative passed by voters in 2020 decriminalizing small amounts of most drugs, was a flat-out failure and has become a dead letter. Though passed by a near landslide, polling showed public opinion in Oregon flipped on it afterwards. Its best-known element, the broad (not total) decriminalization of many illegal drugs, largely was changed (not completely) by the Oregon Legislature. The initiative has been...
In this season of reviewing the year's top news stories in Oregon - either because of importance or attention - this year, in this state, the job is unusually and maybe eerily easy. There was only one big story in Oregon in 2025: Donald Trump, not just nationally but specifically in Oregon. Trump administration actions and responses to them were the dominant subject this year for Oregon's congressional delegation. Town halls the state's two U.S. senators held in each county saw crowds four or...
In coming weeks, Oregon legislators will begin to consider what adjustments should be made to the state's two-year budget and revenue picture. Much of the attention has gone to transportation funding, and the likely ballot issue which may alter it. But the economic and funding issues lurking in the coming year are broader. Legislators will not find coping with the full range of what comes next an easy task. The condition of Oregon's economy right now isn't easy even to describe, much less...
Amid the uproar over federal and Oregon state relations, an Oregon political deadline came and went Oct. 27 with little attention, but some implications for the political year ahead. That was the last day for William Minnix of La Pine and other advocates under the banner of Oregon for the People to deliver at least 292,933 valid petition signatures supporting the recall of Gov. Tina Kotek., to qualify for a spot on the ballot. They hadn't delivered any signatures to the Oregon Secretary of...
The Oregon Legislature, dominated as it is by the two major parties, often has been a burial ground for efforts to change the dynamics of the parties’ clout. The initiative process is a more open pathway, the more so since there are more non-aligned voters in Oregon than there are either Republicans or Democrats, not to mention the sizable number in minor parties. And those many non-major party voters may jump at the chance to take a meaningful role in an important part of the process of s...
It's that season again. No, I'm not talking about back-to-school season, holiday season or fall leaves. We're now into health insurance choice season, which affects a lot of Americans, but referring here specifically to the Medicare side. It's the time of year when people can change their coverage. What's most important in that area this year is, do you have a choice? In Oregon - as in many other states - the quality of your health insurance coverage may change from this year to next. As...
If you want to find out who all of Oregon's registered voters are, where they live, the party if any they're associated with, which recent elections they voted in, and more, you can easily get that information. All you have to do is send a request and pay a fee - the amounts are not extravagant - to the Oregon Secretary of State's Office. Usually within a few days they will send that data, generally in the form of emailed spreadsheet. It's an easy process, long has been available in Oregon (as...
An Oregon Legislature hung up this season over state finances might in the next regular session, in theory, find some interest in a provocative idea from the Oregon Center for Public Policy: Require reporting, in open public record, more information about finances among the larger corporations doing business in Oregon, mainly concerning the calculation of taxes paid and benefits received. Such a concept is going nowhere any time soon on the national level. In 2021, Congress passed the Corporate...
The opening of candidate filing last week brought on a fresh season of hope, of minorities to become majorities, of majorities to expand their reach, of incumbents to hang on for another term. Put in the context of other elections in recent times, you shouldn't expect the 2026 election to fulfill extravagant hopes, from any point of view. Generations ago, changes of a large number of legislative seats in a single election was common, but that has become a rarity. What recent elections tell us...
In his 1852 novel "Bleak House," set in a grimy, smoggy and hidebound London of the 1830s, Charles Dickens took on on a problem unresolved and worsened two centuries after: The interminable legal case. His particular (fictional) target was the civil lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a battle over conflicting wills that in turn seemed to last beyond the grave: "This scarecrow of a suit has, over the course of time, become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means. ... Innumerable...
If Oregon has a "brand," protection of its environment has to be integral to it. Probably no political figure in the state's history more represents it to the rest of the world than former Republican Gov. Tom McCall, the champion of pioneering Oregon laws that kept beaches publicly owned, charged deposits on bottles and cans to reduce litter and blocked cities from sprawling. More than for anything else, McCall is known for his crusades - not always perfect but often effective - to protect the...
