It was an Oregon Supreme Court decision that made me ever so happy.
Yesterday the court ruled unanimously that a ballot measure passed by voters in 2022 meant that ten Republicans in the state Senate can't run for re-election because they walked out of the 2023 legislative session for ten days.
An Oregon Capital Chronicle story describes the decision.
Republican senators who participated last year in the longest walkout in state history cannot seek reelection in 2024 or 2026, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
In a unanimous decision, the court rejected arguments from five Republican senators that Measure 113, a voter-approved 2022 law meant to dissuade lawmakers from walking out and shutting down the legislative process, was poorly worded and would give them another term in office. Instead, the court agreed with state attorneys, who urged justices to consider voters’ intent with the 2022 law, which bars any lawmaker with 10 or more unexcused absences from serving another term.
“Because the text is capable of supporting the secretary’s interpretation, and considering the clear import of the ballot title and explanatory statement in this case, we agree with the secretary that voters would have understood the amendment to mean that a legislator with 10 or more unexcused absences during a legislative session would be disqualified from holding legislative office during the immediate next term, rather than the term after that,” the ruling said.
The ruling means 10 Republican senators – one-third of the Senate – are ineligible for reelection. Two of the 10, Sens. Bill Hansell of Athena and Lynn Findley of Vale, already planned to retire. Four others – Sens. Daniel Bonham of The Dalles, Cedric Hayden of Fall Creek, Kim Thatcher of Keizer and Suzanne Weber of Tillamook – were elected to four-year terms in 2022 and will serve until January 2027.
And four, including Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, must end their Senate careers – at least temporarily – in January. Knopp and Sens. Brian Boquist of Dallas, Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls and Art Robinson of Cave Junction all tried to file for reelection last year and were waiting on the outcome of the court case.
Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for Republicans in the Oregon legislature.
You were elected to be part of representative democracy. That's your political job. If you don't feel like doing it, you should resign and let someone serve who actually wants to fulfill their duty to the constituents who voted them in.
Walking out when you can't get your way because Republicans are the minority party in both the state House and Senate is akin to an adult temper tantrum. Childish. Immature. Deserving of a time out. Which is exactly what the ten Republicans who can't run again deserve, and what they're getting.
Astoundingly, Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, one of the walkouts who can't run again in 2024, said on Wednesday in another Oregon Capital Chronicle story that if the Supreme Court doesn't rule in favor of them, Republicans might stage another walkout in the short legislative session that begins next week.
Knopp, who led the walkout, said Wednesday he thinks Republicans will win regardless of how the court rules: Either Republicans will get to run for reelection, or Democrats will need to provide incentives for lame-duck Republican senators to attend floor sessions. He made his comments during a session preview event hosted by the Oregon Legislative Correspondents Association.
“If the court sides with us, it’s a clear victory,” Knopp said. “If it doesn’t, I think we still win because our members literally have no reason to show up, and so in order for them to show up, they’re going to want to see that they’re going to be able to make a difference.”
Democrats, who hold 17 seats in the state Senate, need at least three Republicans to attend each day of the legislative session to meet the Legislature’s two-thirds quorum requirement. Otherwise, they can’t pass a single bill.
That gives Republicans in the Senate – and the House, where Republicans control 25 of 60 seats – leverage to scuttle Democratic proposals by refusing to participate in the month-long legislative session that begins Monday. The session will focus on spurring housing production, something Republicans and Democrats largely agree on as a priority, but also on responding to the state’s addiction crisis and tweaking a voter-approved drug decriminalization law.
So we'll see. Will Republicans show up to do their job, or will they act like a three-year-old who cries and screams because she didn't eat her dinner but wants dessert nonetheless?
I'm hoping they'll do their job. But if I were to bet, I'd put money on the temper tantrum.
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