Oregon
How tech and the great outdoors transformed Oregon and the fight for the White House
Karen and Steve Packer have been completed with California.
The crowds, the site visitors. It got here to a head round Labor Day greater than a era in the past, on a weekend getaway to Twentynine Palms. Round midnight, the couple’s quiet was invaded by a rowdy group of motorcyclists who pulled in close to their campsite, music blasting.
The Packers started job searching, which led them from Irvine to the rising tech trade simply exterior Portland. For the 2 natives of the Northwest, the transfer to Oregon felt like going dwelling.
It additionally put the couple on the vanguard of political change.
Washington County, the place the 2 landed, was agricultural and solidly Republican. In the present day, fields that after sprouted wheat and barley are dwelling to sprawling company campuses, acres of upscale subdivisions and an inflow of Democrats just like the Packers, who arrived in Beaverton within the early Eighties and helped flip Oregon into one of many nation’s most reliably blue states.
For a lot of its historical past, the West was Republican floor. In the present day, it’s a bastion of Democratic help, a shift that has remodeled presidential politics nationwide. Mark Z. Barabak will discover the forces that remade the political map in a collection of columns known as “The New West.”
In 2020, Joe Biden carried Oregon by 17 factors, extending a string of double-digit Democratic presidential victories that began in 2008. He gained Washington County with practically 66% of the vote.
The change is a part of a a lot bigger political shift.
Over the past 20 years, the West has gone from a Republican stronghold — the ancestral dwelling of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, the anti-federal Sagebrush Revolt — right into a bastion of Democratic help.
The transformation has remade the nation’s political map and reshaped the battle for the White Home, serving to Democrats win three of the final 4 presidential elections and offsetting the drift of sure states — Florida, Missouri, Iowa amongst them — towards the GOP.
“It’s given us a brand new path to a majority,” mentioned Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist whose work constructing help amongst Latinos and younger voters helped deliver concerning the realignment.
On this collection, known as “The New West,” I’m exploring the components behind that change. A few of these circumstances have been seen all through the area, from the Pacific Coast throughout the desert Southwest and into the Rocky Mountains.
The hard-right flip of the Republican Social gathering, particularly on social points resembling abortion, alienated many adherents of the West’s live-and-let-live ethos. The rise of Donald Trump sapped the GOP’s backing amongst suburban, feminine and impartial voters. The rising Latino inhabitants and its elevated political engagement lifted Democrats on the poll field.
In Oregon, economics additionally performed a big function, because the state’s historic reliance on extractive industries — chief amongst them logging — dwindled and high-tech boomed.
Bodily health, the state’s secular faith, and the lure of forest, mountain and stream spawned thriving industries, as enterprise leaders and entrepreneurs got here to see Oregon’s ample wilds as a spot to play slightly than simply make a residing.
“Employment patterns have political penalties,” mentioned Invoice Lunch, an emeritus political science professor at Oregon State, and people patterns have solidified Oregon’s blue hue.
Nike, headquartered in Beaverton, is a part of a thriving trade based mostly on bodily health and a love of Oregon’s nice outside.
(Natalie Behring / Getty Photos)
The mixture of pure magnificence and companies like large chipmaker Intel, Nike and Columbia Sportswear have drawn a sure type of migrant to Oregon: well-educated, environmentally acutely aware and Democratic-leaning.
Bend, as soon as a played-out timber city, is now a burgeoning mecca of outside sports activities. It has turn into one of many nation’s fastest-growing cities and a magnet for energetic retirees — and Democrats — like Bryan Eicchorn, 61, an ardent skier and mountain biker.
“I nonetheless assume Biden is unbelievable,” mentioned the previous College of Maryland chemistry professor, who — regardless of concern concerning the president’s age —plans to dig out his 2020 marketing campaign signal and plant it again in his frontyard.
As lately as 2004, Oregon was seen as a presidential swing state.
4 years earlier, Democrat Al Gore squeaked previous Republican George W. Bush right here by simply 0.4%, or fewer than 7,000 votes out of greater than 1.5 million forged. (Bush was helped by the presence of Ralph Nader, whose 5% Inexperienced Social gathering exhibiting was certainly one of his greatest within the nation.)
Democrat Al Gore, making a vice presidential look in Hillsboro in 1998, barely edged Republican George W. Bush in Oregon’s 2000 presidential election.
(Greg Wahl-Stephens / Related Press)
Alarmed, Democratic forces spent the subsequent a number of years signing up tens of hundreds of supporters, laying the groundwork for a classy registration and get-out-the-vote operation that’s nonetheless working at the moment.
“We have been going wherever we may discover a bunch of comparatively progressive of us,” recalled Kevin Looper, who led the trouble funded by organized labor and the left-leaning billionaire George Soros. “We have been elevating a flag and holding a pen” so apathetic or rare voters may register — then be prodded to drop their ballots within the mail.
(In 2000, Oregon grew to become the primary state within the nation to permit voting by mail in presidential contests, a system that significantly enhanced efforts to focus on and observe voters.)
On the similar time, the picture of the GOP was altering.
Oregon has a protracted historical past of average Republicanism, a hand-me-down from these New England settlers who introduced place names like Salem and Portland. For many years, politicians like Tom McCall, Mark Hatfield and Bob Packwood embodied that Yankee Republican sensibility. They have been fiscally prudent, environmentally delicate and never terribly targeted on social points.
“Employment patterns have political penalties.”
— Invoice Lunch, emeritus political science professor at Oregon State College
However simply because the nationwide celebration grew extra socially conservative and religiously oriented, the Oregon GOP veered sharply away from the middle.
The 1990 election was pivotal.
The Republican nominee for governor was Dave Frohnmayer, the state’s average legal professional normal, who misplaced in good half as a result of an antiabortion impartial, Al Mobley, reduce deeply into his help. Although Mobley was little greater than a spoiler, his marketing campaign signaled the course the GOP was headed.
In the identical election, voters narrowly handed a measure that basically modified Oregon’s property tax and public college techniques. Faculty funding largely shifted from the native to the state stage, serving to Democrats politically because the celebration got here to be seen as extra supportive of lecturers and schooling, a key to the rising high-tech financial system.
Training had been a giant a part of Bush’s enchantment within the 2000 presidential contest, when he promised to dramatically increase federal spending to enhance faculties nationwide.
“He was working as a distinct type of Republican,” mentioned Dan Lavey, a political strategist who labored that yr on Bush’s Oregon marketing campaign. After Sept. 11, Lavey famous, Bush’s emphasis shifted: “Profitable a warfare on terror changed profitable a warfare on closing the achievement hole.”
Then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, campaigning at an elementary college in Beaverton, made schooling a spotlight of his 2000 presidential marketing campaign. However 9/11 would make the warfare on terrorism his precedence in workplace, alienating some who had voted for him.
(Tannen Maury /AFP by way of Getty Photos)
The invasion of Iraq, undertaken after the terrorist assaults, soured many on the Republican president.
It drew Karen and Steve Packer, the couple who had moved from Irvine, off the political sidelines.
The Packers, now of their 70s and residing in Washington County’s wine nation, had labored for Eugene McCarthy’s anti-Vietnam Warfare marketing campaign and for Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern. However they hadn’t been politically energetic for a very long time. Sad with Bush, they began attending Democratic Social gathering conferences.
The gatherings have been small, perhaps 30 or so folks.
“What I name the latent grassroots activists weren’t doing a lot,” Karen Packer mentioned. However attendance grew as extra Democrats realized they weren’t alone.
Packer, whose background was in advertising and public relations, ultimately grew to become the celebration’s county chair. Her husband used his programming expertise to construct an area outreach and get-out-the-vote operation.
In 2004, Democrat John F. Kerry beat Bush in Oregon, 51% to 47%, carrying Washington County by a barely greater margin.
That was the final time a presidential election within the state was remotely shut.
Like elsewhere, the political cut up in Oregon is basically an urban-rural divide.
That’s been a boon for Democrats as cities and suburbs swell and rural communities — a stronghold of Republican help — steadily shrink.
In 1990, concerning the time tech jobs within the state surpassed jobs within the forest trade, roughly 3 in 10 residents lived in rural Oregon. In the present day, that quantity is round 2 in 10.
“The issue is, for Republicans, it doesn’t do a whole lot of good to take your vote from 70% to 75% in counties which have 3,000 votes if you’re going from 50% to 35% in counties which have 400,000 votes,” mentioned Tim Hibbitts, a retired pollster who spent many years sampling public opinion in Oregon.
Bend, as soon as a dependable Republican outpost, reveals how financial change has eroded GOP help even within the state’s rural reaches.
The Deschutes River is the scenic coronary heart of Bend. The previous timber city was a GOP outpost, however at the moment the rising metropolis’s registered Democrats outnumber Republicans.
(George Rose / Getty Photos)
The previous lumber city, a hop east from the Cascade Mountains, is a mannequin of profitable reinvention.
An outdated mill on the Deschutes River is now an REI retailer, which anchors a thriving buying and leisure district. The river, as soon as choked with timber, is full of paddle boarders, surfers (using artificially created waves) and households and mates having fun with a scenic float.
The inhabitants has quadrupled for the reason that early Nineties to greater than 100,000, with many newcomers arriving lately from blue California — so it’s no shock that in 2020, Biden grew to become the primary Democratic presidential candidate to hold Deschutes County, Bend’s dwelling, since Lyndon Johnson.
One Biden voter was Ed Murrer, a semiretired enterprise guide, who moved from Northern California to Bend in 2017, partly to indulge extra typically within the mountain climbing, biking, snowboarding and fishing that he loves.
Though politically unaffiliated, Murrer, 73, tends to lean extra Democratic than Republican.
He can’t stand Trump — “some of the despicable folks I ever knew about” — and has no use for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who runs second to Trump in Republican desire polls for 2024. “A man who’s banning books,” Murrer scoffed. “His values are usually not my values.”
Murrer shouldn’t be significantly wild about Biden and would like to see a Republican like Adam Kinzinger, the previous Illinois congressman who has taken on GOP extremists, carry the celebration’s commonplace in 2024. However that’s onerous to think about, and if the nominee is Trump or DeSantis, Murrer will help Biden’s reelection — as a means, he mentioned, to protect democracy.
And thus, as soon as extra, assist coloration this woodsy slice of the West a definitive shade of blue.
What to know about Oregon’s short, long legislative sessions
What is the difference between Oregon’s short and long legislative sessions?
Oregon Democrats are renewing their effort to pass legislation requiring employers to include wage and benefit information in job listings and aiming to increase pay transparency and equity in the hiring process.
The bill, House Bill 2746, had its first public hearing on Monday and testimony continued Wednesday afternoon.
“This bill is critical for ensuring that Oregon remains an equitable place to live and work,” bill sponsor and Senate Majority Leader Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, said. “Despite our pay equity laws, significant wage gaps for minority communities exist.”
What the bill would require of employers
The bill would require internal or external job postings, and transfer or promotion opportunities, to include wage or wage range information and a general description of benefits and other compensation details. Failing to do so would become an “unlawful practice” that could result in a letter of education or fines up to $10,000 for repeat violations.
The bill establishes a one-year statute of limitations for people to file a complaint with the Bureau of Labor and Industries.
Fourteen other states have introduced similar legislation in recent years. As of 2021, Colorado has required employers to include compensation information in job postings. New York, California, Maryland, Connecticut, Nevada and Rhode Island also have pay transparency laws.
Washington enacted a salary disclosure law in 2022.
Oregon lawmakers last attempted to pass a similar bill in 2023, but the bill died in committee before the session ended. Jama said HB 2746 this legislative session reflected changes and compromises made after discussions with various stakeholders.
Vasu Reddy, director of State Policy for Workplace Justice at the National Women’s Law Center, said the bill would combat gender and racial wage gaps by countering “unintentional biases and structural problems” that can lead to discrimination in previous jobs being carried over to the next.
Reddy said the bill would also help attract top talent to Oregon and ultimately save money and time during job recruitment.
Opponents refer to law as redundant, burdensome
Business associations oppose the measure again this session, saying the bill would disproportionately affect small businesses and that it is redundant with existing state law.
“While the bill may be intended to promote transparency, instead it creates an unnecessary, potentially costly and burdensome state mandate on small businesses,” said Anthony Smith, Oregon director for the National Federation of Independent Business. “There are already significant federal and state standards that explicitly prohibit wage discrimination.”
Smith said members are “nervous” about the idea that getting something wrong on a job listing could lead to penalties of up to $10,000.
Oregon Business and Industry, a statewide business association representing more than 1,600 members, also opposes the measure. Paloma Sparks, executive vice president and general counsel for OBI, said the bill was duplicative of existing law and was an example of the “proliferation” of new employment laws being passed by the Oregon Legislature that have affected the Bureau of Labor and Industries and state businesses.
In an informational meeting on Feb. 24, BOLI Commissioner Christina Stephenson told lawmakers at least 74 laws have been passed in the past decade impacting BOLI’s workload. Only 10 of those policy changes came with resources to enforce those laws, she said.
Sparks also said that in Washington state, the updated law resulted in a new legal “cottage industry” that goes after employers. According to the Seattle Times, one law firm in Washington has filed the majority of more than 250 lawsuits against Washington businesses that may have violated the transparency statute.
Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on X @DianneLugo
Oregon
Oregon (OSAA) 6A boys basketball playoffs, Round 1 scores, recap: Central Catholic opens with big win
Defending Class 6A boys basketball champion Central Catholic continued its title defense Wednesday night by breezing past Tigard 74-42 in the first round of the OSAA state playoffs in Southeast Portland.
Isaac Carr led the third-seeded Rams (18-7) with 17 points, Duke Paschal added 16, and the hosts outscored the Tigers 28-2 in the second quarter to build a 46-11 halftime lead.
Carter Lockhart came off the bench to hit four 3-pointers and score 14 for Central Catholic, which got to rest its starters in the fourth quarter in anticipation of its second-round game Saturday against Grant.
Colt Ness led Tigard (11-14) with 11 points.
Jalen Atkins led four Bruins scorers in double figures with 26 points and five assists, and Mason Bierbrauer added 19 points and six assists as Barlow (22-3) cruised to the first-round win in Gresham.
Brayden Barron had a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Maddyn Cummings chipped in 14 points and five assists.
RJ Barhoum scored a game-high 32 points, and Andrew Marcoe made a big 3-pointer to end the third quarter that helped the Cavaliers (15-10) to the road win.
Clackamas coach Ryan King praised Marcoe’s defense and called his team’s effort “a great team win for us.” Max Martinov added 14 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and Sean Baker had 12 points.
Gylan Payne exploded in the second half, scoring 22 of his game-high 28 points after halftime to help the Pioneers (18-6) keep the Apollos (12-13) at bay after building a 36-23 lead through two quarters.
Connor Lemmon scored all 16 of his points in the first half for Oregon City, which is seeking its first quarterfinal berth since 2019.
Shay Thompson led Sunset with 21 points. Matthew Lohman added 12.
Braxton Long had 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting and dished out 12 assists for the Olympians (21-4), which last advanced to the main tournament site in 1997.
Anthony Best added 20 points and Dukatti Witherspoon had 11 points and nine rebounds for Sprague.
Jeessley Bukeyeneza led the Jaguars (15-10) with 20 points and eight assists, and Islam Muzaffarov added 18 points and 10 rebounds.
The Skyhawks (21-5) jumped out to a 19-5 lead in the first quarter and never looked back in the first-round win in Southwest Beaverton.
Elijah Thompson led four scorers in double figures with 16 points for Southridge, which led 39-19 at halftime. Drew Groenig added 15 points, Keenan Reckamp scored 14, and Alonzo Hoff had 13.
Peyton Bruner led the Cavemen (11-14) with 13 points, with Jordan Rossetta scoring 12.
Freshman Jonah Munns scored a game-high 26 points, and the Titans (14-11) used a suffocating 2-3 zone to hold the Astros (14-11) to a season low in points.
Tyler Hawkins added 16 points for West Salem, which led by 18 at halftime and 26 after three quarters. The Titans are one win from ending a seven-year absence from the main tournament site.
Brody Rygh scored 10 of his game-high 27 points in the first quarter, helping the Bowmen (21-5) build a 17-6 lead en route to beating the Axe (14-11).
Rygh’s corner 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer pushed the lead back to 11, and Sherwood opened the second half with a 9-0 run to take a 40-20 lead. South Eugene cut the deficit to 10 before the Bowmen fully took control.
Avery Johnson added 14 points and Connor Parry had 12 for Sherwood.
Levi Hawes led South Eugene with 18 points, and Elijah Gabriel scored 15.
The Lions (20-5) pulled away from a 33-25 halftime lead to advance to the second round.
Junior Keion James’ putback of an airball at the buzzer completed the Generals’ fourth-quarter comeback against the Mavericks in Northeast Portland.
Freshman Malik Mason scored nine of his team-high 14 points in the final quarter as Grant (20-6) erased a 46-34 deficit. Classmate Jacob Harper-Grant made four free throws in the final minute to propel the comeback.
Eli Vizconde scored a game-high 18 points for Mountainside (11-14). Rogen Brown added 13.
Pat Kilfoil and Ryan Fraser had 17 points apiece and combined to make five 3-pointers in the second quarter, when the Crusaders (16-10) outscored the visiting Gophers 28-10 to build a 47-28 halftime lead.
Kilfoil added five assists and five rebounds. Isaac Bongen added 15 points for Jesuit, Joe Stimpson had 10 points and nine assists, and Grady Keljo grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
Khaled Artharee led Gresham (10-15) with 14 points, and Jeremiah Pichon added 11.
Braylon Gaines had a game-high 38 points, Ahshua Neal added 14, and Jaiden Pickett scored 11 as the Hawks (21-5) moved within one win of their first trip to the Chiles Center by defeating the Lakers in Happy Valley.
Robbie Durbin made seven 3-pointers to lead Lake Oswego (9-16) with 24 points. Liam Rigney added 19.
James Kefgen scored 13 of his game-high 24 points in the second quarter as the Wildcats (20-5) built a 36-21 halftime lead en route to the first-round home win.
Jacob Epstein added 10 points, Kai Russell had eight points and six assists, and Dayton Jenkins grabbed eight rebounds for Westview.
Sean McCarty led the Pacers (9-16) with 11 points.
Adrian Montague scored 10 of his 23 points in the decisive third quarter as the Roughriders (20-6), who finished second at the state tournament last year, took down the visiting Black Tornado (14-11).
Roosevelt used an 8-0 run midway through the second quarter to take the lead for good, eventually leading 38-30 at halftime. The hosts opened the third on a 20-2 run to push the lead to 58-32.
Syrius Owens added 22 points and 10 rebounds for Roosevelt. Omar Eno added 16 points, eight rebounds, four steals and three blocks, and Owen Nathan battled foul trouble but still had 13 assists and four steals.
Easton Curtis made six 3-pointers to lead North Medford with 19 points. Dylan Scott added 13.
Teagan Scott had 30 points and Tko Westbrook added 22 to lead the Saxons (13-12) to a road win against the Southwest Conference champion Irish (20-6).
Nathan Sheley led Sheldon with 12 points, and Rocco Graziano added 10.
Jemai Lake had 32 points, and the Timberwolves (20-5) overcame a career night from Pioneers senior Jacob Brown to reach the second round.
Brown scored a game-high 35 points and Hayden Harding added 12 for Sandy (10-16).
Pat Vialva Jr. had 14 points and Javier Diaz scored 10 for Tualatin.
Saturday, March 8
Barlow High School
Saturday, March 8
Sprague High School
Saturday, March 8
Southridge High School
Saturday, March 8
West Linn High School
Saturday, March 8
Central Catholic High School
Saturday, March 8
Nelson High School
Saturday, March 8
Westview High School
Saturday, March 8
Tualatin High School
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The Umatilla County Courthouse in Pendleton, Ore.
Antonio Sierra / OPB
Oregon lawmakers are considering softening a 45-year-old statewide ban to allow nuclear power in Umatilla County. The legislation has the backing of the county government, while tribal leaders are opposed.
House Bill 2410 received its first public hearing in front of the House Committee on Climate, Energy and Environment last week. Oregon voters effectively banned all new nuclear energy facilities in 1980, but the bill would create a carve out so that Umatilla County could start a small modular nuclear reactor pilot project.
State Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, is one of the bill’s chief sponsors, and although the legislation is mostly backed by Republicans, it’s picked up a couple of Democratic supporters. State Rep. Emerson Levy, D-Bend, told the committee why she was backing the bill.
“With AI on our phones, that consumes an incredible amount of energy,” she said, “We need to make sure we have a clean way to address these long term energy needs.”
Testimony poured in from across Oregon and the Northwest, with both supporters and detractors making familiar arguments.
Proponents said small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs, are a promising piece of technology that would allow utilities to harness a massive amount of reliable, low-carbon energy without the development costs that come with traditional reactors. They argued the smaller size of SMRs negates much of the meltdown risk associated with larger reactors, and waste they produce can be safely stored out of harm’s way. SMRs are being championed by Amazon, which wants to build several in southeastern Washington to power Eastern Oregon data centers.
Opponents of the bill said nuclear waste remains a real threat to public health and the environment, especially because the U.S. still doesn’t have a national repository for spent nuclear material. They added that SMRs are more wishful thinking than a proven technology, with previous projects coming in over budget and underperforming.
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is one the bill’s opponents. Board of Trustees member Lisa Ganuelas pointed to the Hanford Site in southeast Washington, a former plutonium manufacturing facility that remains heavily polluted decades later.
“CTUIR knows from previous experience that nuclear waste is a burden that will be with us for millennia and unless and until a specific repository is selected, that it is almost certain that any newly generated nuclear waste will stay in Umatilla County and within CTUIR ceded lands indefinitely,” she said.
Cathy Sampson-Kruse, a CTUIR member and a longtime critic of nuclear energy, brought historical pictures of the tribes and said there was a long history of the tribal government not being involved in the decision making process.
“We hear the talk behind closed doors that do not consult us – tribes, treaties and the trust responsibilities,” she said. “It really disheartens us as a people.”
Other locals from Eastern Oregon wrote testimony opposing the bill over environmental and quality of life concerns. Pendleton resident Jennifer Abney name-checked Amazon in her opposition.
“I don’t want a nuclear plant in my backyard, nor Amazon using more of our water … Please listen to the voters,” she wrote. “An oligarch should not be able to bypass the law, nor should the counties.”
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