By JULIA SHUMWAY/Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Five Republican senators and attorneys representing the state are seeking a quick resolution from the Oregon Supreme Court on the senators’ challenge to a voter-approved state law intended to block them from running for reelection after they ground the legislative session to a halt for six weeks.
Last year, voters frustrated with Republican lawmakers’ increasing reliance on quorum-blocking walkouts passed a constitutional amendment to bar any senator with more than 10 unexcused absences from serving another term. Ten conservative senators passed that point in May, and they stayed away for another month as they protested bills on abortion, transgender health care and guns.
Now, half of the affected senators are arguing that the voter-approved law wasn’t written clearly, and that they should be able to run for reelection. They sued Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade late Friday, seeking a court order that would allow them to file for reelection.
The suing senators, including Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, represent districts that span the state, from the northwest coast to the far reaches of eastern Oregon and up and down the Cascade range. Some have years of experience in the Legislature.
They filed the case with the Oregon Court of Appeals, but attorneys for the senators and state Department of Justice lawyers representing Griffin-Valade submitted a joint request to skip the appeals court and go straight to the state Supreme Court.
“A definitive ruling on the issue presented by this case is needed before the March 12, 2024, candidate filing deadline (and, ideally, far enough in advance of that deadline to give meaningful notice to candidates),” the attorneys wrote. “The filing deadline is less than seven months away; as a result, even with an expedited briefing and argument schedule there is not enough time to seek judicial review in both the Oregon Court of Appeals and Oregon Supreme Court.”
They asked for an expedited schedule before the Supreme Court, with the senators filing their first brief by Sept. 29 and all written arguments submitted by Nov. 10. Oral arguments, if they happen, should occur on or before Dec. 8, the parties requested.
Three of the Republican senators who sued – Knopp and Sens. Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls and Lynn Findley of Vale – have terms that end in January 2025. The other two, Sens. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles and Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, won’t face election until 2026 if they’re allowed to run.
Sens. Brian Boquist, I-Dallas; Bill Hansell, R-Athena, and Art Robinson, R-Cave Junction, also collected more absences than allowed and would face election in 2024. Hansell announced his retirement earlier this year and Robinson, who missed the entire 2023 legislative session for medical reasons, isn’t expected to run again. Boquist has indicated he plans to run if allowed.
The senators’ argument rests on how the court interprets the end of the single sentence voters added to the state constitution with last year’s Measure 113: “Failure to attend, without permission or excuse, 10 or more legislative floor sessions called to transact business during a regular or special legislative session shall be deemed disorderly behavior and shall disqualify the member from holding office as a senator or representative for the term following the election after the member’s current term is completed.”
Griffin-Valade, Senate President Rob Wagner and most observers interpreted that to mean lawmakers who miss 10 or more floor sessions can’t run for reelection. But because elections happen in November and legislative terms end the following January, the Republican senators contend it doesn’t apply to the next term but the one after that. That would mean Knopp, for instance, could serve another four-year term but would be barred from election in 2028 because of his absences in 2023.
The Oregon’s 13 Constitutional Defense Fund, a political action committee Knopp set up this spring to fund the senators’ legal fight, is nearly $60,000 in the hole after minimal fundraising and a $63,000 bill from Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, the Portland-based law firm representing the senators, according to state campaign finance records.
- Oregon Capital Chronicle is a nonprofit Salem-based news service that focuses its reporting on Oregon state government, politics and policy.
Previous story from Friday, Aug. 25:
By DIRK VANDERHART/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Republican state senators who walked away from this year’s Oregon legislative session to block votes on abortion rights and gun safety say they should be allowed to run for reelection next year, regardless of a voter-approved law aimed at ending their legislative careers.
Now they’re suing for that right.
In a case with weighty implications for the legislative process in Salem, five Republican senators filed suit Friday against Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade. They are Sens. Tim Knopp, Daniel Bonham, Suzanne Weber, Lynn Findley and Dennis Linthicum.
The Republican lawmakers are hoping to convince the Oregon Court of Appeals that voters were misled last November when they passed Measure 113, a law designed to end walkouts that Republicans have used repeatedly in recent years to halt business at the Capitol.
Under Measure 113, any lawmaker who accrues 10 or more unexcused absences during a legislative session is blocked from seeking reelection. The question posed by the lawsuit is when.
But the five senators say the actual verbiage inserted into the state Constitution didn’t accomplish that aim. That language says a lawmaker who runs afoul of Measure 113 cannot hold office “for the term following the election after the member’s current term is completed.”
Since elections in Oregon are held before a lawmakers term is completed — elections occur in November, whereas legislative terms don’t end until the following January — Republicans say the constitution allows them to serve another term before penalties take effect.
“Petitioners believe that the plain text of the Constitutional Amendment, and only interpretation consistent therewith, is that any disqualification must apply to the ‘term following the election after the member’s current term is complete,’” the filing says. That would mean that Knopp, Findley and Linthicum, whose terms expire next year, would be able to file for reelection this year. Bonham and Weber’s terms don’t end until 2026.
Griffin-Valade feels differently. On advice from the Oregon Department of Justice, she issued an administrative rule earlier this month that blocks lawmakers who walked out from running again. In doing so, the secretary aligned with many Democrats’ view of the matter: that voters’ intention in passing Measure 113 takes precedence over the ambiguous wording. “My decision honors the voters’ intent by enforcing the measure the way it was commonly understood when Oregonians added it to our state constitution,” Griffin-Valade said when announcing the rule.
Since the Republican lawmakers are appealing Griffin-Valade’s rule in their lawsuit, they were able to file a case directly before the Oregon Court of Appeals, rather than first filing in a lower court. Their attorney, John DiLorenzo, said Friday that attorneys for the state have agreed the case should be expedited — potentially directly to the Oregon Supreme Court.
In all, 10 conservative state senators accrued enough unexcused absences to run afoul of Measure 113 when they launched a six-week walkout to block bills on abortion and guns earlier this year. The boycott created a potential crisis in Salem, raising doubts that the Legislature would be able to pass a new budget. In the end, Republicans and Democrats struck a deal in which Republicans returned to the building in exchange for Democrats scrapping key pieces of controversial bills.
Republican lawmakers are paying handsomely for the legal challenge. A political action committee set up to fund the effort is currently listed in state filings as nearly $60,000 in the hole, after a sizeable legal bill from DiLorenzo’s firm.
I look forward to these anti-democratic Republicans being blocked from re-election for their effort to thwart the will of the majority of Oregon voters and the legislators who represent us.