By PETER WONG/Oregon Capital Bureau
Rep. Janelle Bynum of Clackamas has declared she will seek to wrest the House speakership from Tina Kotek, the Portland Democrat who has held the job for the past eight years.
Bynum was just reelected to her third term from District 51, which covers parts of Clackamas and Multnomah counties.
Kotek was reelected to her eighth term from District 44 in North and Northeast Portland.
Along with the Senate president, the House speaker is one of the two most influential figures in the Oregon Legislature. The presiding officers control the flow of legislation through their appointment of committee members and leaders and the assignment of bills to committees.
The 37 Democratic representatives in the newly elected House are scheduled to meet in closed session Monday to choose their nominee for speaker and other party caucus leaders.
The 23 Republicans already chose Rep. Christine Drazan of Canby for another cycle. Drazan ousted outgoing Rep. Carl Wilson of Grants Pass as party leader during the 2019 session.
The choice of the majority party usually prevails when the House elects its speaker on opening day, which is Jan. 11.
If Bynum succeeds in her quest, she would be the first woman of color to hold the speakership in Oregon history.
Her statement, which she issued Monday, Nov. 9, said in part: “Transparency, diversity of thought and simplicity are my core values as a legislator and leader. Every day I bring these principles to life in both my words and deeds. Now, more than ever before, our state needs a leader who listens to the electorate, leads by empowering her colleagues and understands both the social and financial implications of policies so important to Oregonians.”
Bynum and her husband, Mark, own four restaurants in the Portland area, including McDonald’s franchises. She earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1996 from Florida A&M University and a master’s in business administration in 2000 from the University of Michigan. She is the current chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Along with Sen. James Manning, D-Eugene, she is co-chair of the Legislature’s joint committee looking at change in police practices.
Kotek became House Democratic leader at the close of the 2011 session, and after Democrats broke a 30-30 tie with a net gain of four seats in the 2012 elections, she became House speaker. She was the first open lesbian to lead a state legislative chamber in the nation; three gay men have done so. Kotek is Oregon’s longest-serving House speaker. She surpassed Democrat Vera Katz’s three terms in 2019-20.