Tina Kotek will be Oregon’s next governor and is an immediate contender for most radically left-wing governor in America. As Democratic Speaker of the Oregon House she led the legislative campaign that followed antifa’s 2020 siege of Portland like an occupying army follows an invasion, passing a host of progressive police reforms in the shock and awe of the moment. Kotek allied with BLM rioters against Portland police while the fight was still on, writing to Mayor Wheeler to denounce the use of tear gas to disperse a crowd attacking a police station:
What needed to be protected last night? An empty office building? Was this need more important than the health of neighbors, of children in a neighborhood, of people returning home from work? The declaration of an ‘unlawful assembly’ did not seem warranted. The declaration of a ‘riot’ was an abuse of the statute. Therefore, the ensuing actions by the PPB were unlawful.
The police union chief wrote back that there were in fact people in the building. Tina persisted, and as police and rioters were still meeting nightly on the streets of downtown Portland Kotek led the passage of a law limiting their use of tear gas and other riot control measures.
Despite the public mood turning back toward law and order, she edged out Republican Christine Drazan in a race that would not have been close but for the presence of a liberal Democrat spoiler. Nike founder Phil Knight was her most prominent opponent, donating millions to her two opponents citing crime as his motivation.
Kotek has vowed to focus on homelessness, which will mean “bold land use reform” repealing zoning laws limiting duplexes, apartments, low income housing and the like in more suburban neighborhoods. Real estate developers will thrive and a good deal of money will be transferred through various programs to “the BIPOC community” as they share in any boom.
Voters passed a gun control measure requiring state police background checks to purchase and permits expiring every five years to own a gun, and limiting sale of magazines to ten rounds. Some county sheriffs have said they won’t enforce it. The law will face legal challenges.
Trump endorsed ex-CIA candidate Joe Kent has lost in a red Washington state district by a few thousand votes after having displacing the establishment Republican in the primary who would have likely carried the seat.
Illegals will not vote in elections after legal voters shot down a Multnomah County charter amendment that would have allowed it. The law might have not made it past legal challenges; a similar rule by New York Mayor Eric Adams was overturned. A few municipalities in other parts of the country seem to be getting away with it though.
Free at last! Slavery is officially illegal in Oregon after voters approved Measure 112 removing language allowing slavery and involuntary servitude from the state constitution. The language is in the original section establishing Oregon as a free state outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude except for as criminal punishment. Oregon outlawed the migration of Blacks! into Oregon along with their importation as slaves in its original constitution and at least one proponent approved of the rule as a means of keeping out undesirables. Despite the anarchist refrain that this demonstrates the Deep Roots of White Supremacy here, there are two recorded instances of the law being enforced before becoming a dead letter due to a lack of support–and probably due to the low level of Black! in-migration. Now opponents of White Supremacy can point to the fact the measure didn’t get anywhere near the North Korean levels of support it demanded (I voted no, as I imagine many did, to oppose the excess and mentality behind the gesture–one gesture deserves another):
Oregon voters approved a change to the state’s constitution, stripping language that for more than a century has allowed for slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. As of Thursday morning, 55% of voters were backing Measure 112, unofficial results show.
And for many, that’s disturbingly close.
“Removing language referencing slavery from the Oregon Constitution is a good thing and is long over due,” said Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, who won election Tuesday as state’s first Black, openly LGBTQIA+ lawmaker.
Yet, more than 686,000 Oregonians, or about 45% who voted on the measure, opted to keep slavery and involuntary servitude a lawful punishment for people convicted of crimes.
“It’s a big number,” Nelson said. “That’s troubling to me.”
Oregon passed a law in 1994 requiring prisoners to work 40 hours a week to pay for their incarceration along with Measure 11, establishing mandatory minimum sentences. Progressive legislators led by our next governor failed to repeal Measure 11 in 2020. Apparently the work policy remains in place (convicts can meet twenty hours of the requirement attending classes). Naturally police abolitionists call this slavery; I can’t find what the convicts are paid. Currently for some programs the Oregon Department of Corrections pays prisoners in Oregon the federal minimum wage with time and a half for anything over 40 hours a week. The slavery-language measure will have no effect on policy but is still tied in with the issue of prison labor by the left.
Portland will revamp its government.
Radical leader and city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty lost to establishment candidate Rene Gonzalez.
Vague and unfunded Measure 111 amending the Oregon Constitution to declare health care “a fundamental right” and requiring the state provide it to the poor and disabled is narrowly behind at the moment [update: the measure has passed]. Oregon already offers a healthcare plan for low income residents.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Greater Idaho movement has made headway after two Eastern Oregon counties voted to move the state lines for Oregon conservatives who want to live in Idaho, which is a red state.
During Tuesday’s midterm election, 60% of Morrow County voters said “yes” to county measure 25-88 to move the county to Idaho. In Wheeler County, 58.15% of voters also said “yes” to measure 35-29 to move the Idaho border.City of Portland holds press conference as charter reform approval leads
The Greater Idaho movement reports that 11 of the 15 Oregon counties that would be moved to Idaho have voted in support of adjusting the state lines.
Oregon Democrats will not have a veto-proof majority but will likely retain the “trifecta” of majorities in both houses of the legislature and the governorship. The state will remain on its course.
untethered 