This November, voters will have a chance to speak up about state representatives walking away from their responsibilities.
Walkouts by the minority party – often the Republicans of late – have become increasingly common as a means of preventing the state from moving forward on bills one party does not support. Oregon has one of the strictest laws concerning quorums, requiring at least two-thirds of the House to be present before they can conduct business. This means that of the 60 state districts, at least 40 representatives must be present for any work to be done.
Aside from 2010 when the chamber was evenly divided between parties, the Democratic Party has held a majority of the House since 2006. They currently have a 37-to-23 majority. Therefore, the vote on measures generally favors the Democrats. This led to Republicans in 2019 and 2020 leaving the state as a means of stopping bills they don’t want to see pass – a tactic they learned from Democrats doing the same in 2001.
Democratic-leaning labor unions decided to do something about this.
A petition was filed on Dec. 12, 2020 by Andrea Kennedy-Smith of McMinnville and Reed Scott-Schwalbach of Portland, to allow them to collect signatures and make their idea an Initiative. They were required to gather 149,360 valid signatures, and they collected a total of 155,343 which were declared valid – about 84% of the total collected.
That petition is now Initiative Number 14 – also known as “Legislative Accountability 1”, and it would bar lawmakers who have 10 or more unexcused absences in a given session from running for re-election.
According to OPB, public-sector unions have spent over $1.5 million to get this measure to the hands of Oregon voters, the money going to pay people to circulate the petitions.
If approved by voters, this initiative would not disallow excused absences.
The Associate Director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union told OPB, “Oregonians just understand it on its face. You don’t show up for work without a reason and you lose your job like anyone else.”
By Sally K Lehman
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