Sen. Boquist: They’re blocking us lawmakers from protesting

By Oregon State Senator Brian Boquist,
Highlights, excerpts from Sen. Boquist newsletter

— Initiative petition 14 has qualified for the November ballot by the Secretary of State with over 154,000 valid signatures. It blocks legislators from seeking re-election if they have 10 or more unexcused absences in a particular session. This is the super majority Democrats’ attempt to stop Republicans from denying quorum. “Quorum” is the number of legislators that need to be present to hold a vote on legislation. If this measure succeeds in Fall 2022, it will eliminate a tool used to defend hard-working Oregonians from super majority rule.  In 2019 and 2020 when Oregon Senate Republicans, and later House Republicans, denied quorum and successfully prevented cap and trade, a special interest money grab that put Portland’s carbon emissions problem on the backs of rural Oregonians. Gov. Kate Brown sent law enforcement after the Senate Republicans when they denied quorum. At the time, thousands of Oregonians gathered at the Oregon State Capitol to stage their own demonstrations against cap and trade while Republican lawmakers were protesting from afar. Nevertheless, with super majority control, Gov. Brown signed the cap and trade bill into law via executive order in 2020, just ONE day before the government-forced shutdown for COVID.  Remember, if legislative protests become illegal, Oregonians have no protection from the super majority party. Super majority rulers do not want to legislate; they want to rule.

— A Multnomah County committee has recently approved an amendment to the county’s charter to allow non-American citizens to vote in local elections.

— Oregon mom challenges statewide rule for tampons in the boys’ bathrooms. The state is spending money on biologically inaccurate political statements, rather than school supplies and staff for special education classes.

— Rural Oregon counties are against unregulated psilocybin launch. With the legalization of hard drugs in the state, Oregonians are struggling. Fentanyl-driven overdoses have increased. The Oregonian reports, “[OHA] found that unintentional or undetermined fentanyl overdose deaths increased from 71 in 2019 to 509 in 2021, about 617%. In the same period, unintentional or undetermined overdose deaths from all drugs more than doubled, increasing from 496 in 2019 to 1,072 in 2021.”

— Just in time for the election, media and insiders are turning on leftist Multnomah County DA who was protected during the 2020 catch-and-release criminal treatment that ignored victims. WWeek reports a senior employee of the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office has left a scathing resignation letter for Mike Schmidt on her way out the door.

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