Sen. Boquist: Election re-cap, media bias, more

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

— Oregon nonaffiliated voters make up more of the voting population than registered Democrats (or Republicans), so that means many Oregonians are not able to vote for primary candidates since the state has closed primaries. Nonaffiliated voters can still share their opinions for local races in the primary, but must wait for the general election to vote on Secretary of State, Treasurer, Senate or House of Representatives candidates.

— A May 13 article, published under one week from the primary election, indicated that voter turnout remained lower than previous primaries with just 7% of registered voters returning ballots at that time.

— Great podcast about Portland that isn’t run by extremists. Ramping up to the election, the city is reinstating a “protest response team” ahead of the 2024 elections. OPB reports that the unit of 40 officers will be ready to engage during this heightened and polarized election season. The last time a presidential election included Donald Trump, there were plenty of damaging protests throughout the city; punishing the residents who likely voted the same way as the protesters who didn’t like the result in 2016 and were still unhappy in 2020.

— There’s a couple noteworthy phenomenon leading up to Oregon’s primary this year. The first is the enormous participation of the Oregon lobby or special interest groups. They have poured money into their favorite candidate races during the primary when the lobby would usually save big donations for the general election. This ensures special interests are in the drivers’ seat and able to push for the candidates they like best. The other is the, as the youths would say, “pick me” mentality running rampant in the Republican party. There have been mailers that have attacked one Republican for not being “Republican enough” over another. It’s an interesting thing because in the few short years since 2020, when “Republican” was about as bad as a swear word, there’s now inter-party attack pieces about who is the more “Republican” of the options.

— Oregon Capital Chronicle reports: Oregon Republicans running for secretary of state target mail voting, and stoke voter fraud claims.

— On the national level, the media seems incredibly indecisive over who they want to be president, setting up chances for success for Biden with the possible bird flu fearmongering or his failures with his bases’ hatred of Israel and support of Hamas, and covering the ongoing horrific events in Afghanistan. Similarly, with Trump they either call for his arrest, play up details about the show trials or bury news on the same topic.

— When the “powers that be” or the “collective” likes something, we all tend to know about it. Thinking about pop culture references like the outfits at the Met Gala, or the Harrison Butker speech (that was later denounced by nuns), or things like that.

–Does the media want to keep Biden? He’s done everything the establishment could ever want; created and maintained war contracts for the military industrial complex; kept the masses unhappy but gaslit about inflation and the cost of living; and more. Trump could be too much of a wildcard, despite how the media clings to any headlines he generates for clicks because clicks = money. Republicans usually campaign on protecting our borders and military spending, but it seems like all the swamp dwellers turn out to be war hawks, ultimately protecting the bottom line and special interests.

— As one senator and political candidate said, “They spend money to make money. The question facing the voter is will you allow your candidate selection to be “bought” by special interests?”

## Get the entire newsletter in your email box which includes the complete newsletter with more news: People can send questions, inquiries or newsletter subscriptions request to [email protected] or visit calloutthemedia.com to fill out the subscription form