Oregon high court says 10 GOP state senators who staged long walkout can’t run for reelection

silence7@slrpnk.net to politics @lemmy.world – 552 points –
Oregon high court says 10 GOP state senators who staged long walkout can’t run for reelection
politico.com
68

You are viewing a single comment

Minority leader Tim Knopp said:

we are deeply disturbed by the chilling impact this decision will have to crush dissent

Give me a fucking break. As a legislator, you have no shortage of ways to dissent including access to media, the ability to speak on the floor of the legislature, and the ability to vote on legislation. What you can't do, if you want to keep your job is not show up for work every time you know you're going to lose a vote so that the legislature can't do business.

As an Oregon voter, tough shit. We voted with a 68% majority to amend the state constitution, with explicit penalties for legislative absenteeism.

The chilling impact they are feeling is the will of the people bitch slapping their defunct political strategy.

"But that's all just Portland voters! All the rest us of didn't want that!" - My idiot father. Yeah dude, Portland is most of us. Your vote isn't worth more just because you live around less people.

It's not even true. There are 3 million registered voters in Oregon, of whom 565k are in Portland (well, Multnomah). While we lean very heavily D, most of the registered D's in the state are elsewhere.

"Portland" is usually used as shorthand for Clackamas/Multnomah/Washington counties, which are about half the states population overall. Shouldn't be shocking that half the states population does rather heavily influence how the state is run though. Did folks expect Harney county (10,135 sq mi, with 7,515 people) to be the big decider? C'mon now.

Surprisingly, even if you include all 3 counties you're still only about 40% of the registered voters--although you are now at about 50% of the registered D's. Meaning the rest of the state skews Republican but not by that much.

That's still a majority. Tough shit pops, do some math.

"What about a musician who wants to express a nonpartisan message that young people should participate in our democracy?"

That's DIFFERENT she needs to JUST SHUT UP

“She said she votes for human rights, so we know she votes for the wrong team.”

Refuse to do job.

Get fired.

/surprisedpikachu

Not even fired, but not rehired when their contract is up.

we are deeply disturbed by the chilling impact this decision will have to crush dissent

What they really said is: Wah! Boohoo! We don't like consequences for our actions! Wah! Wah!

The amendment says a lawmaker is not allowed to run “for the term following the election after the member’s current term is completed.” The senators claimed the amendment meant they could seek another term, since a senator’s term ends in January while elections are held the previous November.

What a slimey disingenuous BS argument. They are knowingly trying to subvert the law specifically aimed at their behavior while pretending it's SOMEHOW the will of the voters to ignore them.

‘Crush dissent’? lol good you clown, I don’t think law makers should be crushing dissent…