Oregon governor sends police after GOP senators
SALEM, ORE. » Oregon Gov. Kate Brown deployed the state police Thursday to try to round up Republican lawmakers who fled the Capitol to block a vote on a landmark, economy-wide climate plan that would be the second of its kind in the nation.
Minority Republicans want the cap-andtrade proposal, which is aimed at dramatically lowering the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, to be sent to voters instead of being instituted by lawmakers — but negotiations with Democrats collapsed, leading to the walkout, Kate Gillem, a spokeswoman for Senate Republicans said Thursday.
Brown had warned a day earlier that she was in “close communication with Oregon State Police” and “prepared to use all resources and tools available.”
Oregon State Police can force any senators they track down in Oregon into a patrol car to return them to the Capitol, although the agency said in a statement that it would use “polite communication” and patience to bring the rogue lawmakers back.
Under state law, the absentee senators will be fined $500 a day per person starting Friday if enough of them remain absent to prevent a vote. Democrats have an 18 to 12 majority in the chamber, but need 20 members present for a quorum.
“It’s time for the Senate Republicans to show up and do the job they were elected to do,” Brown, a Democrat, said at a news conference.
Republican senators appeared unfazed and ready to dig in.
“Send bachelors and come heavily armed,” Sen. Brian Boquist, a Republican from Dallas, said late Wednesday as the prospect of a walkout loomed. “I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”
Boquist, who is reportedly in Idaho, did not respond to emails on Thursday after the Senate president publicly rebuked him for the remarks.
Gillem confirmed on Thursday that some members left the state to avoid a vote because state police don’t have jurisdiction outside Oregon.
This is the second time in this legislative session that minority GOP lawmakers have used a high-stakes walkout as a way to slow the process. Democrats have a rare supermajority in the House and Senate, meaning their Republican colleagues don’t have many ways to influence the debate on major policy bills that would affect their constituents.
Republicans walked out of the Senate last month to block a school funding tax package. The standoff lasted four days, until the governor struck a deal to table legislation on gun control and vaccine requirements.
The tactic is rare, but it has been used throughout history, sometimes creating comical scenes. Abraham Lincoln once leapt out of a window in an attempt to deny a quorum when he was a lawmaker in Illinois.
In Washington three decades ago, U. S. Sen. Bob Packwood, R- Ore., was carried feet first into the Senate chamber after Democrats ordered the arrest of Republican senators who were denying a quorum.
In 2003, Texas Democrats fled to neighboring Oklahoma to deny a quorum, holing up in a Holiday Inn to block a GOP redistricting bill. The Republican House speaker ordered state troopers to find the Democrats and have them arrested. The Democrats returned to Texas after the bill’s deadline passed, and it was effectively killed.