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MEDIA CONTACT
Norman Turrill (503) 807-4863

INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING FOR OREGON MOVES FORWARD
People Not Politicians Heading to the 2024 Ballot

Portland, OR – People Not Politicians (PNP) announced today that they have filed with the Oregon Secretary of State a proposed initiative petition for the November 2024 ballot to reform Oregon’s dysfunctional and partisan redistricting process, and to replace it with an independent citizens’ commission for fair representation.

Currently, Oregon legislators gerrymander voting districts to re-elect incumbents in safe districts, thereby reducing political competition. This results in incumbents who are unaccountable to voters, which in turn lowers voter turnout. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the 2021 congressional map, drafted by the Oregon legislature and passed by a straight party-line majority, an “F” grade for its lack of competitive races.

“Oregonians deserve to have their legislative and congressional districts decided by citizens, not political partisans who are all too often beholden to monied interests. Our state and our nation are already far too divided, and intense partisanship around these boundary lines is a major factor in making this situation even worse. Let’s give some power back to the people,” said Phil Keisling, former Oregon Secretary of State.

The March 2022 voter registration report of the Secretary of State shows that, for the first time in state history, the largest single group of Oregon voters is not affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties – yet that group of non-affiliated voters are mostly shut out of the redistricting process.

Creating an independent redistricting commission has been a consistent goal of reform-minded organizations who stand by the principle that legislators have a direct conflict of interest in drawing electoral lines that benefit incumbents.

“Our diverse coalition has come together from all party affiliations, income levels, backgrounds, identities, and all corners of Oregon, to rally for equal, fair, and transparent representation at the state and congressional level. We represent hundreds of thousands of Oregonians who believe we deserve the best possible representative government produced through a fair, unbiased and transparent process—and we’re working hard to make that happen,” said Becky Gladstone, President of the League of Women Voters of Oregon.

The coalition filed its previous initiative measure (IP 34) in April 2021 in the hopes of making the November 2022 election. However, legal challenges from allies of the elected officials of the state’s majority party kept the initiative tied up in court until it was too late for this year.

Supporters are more energized than ever. “The fact that certain interests went to great lengths to stop Oregonians from having a say in this fundamental democratic process is just another sign that partisan politics have gotten way off track. Let’s come together and do what’s right for the people of Oregon,” said Eric Richardson, former Executive Director of the Eugene Springfield National Association For the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and one of the initiative’s three chief petitioners.

People Not Politicians has refiled the proposed measure to begin the ballot qualification process for the November 2024 general election. Petitioners anticipate that the initial qualification process could be completed as soon as January. The campaign can then begin in earnest to gather some 150,000 required valid voter signatures. They will have nearly a year and a half to accomplish this signature-gathering phase of the campaign.

“We will be excited to finally get started collecting signatures, leveraging our large previously-existing volunteer networks to build our grassroots strength over nearly two years,” said Norman Turrill, PNP Chair and President of the League of Women Voters of Oregon Advocacy Fund.

People Not Politicians is a diverse coalition that has included the League of Women Voters of Oregon, Common Cause Oregon, Oregon State Chamber of Commerce, Oregon Farm Bureau, Independent Party of Oregon, OSPIRG, NAACP, Oregon Home Builders Association, Oregon Association of Nurseries, and The Klamath Tribal Council.

People Not Politicians can be supported by going to its website and can be reached at (503) 386-7996.

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MEDIA CONTACT
Norman Turrill (503) 807-4863

OREGONIANS DEMAND INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING
People Not Politicians Heading to the 2024 Ballot

Portland, OR – After Friday’s delayed decision by the Oregon Supreme Court on IP 34’s ballot title, People Not Politicians announced today that they will soon file another initiative for the November 2024 ballot to reform Oregon’s dysfunctional and partisan redistricting process and replace it with an independent citizens’ commission for fair representation.

Currently, Oregon legislators gerrymander voting districts to re-elect incumbents in safe districts, thereby reducing political competition. This results in incumbents who are unaccountable to voters, which in turn lowers voter turnout. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave Oregon’s congressional map an F grade for its lack of competitive races.

“Oregonians deserve to have their legislative and congressional districts decided by citizens, not political partisans who are all too often beholden to monied interests. Our state and our nation are already far too divided, and intense partisanship around these boundary lines is a major factor in making this situation even worse. Let’s give some power back to the people,” said Phil Keisling, former Oregon Secretary of State.

The most recent voter registration report of the Secretary of State shows that, for the first time state history, the largest group of Oregon voters is not affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties – yet that group of nonaffiliated voters are shut out of the redistricting process.

Creating an independent redistricting commission has been a consistent goal of reform-minded organizations who stand by the principle that legislators have a direct conflict of interest in drawing electoral lines that benefit incumbents. People Not Politicians brought many of those groups to the table just before the pandemic and prior to the contentious and controversial process in 2021. The majority party leaders in Salem pledged to give Republicans equal access to the process, and then reversed their position at the last hour. Recently, Rep. Marty Wilde (D-Eugene) was gerrymandered out of his seat while serving in the National Guard during the COVID surge, apparently due to his challenging the integrity of undemocratic redistricting and politicians who do not serve the public interest.

“Our diverse coalition has come together from all party affiliations, income levels, backgrounds, identities, and all corners of Oregon to rally for equal, fair and transparent representation at the state and congressional level. We represent hundreds of thousands of Oregonians who believe we deserve the best possible representative government produced through a fair, unbiased and transparent process—and we’re working hard to make that happen,” said Becky Gladstone, President of the League of Women Voters of Oregon.

The coalition filed its initiative measure (IP 34) in April 2021 in the hopes of making the November 2022 election, but legal challenges from allies of Democratic elected officials kept it tied up in court until it was too late for this year.

Supporters are more energized than ever. “The fact that certain interests went to great lengths to stop Oregonians from having a say in this fundamental democratic process is just another sign that partisan politics have gotten way off track. Let’s come together and do what’s right for the people of Oregon,” said Eric Richardson, former Executive Director of the Eugene Springfield NAACP.

People Not Politicians will refile the proposed measure this spring in order to begin the ballot qualification process for the November 2024 General election. Once the measure has passed the qualification process, which petitioners anticipate could be as soon as early fall of this year, the campaign can begin signature gathering in earnest. They will have nearly two years to accomplish the signature gathering phase of the campaign. “We will be excited to finally get started collecting signatures, leveraging our large volunteer networks to build our grassroots strength over the next two years”, said Norman Turrill, Chief Petitioner and President of the League of Women Voters of Oregon Advocacy Fund.

People Not Politicians is a diverse coalition that includes the League of Women Voters of Oregon, Common Cause Oregon, Oregon State Chamber of Commerce, Oregon Farm Bureau, Independent Party of Oregon, OSPIRG, NAACP, Oregon Home Builders Association, Oregon Association of Nurseries.

People Not Politicians can be supported by going to its website and can be reached at (503) 386-7996.

The post People Not Politicians Heading to the 2024 Ballot appeared first on People Not Politicians.

After lawmakers redrew Oregon’s 90 legislative districts and created a new six-district congressional map, many voters will find themselves in a district whose political leanings have changed – or in new ones entirely — come 2022.

Take Teri Lenahan, mayor of the Washington County city of North Plains.

Currently, Lenahan’s home near the northern edge of North Plains lies in House District 30, which straddles U.S. 26 near Hillsboro and includes broad swaths of that Democratic-leaning city. Since at least 2009, the district has been represented by a Democrat, except for a single term, in 2011 and 2012, when Republican Shawn Lindsay held the seat.

Under the new maps approved by lawmakers late last month, however, Lenahan and her North Plains neighbors will be moved into District 31. That district, with its new boundaries, will have a new political orientation. It’ll shed its swath of heavily Democratic suburbs north of U.S. 26 in unincorporated Washington County and become more intensely rural – and Republican.

Similarly, North Plains voters will be switched from Senate District 15, which centers on Hillsboro and Forest Grove and has grown to be safely Democratic, to Senate District 16, represented by moderate Democratic Sen. Betsy Johnson, which will become a competitive swing district.

Thus, without relocating, Lenahan and the many other voters in North Plains not affiliated with either major party will move from being represented by Democrats to likely being represented by the Senate’s most moderate Democrat and a Republican in the Oregon House.

That’s but one of the many ways the political landscape will shift at a micro level across Oregon, even though at a macro level, Democrats are highly likely to maintain their supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature.

As a result, many individual voters will find their district or districts, and the amount of attention they get from politicians, are all but certain to change. The Oregonian/OregonLive launched a new tool that allows you to look up which districts your home has been drawn into and the partisan ramifications of the neighbors who will now cast votes to determine who will represent you.

Bend Mayor Sally Russell is among those who will experience a change of political wind as a result of Democrats’ biggest district-drawing power play.

Her home in a historic area near the Deschutes River and downtown Bend will remain in the same state House and Senate districts. Specifically, she votes in heavily Democratic state House District 54, currently represented by first-term Democratic Rep. Jason Kropf, and competitive state Senate District 27, currently represented by second-term Republican Sen. Tim Knopp.

But in a big change, she, along with most other residents of the city of Bend, will become part of a new and very different voting district for the U.S. House of Representatives.

For decades, Bend has been part of the expansive 2nd Congressional District spanning virtually all of eastern Oregon. In recent years, that has meant it was a bright blue spot in a deeply red and overwhelmingly rural district, giving its voters little ability to affect the policy positions of its long-time former Congressman Greg Walden, a Republican, nor current first-term Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario.

Under the new maps, Russell and her neighbors will become part of a newly drawn 5th Congressional District, the oddest shaped of all the congressional districts Democrats drew this fall. They’ll vote in a district that spans much of Deschutes County, then crosses the Cascade Mountain Range to take in parts of Linn and Marion counties and most of Clackamas County, including Oregon City, Milwaukie and Lake Oswego.

That change was part of Democrats’ strategy, derided by Republicans as patently partisan and against the rules, to maximize the power of Democratic voter distribution patterns. They managed to create five Democrat-safe or -leaning congressional districts and just one safe Republican district, all but guaranteeing their party 83% of Oregon’s seats in the U.S. House, while Joe Biden won 56% of the votes in the 2020 race for president.

That highly partisan line-drawing also fueled renewed drive among good government types to try to get a measure on the fall 2022 ballot that would ask voters to create an independent redistricting commission empowered to redraw the lines in 2023 ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

The newly drawn districts for state House and Senate seats more closely track Oregonians’ voting patterns.

Those boundaries, drawn by Democratic lawmakers with input from Republicans, were drawn and redrawn to protect most incumbents in both parties.

But a half dozen or more incumbents will need to move or quit the Legislature – or find themselves pitted in what could be a losing race against a fellow incumbent.

Sen. Brian Clem, a Salem Democrat, has announced he will avoid running against Rep. Raquel Moore-Green, a Republican he admires who has been redistricted into a single district with him, by stepping down from politics for now to care for his aging mother.

Similarly, Sen. Michael Dembrow, a Portland Democrat, announced during his 2020 race that it would be his last – meaning he won’t have to face off against his friend and colleague Sen. Lew Frederick, another Portland Democrat, whose district lawmakers expanded to include Dembrow’s home.

Less certain is what will happen to lawmakers who are slated to wake up in 2022 sharing districts with each other: fellow doctors and freshmen Democratic Reps. Lisa Reynolds and Maxine Dexter in deep blue Northwest Portand-centered District 33; Democratic Rep. Marty Wilde and Republican Rep. Cedric Hayden, who will inhabit a new overwhelmingly rural and Republican-leaning District 12 east of Eugene; and Democratic Rep. Anna Williams and Republican Rep. Daniel Bonham, whose current homes both lie in a new Democratic-leaning District 52 stretching from Corbett east to The Dalles.

– Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com; @OregonianPol

The post Map: Look up how partisan your new legislative, congressional districts are in Oregon appeared first on People Not Politicians.

In the waning hours of last week’s special legislative session on redistricting, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle declared this should be the last time elected representatives are responsible for drawing these maps.

The session was defined by partisan controversy: House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, changed the makeup of a redistricting committee to favor Democrats, sparking a House Republican boycott, and the congressional map itself skewed Democratic, according to independent analyses.

The top alternative is an independent redistricting commission, where members of the public are selected to draw new congressional and legislative district maps once per decade after the new census.

Experts and political analysts warn such commissions aren’t guaranteed to result in fairer maps and could be difficult to establish in Oregon.

Those who oppose a redistricting commission say commissioners would not be accountable to the people, nor would they be as representative of the state as the 90-member legislative body.

But those who support a commission say this past session just further demonstrated why the state needs to have a new system.

Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, said redistricting fights and the perceived or actual partisan bias of the maps damage the public’s trust in the state’s political systems.

“The events of the last week add to a mounting pile of evidence that we should not be creating the districts in which we and our allies and friends might be running in the future,” he said.

House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, called on Oregonians to vote in support of the creation of an independent redistricting commission should the measure make it to the ballot.

“Oregonians will only get the fair maps they deserve, free of partisan influence, by supporting an independent redistricting commission in the next election,” Drazan said. “Politicians should not be drawing their own political lines.”

Independent analyses of the newly drawn congressional districts indicate two are safe Democrat seats, one is a safe Republican seat, two lean Democrat and one is a relative toss-up.

However, that toss-up (Congressional District 5) contains the city of Bend, which has shifted left in recent decades and is growing rapidly, meaning the district could soon turn into a safe Democratic seat.

Oregon political analyst Jim Moore said that based on voter registration and trends, Democrats “should win four of the six seats” for the state to have a fair congressional delegation, but not five.

Even so, that doesn’t mean a court challenge will prove successful.

“Showing that it’s intentional and violates Oregon law is going to be really tough to do,” Moore said.

Oregon has tended to find itself on the cutting edge of elections innovations — from vote-by-mail to automatic voter registration. Moore said lawmakers have not been as eager on this issue.

Fourteen other states have taken the responsibility of redistricting out of the hands of lawmakers and given it to a commission.

So while Moore said there is “zero chance” of a bill passing the Legislature to create an independent redistricting commission, getting it on the ballot via an initiative petition could also prove difficult.

“We’ve seen it time and time again: the voters have a very short attention span on this,” Moore said.

Coalition trying to get issue on ballot

The current effort to bring an independent redistricting commission to the state is being led by People Not Politicians, a coalition which includes the Oregon Farm Bureau, League of Women Voters, Eugene-Springfield NAACP and Independent Party of Oregon.

Initiative Petition 34 would create a Citizens Redistricting Commission with 12 members, six selected at random from an applicant pool and those selecting an additional six. Membership would be split evenly between Democrats, Republicans and nonaffiliated voters.

People Not Politicians Chair Norman Turrill said the most important thing the commission would do is take redistricting out of the partisan arena.

“Every legislator has a conflict of interest in the outcome, whether they admit it or not,” he said, noting the commission would be made up of “normal citizens instead of people who would have an interest in the outcome.”

He said the commission would also better represent nonaffiliated voters, who make up the second largest block of registered voters in the state.

As of August, Republicans made up 25% of registered voters, while Democrats constituted 35%. Nonaffiliated voters were 33%.

People Not Politicians undertook a similar initiative effort in 2020 with IP 57, but the coronavirus pandemic made signature-gathering difficult.

Petitioners were not able to gather the required number of signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot and were conclusively kept off the ballot when the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the State of Oregon and did not allow a reduction in the number of needed signatures.

“There was lots of support,” Turrill said. “The whole political spectrum is supportive of it, outside of the people who are directly involved in the process.

Independent group wouldn’t be ‘totally objective’

Those opposed to the idea of an independent redistricting commission include Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, who pushed back against the very notion of an independent commission.

“I don’t see these commissions as being totally objective, totally fair, no politics. That’s a myth,” Courtney said. “Politics is involved in everything in life.”

He said redistricting commissions are not accountable to the public is the same way the legislative body is, since a lawmaker could face a recall or primary challenge for decisions they make.

Nor, Courtney said, could a 12-member commission be as representative of all corners of the state as the Legislature’s 90 members.

Moreover, if this year’s maps are not changed by the courts, it would be the second straight redistricting cycle the Legislature has passed maps, which Courtney said shows the system works.

Opponents point out that, if they do avoid a successful court challenge, it would only be the third time in the past century maps came out of the Legislature unchanged.

Courtney acknowledged the process this year wasn’t as efficient or drama-free as it could have been, but the Legislature still achieved its goal in drawing and passing maps that, he said, abide by the laws that guide redistricting.

“The product we came up with, I don’t think you can fault it,” he said. “I don’t think (a commission) could do any better a job or a fairer job than we could.”

Benjamin Schneer, assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, has presented research that concludes there are many factors which influence maps that independent commissions might not be able to overcome.

These include the inherent characteristics of a population, such as likeminded people clustering in certain geographic areas. But these commissions could also increase competitiveness of various races.

“Independent commissions are, generally speaking, likely to produce fairer maps overall compared to a partisan process through the state legislature,” Schneer said, “but, of course, an independent commission does not guarantee a fair map, nor remove partisan politics from the redistricting process.”

The post Calls grow for citizen commission to redraw congressional maps, not perfect solution some warn appeared first on People Not Politicians.

Bend Bulletin Editorial Board | 09.29.21

Was anybody really surprised that Oregon legislators couldn’t agree on redistricting? We’re guessing you weren’t.

The post Editorial: Independent redistricting commission should be on the ballot appeared first on People Not Politicians.

Oregon lawmakers went down to the wire Monday when they approved majority Democrats’ new congressional and legislative district maps with party-line votes just hours ahead of deadline.

Their actions, made possible when House Republicans ended a boycott that stalled redistricting action on Saturday, made Oregon the first state in the nation to pass both congressional and legislative maps.

Only time will tell if it turns out to be the last time lawmakers redraw Oregon’s electoral lines: On Tuesday, a coalition of good government groups, business associations and the Independent and Progressive parties announced they will try to get a ballot measure before voters in 2022 to create an independent redistricting commission. It would draw new lines in 2023 as well as after future censuses.

“The promise of fair representation should not be a pawn in a partisan political game,” said Norman Turrill, chair of the People Not Politicians campaign and former president of the League of Women Voters of Oregon.

Oregon’s redistricting process held importance nationally as it is one of just six states to gain at least one congressional seat in this redistricting cycle, as a result of higher-than-average population growth in recent decades. It’s the only state of those six in which Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature and the governorship.

Oregon’s Democrats and Republicans both faced the decision whether to prioritize getting a favorable congressional map or favorable state House and Senate maps, due to the mechanics of Oregon’s redistricting system. If lawmakers had failed to agree or Republicans had continued their boycott, a five-judge panel would have drafted new congressional districts and Democratic Secretary of State Shemia Fagan would have redone the state’s 90 legislative districts. There was the potential the judicial panel would draw a congressional plan less tilted toward Democrats than the highly party-favoring maps the Democrats drew. Meanwhile, both some Democrats and some Republicans acknowledged Fagan would likely have issued state House and Senate maps more to Democrats’ liking than the not-very-partisan ones Democratic lawmakers drew with Republican input.

In the end, Democrats passed a congressional plan with three super safe Democratic seats, one super safe Republican seat, one seat that tilts in Democrats’ favor and one seat that is a virtual 50-50 tie in terms of how its voters have sided in key Republican-Democratic match-ups since 2015, according to an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The district that will have nearly even Democratic-Republican match-ups includes fast-growing Bend, where expected Democratic growth could make the district bluer over the next decade.

It was a compromise Democrats offered Republicans late last week, after insisting throughout September that the original map they drafted — which would almost certainly have led to five Democrats and just one Republican winning seats in the U.S. House — should pass without even technical tweaks in spite of testimony from hundreds of Oregonians, much of it critical of aspects of the plan. That would have given Democrats 83% of the seats, while President Joe Biden collected just 56% of Oregonian’s votes in his winning 2020 race. Public critiques ranged from the maps splitting up Black voters and cultural institutions in Multnomah County to their including Portland-area neighborhoods in districts with broad swaths of rural Oregon.

The Democrats’ revised congressional maps didn’t extend the Portland-heavy 3rd District held by Rep. Earl Blumenauer across the Cascades to rural Madras, and it kept the historically Black Albina neighborhood in Portland in the same district with neighborhoods further east where many Black families now live. Still, Republicans objected to Democrats’ compromise map, pointing out it could lead to the same outcome as Democrats’ original one: a 5-1 power split.

On Tuesday evening, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a Democrat who now promotes independent redistricting commissions and other reforms through the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, wrote on Twitter that “Oregon’s compromise map is just that—a compromise from both parties. Importantly, the map reflects the state’s diverse communities, preserves a competitive seat, and shows that public input was considered.”

As for Oregon’s new legislative districts, they will likely allow Democrats to maintain their supermajorities in the state House and Senate and even expand their power, particularly in the Senate, according to an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive. However, the districts on balance are fairly representative of Oregonians’ voting patterns. They also manage to put nearly all 90 state representatives and senators in districts where they have a good chance at reelection, although state law admonishes lawmakers not to draw political lines to benefit “any political party, incumbent legislator or other person.”

Still, some lawmakers who ended up doubled up in districts with other incumbents will face tough decisions about whether to run in a primary against another incumbent from the same party or a general election against a fellow lawmaker from the opposing party.

Rep. Raquel Moore-Green, R-Salem and the only lawmaker of Latina heritage in her caucus, will be in a blue leaning district with Democratic Rep. Brian Clem of Salem. Clem, one of two House Democrats who voted against the plan Monday, announced during his floor speech that he will retire at the end of his term next year due to personal and family health issues. Clem lavished praise on Moore-Green, who he said saved the Salem City Club and “cast many courageous votes that some of you wouldn’t even notice …”

Clem said while the House and Senate plans overall are good, he disagreed with the difficult and partisan process of drafting them, which he alleged involved “people trying to draw people out of districts that are legitimate …”

Democrats’ plan also puts two Democratic incumbents, both Portland area physicians, in the same House district: Reps. Maxine Dexter and Lisa Reynolds. And Rep. Cedric Hayden, R-Fall Creek, will be in a competitive district with a potentially 4.4-percentage point Republican advantage along with Rep. Marty Wilde, D-Eugene, according to the newsroom’s analysis.

Earlier this year, Wilde cited his current House District as a blatant example of past gerrymandering. He continued to raise similar concerns about this year’s redistricting proposals, noting in an email to House Democrats last week that the Eugene precinct he lives in was the only one in Oregon’s second-largest city included in the new district that is largely rural and Republican.

Throughout the weeklong special session, Democrats reiterated that their plans complied with Oregon law and the state constitution. Senate redistricting committee chair Sen. Kathleen Taylor, D-Portland, said of Democrats’ initial congressional plan that several analyses found was clearly tilted to her party, “It is a fair and balanced map.” Rep. Wlnsvey Campos, D-Aloha, a member of the House congressional redistricting committee, said in a speech on the House floor Monday that Democrats’ congressional districts plan meets “the highest legal standards…”

They may be correct, given past high court rulings that set a very high bar for showing that a map has been drawn unfairly. The Oregon Supreme Court, in a 2001 redistricting case, pointed out state law simply says lawmakers or the secretary of state must “consider” eight district-drawing criteria including existing geographic or political boundaries, transportation links and that no district shall be drawn to favor an incumbent or political party.

“Consequently, this court will void a reapportionment plan only if we can say from the record that the secretary of state either did not consider one or more criteria or, having considered them all, made a choice or choices that no reasonable secretary of state would have made,” the court ruled in the case, which pertained to legislative districts drawn by then-Democratic Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. “A party challenging a reapportionment plan has the burden to show that one of those circumstances is present.”

The court could soon hear a fresh test of Oregon’s redistricting laws. In a press release issued after lawmakers finished work Monday with the headline “Rigged redistricting process fails Oregon,” House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby predicted someone will soon file such a challenge. “The illegal congressional map adopted (Monday), clearly drawn for partisan benefit, will not survive legal challenge,” Drazan said.

The post Oregon’s new political maps, which would cement Democrats’ dominance, may come under challenge from voters, courts appeared first on People Not Politicians.

Oregon lawmakers went down to the wire Monday when they approved majority Democrats’ new congressional and legislative district maps with party-line votes just hours ahead of deadline.

Their actions, made possible when House Republicans ended a boycott that stalled redistricting action on Saturday, made Oregon the first state in the nation to pass both congressional and legislative maps.

Only time will tell if it turns out to be the last time lawmakers redraw Oregon’s electoral lines: On Tuesday, a coalition of good government groups, business associations and the Independent and Progressive parties announced they will try to get a ballot measure before voters in 2022 to create an independent redistricting commission. It would draw new lines in 2023 as well as after future censuses.

“The promise of fair representation should not be a pawn in a partisan political game,” said Norman Turrill, chair of the People Not Politicians campaign and former president of the League of Women Voters of Oregon.

Oregon’s redistricting process held importance nationally as it is one of just six states to gain at least one congressional seat in this redistricting cycle, as a result of higher-than-average population growth in recent decades. It’s the only state of those six in which Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature and the governorship.

Oregon’s Democrats and Republicans both faced the decision whether to prioritize getting a favorable congressional map or favorable state House and Senate maps, due to the mechanics of Oregon’s redistricting system. If lawmakers had failed to agree or Republicans had continued their boycott, a five-judge panel would have drafted new congressional districts and Democratic Secretary of State Shemia Fagan would have redone the state’s 90 legislative districts. There was the potential the judicial panel would draw a congressional plan less tilted toward Democrats than the highly party-favoring maps the Democrats drew. Meanwhile, both some Democrats and some Republicans acknowledged Fagan would likely have issued state House and Senate maps more to Democrats’ liking than the not-very-partisan ones Democratic lawmakers drew with Republican input.

In the end, Democrats passed a congressional plan with three super safe Democratic seats, one super safe Republican seat, one seat that tilts in Democrats’ favor and one seat that is a virtual 50-50 tie in terms of how its voters have sided in key Republican-Democratic match-ups since 2015, according to an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The district that will have nearly even Democratic-Republican match-ups includes fast-growing Bend, where expected Democratic growth could make the district bluer over the next decade.

It was a compromise Democrats offered Republicans late last week, after insisting throughout September that the original map they drafted — which would almost certainly have led to five Democrats and just one Republican winning seats in the U.S. House — should pass without even technical tweaks in spite of testimony from hundreds of Oregonians, much of it critical of aspects of the plan. That would have given Democrats 83% of the seats, while President Joe Biden collected just 56% of Oregonian’s votes in his winning 2020 race. Public critiques ranged from the maps splitting up Black voters and cultural institutions in Multnomah County to their including Portland-area neighborhoods in districts with broad swaths of rural Oregon.

The Democrats’ revised congressional maps didn’t extend the Portland-heavy 3rd District held by Rep. Earl Blumenauer across the Cascades to rural Madras, and it kept the historically Black Albina neighborhood in Portland in the same district with neighborhoods further east where many Black families now live. Still, Republicans objected to Democrats’ compromise map, pointing out it could lead to the same outcome as Democrats’ original one: a 5-1 power split.

On Tuesday evening, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a Democrat who now promotes independent redistricting commissions and other reforms through the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, wrote on Twitter that “Oregon’s compromise map is just that—a compromise from both parties. Importantly, the map reflects the state’s diverse communities, preserves a competitive seat, and shows that public input was considered.”

As for Oregon’s new legislative districts, they will likely allow Democrats to maintain their supermajorities in the state House and Senate and even expand their power, particularly in the Senate, according to an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive. However, the districts on balance are fairly representative of Oregonians’ voting patterns. They also manage to put nearly all 90 state representatives and senators in districts where they have a good chance at reelection, although state law admonishes lawmakers not to draw political lines to benefit “any political party, incumbent legislator or other person.”

Still, some lawmakers who ended up doubled up in districts with other incumbents will face tough decisions about whether to run in a primary against another incumbent from the same party or a general election against a fellow lawmaker from the opposing party.

Rep. Raquel Moore-Green, R-Salem and the only lawmaker of Latina heritage in her caucus, will be in a blue leaning district with Democratic Rep. Brian Clem of Salem. Clem, one of two House Democrats who voted against the plan Monday, announced during his floor speech that he will retire at the end of his term next year due to personal and family health issues. Clem lavished praise on Moore-Green, who he said saved the Salem City Club and “cast many courageous votes that some of you wouldn’t even notice …”

Clem said while the House and Senate plans overall are good, he disagreed with the difficult and partisan process of drafting them, which he alleged involved “people trying to draw people out of districts that are legitimate …”

Democrats’ plan also puts two Democratic incumbents, both Portland area physicians, in the same House district: Reps. Maxine Dexter and Lisa Reynolds. And Rep. Cedric Hayden, R-Fall Creek, will be in a competitive district with a potentially 4.4-percentage point Republican advantage along with Rep. Marty Wilde, D-Eugene, according to the newsroom’s analysis.

Earlier this year, Wilde cited his current House District as a blatant example of past gerrymandering. He continued to raise similar concerns about this year’s redistricting proposals, noting in an email to House Democrats last week that the Eugene precinct he lives in was the only one in Oregon’s second-largest city included in the new district that is largely rural and Republican.

Throughout the weeklong special session, Democrats reiterated that their plans complied with Oregon law and the state constitution. Senate redistricting committee chair Sen. Kathleen Taylor, D-Portland, said of Democrats’ initial congressional plan that several analyses found was clearly tilted to her party, “It is a fair and balanced map.” Rep. Wlnsvey Campos, D-Aloha, a member of the House congressional redistricting committee, said in a speech on the House floor Monday that Democrats’ congressional districts plan meets “the highest legal standards…”

They may be correct, given past high court rulings that set a very high bar for showing that a map has been drawn unfairly. The Oregon Supreme Court, in a 2001 redistricting case, pointed out state law simply says lawmakers or the secretary of state must “consider” eight district-drawing criteria including existing geographic or political boundaries, transportation links and that no district shall be drawn to favor an incumbent or political party.

“Consequently, this court will void a reapportionment plan only if we can say from the record that the secretary of state either did not consider one or more criteria or, having considered them all, made a choice or choices that no reasonable secretary of state would have made,” the court ruled in the case, which pertained to legislative districts drawn by then-Democratic Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. “A party challenging a reapportionment plan has the burden to show that one of those circumstances is present.”

The court could soon hear a fresh test of Oregon’s redistricting laws. In a press release issued after lawmakers finished work Monday with the headline “Rigged redistricting process fails Oregon,” House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby predicted someone will soon file such a challenge. “The illegal congressional map adopted (Monday), clearly drawn for partisan benefit, will not survive legal challenge,” Drazan said.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2021

MEDIA CONTACT
Norman Turrill (503) 807-4863

PORTLAND—Following the Oregon Legislature’s passage of legislative and congressional district maps through a highly partisan process, People Not Politicians will begin initial signature gathering this week to put Initiative Petition 16 (IP 16) to create an independent citizens’ redistricting commission on the November 2022 ballot

“The Oregon legislature has once again demonstrated the need for an independent citizens’ redistricting commission to draw congressional and legislative district lines, ” said Norman Turrill, Chair of People Not Politicians. “The promise of fair representation should not be a pawn in a partisan political game. We need to reform this process to create a fair system so that Oregon voters are choosing their politicians, instead of politicians choosing their voters.”

Prior to yesterday’s partisan passage of the new maps, only twice since 1911 had the Oregon legislature passed a redistricting plan that became the final adopted plan.

Legislators clearly did not follow their own statute. ORS 188.016(2)(a) requires five hearings on “a” final reapportionment plan. Legislators held 12 hearings on three dueling plans released on September 3. They then released new maps in late September, yet held no hearings on the final maps at which the public was allowed to testify.

“The task of drawing legislative and congressional maps is highly political, shaping power and resources for a decade. It doesn’t work to have elected officials draw their own districts, no matter how well intentioned they are. It’s like having athletes serve as their own referee,” said Kate Titus, Executive Director for Common Cause Oregon. “Redistricting works best in the hands of an independent body, focused on communities of interest rather than political party interests.”

Oregonians support creating an independent citizens’ redistricting commission. In late 2019, People Not Politicians enlisted Lake Research Partners to run a statewide poll. Results showed an average 76% of Democrats, 67% of Independents, and 60% of Republicans favor an independent citizens’ commission.

Initiative Petition 16 would put into place a 12-member multi-partisan independent citizens’ redistricting commission. The commission would consist of four Democrats, four Republicans and four others who are third party members or non-affiliated voters to redraw district lines in 2024. Third-party and non-affiliated voters are now the largest sector of registered voters in Oregon, about 40% of the electorate.

Initiative Petition 16 is similar to 2020’s IP 57, which narrowly fell short of making the ballot only after Oregon Democratic Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed numerous legal challenges and delayed the process all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This measure reforms the process to draw districts in a fair, open, and a balanced multi-partisan way, so Oregonians can have a better voice in their representation,” said Turrill.

The People Not Politicians coalition includes a full spectrum of Oregon voices for an independent citizens’ redistricting commission: Common Cause Oregon, the League of Women Voters of Oregon, the Independent Party of Oregon, the Oregon Progressive Party, the NAACP, the Oregon Farm Bureau, OSPIRG, AAUW of Oregon, PDX Forward, Standup America, multiple business groups, and tens of thousands of Oregonians.

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