Forward Oregon

When Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown ran for President in the 1979 and early 1980, he was so often out of the state campaigning that his Republican Lieutenant Governor Mike Curb started vetoing legislation and issuing executive orders as acting governor.  Generally, Curbs actions were not in any way the intent of Brown, resulting in a lot of litigation.  Fortunately, Jeff Merkley recognizes that his role of Speaker of the Oregon House shouldn’t be thrown aside for the campaign trail.  This morning, the Oregonian wrote an interesting article about Merkley performing as Speaker while on the campaign trail.

The O sets up the narrative as:

Merkley’s decision sets up a high-stakes political subplot for the session. A successful session would make him look good, allowing him to boast of the results when he resumes his Senate campaign. If it goes sideways — well, you can picture the negative ads now.

While the basic premise, that a good special session provides more momentum while a bad one invites criticism, is accurate,  I think the fact that this attempt at yearly sessions is new should be noted.  Since, to my knowledge, Oregon has not had a planned off year session like this, the possibility that a sideways session reflects poorly is blunted, as no one really knows what to expect.  Further if failure does occure it is likely to  be placed at the feet of the annual session advocates, and not Jeff Merkley.

The O also talks about Republican mischief during the session:

Merkley’s dual roles of speaker and candidate also open the possibility of mischief by out-of-state Republicans who don’t care much about the Oregon Legislature but care loads about retaining Smith as a senator. Chances of partisan sabotage are “realistic,” Conkling says.

Several factors work in Merkley’s favor. First, Democrats control both chambers and the governor’s office, which gives the speaker serious leverage to push bills forward. Second, most House members are running for re-election, which gives them further reason to show the public they know how to play nice when state issues are in the balance.

I think the possibility that Republican shenanigans will be labeled as such will prevent it from happening.  This article serves warning that the media will seize upon the meme of out of state meddling to hurt Merkely’s senate chances.  The possibility of significant media blow back should keep meddlers at bay.

What is going to be a challenge is for Merkley to continue to raise money with out the call time taken by running the session.  If you support Jeff, I would suggest that you give to his campaign during this quarter to offset the loss of fundraising time.  A good way to do that is Forward Oregon’s Act Blue pageage.

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Tags: JeffMerkley, OR-Sen, Sepcial Session,