05.24.2024
We wish you and your family a blessed and patriotic Memorial Day and honor the many Americans who gave all in the fight for freedom.
Oregon’s election month is in full swing. And unlike other, more backward states that force voters to actually come to the polls, show ID and vote in person, and have results by the next morning, more modern and progressive Oregon won’t have “official” results until…well who really knows?
However, it appears that there are sufficient numbers to call most races. The outcome is decidedly “mixed.”
Let’s start with the good news.
(The following races are all Republican.)
In Senate District 28 , OFFPAC-endorsed Diane Linthicum won over Dave Henslee.
Diane is the wife of Dennis Linthicum who voters prevented from seeking reelection through Ballot Measure 113. So the same voters who decided Dennis could not run for his seat again, handily elected his wife who will certainly carry on with his principles.
Diane has made it clear she intends to continue to fight for Oregon’s voters and not fold and make deals like most Republicans. Henslee, on the other hand, made no secret of his plans to roll over for the Democrat agenda, refuse to stand up to them and instead “stay and fight” demonstrating he had exactly zero understanding of how things work in Salem. After the election he was quoted attacking Diane saying “She completely supports Dennis Linthicum’s voting record, and in my opinion, his voting record hasn’t benefited our district.”
Voters in the 28th are lucky to have chosen a fighter and not one more establishment stooge.
In Senate District 2, OFFPAC-endorsed Noah Robinson defeated Christine Goodwin.
Goodwin, who will now leave her House Seat and return to the private sector, ran a campaign that can only be described and vicious and repulsive. She had her hatchet men, the Iverson clan, produce campaign material that was disgraceful and blatantly false.
Robinson is the son of Art Robinson, who like Dennis Linthicum, was barred from seeking reelection. And while, once again, the voters passed a measure to prevent them from voting for the candidate of their choice, they chose the candidate most likely to carry on the agenda of the candidate they prevented from running again. You have to wonder what would have happened had there been even one argument against the ballot measure by the Republicans. (Who were counting on the sure-to-happen “red wave.”)
(Interestingly, Senators Dennis Linthicum and Brian Boquist, who were prohibited from seeking their Senate seats because of a vote of the people, both handily won their races for Secretary of State and Treasurer respectively)
Goodwin was not helped by her “endorsement” of “Oregon Gun Rights” a PAC that did not even exist until after she claimed their endorsement. In fact, the PAC was created to give her what appeared to be the support of gun owners. As of May 24th, the “PAC” still only shows one transaction. From its creator, Senator Tim Knopp’s son…to himself.
Goodwin, who claimed to live in a rented apartment on someone else’s property, can now save some money and return home to her well appointed house that is actually not in the district she was running in.
Goodwin expressed disappointment that voters in the district actually wanted someone to fight for them rather than show up to advance the Democrat’s agenda like Goodwin did. She said “Yet, Republicans must remember we cannot expect to succeed by refusing to engage and participate in the legislative process in Salem.” Translated that means “We must continue to provide the Democrats the quorum they need to ram their leftist crap down our throats.”
House Rep and former Republican Leader Vikki Iverson’s husband, establishment hack Bryan, bemoaned the election of a real fighter saying “They want that brand of Republicans that are just obstructionist, basically,… I think that they were pushing for that from the get-go, and that’s obviously how it turned out.”
The Republican lapdog establishment hates anyone who stands in the way of the Democrat’s Marxist utopia preferring yes men (and women) who will shut up and hand over what remains of the state to the left. “Obstructing” the Democrat’s plans is a bad thing according the people running the Republican Caucus.
House Rep, Charlie Conrad, who won his seat last time when the Iversons attacked his conservative opponent, and along with Republican Kevin Mannix voted to push more Democrat gun control (and of course still got and NRA endorsement) got soundly trounced by Darin Harbick .
While Conrad was the choice of the sell out Republican machine, he was not so loved by the people in his district who also did not appreciate his promotion of sex changes and abortions for children with no parental knowledge or consent. Another set back for the Republican establishment.
On the downside, while Portland’s Marxist DA, Mike Schmidt, was removed from the Portland politics gene pool, his replacement, Nathan Vasquez, is no conservative, having run on his brag of having prosecuted “Proud Boys” whose major crime was shooting paint balls, while antifa ran wild unmolested by Multnomah County’s “justice system.”
And demonstrating once again the absolute dementia of Portland Democrats, as of today, none other than failed mayor and minor attracted person, Sam Adams is leading for Multnomah County Commissioner seat. Hide your sons.
Senator David Brock Smith got reelected in spite of his support for providing tampons to kindergarten boys and the quorum Democrats needed to pass their bills. Smith reliably showed up on the Senate floor day after day while others walked out , determined to protect his seat and the Democrat’s agenda.
Proving you can fool some of the people all of the time, Smith repeatedly used his bill promoting offshore windmills to convince people in his district that he opposed off shore windmills. It would appear that exactly none of Smith’s supporters ever read the bill. Smith is now free to once again use his office to direct taxpayer money into “non-profits” that pay…David Brock Smith. Really, who would have guessed?
But no race promises to have the impact of the reemergence of failed governor candidate Christine Drazan. It’s hard to imagine a legislator who did more damage to the state and the party image than Drazan. As Republican House Leader Drazan voted time after time to zip tie the police during Oregon’s riot season. She celebrated the conviction of Derek Chauvin in the death of felon drug addict George Floyd, voted twice to put tampons in kindergarten boy’s bathrooms, changed the state song lyrics because they included the words “free men” and protected a Kotek staffer who was arrested at one of Portland’s nightly mostly peaceful protests.
Drazan’s humiliating “deal” with then Speaker Kotek (which of course Kotek reneged on) was the most absurd of her capitulations but in the end, money talks. Now she’s back having defeated the sitting Republican, James Hieb, and spending a boatload of lobby money. It was “her” seat after all and no mere combat wounded Marine veteran with principles was going to stand in her way.
Drazan’s obsessive lust for attention virtually guarantees that she will once again attempt to claw her way to the Leader’s position and, given the makeup of the House Republican Caucus, likely succeed. Drazan will no doubt see current leader Jeff Helfrich as a minor speed bump in her quest to return to her role as the mastermind of Republican surrender while hilariously selling herself as a “fighter.” We suspect that the left over supply of “Jingle Jeff’s” Christmas campaign merch will be going for bargain prices as Drazan storms into the Capitol to retake the seat she knows “belongs to her” and once again leads the House Republicans to embarrassing defeats in the loving name of “bipartisanship.”
But at least now she won’t get smacked around by Speaker Tina Kotek. Now she’ll get smacked around by Speaker Julie Fahey.
Buckle up folks, the surrenders are coming.