House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) has broken the deal made with the minority party earlier this year which allowed the Republicans to have equal representation on the Redistricting Committee.

On Monday, September 20, as it became clear that the House Democrats would not get the redistricting plan approved that would give them an advantage over the Republicans, the Speaker decided at that point to form a new committee that would be willing to do just that.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

House Republican Leader Christine Drazan (R-Canby) released the following statement in response to House Democrats’ creation of a new partisan committee to force through a gerrymandered congressional map:

“The Speaker has created a new partisan committee to force through the Democrats’ illegal congressional redistricting map. She lied and broke her promise not just to us but to Oregonians. She just sold the soul of our state for Democrats’ political gain. She’s determined to gerrymander Oregon’s congressional maps. Republicans have been at the table extending a hand so we can work together on fair maps. We wanted to be responsive to public testimony. This map doesn’t do that.”

Representative Shelly Boshart Davis (R-Albany) released the following statement regarding her attendance at the newly created partisan committee to pass the Democrats’ gerrymandered congressional redistricting map:

“The redistricting process in Oregon is in tatters because of actions from House Democrats today. Agreements were broken, a partisan committee has been created. Not a single line in this congressional map proposal was changed to be responsive to public testimony.

They have abandoned bipartisanship and collaboration in order to increase Democrats’ political gain. This brand-new committee was created to pass these maps that have been scrutinized and defined as partisan gerrymandering. This was the predetermined outcome for political interests. Not fair representation for Oregonians.

I won’t contribute to an illegal partisan map by participating in this committee.”

--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-09-21 10:40:25

Last Update: 2021-09-21 18:16:39