By Gary A. Warner, Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — There are 67 weeks until the November 2024 election, but this week showed some campaigns have set their alarm clocks extra early.
Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, says he will run for another term, if he can legally do it. So will Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls. Treasurer Tobias Read wants to switch jobs and run for Oregon Secretary of State.
Read moves toward unexpected opening
The 2024 ballot still remains mostly a fill-in-the-blanks list. Candidates can’t file for office with the Oregon Secretary of State until Sept. 14, and the deadline isn’t until early next year.
Candidate finance committees can be created at any time. It was a small change by Treasurer Tobias Read that signaled his 2024 plans. Read filed an amendment to his committee’s statement with the Elections Division of the Secretary of State changing his fundraising purpose from his unsuccessful 2022 bid for governor to a 2024 bid for secretary of state.
Willamette Week was the first to notice the switch. Read is at the end of his second term as treasurer and is barred by the Oregon constitution from seeking a third. The May resignation by Secretary of State Shemia Fagan amid a scandal over moonlighting for a cannabis dispensary company has created an unexpected opening on the Democratic primary ballot next May.
Read says he will make a full announcement soon, but in a statement Tuesday he indicated he was aware of the turbulence in the race caused by Fagan’s departure.
“As secretary of state, I will rebuild trust and give voters confidence that their public officials work for the people — and no one else,” he said.
Senators seek green light to run again
An early question mark will be the fate of a group of Republican senators who took part in a boycott of Senate floor sessions this year in order to deny a quorum required to meet and do any business. The 42-day walkout ended when Democrats agreed to watered-down versions of House-passed legislation on abortion, transgender medical care and gun control.
After Republican walkouts had led to the stall or collapse of previous sessions, voters in November 2022 approved Measure 113 as a way to increase penalties for taking part in stall tactics in the Legislature.
Backers said the measure would bar the re-election of any lawmaker who had 10 unexcused absences. Nine Republicans and one independent member of the Senate surpassed the mark during the 2023 walkout.
The GOP lawmakers and their supporters say the bill was poorly written and likely unconstitutional. On Monday, Knopp and Linthicum said they would run for re-election and had sent a letter to Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, asking for “a declaratory ruling on Measure 113 on whether Sen. Knopp and Sen. Linthicum will be allowed ballot access for the 2024 election.”
The seats held by Knopp and Linthicum are both up for election in 2024. The Monday letter officially only asks Griffin-Valade to make a decision. That decision — a yes or no answer — could then be appealed in court.
Oregon voters “desperately want balance,” Knopp said. “Senate Republicans are looking forward to vigorous debates over the course of the campaign season.”
Commented