‘Up to voters of his district’: Oregon lawmakers mostly silent on Rep. Greg Smith ethics violations

Last week, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission fined Smith, R-Heppner, $12,000 for violating state ethics laws and abusing his position as a public official to boost his pay and approve his own vacation time as director of a federally funded public development authority. Despite the authority’s board directing Smith to repay $33,000 he received through a raise he maneuvered without the board’s knowledge, Smith has kept the money.

Smith denied any intentional wrongdoing, and says he is willing to return the money, but he agreed to pay $12,000 to end the case rather than pursue a defense in a contested hearing. That fine is among the largest in state history and symbolic of the weight of the conflict-of-interest violations with which he was charged.

It followed four investigations into Smith by the commission during the past two years, including two where he was found to have failed to disclose clients of his private consulting company on annual economic interest statements, and for which he was issued letters of education — essentially a formal reprimand. In response to one commission investigation, Smith reported his household income in recent years averaged more than $1 million annually.

The ethics commission, created in the wake of President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, exists to ensure public officials don’t use or attempt to use their positions for financial gain or to avoid financial detriments. While the commission can issue civil penalties, it’s ultimately up to the Legislature to police its own members’ behavior.

Smith, the state’s longest-serving current lawmaker, has not faced any major penalties in the Legislature despite ethics investigations and an ongoing civil lawsuit the state Department of Justice filed against him and other eastern Oregon officials.

He remains a member of House Republican leadership and continues serving as vice chair of the budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee, though House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, removed him as co-chair of the General Government budget subcommittee last Friday following the ethics commission’s action. He also holds onto his seat on the Capitol Construction Committee, where public and private developers seek state financing for projects.

Smith, who did not respond to a call, text or email from the Capital Chronicle, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that Fahey recently assigned him to a subcommittee that could influence how the state implements its Medicaid program in the wake of sweeping federal cuts.

“Speaker Fahey made the decision to remove him as Co-chair of the General Government Subcommittee of Joint Ways and Means, but to make no changes to his committee memberships,” Jack Lehman, Fahey’s chief of staff, told the Capital Chronicle in an email.

In addition to Fahey, Capital Chronicle reporters reached out to all 35 Republican members of the Oregon House and Senate, as well as their communications officials and House Republicans’ chief of staff, to see what, if any, consequences Smith should face in light of the ethics commission findings. Reporters also reached out to Rep. Ben Bowman, House majority leader and a Democrat from Tigard, who declined to comment.

’Failure to respond'

Reporters asked the lawmakers if Smith should remain in the Legislature, if he should continue to run for re-election as the Republican nominee for the 57th House District in the November election, if he should stay in House Republican leadership and if he should continue to serve on his committees.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been called on by their peers to resign, and lost committee appointments and leadership roles, for allegations of sexual harassment, for letting armed intruders into the Capitol, for smoking in the Capitol and for making rude comments.

Last June, after Sen. Chris Gorsek, a Democrat from Troutdale, raised his voice at Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, a Republican from Albany, in a heated meeting about transportation funding, House Republicans quickly accused him of gender discrimination and harassment. They demanded Gorsek be publicly censured, removed from all committees, attend anger management training and a building-wide notification be issued when he was in the Capitol.

Gorsek resigned from the transportation committee. A bipartisan committee of senators cleared him of engaging in discrimination or harassment, though it concluded he was disrespectful.

House Republicans wrote in a news release at the time that his behavior “weakens our democratic institutions,” and called out Senate President Rob Wagner, a Lake Oswego Democrat, for his “shameful silence, failure to respond and inaction.”

’Actions have consequences'

Of the 35 members of the Oregon House and Senate Republican caucuses Capital Chronicle reporters reached out to, just three Senators and two Representatives responded. Reps. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River, both declined to comment.

House Minority Leader Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, did not respond to a call, text or email. Sen. Christine Drazan, a Republican from Canby who is running for governor and led the House Republican caucus when it sought to punish Gorsek, did not respond to multiple calls, emails and a text.

Rep. Dwayne Yunker, R-Grants Pass, did not respond to inquiries but did take to Facebook earlier in August to say that House Republicans need to call on Smith to “take responsibility and do the right thing,” without elaborating on what that would be.

“Leadership sometimes requires difficult conversations with people we respect. Our caucus should have that conversation and ask Rep. Smith to do the right thing,” he wrote. “We cannot demand accountability from others while remaining silent when it is our own. Our principles must mean the same regardless of whose name is involved.”

Sen. Todd Nash, a Republican from Enterprise who also represents voters in Smith’s district, said any decisions about consequences for Smith are a decision for the House and voters.

“That’s really a House decision. I’m on the Senate side and I don’t really have input on that,” Nash said. “As far as running for reelection, that’s between Greg and the voters of House District 57 and I respect the voters there and their decision making, and Greg’s ability to run.”

State Sen. Suzanne Weber, an outgoing Republican from Tillamook, said the commission’s decision illustrates that “Actions have consequences, particularly for those of us entrusted with public office.” Weber is barred from running for re-election after participating in a six-week walkout in 2023 over Democratic bills on abortion, gender-affirming care and guns.

Like Nash, she said it would be up to voters in Smith’s district to decide if he carries on representing them.

“I believe all of us who hold public office have an obligation to maintain the public’s trust and to accept the consequences when we fall short of that responsibility,” she said in an email.

Sen. Noah Robinson, a Republican from Cave Junction in southern Oregon, said it was hard for him to believe a public official would deliberately and repeatedly violate conflict of interest laws and that Smith must have done so mistakenly. He echoed Nash and Weber in saying it would be up to voters to decide Smith’s future in the Legislature.

“I think they [lawmakers] should be held to a high standard. And I think we should give people latitude for mistakes,” he said. “If there’s a pattern of fraud, that’s a different matter.”

The latter could be decided in the coming months in court.

Smith is among several public officials in eastern Oregon being sued by the state for allegedly conspiring to enrich themselves through a deal with Amazon amid data center growth in their area. State attorneys allege Smith worked to help local officials develop a strategy for concealing their work. He has denied the allegations and any wrongdoing.

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This story was originally published by the Oregon Capitol Chronicle. Columbia Gorge News editied Baumhardt’s piece for a regional, rather than statewide, audience.