I’m writing in response to Mr. Rick Larsen, who called on my friends and neighbors to pressure me to withdraw my recall petition against Sen. Chuck Thomsen.
The recall campaign has thousands of supporters and hundreds of volunteers from all corners of our district. We believe that when Chuck Thomsen and his Republican colleagues abandoned their duties in Salem and blocked ALL the important work of the legislative session, it hurt and will continue to hurt all Oregonians. In every other line of work, Sen. Thomsen would be terminated for this behavior; in this case, he deserves to be recalled and replaced with someone who will go to work for us.
There is no reason we cannot continue to hold our government officials accountable for failing in their duties while at the same time working together as a community to respond to the coronavirus crisis. If anything, this is an even more important time to do both. Good government, as we’ve seen as this pandemic has unfolded, is actually MORE important during times of crisis.
If there is anywhere to lay blame for starting a “bitter partisan fight,” it is with Sen. Thomsen’s choice to take a vacation in Arizona on state tax-payers’ dime when he was supposed to be doing his job. This behavior by an elected official violates many fundamental values and principles of our democracy: Majority rule, civic responsibility, good-faith governance, tolerance, cooperation, and compromise.
As to Mr. Larsen’s incendiary suggestion that canvassers have been deployed “to invade our county during the current pandemic,” this allegation is simply false. Signature collection stopped before the governor’s stay at home order was issued on March 16.
Local volunteers like me will continue the recall effort by working to promote a “sign at home” option during the “stay at home” order.
It’s a real challenge to collect the number of signatures we need during the stay at home order, but the effort is ongoing. Since stopping in-person signature gathering, we have still managed to collect hundreds of mail-in petitions downloaded from the recallthomsen.com. This level of engagement shows that large numbers of people all across the district want to hold Sen. Thomsen accountable for failing to represent us.
I invite voters in our district who want your representatives to work for you to download a signature form at recallthomsen.com to sign and mail in. If you don’t have a printer, use this form, bit.ly/ChuckThomsenPrintPetition, to request a printed signature sheet to be delivered to you.
Lara Dunn is the petitioner in the ongoing recall petition drive against Sen. Chuck Thomsen of Hood River. She is an elected member of the Hood River Valley Transportation District Board of Directors.
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