Anyone watching Oregon campaign finance records earlier this year might have hit on a curious sight.
On a single day in February, two of the state senate’s most outspoken members — Mike McLane and Daniel Bonham — reported big purchases from the same electronics website, more than $35,000 combined.
About a month later, “Oregon D.O.G.E.” was born.
“I know it’s a controversial name,” said McLane, R-Powell Butte, of the politics podcast he and Bonham launched in mid-March. “I wanted to provoke thought. I want to be controversial. This is important.”
The title is a nod to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, the Elon Musk-led endeavor that’s slashed its way through the federal workforce this year. For McLane and Bonham’s purposes, it actually means “discussion of government efficiency.” And the two Republicans have found a lot to discuss.
In a little more than two months, “Oregon D.O.G.E.” has released 17 episodes digging into spending at state agencies and why McLane, Bonham, and their rotating cast of guests feel majority Democrats are doing it all wrong.
“Ultimately it’s a nerdy podcast because we’re going through budget by budget,” McLane said. “And we’re asking this question over and over to people: Is this the government that you want?”
The jury is still out on that answer. Nationally, political podcasts are a hot commodity and one of the most listened to genres. Niche legislative podcasts don’t necessarily pack the same draw. Episodes posted to YouTube have so far topped out at hundreds of views, rather than thousands.
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But “Oregon D.O.G.E.” is just the tip of the spear in what has been an all-out blitz by state Republicans into the medium this year. With quality microphones, high-definition cameras and a professional-looking studio provided by Bonham and McLane, a growing cast of GOP lawmakers have emerged with their own shows.
Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, interviews colleagues and acquaintances in “The Starr Chamber”.
On “Back to Basics,” Rep. Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River, promises his listeners ideas to “cut through red tape, get to simpler government, and get to stuff that works for you.”
And while State Sen. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, doesn’t have his own podcast yet, he’s pledged to release one soon with a title playing off of his initials: “No B.S. with D.B.S.”
At a time when Republicans hold super minorities in both chambers, McLane and Bonham say their party needs to expand its reach and speak directly to Oregonians. A mini-podcasting empire felt like the right move.
“The old days of a press release that shakes the fist at the majority party and says, ‘We should be outraged!’ Guess what? That’s not working,” McLane said. “How are you going to communicate to the generation that grew up with podcasts and Instagram reels?”
If you’re looking for razzle dazzle, keep scrolling through your podcast feed. The Republican offerings mostly consist of staid interviews and issue discussions — all with a conservative bent. They’re great for politics nerds, but not always gripping.
But the shows are well produced and designed to reach the masses. High-quality video allows the GOP to circulate clips featuring pointed critiques of Democrats on social media sites like X and Instagram.
“My niece yesterday was like… ‘Uncle Dan, I see you every day on Tik Tok,’” Bonham said in a recent episode. “We’re trying this new avenue [that’s] relatively untested.”
Some methods of promotion are more old school. Helfrich has stickers on his Capitol desk touting the “Back to Basics Army” that listens to his show — though he concedes he’s not sure how many troops he has.
“If people want to listen, great,” he said. “If they don’t, that’s fine too. I’m just offering a different perspective.”
With the crush of new shows, Republicans now dominate an Oregon legislative podcast market that they’d already had an edge in.
Even before the current glut of audio content, GOP legislative staffers Reagan Knopp and Bryan Iverson had been producing their own podcast, “Crosstabs”, for about a year. The show is more freewheeling than those from sitting lawmakers, and doesn’t shy from campaign speculation and political gossip.
“Entertaining is as important as substance when you do podcasts,” Iverson, who is married to Republican state Rep. Vikki Breese Iverson, R-Prineville, said recently when asked about the new offerings from his party. “Can you actually hold an audience, grow an audience and make it valuable? If that’s the case, then I’m all for it.”
So where are statehouse Democrats? Members of the majority party, often quick to tout their love of podcasts, are sitting this one out. But some have dabbled in the past.
Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, briefly co-hosted a podcast called “Capitolizing” with former Sen. Shemia Fagan, D-Portland, in 2019.
And House Majority Leader Ben Bowman, D-Tigard, for years co-hosted “Oregon Bridge”, a show that paired his liberal perspective with a number of Republican co-hosts (including Knopp).
The show attempted to offer a glimpse of Oregon’s more amicable political past — a time when Capitol walkouts were unheard of. But Bowman pulled the plug last year.
“It ended because podcasts take so much work to do well,” he now says. “If you’re going to do it weekly, you have to have a long list of people that you can ask weeks out. So it just became logistically challenging.”
Asked about the flood of GOP podcasts, Bowman jokingly estimated the new shows have “dozens of listeners in every corner of the state.”
“I do know several of the people doing Oregon politics podcasts, and let me assure you, these are not Joe Rogan numbers that we’re putting up,” he said.
Yet Bowman isn’t ready to completely cede the territory.
“I do want to bring back the podcast,” he said. “I think we probably will.”
