Oregon state lawmakers approved a measure late last week to make it harder for members of the public to obtain their home address.
The bipartisan vote in favor of Senate Bill 224 seems almost prescient after what unfolded over the weekend: a gunman assassinating a Minnesota state lawmaker at her home, shooting another and reportedly visiting the houses of two other state legislators.
The vote was pure coincidence, of course, but it highlights a growing concern about political violence in an era of deepening political divide.
Earlier this month, Democratic Sen. James Manning testified in favor of the measure. He told his fellow lawmakers about a time he voted for a bill dealing with gun storage upset people.
“Information is so readily available on the Secretary of State website, I myself have been doxxed,” Manning said.
Manning told his colleagues that his home address popped up all over social media and messages urged people to visit his home and protest.
The bill would make it harder to access home addresses for a wide range of elected officials, from city councilors to school board members to judges. The information could still be obtained, but a person would need to submit a public records request to obtain it. The information is currently readily available on the Secretary of State’s website.
Oregon lawmakers are less than two weeks away from finishing their own legislative session. On Monday, they grappled with the devastating news of the apparent political assassination of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman.
There is no reason to believe there is any local threat due to the shootings in Minnesota, the governor’s office reiterated Monday. But in this era of heightened political division, state lawmakers from both political parties decried the political violence.
Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, said it was a sobering weekend for the whole country, but perhaps even more so for other elected officials. He said going forward, he would be sure to distinguish between criticizing a proposal versus the person who is backing the measure.
“To make sure that my passion is directed towards the substance of the proposal and not the character of the person proposing,” Golden said. “I do think it can be a thin line. I probably have crossed it one time or another, and I’m gonna do everything I possibly can not to do it again.”
Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, made a similar point, saying acts of political violence should serve “as a wake-up call for Americans of all political backgrounds to find common ground and ratchet down extreme, hyper-partisan rhetoric.”
“Political opposition is just that,” Bonham said in a statement. “They’re not enemies. They’re people who want to solve the same problems that we’ve identified differently. It’s no cause to incite violence.”
