A Democrat in the Oregon Legislature recently voted against her party’s transportation package. She was bullied as a result, she said, and decided not to seek reelection.
A Republican voted in favor of the transportation tax package. He was labeled a “criminal” and a “traitor,” he said, and switched political parties.
In this era of hyper-partisanship, the fate of Reps. Annessa Hartman and Cyrus Javadi reflect the broader trend of a growing political divide permeating the country.
Oregon has never been immune to partisanship. There has long been political pressure put on those who have strayed from their party’s ideology.
But the state has also prided itself on being far away enough from Washington, D.C., that it could hold on to what’s been dubbed the “Oregon Way” of governing, where the two political parties manage to prioritize finding common ground despite policy differences.
Some fear that concept — and the idea of moderate lawmakers — is becoming increasingly obsolete.
Democrats have hardly needed to negotiate with Republicans let alone wrangle their own dissidents. They have had near total control of both legislative chambers in the state for years, often with supermajorities. They’ve also held control of the governor’s mansion since 1987.
Republicans, for their part, have repeatedly resorted to the so-called “nuclear” option of staging prolonged political walkouts.
“I do believe the party [loyalty] has gotten much more defining than it used to be,” said former state Sen. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay.
Party loyalty was less defining in the past
Roblan would know. In 2011, when Oregon was facing a deep budget hole, the House was evenly split between 30 Republicans and 30 Democrats. Roblan was co-speaker of the house alongside Republican Bruce Hanna of Roseburg.
“When we had the 30-30 tie it was pretty clear nothing would come out of the Legislature if it wasn’t bipartisan,” Roblan, a former high school principal and math teacher, said. “You had to figure out how to have the conversations and there were some very difficult times.”
Roblan recalled a conversation with Hanna at the time where they decided their dynamic would be akin to a healthy marriage: They would agree at times, disagree at others, and trust that they would each be honest and respectful.
The two speakers decided every legislative committee would also have co-chairs, one from each party. So, the powerful budget writing committee had one very liberal chair from Ashland, Peter Buckley, and a very conservative lawmaker from Central Point, Dennis Richardson.
The co-chairs could not have been more different, but it worked. The two were able to strike several high-stake budget deals that were praised as compromise at the time.
In retrospect, Hanna said, the tie itself was an important period of time in the state’s history.
“It proved you could allow people to vote their conscience, to vote their district and you could still get things done,” Hanna, the owner and operator of the Roseburg Coca-Cola Bottling Company, said. “Nobody got exactly what they wanted, but the state of Oregon fared better.”
“When I watch today’s antics … it’s shocking to see how absolutely partisan it is,” Hanna said.
Roblan and Hanna have both retired from lawmaking, but they remain friends.
Moderate voices drowned out
Another former longtime lawmaker, Mark Hass, a Beaverton Democrat who spent 14 years in the Senate and six years in the House, recalled his first tough vote and all the pressure that was applied to him.
In 2009, he cast the deciding vote that killed a controversial tax measure being pushed by his party. He remembers the pressure well: the call from then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski, the push from powerful then-Senate President Peter Courtney, who died last July.
Hass didn’t budge.
Looking back on it, he said, it was liberating.
“Voting against your party is the fastest way to find out who your friends are, and sometimes that’s a short list,” he said. “And so it became easier and easier for me because I knew I could do it and that was why I was there.”
But, arguably, the willingness to stand up to his party ultimately cost him.
Hass remained in office until his bid to become secretary of state in 2020. He was defeated in the Democratic primary by Shemia Fagan in a tight race. Fagan had the backing of the state’s powerful public unions.
“They [the unions] recruited her to run against me,” Hass said of the race, noting unions also poured a lot of money into Fagan’s campaign, a move that came after Hass took another vote dealing with the state’s pension system that bucked the party establishment.
When one party continues to control the state, and hold supermajorities, it means there is less of a need to compromise, several former Democratic lawmakers noted. The more moderate voices, those who perhaps have a more business-minded or rural perspective, are drowned out.
Democrats currently have a 37-23 edge in the House and 18-12 in the Senate.
Hass believes open primaries could be key in electing more centrist lawmakers.
More unaffiliated voters
In Oregon, only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in major primary races statewide. That prevents unaffiliated voters from participating early on in the electoral process.
The number of unaffiliated voters in the state is growing. Closed primaries also tend to help candidates who are either farther to the left or the right win an election.
If you ask Charlie Conrad, a former Republican in the state House, whether you could buck your party and survive politically, his response comes quick.
“Most likely not.”
Conrad was the only Oregon Republican lawmaker who supported a contentious bill expanding abortion rights and gender affirming care in 2023.
“It depends on if it’s a watershed platform for that party,” he added. “For Republicans, anything with abortions or guns and you’re done.”
Conrad lost the next election, beaten handily by a Republican challenger in the primary. Oregon Right to Life, a powerful anti-abortion group, launched a campaign against him.
Conrad also left the Republican Party and plans to make a bid for the House as a member of the Independent Party in Oregon in the next election cycle.
Former Democratic lawmaker Marty Wilde might slightly disagree with Conrad’s take. He picked a fight with his own party over redistricting — not necessarily a watershed issue — in 2021. He told members of his party his House district had been gerrymandered in Democrats’ favor for the past decade.
He was told, “You object and you’re going to get drawn out [of the district].”
The map did just that.
Wilde’s Eugene district is now represented by a Republican.
This year, neither Javadi nor Hartman have been content to wait for consequences from their political parties. Both proactively made moves before being punished by the party apparatus.
“I don’t take lightly to feeling bullied,” Hartman said in a previous interview with OPB. “And if I’m being transparent, that was the nail in the coffin that I can’t be part of this system anymore.”
