At our last in-person meeting in March, 2020, we heard from Dana Haynes, author and managing editor for Pamplin Media Newspapers. He joined us again on December 1 on zoom to reflect on the recent election, Oregon politics, local journalism, and the 10 books he has written. It was an informative and entertaining evening. Some of the take-aways:
This was another year of the woman in Oregon.
No other state ever has had three women running for governor in the three top spots.
Only one other state has had a woman replace a woman as governor and Oregon is the first one to have two women who identified as sexual minorities in this role.
Four of our six U.S. representatives are now women,
Mayors of 6 of the 12 incorporated cities in Washington County are women,
The three major Metro counties are all headed by women as is Metro council.
Phil Knight cannot get involved in politics - as the richest man in Oregon, he consistently chooses and significantly funds a person who loses.
We are getting away from the Portland form of governance - the Galveston/commissioner model, which hasn't worked. We don't know how the new system will work but any change is probably good.
Dana says that he was suffering significant anxiety before this election - that democracy would be experience a stress test. That didn't happen in ways that we anticipated. Those the former president endorsed lost.
News from Pamplin media - they are beginning to charge for both print and online access. They are 25 local publications plus a daily online product. They will be linking with other news sources to give state wide coverage including stories from 50 reporters. You can subscribe here: https://pamplinsubscribe.com/portlandtribune/
Tina Kotek's knowledge of the legislature will help her push legislation through. The new legislative leadership looks good. He hopes that the governor and legislative leadership make building housing the priority for several sessions. We have a problem with unsheltered people because we have underbuilt for a long time. Portland metro region has to build 14,700 housing units per year for twenty years to catch up. This is going to require broad scale support.
Our legislature is increasingly diverse, including 5 Vietnamese legislators.