Oregon GOP launches effort to recall Democratic Gov. Kate Brown
The chairman of the Oregon Republican Party on Monday filed paperwork to launch a recall against Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, citing some of the laws Democrats passed in the 2019 legislative session.
Chairman Bill Currier also pointed to Brown’s announcement the day after lawmakers went home last month that if necessary, she would use her executive powers to implement climate change policies similar to the plan defeated in Salem this year. In a move that attracted international attention and rallied conservatives in Oregon, Senate Republicans boycotted the Capitol for more than a week in June to prevent Democrats from voting on the carbon capping bill. Democrats ultimately conceded they lacked the votes to pass the bill.
“(Brown) has threatened to usurp legislative power with executive orders to implement her failed legislation, deciding single-handedly what is best for Oregon,” Currier wrote on the petition, on which he used his official GOP email address. “This is not the Oregon way.”
Monday was the first day opponents could file petitions to recall Brown, who has now served six months of her second term after winning reelection in November. Organizers now have 90 days to gather 280,050 valid signatures from voters, according to the Secretary of State’s office. That’s a high bar: it’s not unusual for campaigns to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars collecting signatures to qualify initiatives for the ballot, even though recent initiatives have needed just over 100,000 signatures to qualify.
If recall supporters gather enough signatures, a special election could be scheduled sometime in November. In the short-term, the recall effort means Oregonians might be approached to sign the petition to recall Brown at the same time opponents of a new multibillion-dollar business tax increase are gathering signatures to refer it to voters.
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/07/oregon-gop-launches-effort-to-recall-democratic-gov-kate-brown.html?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWm1RM05tTmxOVGN3TnpNNCIsInQiOiJneEVcLzhYOVZpQWREZjFLNG50cUl1cW5Hc08xc0dGelVoNjBvS3B3SUhFdDFXMFplbzBCZzI3anVyUThNTHpSWG45TkpFZExtMXBkRzZrOUlnWHYwMlJDQjNGSk01OWxMTmJ0REliVGprQnU4ZTltdWNJMUNucmM3MkNpWUx5WEQifQ%3D%3D
