Republicans began boycotting the House floor Monday afternoon, shortly after the Oregon Senate sent their chamber a controversial bill that would reschedule a referendum on transportation tax and fee increases from November to May.
“Today, House Republicans have determined it is best for us to walk out of the building until the majority party will begin to work with us on this gas tax referral,” Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, said in a Monday video posted to social media, standing under an umbrella at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial next to the building.
Another Republican who opposes the tax increases, Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Scio, confirmed his caucus would not be returning to the chamber ahead of an afternoon session where lawmakers were poised to vote on legislation seeking to bolster the rollout of the voter-approved 2022 gun control law, Measure 114, which has since been tied up in court challenges.
The quorum-denying announcement coincided with a scathing press release issued by House Republicans, who said they were pausing deliberations on the House floor after House Democrats moved to appoint a replacement for Rep. Jason Kropf, a Democrat from Bend and former chair of the House Committee on Conduct who has spearheaded gun control legislation.
The House gaveled back into session at 4:54 p.m. and promptly adjourned until 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. Only one Republican, Rep. Kevin Mannix of Salem, was there, leaving House Democrats unable to pass their gun legislation, accept the transportation vote-shifting bill from the Senate and consider other measures involving wildlife funding protection and law enforcement visibility.
“We all showed up to vote on these critical bills… I’m disappointed that our Republican colleagues decided to leave this building instead,” House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, told her colleagues. “Because of that, we didn’t vote on a single bill, and we have wasted the public’s time and money.”
Rep. Thủy Trần, D- Portland, had accused Kropf of fomenting a hostile environment during committee deliberations over the bill last week, and he was no longer listed alongside Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Portland, as a chief sponsor of the legislation as of Monday afternoon. Kropf is a vocal gun control advocate who kicked into action legislating on the issue after a 2022 mass shooting in Bend.
Trần did not submit a formal complaint to the Legislative Equity Office over Kropf’s behavior, however. A professional arms instructor and gun rights advocate Derek LeBlanc submitted the complaint. LeBlanc told the Salem Statesman Journal that the equity office informed him last week that an independent investigator found it did not warrant investigation and the complaint was dismissed.
House Democrats emerged from a caucus meeting on Monday two hours after the chamber was set to convene, with House Majority Leader Ben Bowman, D-Tigard, announcing that Kropf had resigned from the House Conduct Committee and appointing Rep. Tawna Sanchez, D-Portland as a replacement. House Republicans were caught off-guard by the move and demanded a full investigation into Kropf’s conduct after Fahey ruled that the motion to replace Kropf was not up for debate.
House Minority Leader Rep. Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, accused Democrats of attempting to sweep the dispute under the rug instead of supporting Trần. She called for the Legislative Equity Office to conduct “a full investigation into this matter that is both inclusive and transparent.”
“The allegation that a lawmaker created a hostile working environment by intimidating another lawmaker into changing their vote is a serious allegation that creates distrust in the democratic process,” Elmer said in a statement. “It must be properly addressed and thoroughly investigated through a transparent process that respects the victim and remedies the wrong committed against them.”
Laura Daniel, a retired teacher from Keizer who came to show support for the bill with Moms Demand Action, a nonprofit nationwide gun control group, sat waiting in the gallery above the House floor Monday afternoon.
“You’re expecting to be able to hear testimony and see a vote on a bill and then to just have it not happen, it’s frustrating,” Daniel said.
Mistrust in feds prompts tense dispute
The debate over House Bill 4145, the gun control legislation set for a vote on Monday, hit a new inflection point given Oregon Democrats’ heightened mistrust in sharing data with the Trump administration during its aggressive deportation campaign. In committee last week, two Oregon Democrats tensely debated the new legislation’s impact on information-sharing with the FBI at a time when lawmakers are proceeding with a package of immigrant rights legislation.
After Trần, a gun owner and lieutenant colonel in the Oregon National Guard, raised concerns about how the federal government would handle diverse gun owners’ information and voted against an amendment to the bill, Kropf immediately sighed and called the meeting to a pause, averting a potential tie. The lawmakers returned to the hearing after speaking outside the committee room, and Trần, who went on to change her position to a yes on the bill.
She said she had been informed of federal regulations, which ensure the FBI destroys information from background checks within 24 hours. The rule applies to cases in which an applicant is successfully cleared with no disqualifying information.
But the pair’s exchange outside the committee room prompted a gun rights advocate who observed the interaction to file a legislative conduct complaint alleging Kropf, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, verbally abused and intimidated Trần. Trần later told reporters that Kropf created a hostile environment, alleging that his “management of events did create confusion, suspicion and distrust in the Democratic process.”
Kropf has maintained that he respects Trần and that it’s common for tensions to be running high, particularly for issues such as gun safety. It’s not uncommon for lawmakers embroiled in legislative conduct complaints in Salem to attempt to step down from their positions on the conduct committee.
In a statement, the Bend Democrat didn’t directly comment on the status of the original complaint against him. Kropf confirmed his resignation from the conduct committee and said he has offered to cooperate with the Legislative Equity Office, adding that he would be willing to do so “in the future should the need arise.”
“While I believe deeply in the purpose and work of the committee, it has become obvious in recent days that my presence on that body was serving as a distraction to the important business of the House of Representatives,” Kropf said. “I thank my colleagues for the opportunity to lead in this area and have utmost confidence that the current committee will continue its work with competence and integrity.”
It’s not the first time Republicans have seized on an instance of alleged misconduct by Democrats to further their legislative goals. Last year, after Sen. Chris Gorsek, D-Gresham, raised his voice at Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, during a joint transportation committee hearing, several Republicans boycotted the House floor. Though they were unable to deny a quorum, the dispute prompted Boshart Davis to file a legislative misconduct complaint, and Gorsek resigned from his chairmanship.
Mannix, the lone Republican on the floor Monday evening, said he owed it to his constituents to show up.
“I have routinely shown up as a representative since I first served in 1989 to 2001, and having come back in 2023, I continue to feel like my constituents expect me to be here,” he said.
Senior reporter Alex Baumhardt contributed reporting
Oregon Capital Chronicle
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