Jenny Smith

Following the defeat of a local law enforcement tax levy, officials in Josephine County have begun to dismantle the sheriff's office and public safety operations this week.

Due to lack of funding, the sheriff's office has laid off 19 (of 25) road deputies, reduced its K-9 unit to one dog, and closed several divisions, including its major crimes unit and non-emergency calls department. The list gets worse from there.

How much worse? Yesterday, 39 inmates were released from the county jail. Local news crews were on the scene for the release.
 

 
Undersheriff Don Fasching and other sheriff office staff expressed their concern about recidivism without community support for the released inmates, many of whom have multiple felony convictions.
 
The question is, what happens now? The county’s unemployment rate is 12.4% (nearly 4 points higher than the state average). Funding has been slashed for the support services that could help the former inmates successfully reintegrate, and the devastating public safety cuts mean few officers will be available to respond to emergency calls.
 
In short, it’s a recipe for disaster for everyone involved.
 
From the Oregonian: "...the sheriff's civil division reduced its hours to three hours a day, four days a week. Road patrols diminish on Friday, dropping from 20 hours a day to eight hours a day, five days a week. The number of patrol deputy positions will drop from 24.5 to six. Three of those are contract deputies, specifically assigned to patrol Cave Junction, Bureau of Land Management forests and Oregon State Marine Board waterways. That leaves two deputies and a sergeant for the rest of the county.

With just six patrol deputies for the entire county, this amounts to one deputy for every 13,785 residents -- up dramatically from a ratio of one deputy to 3,308 people before the cuts took place. Or, from a geographical stand point, each remaining deputy is effectively responsible for 273 square miles of the county.

BLOG: The day after: Clackamas strategy pays off for conservatives
Sockeye Blog
"Despite a relatively low turnout rate, the election that wrapped up yesterday featured some results that will have lasting impacts for years to come. One of the most intriguing developments has been the shift in political strategy by the state’s top conservative campaign donors. Last week, we outlined this shift: conservative donors appear to have largely abandoned statewide races, and instead are focusing on local races, starting in Clackamas County."

Turnout 32 percent in Oregon primary election
KGW
"Charlie Hales and Jefferson Smith will face off in the November election for Mayor of Portland. Eileen Brady, one of the front-runners for most of the campaign, finished third. Amanda Fritz and Mary Nolan will also head to the run-off after neither gained the 50 percent vote required to win outright."

Your lobby report on Oregon's 2012 Legislative primary election
Oregonian
"Hey, forget about how the legislative candidates did on Tuesday night.  How about the lobbyists and the special interests behind them?  They like to think of themselves as the permanent government in Salem anyway. Let's start with Mark Nelson, the influential business lobbyist who is the big force behind the Oregon Committee -- a group of like-minded lobbyists who strategize on legislation and political strategy."

There’s quite a hullabaloo this week about the Supreme Court hearings on “Obamacare” as the justices consider their most high-profile case in years. Despite President Obama’s recent appointments to the court – Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, it looks as if the overall conservative makeup might outweigh public opinion.

For many of the young people in my generation, the debate over Obamacare isn’t theoretical — it affects our lives every day.

My friends who will graduate from college this year and be thrown into the frozen employment landscape will have health insurance for only one reason — they are now allowed to be on their parents’ health insurance until age 26. That’s 3-4 extra years with healthcare, years when young people have typically gone without insurance.

The single most important effect of “Obamacare” has been to prohibit insurance companies from denying patients coverage for “pre-existing conditions.” That phrase has been thrown around a lot over the last few years, but it’s incredibly important. It means that if you don’t have health insurance and get diagnosed with cancer, you can buy health insurance and have it be covered. You can be an extremely chubby newborn baby and not be denied health coverage because you have the pre-existing condition of “obesity.”

Also this:

Happy Friday! The Republican Party voted to partially open its primary elections for statewide elections, but they're only running a candidate in one of those races. Nonaffiliated voters will have to request a GOP ballot--the only GOP primary race on that ballot will be Knute Buehler's race for SOS.

The OR GOP is using the scheduled presidential debate, co-sponsored with Oregon Public Broadcasting--to raise political donations. Rep. Carolyn Tomei speaks out in a guest opinion about the breakdown in civility in political discourse, particularly being shouted at to "shut your mouth" on the House floor by Rep. Wayne Krieger (R-Gold Beach).

BLOG: ALEC and the corporate assault on our political system
Sockeye Blog
"Last week, protests erupted around the country targeting the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its corporate sponsors. The idea for the 'F29' protest began in Portland and spread to the rest of the country to highlight the increasing presence and influence of corporate money and power.  ALEC is a key part of the right-wing infrastructure to abuse the legislative system by pushing corporate-agenda driven policy that adds to wealth disparity, deregulates polluters, and attacks public employees."

Oregon taxpayers stuck with bill for a cumbersome 'open primary' that features just one candidate
Oregonian
"Oregon taxpayers have to spend $200,000 on a cumbersome elections process that will ask the state's nearly 440,000 unaffiliated voters if they want a Republican primary ballot that features just one candidate. Republican and Democratic Party officials are each accusing the other of wasting taxpayer money while in pursuit of a partisan advantage. About the only thing that's clear is that only one Republican has even signed up to run for the three statewide seats that the GOP opened to voters who don't register in any political party."

Oregon GOP's Allen Alley sees fundraising opportunity in Portland presidential debate
Oregonian
"Oregon Republican Party Chairman Allen Alley, remaining hopeful that a March 19 GOP presidential debate planned for Portland will actually occur, has come up with an interesting strategy for making some money off the event. Alley sent out an email saying that people who give at least $25 to the Oregon Republican Party before 5 p.m. Friday, March 16, will get a chance to win a seat at the debate, set to be held inside the studios of Oregon Public Broadcasting."

Teachers throw political weight behind Jefferson Smith
Portland Tribune
"With just two months to go until the Portland primary election for mayor, Jefferson Smith on Thursday announced an endorsement by the Portland Association of Teachers’ political action committee, Teachers Voice in Politics. The PAC, which represents the 3,000-plus members, based their endorsement on interviews and questionnaires with six mayoral candidates."

Attorney General candidate Ellen Rosenblum's 'vested interest' in PERS cited by Willamette Week editor
Oregonian
"Oregon's public employee unions played a pivotal role in getting John Kroger elected Attorney General in 2008. The unions threw thousands of dollars at him in large part because they were still furious with opponent Greg Macpherson, who championed reform of the Public Employees Retirement System as a legislator five years before. It's a lesson Attorney General candidates Ellen Rosenblum and Dwight Holton learned well. Both are arduously courting the unions. The editor and co-owner of Willamette Week, Portland's alternative weekly newspaper, has joined the courtship in an eye-opening way."

More detailed Public Employee Retirement System data to be released
Oregonian
"The Public Employees Retirement System releases a second round of pension data at 5 p.m. Friday of its more than 117,000 beneficiaries; the first was last November and is posted in a searchable database at oregonlive.com. The current release will be more complete, with each retiree's final salary, years of service, retirement date and method to calculate retirement. The Oregonian will post the latest data at 5 p.m. The release follows a decade-long tug of war between government transparency and privacy rights. PERS routinely released benefits until 2002, when it started refusing to release the information except for prominent retirees such as an ex-governor."