The Oregon Republican Party Needs an Intervention

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

The Oregon Republican Party (ORP) has a long history of failing to make a dent, allowing the state of Oregon to fall further into the blue abyss. Now, not only is ORP not even trying anymore, but it’s also on the verge of complete collapse. With fines piling up from the Secretary of State and a looming investigation by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), ORP and Oregon as a whole would benefit from someone in a position of authority staging an intervention to stop further harm to the party.

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One could be forgiven for wondering who cares about the Oregon Republican Party. After all, they have shown zero effectiveness in electing Republicans for quite some time, and Oregon has become an ever more reliable blue state in the process. What does it matter what this low-population backwater does in the grand scheme of national politics?

Oregon is the sixth largest state by area and has the 27th largest population at just over 4.2 million. It controls seven electoral votes, a small but not insignificant number. If ORP could organize effective resistance to Oregon’s democratic machine, it could force the DNC to put more resources into the state to protect the dominance of democratic candidates.

Most importantly, from the standpoint of the Republican National Committee (RNC), it sends three representatives to the national party, just like the other states and territories. Three votes out of 168 total at the RNC can have a significant effect on party policy and operations.

So the Oregon Republican Party matters. That’s why a lack of fundraising, fines from federal and state agencies, and an utter void of leadership and vision could have national ramifications as we head into the all-important 2024 election cycle.

The current brain trust at the ORP recently chose to avoid all these problems and instead attempted to recall its national committeeman, one of three representatives of the state to the RNC (along with the state chair and national committeewoman):

The annals of conservative politics in Oregon have featured decades of failure punctuated by rare wins. Through it all, petty factional bickering about who’s to blame has derailed attempts to consolidate efforts, build an effective team, and elect Republicans. Now, dissident elements in the Oregon Republican Party (ORP) have floated a hare-brained scheme to recall the national committeeman, Solomon Yue. In a letter to the state party chairman, Yue’s lawyer, Vance Day, blasted the recall attempt as a gross violation of the party bylaws that should not move forward.

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Despite the legal and procedural lack of standing of the recall, the ORP held its vote at its June 3 meeting. The recall failed by a handful of votes. That it came that close to success is of grave concern, and indicates that the dissident faction has grown in recent years. Just as the influence of the dissidents has grown, the ORP’s effectiveness has sunk. While they wasted several weeks focusing on this baseless and destructive recall, they failed to focus on:

  1. Recruiting candidates
  2. Influencing school board elections across Oregon that occurred in May
  3. Fundraising
  4. Filing proper treasurer’s reports
  5. Responding to demand letters from the FEC
  6. Proper disposal of fines from the Secretary of State
  7. Building a grassroots army to challenge the dominance of the Democrats in Oregon

Insiders tell PJ Media that every fundraiser the party has held in 2023 has lost money. Meanwhile, accusations and rumors fly that at least two officers have spent lavishly on their own travel and legal expenses while costing the party precious sums of money spent on legal fees.

Alarm bells are going off

The Oregon Republican Party has been taken over by people more interested in settling decades-old scores than running an efficient organization. Many of the new officers at the county and state level believe that every Republican activist who possesses the ability to raise funds and show leadership must be a commie RINO, based on old rumors and lies — oftentimes spread by convicted felons who have no business anywhere near the party apparatus. These rumors gain an air of legitimacy when repeated by some folks that have hung around the party long past their usefulness expired.

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In short, it’s a mess.

The FEC has sent several letters to the ORP Treasurer, demanding to know why he sent required reports late or not at all.

FEC ORP may 11 by Jeff Reynolds

This is on top of a $5,166 fine assessed by the Oregon Secretary of State, paid by ORP in March. This is notable because state law says the treasurer is personally liable. It is unclear whether ORP is allowed to cover this cost as an organization. The Secretary of State levied the fine after the ORP failed to properly report the use of its postal account by candidates to save on postage — a routine practice that should never get overlooked in required reporting.

ORP has two fundraising arms with associated bank accounts: a state party account and a federal account that pays IRS taxes and reports to the FEC. According to ORESTAR, the state’s campaign reporting system, the ORP state fund has brought in a grand total of $18,225 in contributions since January 1. None of those were from individual contributors; most were bailouts by candidates with leftover campaign funds and donations from county parties.

Meanwhile, its expenditures for the same period failed to top $75,000, including a large refund to a consultant, the fine paid to the Secretary of State, and $35,000 sent to the ORP federal account. Meanwhile, the FEC shows a total of $81,455 in receipts since the beginning of 2023, which includes those transfers from the state account. The federal account shows $134,888 in expenditures, which includes almost $25,000 in loan repayments.

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The adults need to step in

One could reasonably conclude, then, that the leaders of the ORP undertook the misbegotten recall of its national committeeman as a distraction from its incompetent stewardship of the organization and its utter failure to raise operating capital.

This is Biden-level stuff.

The Oregon Republican Party needs to be torn down to the studs and rebuilt. The election cycles of the past three years have proven disastrous. A long-time effective chair was replaced with a series of malcontents devoid of leadership and organizational skills — so far, two of the three have resigned.

The election meeting in 2021 saw veteran officers replaced by a cadre of legislators who hoped to take advantage of the ORP’s fundraising potential if anticipated campaign finance reform legislation passed (which never ended up happening). Those legislators didn’t have a Plan B for fundraising, so they bailed when they learned how hard their jobs were. In addition, the national committeewoman worked to oust the national committeeman, instead of working to forge a cohesive team to move forward as a united party.

The result? Investigations by the FEC and Secretary of State, fines, three chairs in less than three years, several treasurers resigning, and complete and utter disarray.

One could say donors should refuse to contribute to the party until it fixes its problems, but given the moribund fundraising this year, that’s clearly already happened.

The Oregon Republican Party needs adults to step in and right the ship. The party needs an intervention before it slides into bankruptcy.

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The direction of the RNC, the presidential nomination, and the state legislature all hang in the balance in 2024.

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