Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Oregon: Two Governor Kate Brown Petition fails -- one doesn't turn in signatures, the other doesn't have enough

The attempts to recall Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D) failed. The big organized effort led by Republican leaders did not turn in any signatures -- they claim to have been 10% short of the 280,050 needed, though as a general rule, these claims of just missing the signature number should be taken with several oceans' full of salt. They suggest they may try again in the future.

A second petition did get handed in featuring 23,926 pages of signatures, but with only 10 signatures max per page they clearly didn't have enough signatures, it was rejected.

For some background, Bill Currier, the chairman of the State Republican Party, filed the original recall papers against Governor Kate Brown (D). Another petition was also filed by a local resident, focusing on homeless issues.

The GOP Recall effort seems pretty nakedly political, though the issue cited is the Democrats support of various climate change bills.

Oregon, the first state to adopt the recall for state-level officials way back in 1908, has had recalls against three state legislators, but never a Governor. Brown actually got the job when her predecessor John Kitzhaber face a recall threat.

What is perhaps most noteworthy is that Oregon's recall law does not provide for the election of a replacement. Replacements are instead "filed immediately in the manner provided by law for filing a vacancy in that office arising from any other cause." 

This has led to serious questions of who would replace Brown.

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