Roundup: GOP senators barred from reelection in Oregon, a state DEI ban and Taylor Swift's political influence

It’s Saturday, Feb. 3, and we’d like to welcome you to the weekly State and Local Roundup. We'll start in Oregon, where a legal solution to block legislators from effectively bringing their chamber’s work to a standstill passed a crucial test Thursday.

The state Supreme Court ruled that legislators who obstructed business in the state Senate last year cannot immediately run for reelection, a decision that will affect nearly all of the chamber’s Republicans.

Legislative walkouts have provided plenty of drama—if not always results—in state capitols over the years, when lawmakers in minority parties have few options to stop controversial proposals.

Texas Democrats left the Lone Star State for Washington, D.C., in 2021 to block a bill to curb voting rights, and they fled the state in previous redistricting fights. Out-matched Democrats from both Indiana and Wisconsin gathered in Illinois in 2011, in order to block anti-union proposals in their home states.??

But in Oregon, it has been Republicans who have staged walkouts recently. In fact, they have brought business to a halt each of the last four years in attempts to stymie Democratic majorities. Labor unions grew so fed up with the tactic that they backed a ballot measure in 2022 to punish lawmakers who missed 10 or more legislative days without an excuse by not letting them run in the next election.

That threat wasn’t enough to stop 10 Republican state senators last year from participating in a six-week standoff, the longest walkout in state history. They returned only after extracting concessions on Democratic bills dealing with abortion, transgender health care and gun control.

Two of the GOP lawmakers who walked out decided not to run for reelection. Of the remaining eight, four were up for reelection in 2024, while the remaining four were up again in 2026.

Continue reading here.

News to Use

Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs and Notable Events

• DEI: Utah governor signs anti-DEI bill into law. As expected, Gov. Spencer Cox on Tuesday signed a bill to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public entities. The bill, which the GOP-controlled Utah Legislature approved last week along party lines, will take effect on July 1. It bans DEI statements and turns DEI offices into “student success centers” in Utah public colleges and other government agencies in order to make services available for all, rather than focusing on minorities. It also prohibits “discriminatory practices,” which includes maintaining policies, programs, offices or trainings that promote differential treatment of an individual based on their race, color, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion or gender identity.
• VOTING: Pennsylvania automatic voter registration boosts sign-ups for both parties. New data from automatic voter registration at Pennsylvania driver’s license centers shows that sign-ups have grown, remain almost evenly divided between the political parties and do not significantly favor one party over another in the presidential battleground state. The latest data, published Wednesday by Pennsylvania’s elections office, tallies just over four months of new voter registrations since Gov. Josh Shapiro announced the change in September to make it easier for people to register and for counties to manage voter rolls. It shows about a 45% increase in sign-ups at driver’s license centers compared with those during a similar period two years ago. It also shows little change in the partisan mix of those registering under the new system, despite accusations by Donald Trump that Democrats would use it to “steal Pennsylvania.”
• IMMIGRATION: Pilot launched to help migrants find long-term housing. Gov. Maura Healey’s administration is in the process of inking contracts with resettlement agencies in Massachusetts to launch a one-year pilot program that could help up to 400 migrant families already in shelter find long-term housing and employment. Resettlement agency leaders said the pilot program would be one of the first of its kind. The program would come as the Healey administration is looking to ease pressure on emergency assistance shelters, which have filled to capacity over the past year following an influx of migrants, alongside high housing costs that hurt families who are already in Massachusetts. The details of the state-funded pilot program are still in flux, but the general idea is an agency would work with a family to find housing and then provide one year of case management after that family is placed in housing.

Find more News to Use here.

Picture of the Week

A truck hauling zebras and camels for a series of weekend circus performances caught fire last weekend on a northeastern Indiana highway, prompting a police rescue of the animals. A Grant County Sheriff’s deputy and a state trooper helped to save five zebras, four camels and a miniature horse by leading them off the smoked-filled trailer, said Sgt. Steven Glass with Indiana State Police. The truck was bringing the animals from Florida to Fort Wayne for four weekend circus performances in the northeastern Indiana city when the crew discovered a fire that quickly spread, threatening the animals in its trailer until they were rescued. Both officers were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation and later released, and none of the animals were injured.

What They’re Saying

“I have a lot of cousins and their families that live in New York, and some of them thought [the endorsement] was cooler than being governor.”?

—Former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen on what his relatives thought of the endorsement from Taylor Swift in the 2018 U.S. Senate race. At the time, the Democrat was locked in an uphill battle against then-Rep. Marsha Blackburn when Swift announced her support for Bredesen in an Instagram post. The endorsement, Bredesen’s campaign recently recounted to Politico, breathed life into his campaign. But in the end, it wasn’t enough to push Bredesen to a victory: He pulled about 44% to Blackburn’s approximate 55%.

ICYMI

The House has restored the child tax credit. Here’s how it would work.

If the Senate approves the tax package, low-income households would receive between $670 and $730 in benefits per child, much less than during the pandemic.

BY KERY MURAKAMI?

Housing crisis comes to Capitol Hill

While lawmakers acknowledge the national shortage of affordable housing, experts testifying before a Senate panel disagree over how to solve it.

BY MOLLY BOLAN

Texas governor rallies Republican governors and AGs with secessionist rhetoric

Greg Abbott is using legal arguments similar to those used by supporters of the Confederacy to justify his confrontations at the border with federal authorities. Law professors warn that could be dangerous.

BY DANIEL C. VOCK

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