Debating the Debate
Portland-area voters deserve a debate in their city that is focused on their issues. Those voters will likely swing the election. If Drazan can reduce Kotek’s large advantage in the area by just a few percentage points, she could claim Mahonia Hall. Kotek, on the other hand, needs to shore up some dissatisfied Democrats who may be thinking of voting for Drazan knowing the Legislature will still be firmly in Democratic control, and want a rev limiter on some of the more radical ideas coming out of those chambers.
Part I — Canola at a Crossroads
Like a prickly weed that won’t stay pulled, the debate over growing canola in the Willamette Valley keeps popping back up in Salem as legislators grapple with how to regulate the crop while protecting Oregon’s high-value specialty seed industry.
Part IV — The Real Work Begins: Navigating Oregon’s Medicaid Implementation
The previous installment of this series ended with an important question: If no one person can see the whole picture on implementation, then who has the ultimate responsibility to bring these perspectives together?
Three’s Company
Upset about what he feels is an expedited erosion of the working class by both political parties, Clay Bearnson has been nominated by the Independent Party of Oregon for Senate District 3 in Southern Oregon.
A Tug of War for the Democratic Party
The extreme right of the MAGA movement and the extreme left of the Democratic Socialists of America have both built their followings rallying against the existing political establishment — “the people against the entrenched elite.” MAGA views government institutions as the enemy, while the DSA opposes the capitalistic, corporate empire they believe feeds off the sweat and blood of the working class.
Part III — The Real Work Begins: Navigating Oregon’s Medicaid Implementation
Implementation becomes real one person at a time. Those moments rarely appear in legislation. They almost never appear in administrative guidance. Yet they’re where implementation becomes visible.
Part II — The Real Work Begins: Navigating Oregon’s Medicaid Implementation
Internal preparation is one of the few parts of implementation we control before reality begins teaching us. Preparation is the opportunity to anticipate, to ask better questions, identify potential challenges, strengthen relationships, and make thoughtful decisions before members ever experience the results.
Part I — The Real Work Begins: Navigating Oregon’s Medicaid Implementation
Implementation is where public policy encounters reality. It’s where we begin learning things that simply weren’t knowable when the legislation was being debated. That becomes especially important as Oregon prepares to implement the community engagement requirements established by H.R. 1.
Gazing at the Starr(s) to Transportation Future
The road to transportation funding was washed out in a major political tsunami this past year, leaving legislators with a major task to repair the damage in the upcoming legislative session. One of the lead engineers in the rebuilding project, Sen. Bruce Starr ( R-Dundee), sat down with me to talk about how to get Oregon back on the highway to success.
