Legislature

We’re so dispirited by the state of Oregon politics that we just couldn’t bring ourselves to wade through each of the Stabtown area’s races. Besides, they’ll all be won by Democrats, so what’s the point? In fact, a lot of them are uncontested.

If you live outside of Stabtown in an actually competitive district, things are different. There, we recommend you vote for the Republican in the race. Don’t get us wrong. We think on balance that the modern Republican Party is a terrible pit of darkness. But the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature is a disaster that needs to end.

We’d love to see the House and the Senate much more closely divided, but that probably isn’t in the cards. What voters in competitive districts can do is end the supermajorities that allow Democrats to ram through any tax increase or other policy that they want. If Oregonians swing one seat in either chamber to Republicans, it won’t break the single-party monopoly on power, but it would diminish it significantly.

If they don’t, before you know it, there'll be a “Homeless Bill of Rights” that allows camping everywhere and funnels even more money into the bottomless pit.