SALEM, Ore. -- A boycott by Republican state senators in Oregon threatens to derail hundreds of bills, including legislation on gun control, gender-affirming care and abortion rights, as a deadline looms that could also upend the protesters' political futures.
Democrats control the Statehouse in Oregon. But the GOP is leveraging rules that require two-thirds of lawmakers be present to pass legislation, which means Democrats need a certain number of Republicans to be there too.
Republican and Democratic legislative leaders met privately for a second day Thursday to try to bridge the divide, as the boycott entered its ninth straight day. Lawmakers with 10 unexcused absences are barred from reelection under a constitutional amendment passed overwhelmingly in November by voters weary of repeated walkouts.
To give time for negotiations -- and keep boycotters with nine unexcused absences from hitting that 10-day tripwire -- Senate President Rob Wagner agreed to cancel Senate sessions on Friday, today and Sunday. It would instead reconvene Monday.
"I think people, at least people who observe politics, are going to have a pretty anxious weekend," Priscilla Southwell, professor emerita of political science at the University of Oregon, said Friday.
Several statehouses around the nation, including Montana and Tennessee, have been ideological battlegrounds this year. Oregon -- which pioneered marijuana decriminalization, recycling, and protecting immigrants -- is often viewed as one of America's most liberal states. But it also has deeply conservative rural areas.
That clash of ideologies has put the Senate out of action since May 2. Pending bills are stacked up and the biennial state budget, which needs House and Senate approval before the end of June, is still unfinished.
Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek's office said many important bills at stake.
"Oregonians are demanding that elected leaders deliver results on homelessness, behavioral health, education, and other major issues right now," Kotek spokesperson Elisabeth Shepard said Thursday.
About 100 people, including members of Moms Demand Action, a gun-safety group, protested the walkout late Thursday on the steps of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.
"Get back to work," they chanted.
"We demand you show up!" Liz Marquez, a political organizer with PCUN, a farmworkers union, said over a loudspeaker. "Every day, Oregon workers show up for difficult and sometimes dangerous jobs."
Republican lawmakers have stymied several Oregon legislative sessions. In one boycott, dozens of truckers surrounded the Capitol while blasting their horns, fearing that a climate change bill would adversely impact them.
This time, Republican senators insist their stayaway is mostly because of a 1979 law -- rediscovered last month by a GOP Senate staffer -- that requires bill summaries to be written at an eighth grade level. Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp said Republicans also want Democrats to set aside "their most extreme bills."
But Democrats say it's obvious the readability issue is just an excuse to prevent progressive legislation such as House Bill 2002, intended to protect abortion and gender-affirming health care for transgender people by boosting legal safeguards and expanding access and insurance coverage.
"It is abundantly clear that there is a concerted effort to undermine the will of people and bring the Legislature to a halt in violation of the Constitution of the state of Oregon," Wagner, the senate president, said as he gaveled closed the May 5 floor session because of the lack of quorum.
Knopp, the GOP Senate leader, said Thursday he hopes canceling this weekend's Senate sessions "will give us time to work out a legitimate agreement that will benefit all Oregonians."
Wagner says the bill on abortion rights and gender-affirming care is not negotiable.
A prolonged boycott could also sow complications for next year's primaries and general election.
That's because it's unclear how the boycotters would be disqualified from running again. The 2022 ballot measure is now part of the Oregon Constitution, which disqualifies a lawmaker with 10 or more unexcused absences "from holding office" in the next term.
An explanatory statement for Ballot Measure 113, signed by a former state supreme court justice and others, says a disqualified candidate "may run for office ... and win, but cannot hold office."
However, the secretary of state's elections division wouldn't put a disqualified lawmaker on the ballot, according to Ben Morris, spokesperson for the secretary of state's office.
Attendees listen to a speech by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Steiner during a rally calling for an end to the Senate Republican walkout at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Ore., Thursday, May 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)