DemocraticIn a stunning comeback, Lesly Mu Oz has secured Democratic control of both legislative houses by winning the Oregon House seat for the Woodburn district.
On election night, Republican Rep. Tracy Cramer, who had served her first term in office, appeared set to retain her seat in the district, holding a lead of over 6 percentage points at one point. She was likely to keep her seat, according to a number of analysts and news sources, including The Oregonian/OregonLive. However, as Marion County began to tally the thousands of ballots that were still available, the results became more precise in the weeks that followed.
However, the results that were made public on Tuesday night made Mu Oz’s victory evident. Almost every ballot had been counted, and she was ahead of Cramer by 161 votes.
At that time, more than 600 ballots in the House District 22 campaign were still pending signature verification, despite Mu Oz holding a lead of more than 100 votes last week. Volunteers were mobilized by state parties and campaigns to persuade voters to fix their signature problems so that the ballots could be counted.
Between 35 and 50 percent of contested voter signatures were fixed in recent elections, according to Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess. He expressed optimism that the number could be even higher in the race for House District 22 as volunteers called voters or knocked on their doors to assist them in the curing process. Republican House leader Christine Drazan, who was just reelected, indicated Friday she will assist in that endeavor.
We will continue to labor until the end of time. Drazan stated last week that we would keep fighting until the deadline was reached to ensure that every legitimate vote in our district was counted. We won’t give up and declare that the results don’t meet our expectations.
The deadline for voters to resolve those signatures was Tuesday at 5 p.m. According to Burgess, at least one-third of the rejected ballots were corrected in the past week, resulting in 221 votes.
In the end, Mu Oz, a mother of four and labor organizer, gained more support thanks to those rigged ballots.
Her win gives Democrats a three-fifths majority in the House, which might enable them to enact new taxes or raise current ones without the backing of Republicans. In order to establish a Democrat-dominated Legislature, the party also won control of the state Senate by flipping seats in that body.
That’s not the healthiest way to rule, according to Republican House Speaker Drazan.
“We need more voices that can influence the results of our legislative process and less extreme control,” she remarked. When the arithmetic itself enables individuals to interact in a genuine manner on behalf of the incredibly different populations throughout our state, we obtain better laws and greater results.
Sami Edge writes for The Oregonian on politics and higher education. She may be contacted at (503) 260-3430 or [email protected].
Latest local politics stories
-
Kotek calls legislative special session to fund Oregon wildfire costs
-
Taxpayer cost for Oregon s class-action foster suit climbs over $34 million
-
Multnomah County s universal basic income experiment worked, until the money ran out
-
Oregon Republican in the running for labor secretary, national outlets report
-
Oregon election officials clear up confusion they caused about ballot counting
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!
