The following is a letter from the National Committeewoman of Oregon, Tracy Honi, about redistricting, public hearings will continue on Monday Sept 13th, please sign up to testify!!!
As Republicans and activists in Oregon, right now there is nothing more important than redistricting. Maps have been drawn and the ones that the Democrats are pushing will make our effort to get Republicans elected and restore balance to Oregon even harder.
We need every single PCP on board, testifying and/or submitting written testimony. This evening, I got word that the number of Democrats signed up to testify far outweighs the number of Republicans. We must close that gap! Please go to https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/redistricting to get more information and to sign up to testify. Please share this with your PCPs and ask them to sign up as well.
Want to testify but don’t know what to say? We can help! Click here to see the ORP information and talking points that you can use to get started. The link gives you talking points, things to include in your testimony, things not to say, and all of the public hearing dates.
In addition to the information in the link, the Columbia County GOP sent out an email today to their PCPs with some additional great talking points you can use. (Thank you Columbia County!)
Redistricting Talking Points for Testimony
- It is imperative that the redistricting process use an intelligent approach that keeps neighborhoods, cities, counties and school districts whole.
- Partisan politics and manipulating maps to benefit a certain party or incumbent, by law, are required to be left out of the redistricting process.
- Under our current maps, 30% of the members of the Oregon House represent at least some portion of the City of Portland while the City of Portland represents only 15% of the total population of the state of Oregon. Portland should not have an outsized voice in our political process which marginalizes our under-served rural communities and way of life. We now have an opportunity to fix this and I urge you to do the right thing and choose a map that fixes this problem.
- Our rural communities have very different needs and concerns than the urban centers and deserve representation and political boundaries that do not include urban areas. Unfortunately some of the proposed maps bring an inordinate amount of the Portland Metro area in to our rural communities .
- I support Congressional map B, Oregon Senate map B and Oregon House map B. These maps do a more efficient and fair job of keeping other political boundaries and communities of interest intact and providing a more fair representation to the citizens my community and the other citizens of Oregon.
The Oregon Republican Party supports Congressional Map B, Senate Map B, and House Map B.
Remember, you only have 2 minutes to testify – write your script, practice and make sure you stay within 2 minutes. Still need some help? Send me an email and we’ll help you put something together.
Testimony continues on Monday September 13th. It’s not too late to sign up.
Working together to restore balance to Oregon, Tracy Honi, National Committeewoman for Oregon
