Greatest Hits, Vol 1: White tide--not blue--sweeps the Oregon legislature

By Sean Cruz

Portland, Oregon—With Margaret Carter’s resignation from the Oregon Senate, Oregon’s Democratic delegation steps backward into yesteryear, when you had to be white to get elected in this state.

The last people of color left in the legislature are both Republicans, giving some serious cred to the “Party of Lincoln” sobriquet.

Every elected leader in the Portland Metro area, at the local, state and federal levels, are all white.

This is no coincidence, but the result of a system where prospective candidates are sifted through a process controlled exclusively by white people.

I wrote about this last November, in these two articles, one printed in The Oregonian:

The Oregonian: “A blue election tide—or a white one.”

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2008/11/a_blue_election_tide_or_a_whit.html

I wrote about the process in more detail in this article below, describing my experience as a minority candidate through a series of endorsement interviews, nearly all conducted by all-white panels. They weren’t going to support anyone that didn’t look like them.

“White tide—not blue—sweeps the Oregon House. The Senate is next!”

http://blogoliticalsean.blogspot.com/2008/11/white-tide-not-blue-sweeps-oregon-house.html

On a similar topic:

Remember the Measure 37 battles of recent years? You had to be white to have a Measure 37 claim, because in those days you had to be white to own property outside of certain redlined areas in the Oregon.