(WONKY POST WARNING)
A constituent of mine wrote to Rep Drazan (Leader of the Oregon House Republicans) asking her to “respect the will of the majority of Oregonians by keeping your caucus present to do the work of recovering from the pandemic and other issues”.
A constituent of mine wrote to Rep Drazan (Leader of the Oregon House Republicans) asking her to “respect the will of the majority of Oregonians by keeping your caucus present to do the work of recovering from the pandemic and other issues”.
Rep Drazan wrote back: “The Democrats hold(ing) single party control in Oregon, despite only representing a third of all Oregonians”.
I took this as a numbers challenge.
How does Rep Drazan arrive at “only representing a third of Oregonians”?
I took this as a numbers challenge.
How does Rep Drazan arrive at “only representing a third of Oregonians”?
She is conflating things. If we look at Feb 2021 voter registration in OR, there are 1 million registered Democrats out of almost 3 million total registered voters. So that is about 1/3rd. (More precisely [rounding to the nearest thousand]: 1,048,000 Ds/2,956,000 total = 35.4%)
I should add, there are 748,000 registered republicans and 959,000 NAV (non affiliated voters), or 25.3% registered Rs, 32.4% NAVs.
When we look at who voted for our current house members, here’s a few things we can say.
Democrats who won their races earned 910K votes, while Republicans who won their races won 551K votes (62% v 38%).
Democrats who won their races earned 910K votes, while Republicans who won their races won 551K votes (62% v 38%).
This exactly mirrors the number divide in house representation: Dems hold 62% of the seats, (37) while Rs hold 38% of the seats (23).
If you look at total votes cast, that is, how many people voted for all Democratic candidates in house races (win or lose) verses how many votes voted for Republican candidates (win or lose), we see that Oregonians voted for Dems 58.5% of the time, and Republicans 41.4%.
This is very close to the presidential election numbers (President Biden: 56.5%, Trump 40.7%).
So Rep Drazan, I just don’t know how you can say that Democrats, elected by a wide majority of Oregonians, represent only a third of all Oregonians. It’s insulting to the voters.
So Rep Drazan, I just don’t know how you can say that Democrats, elected by a wide majority of Oregonians, represent only a third of all Oregonians. It’s insulting to the voters.
Indeed, I take pride that Democratic candidates have enjoyed 58.5-62% of statewide support from voters, which is much higher than the percentage of voters who are registered as Democrats. We have the big tent.
Let us vote and let us work and let us improve the lives of every Oregonian. Delaying the work and delaying the vote and prolonging the status quo will not work. And Oregonians know it. #orleg #orpol
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