Walker: ‘I don’t think they’ll get 36’

MINNEAPOLIS -- Oregon Republican Party vice chairman Russ Walker said Monday that he did not think Oregon’s House Democrats would be able to come up with a veto-proof majority in the State House this November.

Oregon Democratic leaders in the House have touted the idea of increasing their current 31-29 majority beyond the veto-proof 36 members. Some, including House Majority Leader Dave Hunt (D-Clackamas County) and Rep. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis), have talked about the possibility of having 41 Democratic members in the Oregon House when the next legislative session starts in January.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think they’ll get 36,” Walker said at the Oregon delegation’s breakfast Monday morning. “I would like to see the possibility of a tie.”

Walker, who is also the Oregon director for FreedomWorks, told the state’s Republican delegates that environmentalists had blocked several initiatives to create alternative sources of energy, including in 2007 when the Oregon Surfrider Foundation blocking legislation that would have created wave power through the Florence Wave Energy facility. While there were potential bills that could be passed to allow for increased production of renewable energy, Walker said, unless the legislative branch changed party hands it was unlikely to pass.

“There’s definitely legislation out there that can help,” Walker said. “But that’s a matter of getting the legislature back in control of the Republicans.”

While he did not rule out that possibility, Walker was adamant that if the Democratic Party of a veto-proof majority, he believed the results would be disastrous for Oregon.

“If they get that majority, that would be bad,” Walker said. “They’ve shown in the Oregon legislature that they’ll make the wrong decision every time.”