Murmurs: Multnomah County Republicans Seek to Oust Chair

MULTNOMAH COUNTY REPUBLICANS SEEK TO OUST CHAIR: The Multnomah County Republican Party is scheduled to hold a recall vote May 6 for Chairman Stephen Lloyd, in part because he proclaimed that the party should be “open to everyone,” according to the recall petition obtained by WW. The petition cites a previous quote of Lloyd’s in which he advocated for diversity. “The Chairman should promote the Party Platform, and not state [that] ‘Diversity is an extremely important part of society and diversity of ideas is what we should be striving for,’” the petitioners wrote. The group also took issue with Lloyd’s attempts to make party meetings more accessible to the public. “We dare not announce where and when we are meeting in the city of the original Antifa group, Rose City Antifa, which continues to actively hurt people and damage property nightly in Portland!” the petition says. “Stephen [Lloyd] must acknowledge the danger of Antifa attempting to interfere or infiltrate MCRP.” Lloyd, who was elected chairman in November, says he intended to make the organization more “public-facing” rather than “internal.” “We have a responsibility as a political organization to represent the people in our community,” Lloyd tells WW. “If we can’t be in the community because we’re afraid of being hurt by riotous people or people who are going to assault us, then we can’t do the job that we’re supposed to be doing.”

ONETIME HOUSE SPEAKER CITED IN SEX STING: Former Oregon House Speaker Dave Hunt (D-Clackamas) was cited last weekend on charges he attempted to purchase sex online in April. According to a Portland Police Bureau press release May 1, seven men, including Hunt, responded to decoy ads for sex on “known human trafficking websites.” Hunt, who served two-year stints as House majority leader and then speaker, is the CEO and president of Columbia Public Affairs, a lobbying firm, and said in an email to colleagues that he was taking a leave of absence for “personal reasons” and “will likely not be responding to emails during this time as I focus on what must come first, which is my family.” Clackamas Community College, where Hunt serves on the board, also announced Hunt was taking a leave of absence. His citation raises questions about how the Police Bureau defines “human trafficking”—and whether it should be using its limited resources to conduct prostitution stings. The bureau pointed WW to criminal statutes that could apply to human trafficking or consensual prostitution, but has not clarified which crime Hunt is accused of.

DEMAND FOR VACCINES SLOWS: As of April 29, Oregon ranked 13th highest among states for the rate at which it is vaccinating its population, a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows. But Oregon remains in the exact middle of state rankings for percentage of adult population already vaccinated. Demand for vaccinations has begun to slow across the country, and the pace of shots in Oregon has fallen too. In Portland, vaccine appointments can now be scheduled at the Oregon Convention Center without entering a lottery and at Portland International Airport with little competition for slots. “Thousands of new OHSU vaccination appointments are still being booked every weekday,” says Oregon Health & Science University spokeswoman Franny White. “The only thing that’s changed is that newly released appointments aren’t being booked within an hour of being released as they were before.”

inmateS SEEK CLASS CERTIFICATION IN COVID LAWSUIT: Attorneys representing Oregon prisoners filed a motion in U.S. District Court on May 3 seeking to certify inmates who contracted COVID-19 in prison as a legal class. The motion is the latest step in a yearlong lawsuit alleging that the Oregon Department of Corrections and, by extension, the state of Oregon, failed to adequately protect inmates from the coronavirus or provide proper treatment once they contracted the virus. If certified, the class could consist of nearly 3,000 Oregonians who have tested positive. The lawyers, from the Oregon Justice Resource Center and the Sugerman Law Office, also filed motions to certify two other classes: inmates not offered the COVID-19 vaccine prior to Jan. 1, 2021, and a wrongful-death class comprising the estates of inmates who died from contracting the virus.