Editorials from around Oregon

Selected editorials from Oregon newspapers:

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The Medford Mail Tribune, Sept. 25, on death penalty legislation:

A potentially flawed law passed by the 2019 Legislature that limits application of the death penalty will take effect Sunday without a fix, potentially allowing already convicted death-row inmates to avoid execution if they are retried or re-sentenced after appeals. That’s not what the Legislature intended, and it’s unfortunate that lawmakers could not agree to amend the bill in a special session. Ultimately, Oregon voters should be asked to revisit the death penalty for all cases.

Gov. Kate Brown had said she would call a special session to amend the bill if lawmakers could agree on a fix that could be enacted in a single day. Bill supporter Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, said he had agreement in the Senate, but House leaders could not line up enough votes.

Abolishing the death penalty entirely would require a vote of the people. Oregon voters reinstated capital punishment by constitutional amendment in 1984 after the state Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.

In 2011, Gov. John Kitzhaber declared a moratorium on executions, and Brown continued it. Only two people have been executed in Oregon in the past 50 years, and both of those defendants withdrew all appeals and asked that their death sentences be carried out. As of Jan. 1, there were 30 people on death row, according to the Oregon Department of Corrections.

Rather than put the matter to a vote again, majority Democrats this year narrowed the definition of aggravated murder - the only crime punishable by death in this state - to include only terrorist acts that kill two or more people, killing police officers or children younger than 14. Previously, killing more than one person or killing someone during a rape or robbery were also included. The 2019 bill reclassified those crimes as first-degree murder with a maximum sentence of life without parole.

Supporters of the bill intended it to apply only to new cases going forward, but the state Justice Department issued an opinion saying the new law could apply to previously convicted defendants who were granted a new trial or re-sentencing.

District attorneys and lawmakers who opposed the bill pushed for a special session to clarify the intent. Some House Democrats, however, argued that the bill didn’t need to be fixed, including Rep. Jennifer Williamson, the bill’s other chief supporter.

Contributing to the failure to agree, according to Prozanski, was a lack of trust between members, between the House and Senate, and between outside groups such as the District Attorneys Association.

The poisonous atmosphere lingering after two walkouts by Senate Republicans surely didn’t help matters.

For her part, Brown was right to call off the special session without assurances it would succeed. But the overall issue of the death penalty in general remains unresolved.

There are compelling reasons to abolish the death penalty entirely. The most persuasive of all is the real possibility that the state could wind up executing an innocent person. But that debate needs to involve all Oregon voters, not just lawmakers. Trying to restrict the death penalty by redefining aggravated murder is fraught with problems, as this mess illustrates.

Death penalty opponents should put the matter to the people, and make the case to voters.

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The Albany Democrat-Herald, Sept. 25, on new smoke rules:

The mid-valley (and, for that matter, all of Oregon) appears to have caught a break this summer when it comes to wildfires: We have not (yet) suffered the punishing fire season, with our skies choked with smoke for weeks on end, that marred previous summers.

(Even so, an asterisk is called for: It’s worth remembering that last year’s most damaging fires in the West occurred in the fall, and a spell of hot and dry weather still could increase the possibility of destructive blazes, even in the mid-valley.)

Nevertheless, the weather in these parts appears to have taken a decided autumnal turn, with cool and rainy conditions.

And that presents an earlier-than-usual opportunity for officials across the state to roll out controlled burns, which have emerged as an important tool for managing wildlands so that they become, over time, less prone to the type of high-intensity fire that has scarred our landscapes over recent years.

Those high-intensity fires often are fueled by woody fuels that have been allowed to build up in forests; that’s part of the reason why proper maintenance and thinning these wildlands is important.

Increasingly, though, scientists have come to believe that thinning by itself will not by itself be sufficient to clear out that undergrowth. The missing ingredient, they say, is the controlled burn - or, as foresters like to call it, “prescribed fire.”

But these controlled burns often draw a backlash from neighbors who point to instances when a misreading of atmospheric conditions sends smoke from a burn floating into a nearby town. The fact of the matter, however, is that fire managers and meteorologists these days have tools for predicting atmospheric conditions that are considerably more precise than in the past.

(Another source of smoke during the fall comes from private landowners burning debris piles. The Oregon Department of Forestry said that landowners can generate less smoke if they cover those piles beforehand with polyethylene sheets; wetter piles generate more smoke because they tend to smolder.)

The state of Oregon recently adopted new rules governing smoke from controlled burns set by professionals. As we head into cooler, wetter weather, there’s a possibility that the rules could result in more burns than in the past; in fact, the Department of Forestry reported this week that the season’s first controlled burns already have been lit in parts of the state.

The department said in a press release that the burns are lit only at times when weather conditions will minimize the chance that smoke will get into what officials call “smoke-sensitive receptor areas” and Class I wilderness areas such as Crater Lake National Park. As for “smoke-sensitive receptor areas,” that’s basically jargon for anywhere you don’t want smoke - populated areas such as towns or cities, major roads, hospitals, schools and airports. These burns only take place on days when air movement will disperse the smoke.

The new rules governing controlled burns still require that burners not exceed federal air-quality standards for particulate matter from smoke. But they have relaxed the standard that called for no visible smoke in a receptor area - which, as you might imagine, made it hard to set a controlled fire near a populated area.

So there’s a chance that some smoke from a burn might waft into a populated area. But the department has a pretty decent record in this regard: It says that out of 2,964 units burned in 2018, only 18 resulted in smoke entering a receptor area.

We’ll see if that number increases under the new rules. But there’s a trade-off at work here that residents need to remember: They can put up with a little smoke from time to time from controlled burns. Or they can cope with a bumper crop of smoke during the heart of the fire season.

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The Corvallis Gazette Times, Sept. 23, on start to 2020 election season:

You can be forgiven for not noticing this, but the 2020 election season in Oregon officially has begun.

We can hear your weary response: “It’s always election season in Oregon,” you are saying, with a heavy sigh.

And there is a certain measure of truth to this. After all, it seems like there’s something on the ballot every time May or November rolls around, regardless of whether the year is even-numbered or odd-numbered - a bond levy measure, a school board election, a special election to fill a vacancy. This coming November will bring a handful of those measures to mid-valley ballots. The end of the year might also bring a ballot measure calling for the recall of Gov. Kate Brown.

On the federal level, of course, the 2020 election campaign essentially began as soon as the final ballots were counted in the 2016 election; President Donald Trump filed for reelection on the day of his inauguration.

So, yes, to some extent, it always is election season.

But these things must have official starting dates. So, just as Monday was the first official day of fall, Thursday, Sept. 12, was the first official day of Oregon’s 2020 election. It was the first day for major party or nonpartisan candidates to file declarations of candidacy with the Secretary of State’s office. Candidates have until March 10 to file for the May 19 primary election.

In Oregon, 2020 races include president, U.S. senator (Jeff Merkley, who flirted with a presidential bid, has said he’ll seek reelection) and all five of the state’s seats in the U.S. House.

The top state race likely will be for the secretary of state’s position, which at first glance doesn’t seem like it would be a big deal, but take another look: The position has served as the jumping-off point for prospective governors. (In part, this is because Oregon’s constitution says that the secretary of state is first in line to succeed the governor, as we learned when Brown succeeded John Kitzhaber, who resigned.) When Republican Dennis Richardson won election as secretary of state in 2016, he was the first GOP candidate to win a statewide election in two decades. But his untimely death from cancer means that the seat is open in 2020. You can bet that the GOP will make it a priority to hang onto that office.

But the race also is attracting up-and-coming Democratic stars, including state Sen. Mark Hass and Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who ran a spirited but ultimately unsuccessful campaign in 2016 against U.S. Rep. Greg Walden. We’re hearing rumors that Rep. Dan Rayfield of Corvallis is pondering a run for that office, but Rayfield has yet to say anything official.

Also at stake in the 2020 election will be nine of the seats in the state Senate and all 60 seats in the House, not to mention a variety of judicial positions.

Many of those races, unfortunately, may not leave voters with much choice: In the 2018 primary, the vast majority of legislative races featured just one candidate or, in some cases, no one. If you’re interested in a run for office, you still have time, and the secretary of state’s website has some useful resources.

As for the rest of us, the least we can do is register to vote. Since today is National Voter Registration Day, this would be a good time to take care of that vital civic duty.

And then, batten down the hatches: This 2020 campaign should be a doozy.