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Chuck Riley recall, Oregon State Senate (2015)
| Oregon State Senate recall |
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| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2015 Recalls in Oregon Oregon recall laws State legislative recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Chuck Riley, a member of the Democratic Party, from his elected position representing District 15 in the Oregon State Senate was launched on April 15, 2015. Supporters of the recall needed to collect approximately 6,300 valid signatures within 90 days to move the recall forward. Riley was targeted for recall over his support of mandatory vaccinations, repealing the gain share tax, increasing the minimum wage, background checks for private gun sales and voting to under-fund the state education system.[1][2] The recall was dropped after the recall group determined that they could not get the needed signatures before the deadline.[3]
Timeline
- April 14, 2015: The Oregon State Senate passed SB 941, which would require background checks for private gun sales.
- April 15, 2015: Oregonians for Social Accountability filed paperwork with the secretary of state's office to recall Sen. Chuck Riley.[1]
- May 11, 2015: Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed SB 941 into law.
- July 13, 2015: Recall dropped against Sen. Riley.[3]
Background
Oregonians for Social Accountability filed a petition against Riley for supporting background checks for private gun sales, advocating mandatory vaccinations, repealing the gain share tax, increasing the minimum wage and voting to under-fund the state education system.[1] Ben Busch, chief petitioner for the group, filed the petition because Riley, "...is not doing the job he was elected to do, which is to represent Senate District 15."[2] Busch believed that Riley did not understand the issues affecting the citizens of Washington County and "continually shows that he puts the needs of his donors, special interests and out-of-state billionaires, ahead of the citizens of Washington County and all of Oregon."[4]
On April 29, 2015, Riley apologized for a remark that he made at a April 25 Hillsboro town-hall meeting that suggested that he supported slavery. One constituent at the meeting questioned Riley's vote for SB 941. Riley told the man that the U.S. Supreme Court permitted state legislatures to make a law like SB 941. The man did not agree with Riley's justification and asked Riley that, "When the Supreme Court said slavery was legal, they was right then, too?" Riley responded to this question with, "They were right for the time until they changed. They were right about the Constitution." Riley's response was caught on video and has had some Senate Republicans call for censure. Riley said later on in the video that he did not agree with slavery.[5]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Oregon
Oregon law states that to file a recall petition against a state legislator, the petition must be filed after the fifth day of the legislative session. All other elected officials in Oregon have a six-month waiting period. After a recall petition is approved, the petitioner must collect enough signatures to equal or exceed "15 percent of the total votes cast for governor, at the last election in the public officer’s district" within 90 days of the date the petition was filed.[2][6] If petitioners collected enough valid signatures, Riley would of had five days to choose to resign. If he did not, the recall would of went to the ballot.[2][6]
Supporters of the recall needed to collect approximately 6,300 valid signatures within 90 days to force a recall election.[2] Paperwork to initiate the recall was filed by Oregonians for Social Accountability on April 15.[1]
On July 13, 2015, Oregonians for Social Accountability dropped the recall campaign against Riley after the group determined that they could not get the needed signatures in time.[3]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Chuck Riley Oregon Senate Recall. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Oregonlive.com, "Gun advocates hit three Oregon lawmakers with recall petitions -- warn more could be coming," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Recall Chuck Riley, "04/18/2015 – Recall Chuck Riley Press Release #1," accessed April 22, 2015 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "recall2" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Oregon Live, "Chuck Riley, Susan McLain recall drives dropped after sponsors miss signature goals," accessed July 14, 2015
- ↑ Recall Chuck Riley, "Our Mission," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ recallelections.blogspot.com, "Oregon: State Senator facing recall on gun control criticized for misstatement on slavery," accessed May 5, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Oregon Secretary of State, " Recall an Elected Official," accessed April 22, 2015
