A Call for State Sen. President to Resign

State Sen. Mark Meek (D-Gladstone) has not cooled down since the 2025 legislative session ended June 27.

Toward the end of the session, Meek, who chairs the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee and sat on the Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment, announced he would vote against House Bill 2025, an Oregon Department of Transportation funding package that would have raised nearly $15 billion over the next decade.

Lawmakers scurried to reduce the bill’s cost in subsequent versions, but Meek’s opposition helped scuttle the bill. It also led Senate President Rob Wagner (D-Lake Oswego) to boot Meek off the transportation panel. Wagner replaced Meek on the committee and cast a “yes” vote, allowing the bill to move to the House floor for a vote—which never happened because of a lack of support.

Gov. Tina Kotek subsequently called an Aug. 29 special session to try again to pass an ODOT funding bill and to avert the nearly 500 layoffs the agency plans to make.

But on Aug. 12 at 5:11 pm, shortly before a scheduled Senate Democratic caucus meeting, Meek circulated an email to all of his Democratic colleagues, making the case that Wagner should resign his leadership position.

“After deep reflection and conversations with many of you, I believe it’s now time for President Wagner to step down,” Meek wrote in the email, obtained by the Oregon Journalism Project.

“His repeated failures in managing our caucus, handling challenges, and advancing our members’ priorities have eroded our unity and effectiveness. These aren’t just missteps—they are a pattern of failed leadership and poor judgment that negatively impacts the good work we are all here seeking to accomplish.”

Connor Radnovich, a spokesman for Wagner, says the Senate president will have no public response to Meek.

”We don’t discuss internal caucus matters,” Radnovich said in an email.

Caucus leaders rarely surrender their positions. Wagner’s predecessor, the late Sen. Peter Courtney (D-Salem), held the president’s gavel for 20 years, stepping down only because of ill health. Gov. Tina Kotek served as House speaker for nine years, giving up her gavel to run for governor. Her successor as speaker, then-Rep. Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis), gave up his position to run (successfully) for attorney general.

But Meek says Wagner, who succeeded Courtney in 2023, doesn’t deserve the longevity previous leaders have enjoyed. In his email, he blamed Wagner for mishandling Senate Republicans, whose 2023 walkout hamstrung that session.

“The Republican walkout, which dragged on for weeks, was exacerbated by a lack of strategic foresight and decisive action from the president’s office, stalling or killing critical bills while empowering Republicans to set the terms,” Meek wrote. “This not only delayed progress for our constituents but also shattered confidence among members. The Republican walkout could’ve been shortened or avoided altogether with more effective leadership.”

Meek also took issue with Wagner’s handling of internal caucus matters—and House Bill 2025, which lawmakers had made clear was perhaps the most important single bill of the session.

“Disengagement was evident—from minimal involvement with committee chairs and members to superficial Republican outreach,” Meek wrote. “The package languished until the final weeks, leading to the disastrous final rollout at the end of session. My own removal from the committee for a principled difference of opinion—one that I had been communicating for weeks—highlights a total disregard for collaboration, treating colleagues as adversaries rather than allies.”

Meek says his caucus did not take up his Aug. 12 demand that Wagner resign since it was not on the agenda and some members were absent. He plans to ask that it be on the agenda item at the next caucus meeting as lawmakers prepare for the Aug. 29 special session to shore up ODOT’s budget.

After communications with Kotek and her staff, Meek says he’s willing to vote yes on the funding bill unveiled last week but he’s not optimistic about the bill’s passage.

“I think it’s very close,” Meek says. “I don’t think the votes are there yet.”