By now voters in Oregon’s Congressional District 2 are becoming increasingly concerned that for the next two years they’re going to be represented by a partisan politician. In the wake of the mess that was the siege at the U.S. Capitol, our new Congressman, Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ontario), voted against certifying Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, and then doubled down and voted against impeaching the current president.
In a statement, Bentz wrote, “the current rush-to-judgment impeachment proceedings have only succeeded in dividing our country even more.” Contrary to Bentz’s feeling, Republican support for impeachment was not unprecedented or universal in the region. Rep. Jaime Herrera Buetler, a Republican from Washington, was among those who voted in favor of impeaching Trump.
It’s disappointing that in a time when more federal action is needed—in the form of stimulus funds for desperately struggling businesses and individuals, and the need for a swift plan to roll out vaccines—we seem to increasingly have a representative who’s willing to hitch his horse to an ousted president. If this past year has taught us anything, it is that the issues that most need addressing do not pertain to the politics of “the base.” The issues that all of us face now involve basic needs: Food. Shelter. Safety. Health. Gainful employment. These are not partisan issues.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 Community Survey, the population of the 2nd District was over 840,000. Nearly 200,000 of them live in Deschutes County—a county that saw a marked “blue wave” in this last election. Inside the 2nd District, as of 2019, were over 68,000 people without health insurance. There were over 119,000 people of Hispanic or Latino origins—with over 105,000 of Mexican descent. There were over 44,000 who worked in retail trade, and over 36,000 working in accommodation and food service. And while the most recent figures showed the 2nd District trending Republican by 11 points, it is shrinking.
If conservatives, and Bentz himself, truly want to stop “dividing our country,” as he stated last week, then the first step is to stop worrying about a confused base that has been deluded by falsehoods, and to truly accept that the recent violence in the U.S. Capitol is the party’s nadir and it is time for change. No amount of spin is going to improve that.
For us here in Deschutes County and in Bend, almost a quarter of the population of Bentz’s district, Bentz has some explaining to do. Already an outsider here, his recent votes have only alienated this part of the district and left one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation wondering, “how do we get this guy to pay attention to us?” It shouldn’t be that hard.
It’s too late for Bentz to take back his votes on the electoral college and impeachment. But it is not too late for Bentz to take a deep breath and look around at the incredible opportunity he was given in winning this district. It is a diverse district and one that is craving change—and more importantly, balanced representation. What Bentz can do, in the spirit of being a better representative, is to step out of the white-hot spotlight and do the hard work of fact finding what this district needs. We guarantee it does not lie over the cliff he seems hell bent on flinging himself.
We simply are asking for reasonable leadership to help lead us out of the ongoing medical, social and economic hardships that currently plague us all. Cliff Bentz, we’re counting on you.
This article appears in Jan 20-27, 2021.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Good to see the depiction here of how precariously many of us in Oregon CD 2 exist. Another troubling indicator is the high rate in Bentz’ district of children who qualify for free and reduced school lunches. Here are 2020 statistics:
https://www.oregon.gov/ode/students-and-fa…
Perhaps he will get over his infatuation with the former President, look around, and transfer his loyalties to his own constituents.
I moved to Bend last august and I am very happy that I am represented by a republican with a good head on his shoulders. The author never even said in the article why either of the things that he voted for were bad. You just assume that your readers are going to agree with you rather than actually articulate a reason why they should. This paper is definitely left leaning, no surprise there. Just another room in the echo chamber, instead of being a place for rational and critical thought. “Yea, we are dems, we’re always right, why??? because we’re dems of course. Duh..”
Bentz claimed PA violated their state constitution by counting 10k votes that arrived well after election day, not realizing the state had already set those aside pending a court ruling. Or maybe he did realize it, and he’s just totally dishonest. I tend to think the latter. He should resign.
His infatuation of the losing ex-prez will override any good for Oregon.
Republicans in Oregon’s Second Congressional District will definitely benefit from health care, economic and pandemic-related policies that the Biden administration want. Will Bentz vote to help them or will he cast another knee-jerk vote?
When questioned by a reporter about the Penn. decision regarding some ballots that would not have changed the outcome anyway, Benz admitted he voted no without being aware of that decision. He just rode the insurgent wave without any use of his law degree. He did not investigate, he walked in wearing GOP blinders.
Shane Rogers: This was something of a continuation of the previous week’s editorial in which we laid out “why the things he voted for were bad.”
https://admin.bendsource.com/bend/yes-clif…
In any case, another commenter, Jeremy Dickman, answered some of it for you here. For the record, we’re not Democrats. Most journalists remain unaffiliated voters for a host of reasons. Thanks for reading.
Shane, as noted in another post here Cliff Bentz challenged the counting of 10,000 Pennsylvania votes that were actually not counted. Please explain how that vote makes him a Congressperson with “a good head on his shoulders.”
Partisan with zero conscience and zero critical thinking…
One wonders how he was elected, oh I know partisan voting with zero conscience and zero critical thinking.
Generational idiocy.
Bend is not the epicenter of the State of Oregon although it has long believed itself to be so.
Since the very early 1980s Bend, in specific, has been cultivated and groomed by real estate developers to be a “quality of life” cash cow and this “cow” has been milked for all it is worth by both developers and succeeding generations of increasingly leftist leaning liberals.
This article illustrates that nicely.
A few quotes from Bentz, whose primary population of supporters are in eastern Oregon (read: “Cowboy Country”) and not the island in the ocean titled Central Oregon.
“The Republican from Eastern Oregon stated in a press release Thursday: “I am committed to a peaceful transfer of power, but I continue to empathize with those whose frustrations with the electoral system remain unresolved.”
“In all likelihood, those objections will not be successful,” Bentz said, calling his continued analysis necessary “so that people know that we are doing our best to make sure that the electoral process was done as our Constitution requires.”
“Somebody, I don’t want to say attacked, but somebody went after a bunch of reporters and trashed their equipment, so I think going outside right now is not the thing to be doing,” Bentz said, speaking to OPB from an undisclosed location where he was sheltering in place Wednesday evening.”
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/01/06/ore…
As for the political affiliations of “most journalists” –
“For the record, we’re not Democrats. Most journalists remain unaffiliated voters for a host of reasons.” – Weekly Source
Please cite the sources and metrics that support the above statement. If Ms. Vulcan was referring to most of the journalists she personally knows then she might have better qualified her statement to reflect that nuance. But to offer it as a general statement of fact is fanciful, at best.
I would offer any journalist is due the privilege of belonging to any political party she/he might wish to – separating per the Canons of Journalism their craft from their political views via the litmus test of presenting bona fide facts in their stories, and facts presented with sources for the same.
Or, as the late great Hunter Thompson, one of our premier journalists and originator of “Gonzo Journalism” opined while still with us – “Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits—a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.”
Amen, Brother.
Gregory Walker, Reporters political affiliation:
https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/…
Geoff: Thanks for sharing that information about journalists’ affiliations, albeit from several years back. Here’s another writeup from the Society of Professional Journalists, to which I belong– which doesn’t include numbers, but just a general scope of how our ethics guide us. “Some reporters interpret this as meaning its off-limits even to register to vote as a Democrat or Republican or third-party member…”
https://www.spj.org/ethics-papers-politics…