Republican State Senator Threatens To Shoot Police Officers Over Climate Change, Which He Opposes Oregon Addressing

Oregon mercenary Brian Boquist (R) Threatens To Kill Police Officers

There was a time when Oregon was a pretty red state. But that was quite some time ago. Today Oregon has 2 Democratic U.S. senators, 4 Democratic congressmembers out of 5, and a state legislature with 38 Democrats and 22 Republicans in the House and 18 Democrats and 12 Republicans in the Senate. The Governor, Treasurer, Attorney General and Commissioner of Labor are also Democrats. Hillary beat Trump 1,002,106 (50.1%) to 782,403 (39.1%). The state used to have moderate and mainstream conservative Republican office holders. Now, most of the Republicans left behind are extremist crackpots. One of the state senators, Brian Boquist, of Dallas, threatened to shoot any state trooper who comes to escort him back to the state Capitol. Boquist, like the 11 other Republican state senators is boycotting the state legislature over a Climate Crisis proposal. Boquist says he told Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton to “send bachelors and come heavily armed. I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”

Boquist, generally considered the craziest and most violent of the extremists in the legislature, is a director of an international mercenary group (International Charter Incorporated) and has been considered too much of a loose cannon even for Republican primaries, which he traditionally loses decisively. His son committed suicide in 2016 and the family is generally considered a pack of violent misfits by their neighbors. Late Wednesday, when an Oregonian reporter referred to Boquist’s tantrum as a “thinly-veiled threat,” Senator Crazy Pants responded by writing “Nothing thinly veiled. I have been in political coup attempts. I have been held hostage overseas. I have been jailed politically overseas… Not going to be arrested as a political prisoner in Oregon period.” How did it come to this?

The Republicans claim they’re being bullied by the Democratic majority which wants to pass climate legislation that the Republicans oppose. Democrats have an 18 to 12 majority in the Senate, but need 20 members present for a quorum. So they all left the capital and some left the state.

[Republican Senator Cliff] Bentz said Republicans’ top concerns included that the bill would not do enough to protect dozens of “energy intensive, trade-exposed” businesses in Oregon, such as a cement plant in his district, from higher costs not imposed on the competition in other places such as China. Bentz said the negotiations ended around 8 p.m. Wednesday, when it became clear Democratic legislative leaders would not agree to changes sought by Senate Republicans.

Passing the Senate is the final hurdle for the bill, which has already passed the Oregon House and has the governor’s support.

When Republicans failed to show up on the Senate floor for an 11 a.m. session, Senate President Peter Courtney of Salem asked the sergeant at arms to search the Capitol for the missing lawmakers. That search proved fruitless.

In response to the walkout, Senate President Peter Courtney formally requested Democratic Gov. Kate Brown to dispatch Oregon State Police troopers to round up the missing Republican Senators.

Brown quickly granted that request. “It is absolutely unacceptable that the Senate Republicans would turn their back on their constituents who they are honor-bound to represent here in this building,” she said in a statement. "They need to return and do the jobs they were elected to do.”

Democrats also announced they would fine the missing lawmakers $500 per day if they don’t show up at the Capitol by 11 a.m. Friday. The money would be deducted from their salary and per diem.

“The Senate Republicans’ walkout is a slap in the face to all hard-working Oregonians, particularly to those in their districts,” said Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland. “The taxpayers are paying them to do a job for their constituents and they are not doing that job.”

Democrats hold a supermajority in both chambers of the Oregon Legislature but they still need Republicans to achieve the quorum necessary to conduct business, which is 20 members in the Senate.

For Courtney, a veteran lawmaker who has served as President of the Senate since 2003, the political standoff was visibly stressful.

“This is the saddest day of my legislative life," he said. "Pure and simple, my heart is broken.”

Addressing the missing Republicans, who may have been watching on the live feed on the legislature’s website, he said: "I beg and beseech my fellow legislators to come to the floor. If you’re mad, take it out on me. Come at me. Don’t do this to the people of Oregon.”

Thursday the governor made good on her threat to deploy the state police to bring the Republicans back to the state Senate. This isn’t the first time this session that GOP senators used a walkout when they didn’t get their way. Last month they walked out for 4 days over a school funding tax package but eventually made a deal based on tabling proposals about gun control and vaccine requirements.

What they’re whining about this week is a cap and trade program that would put an overall limit on greenhouse gas emissions and auction off pollution "allowances" for each ton of carbon industries plan to emit. The bill is designed to lower that cap over time to encourage businesses to move away from fossil fuels, reducing emissions to 45% below 1990 levels by 2035, and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.