'Toxic partisan culture': Tensions among state lawmakers are going from bad to worse

13 December 2023

State legislatures, like Congress, have been experiencing tense battles over everything from guns to transgender rights to climate change. Abortion has been an especially divisive issue, with many Democrats promoting reproductive rights while countless Republicans — especially in red states — push for draconian abortion laws.

In an article published by Politico on December 13, journalist Paul Demko stresses that "partisan" battles in state legislatures have been going from bad to worse.

In Oregon, Demko reports, ten GOP state senators held a "six-week legislative walkout" to protest Democrats' agenda on abortion and guns. Now, they are "banned from running for reelection for accumulating at least 10 unexcused absences during this year’s legislative session," according to Demko.

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Oregon Republicans have defending the walkout. John Large, who chairs the Lane County Republicans in Oregon, told Politico, "Thank God they walked out."

But Oregon Democrats have been arguing that Republicans who walk off the job for that long aren't interesting in governing.

Demko describes these tensions in Oregon as "arguably the most glaring example yet of how Washington's toxic partisan culture is increasingly infecting statehouses across the country." But tensions among state lawmakers, Demko adds, have also been quite bitter in Tennessee and Nebraska.

The reporter notes, "In Tennessee, the Republican-controlled House voted in April to kick out two Democratic lawmakers for defying the chamber's rules in a protest calling for tougher gun control measures, although they were subsequently reinstated by local officials…. And in Nebraska, Republicans squelched dissent by Democrats in the officially nonpartisan unicameral legislature during this year's session by stacking committees and suspending the rules."

Arthur Towers, political director for the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association, believes that tensions between Democrats and Republicans in the Oregon State Legislature are much worse than they were in the past.

Towers told Politico, "It's changed in terms of the level of partisanship. There's no doubt about that."

Politico's full article is available at this link.

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