Recap of the Nov 2020 Election

This year Election Day has felt like “Election Week,” as many pivotal national races were still too close to call days after November 3rd. After four long nail-biting days, the Biden/Harris ticket won the race to the White House surpassing 270 electoral college votes, finally tallying all the votes in the battleground states of Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia. The control of the US Senate may still in the hands of the state of Georgia as well, as oddly both of its Senate seats are up for grabs in tight races and pending runoffs.

Closer to home in Oregon, the 67 seats up for grabs in the Oregon Legislature (the entire House of Representatives and roughly half of the Senate) did not produce many surprises. The Democrats held onto their supermajority in both the House and the Senate, yet failed to gain seats to be quorum-proof to prevent Senate Republican walkouts that have derailed Democratic priorities on two occasions. The Oregon House will have 37 Democrats and 23 Republicans, and the Oregon Senate breakdown will be 18 Democrats and 12 Republicans.

Statewide offices races went as expected with incumbent State Treasurer Tobias Read and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum holding on to their offices. Sen. Shemia Fagan won over Sen. Kim Thatcher to become the next Secretary of State. Elections for Oregon’s congressional delegation produced no upsets. Senator Jeff Merkley won his reelection to return to Washington D.C. On the House side, former State Senator Cliff Bentz will represent Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District with Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Rep. Peter DeFazio, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, and Rep. Kurt Schrader all winning reelection to their seats.

Multifamily NW offered a 2020 Voters Guide whose candidate endorsements proved successful with 14 out of 18 endorsed candidates winning their seats across Portland City Hall and Oregon Legislative races. Notable wins include the reelection of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler against Sarah Iannarone and Mingus Mapps winning over Commissioner Chloe Eudaly. In Central Oregon, Sen. Tim Knopp of District 27 won reelection as did Rep. Jack Zika of House District 53. On the Oregon Coast, Dick Anderson won Senate District 5, Boomer Wright won House District 9 and Suzanne Webber won House District 32. In Southern Oregon, Rep. Pam Marsh was reelected to House District 5. Rep. Julie Fahey was reelected to House District 14 in the Southern Willamette Valley. Further North our endorsed incumbents did well with Rep. Christine Drazan of House District 39, Rep. Ron Noble of House District 24, Sen. Fred Girod of Senate District 9, and Rep. Mark Meek from House District 40. Katie Lieber is also the new Senator for District 14.

Oregonians had many ballot measures across local jurisdictions to decide. All of the statewide measures ended up passing:

• Measure 107 enacted campaign finance limits
• Measure 108 imposed a hefty cigarette tax
• Measure 109 introduces a 2-year trial period to figure out medical treatments for psilocybin
• Measure 110 decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs

Now that the chips have fallen with the election, Multifamily NW Government & Public Affairs team is gearing up for the 6-month 2021 “long session” beginning in February and rumors of a 3rd Special Session of 2020 before the year is out. Preventing a status quo of eviction moratoria and addressing compensation strategies for millions of dollars of unpaid rent during the moratoria will be high priorities.