Hughesisms LLC

11/07/2025

Gov. Tina Kotek headlines my column about failures of the 2025 Oregon Legislature. But she's not alone.

Politicians love to recount their successes. But learning from one’s failures is more valuable. Long ago, former Senate President Gene Derfler, R-Salem, told me that any day when he had more successes than failures was a good day. Derfler, who served in the Legislature during 1988-2002, must know ...

10/07/2025

An eclectic group of job changers makes up the new edition of "Who's who in and around Oregon state government."

Andrew Stolfi, who took over June 23 as director of the Oregon Employment Department, made key executive appointments: — Karen Madden Humelbaugh is now the agency’s deputy director. She replaces Jeannine Beatrice, who went to work earlier this year for the Oregon Youth Authority. Humelbaugh join...

04/07/2025

My new Capital Chatter: Is this how the Legislature should treat Oregonians?

The 2025 Oregon Legislature exemplified the Founders’ warning. Democracy – even the representative democracy the Founders established – is a messy affair. “I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these Stat...

03/07/2025

If you get a text, email or phone call from the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles, IT IS A SCAM -- regardless of what it says.

How do I know?

Because there is no Department of Motor Vehicles. In Oregon, DMV stands for the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division.

DMV is part of the Oregon Department of Transportation. When the DMV became part of the department, ODOT kept the DMV moniker and created a division name to go with it. (This happened over a number of years with a few variations before the current division title.)

You're welcome.

THIS IS THE REAL Oregon DMV site. The Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicles division of ODOT is where you go to get a driver license, ID card, register your vehicle, and more.

03/07/2025

Even though it's a holiday week, there've been a number of job changes in and around Oregon state government. Meanwhile, legislative leaders made some key appointments.

Marie Atwood is the new director of the Professional Standards Division at the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. She joined DPSST last year as a legal coordinator following 11 years as a senior deputy district attorney with Washington County. She also is an adjunct professor at Lew...

01/07/2025

Good piece by Mark Hester about the Oregon Legislature: "When policy-makers invoke “unintended consequences” and “unforeseen circumstances” what they’re usually are saying is they hoped for a different set of circumstances and results. Rarely does it mean they never considered that these things could happen."

When Democrats act surprised that priority legislation failed to deliver intended results, it usually means they ignored warning signs

27/06/2025

OPB reports the Legislature's transportation bill is dead.

Oregon's Democratic party was scrambling Friday to come up with a modest alternative to its multi-billion dollar road funding bill.

27/06/2025

Hot off the virtual press, here is my new Capital Chatter: "With mere hours left before it must end, the 2025 Oregon Legislature has exceeded expectations: It’s stranger, clunkier and more partisan than predicted."

Speaking of clunky, let me share my day. I wrote the column throughout Thursday while at the Oregon Capitol, including during the late-afternoon public hearing on the revered and reviled transportation package, HB 2025. At 5:34 p.m., I was finishing up when I was kicked out. The Capitol apparently had closed to the public four minutes earlier. Alas, I had not hidden myself in an out-of-the-way spot.

Ah, I long for the 1980s, before metal detectors guarded each entrance. I had a physical key to the Capitol and could come and go as I pleased, regardless of day or time.

(Pro tip: Taking your infant son to work with you on a Saturday morning during the 1985 Legislature, expecting him to be quiet while you write, does not create a good bonding experience.)

Evicted to my car Thursday evening, I sat in the passenger seat ponderously editing and revising, bumping my arm on the door every few seconds (or so it seemed), inadvertently inserting random characters and deleting others, accidentally erasing the middle chunk of my column, rewriting it, checking the laptop battery level moment-by-moment as the power ran down, not taking time to add comments from the public hearing, committee discussion or subsequent press releases … and blowing my deadline by 45 minutes.

I’ll be back at it again Friday.

With mere hours left before it must end, the 2025 Oregon Legislature has exceeded expectations: It’s stranger, clunkier and more partisan than predicted. Yet the Legislature appeared on track to complete its work by Sunday’s deadline. Most, maybe all, the final political deals had been consummat...

26/06/2025

Big, big, big changes in the Oregon Legislature and elsewhere in state government.

Brittany Greene was promoted to human resources director at the Oregon Department of Revenue. She replaces Katie Thiel, who is now chief of strategic initiatives and enterprise accountability at the Department of Administrative Services. Betsy Imholt became DAS director this month and was replaced a...

24/06/2025

We exist in dangerous times.

DHS Issues National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin: Oregon OEM Urges Vigilance in Light of Heightened Threat Environment Oregon Department of Emergency Management sent this bulletin at 06/24/2025 09:54 AM PDT Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. This mailbox is not monitored...

20/06/2025

To get HB 2025 out of the transportation committee, Oregon Senate President Rob Wagner is kicking Sen. Mark Meek off the committee and taking his place. That's to ensure enough D's vote for the bill.

The switcheroo was announced at 2:42 p.m. Friday -- 12 minutes after the committee was supposed to start its decisive discussion of the bill. It's now 2:55 p.m., the 2:30 meeting has not started, and everyone is very quiet, anticipating ... something.

All committee members are here except ... Wagner?

20/06/2025

Here is my new Capital Chatter: The big boom coming from the Oregon Capitol this week was the sound of reality colliding with the Legislature’s multi-billion-dollar transportation bill.

The big boom coming from the Oregon Capitol this week was the sound of reality colliding with the Legislature’s multi-billion-dollar transportation bill. Proposed amendments flew too fast for members of the transportation committee to absorb. The minority Republicans remained staunchly opposed. Th...