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As Portland goes, so goes Oregon.
We haven’t forgotten that we’re a Lane County media outlet. But all Oregonians should take President Donald Trump’s recent obsession with Portland personally.
Unfortunately, the one Oregonian whose opinion might matter to Trump won’t take a stand for his state.
When asked, Rep. Cliff Bentz, the lone Republican in Oregon’s congressional delegation, will tell Portland media outlets that he really does push back on administration officials’ belief that the city is, as Trump has called it repeatedly in recent weeks, “a war zone.” “Fires all over the place.” “Most of the retailers have left.” “Don’t even have sewers anymore.” “I don’t know what could be worse than Portland.”
But Bentz still makes sure to couch any defense of Oregon’s largest city with a heaping helping of urban scorn. He told The Oregonian/Oregonlive this month that Portland isn’t a war zone, it’s just war-ravaged. He tells constituents in his eastern Oregon district who believe Portland is a city in shambles that they’re “mainly wrong.”
Based on his public comments, Bentz seems more interested in discussing the wisdom of sending the National Guard to Portland than he is about the Trump administration’s Oct. 1 decision to rescind hundreds of millions of dollars in congressionally approved federal funds for energy projects in his rural district, which will clearly have devastating consequences for rural Oregon.
Those cuts mean the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon will continue to limp along with an electric transmission line built in the 1960s, instead of getting $250 million for utility upgrades. It means a Bend hydrogen fuel cell maker won’t get $30 million to build a manufacturing facility. It means a Central Point electrical apprenticeship and training program won’t get $1.5 million it had been awarded.
Protecting his constituents from the whims of unchecked federal power is an issue Bentz seems less eager to talk about than the degree to which Portland may or may not have once been under siege.
Bentz needs to take a firmer stand.
Multnomah County is home to 19 percent of Oregon’s population, and 24 percent of its state tax base. The broader Portland metro area, with 43 percent of the state’s population, generates 57 percent of its GDP. Simply put, it’s Oregon’s economic engine. New businesses that open in Portland spur job growth and tax revenue that benefits the entire state.
By trafficking in the idea that Portland’s share of national unrest during the pandemic made the city of 635,000 war-ravaged, Bentz gives the impression that scoring cheap political points is easier than defending his constituents’ interests. We’re sure that’s not how he feels. But it’s the message he sends.
We are all Oregonians. When someone stands up and says something that is patently false about our state, aren’t we all obligated to say this is wrong?
Bentz is in a unique position to use his voice as a Republican. It could be as simple as this: Make a public statement, and say, “No, Portland isn’t burning.” No need to directly criticize the president or his party. Just a simple, four-word statement of fact.
Bentz doesn’t directly represent Portland. Yet in a way, he does. Like any state with a single major metro area, as goes Portland, so goes the state. It’s the economic driver for the rest of us, too. And so while we don’t live there, we’re still impacted by what gets said about it.
So are Bentz’s constituents, whether he’ll admit it publicly or not. And so is he.
