New Walden: "As somebody representing more than just Republicans."
He sheds Committee Chairmanship, re-installs mislaid conscience.
“I’m trying for the life of me to figure out why we would keep shuttered and furloughed the employees in Burns and Vale in the BLM offices, or in John Day and the Forest Service. Or not pick up the trash around Crater Lake Park or the other national parks?"
Walden, to OPB, January 4, 2018
Oregonians saying "Where's Walden?" may have found him at long last. He had gone missing during his climb for GOP leadership.
Seven Republican members of the House of Representatives broke ranks with party discipline and voted to end the government shutdown by supporting HR 21, which makes "appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for other purposes." The Resolution did not include funding for a border wall.
Greg Walden was one of them.
Other Republicans who broke rank include Will Hurd from Texas' 23rd District which stretches along the US Mexico border from San Antonio toward El Paso. The border wall is unpopular along the border, where it is disruptive and widely seen as impractical. The other holdouts were from districts in the northeast, where political sentiment is broadly unfavorable to spending money for a border wall.
Walden's vote stands out as unusual, in a presumably safe Republican District.
The OPB reporter Jeff Mapes elicited a comment from Walden asserting that his vote was not a response to the closer than usual election in 2018, where Jamie McLeod-Skinner held Walden to 56% of the vote. Walden said, "I just thought as somebody representing more than just Republicans in Oregon, the right vote was to open these agencies and get these people back to work."
He isn't "Chairman Walden" anymore. For four years Walden was Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House, a committee with oversight over the most contentious issues facing the Congress: health care, telecommunication, and energy. The Chairman is part of the party leadership team. The Chairman is expected to raise money for himself and other Republicans and distribute it toward the goal of electing more Republicans. It is a team job. You do what the team wants.
The role put Walden in a prestigious but uncomfortable spot. He needed to work against the interests of his District. As a GOP leader, he had to oppose a Medicaid expansion and end the funding mechanism for pre-existing condition protection. Yet tens of thousands of Walden's constituents relied on the Oregon Health Plan expansion, and rural hospitals in his District survived because of the reimbursements made possible by it. Protections for pre-existing conditions were important to his middle income supporters.
His inconsistencies were too apparent to mask in an environment where people could ask direct questions. Walden had to stop holding public town halls in his District. He held invitation-only events. He hid.
That couldn't be pleasant.
This blog has predicted this to be Walden's final term, one he may not complete. He is moving on. His real calling is as a lobbyist. This public break from GOP discipline fits my prediction. Walden wants to be seen as a "reasonable guy" who can work with many people, not just a Republican automaton.
Now that he no longer has a House majority to represent, he has a District to represent.
Oregonians saying "Where's Walden?" may have found him at long last. He had gone missing during his climb for GOP leadership.
Seven Republican members of the House of Representatives broke ranks with party discipline and voted to end the government shutdown by supporting HR 21, which makes "appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for other purposes." The Resolution did not include funding for a border wall.
Greg Walden was one of them.
Other Republicans who broke rank include Will Hurd from Texas' 23rd District which stretches along the US Mexico border from San Antonio toward El Paso. The border wall is unpopular along the border, where it is disruptive and widely seen as impractical. The other holdouts were from districts in the northeast, where political sentiment is broadly unfavorable to spending money for a border wall.
Walden's vote stands out as unusual, in a presumably safe Republican District.
The OPB reporter Jeff Mapes elicited a comment from Walden asserting that his vote was not a response to the closer than usual election in 2018, where Jamie McLeod-Skinner held Walden to 56% of the vote. Walden said, "I just thought as somebody representing more than just Republicans in Oregon, the right vote was to open these agencies and get these people back to work."
Walden rediscovers he represents a District, not a Party.
He isn't "Chairman Walden" anymore. For four years Walden was Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House, a committee with oversight over the most contentious issues facing the Congress: health care, telecommunication, and energy. The Chairman is part of the party leadership team. The Chairman is expected to raise money for himself and other Republicans and distribute it toward the goal of electing more Republicans. It is a team job. You do what the team wants.
The role put Walden in a prestigious but uncomfortable spot. He needed to work against the interests of his District. As a GOP leader, he had to oppose a Medicaid expansion and end the funding mechanism for pre-existing condition protection. Yet tens of thousands of Walden's constituents relied on the Oregon Health Plan expansion, and rural hospitals in his District survived because of the reimbursements made possible by it. Protections for pre-existing conditions were important to his middle income supporters.His inconsistencies were too apparent to mask in an environment where people could ask direct questions. Walden had to stop holding public town halls in his District. He held invitation-only events. He hid.
That couldn't be pleasant.
This blog has predicted this to be Walden's final term, one he may not complete. He is moving on. His real calling is as a lobbyist. This public break from GOP discipline fits my prediction. Walden wants to be seen as a "reasonable guy" who can work with many people, not just a Republican automaton.
Now that he no longer has a House majority to represent, he has a District to represent.
1 comment:
An interesting fork on the road to Damascus...
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