Oregon Legislature: Committee dismisses complaints by Republican state senators over walkout

Senate President Rob Wagner didn’t create a hostile work environment or retaliate against two Republican senators by refusing to excuse their absences during a walkout that blocked the state Senate from functioning for six weeks, a legislative panel ruled Friday.

Four members of the Senate Committee on Conduct, two Republicans and two Democrats, voted unanimously to dismiss complaints from Republican Sens. Lynn Findley and Cedric Hayden against Wagner over his decision to deny their requests for excused absences while the walkout was underway. That decision affects both senators because a voter-approved constitutional amendment bars lawmakers with 10 or more unexcused absences from serving another term.

Findley and Hayden are barred from serving another term under the amendment, though Findley, whose term expires in January 2025, is among five senators who have sued to block the law. Hayden’s term ends in 2027.

Following the votes, a Wagner spokesman, Connor Radnovich, said the outcome was the right one.

“As the investigator concluded in her report and the Senate Conduct Committee affirmed today, the Senate president acted appropriately and fairly when applying Senate rules during the 2023 Republican walkout,” Radnovich said in an email.

Findley, however, who testified before the votes, had another point of view. He blasted Wagner as a “dictator” and said that under Senate rules his rights are not protected, even though elderly at age 71 and disabled.

“We don’t have a sitting president in a Democratic society. We have a dictator,” Findley said referring to the Senate president. “I have no rights as a sitting member of the Oregon State Senate. I have no rights for recourse.”