Oregon elections, redistricting and other campaign-related tasks should be handled by a nonpartisan official instead of a partisan Oregon secretary of state, according to a government panel that includes the University president.
The Process Committee, a subcommittee of the Public Commission on the Oregon Legislature, which studies and evaluates the Oregon Legislature, passed a motion making that recommendation at an October meeting.
Currently, the secretary of state is allowed to affiliate with a political party. The post was long-held by Republicans until the mid-1980s, when Democrat Barbara Roberts took office. Roberts later became governor.
Oregon is one of 39 states where the secretary of state serves as the chief elections official, according to the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS).
If approved by the commission, the proposal would need to be passed by the Legislature.
University President and committee member Dave Frohnmayer said the proposal was based on making sure there is accountability and impartiality in statewide elections.
“This ought to be a classic nonpartisan job that’s above partisanship,” Frohnmayer said.
The proposal recommends that such an official should be elected for a six-year term. It also suggests that the official should have to wait two years after leaving the position before running for another office so that he or she won’t use the office to build political capital and quickly move into other offices, Frohnmayer said.
Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury disagrees with the proposal because all people, even those who run for nonpartisan offices, still have political beliefs that guide what they do, spokeswoman Mary Conley said.
“It’s Bill’s belief that this is a non-issue because it takes information away from the voters that helps them understand who the person they’re voting for is,” Conley said. “The roll of the secretary of state is to work with the law and enforce the law regardless of their political beliefs.”
Bradbury was criticized in 2000 about legislative redistricting and in 2004 for invalidating about 3,000 signatures for presidential candidate Ralph Nader, preventing him from being listed on the state ballot.
Conley said Bradbury followed the law in both cases.
“You can’t help how you’re perceived in the public eye,” Conley said. “The challenge of every secretary of state, or any chief elections officer, is not to be swayed by partisanship but to follow the law.”
Frohnmayer, who formerly served as state attorney general as a Republican, said there is always a temptation for people to say an elected official’s opinion and the way he or she handled an issue were partisan instead of professional.
“I always resented that, but I think it’s a reality and barrier that you sometimes have to overcome,” Frohnmayer said. “I think that the people who oversee the elections should be independent of that.”
Bradbury was one of two secretaries of state to sign a pledge agreeing not to participate in any campaign or to take stances on ballot initiatives or campaigns.
Frohnmayer said voters still expect their officials to have positions on issues. The pledge showed that partisanship and voters’ expectations for elected partisan officials to take positions remain problematic, he said.
Frohnmayer said the proposal for a nonpartisan official to oversee state elections was proposed by Oregon’s Commission for Constitutional Revision in the 1960s, and the issue was reintroduced and debated in the 1975 Legislature when he served in the Oregon House of Representatives.
Washington Secretary of State and former NASS president Sam Reed said secretaries of state are expected to be nonpartisan in elections and to uphold the law through oaths and the law.
“I think that because we are elected to office, we realize that our future is based on conducting the office properly,” Reed said. “People in public office who have high standards in terms of their ethics are going to conduct themselves in a proper way. I don’t see that as being affected by whether you have a partisan label or not.”
Frohnmayer said the Public Commission on the Oregon Legislature will vote on the proposal on Oct. 24.
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