Dan Doyle Ousted?

This just in from Salem: there's a rumor that Dan Doyle has been ousted as the joint chair of the  Ways and Means Committee. 

Doyle has spent the week battling charges of corruption.  Just this morning, papers reported that a consultant denied receiving $20,000  listed by Doyle as a campaign expenditure.  Earlier, Doyle admitted that he had mistakenly reported $9,000 for ads that never ran.  As a result of Doyle's misdeeds, there was speculation that Speaker of the House Karen Minnis was considering giving Doyle the ax yesterday. 

No word on how things went down.  Details still to come....

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    A press release from the Speaker's office is here (.pdf).

    From the release:

    SALEM –House Speaker Karen Minnis (R-Wood Village) today that Rep. Dan Doyle (R-Salem) has resigned as a member of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means and as co-chair of the committee. Rep. Wayne Scott (R-Canby) has been appointed to fill Rep. Doyle’s position on the committee and has also been appointed co-chair of the committee. In addition, Rep. Susan Morgan, who currently serves on Ways and Means, has been appointed vice-chair of the JointCommittee on Ways and Means. "Representative Doyle has asked to be relieved of his duties on the Ways and Means Committee to permit him to devote his full attention to resolving the issues which have recently arisen," Speaker Minnis said. "He has also asked me to convey his apologies to the members of the Legislature for causing this distraction at a time when we need to be focused on doing the people’s work. "I have full faith and confidence in our Ways and Means leadership team. Rep. Wayne Scott is a successful and experienced manager with a detailed knowledge of state financing. Rep. Susan Morgan has great experience with the Ways and Means process and will be an invaluable resource as our Ways and Means team works to build a responsible and accountable budget for the people of Oregon."
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    Rep. Wayne Scott huh? Better hope that you don't need much attention to detail in Ways and Mean. Rep. Wayne "One Man and One Man" Scott makes me fear it will be a long session. Not because of political rancor but because of the time it will take to explain the complexity of budget process using little words and probably a bunch of pictures.

    They should have made Susan Morgan chair. She's smart (gasp) she has been doing it for several sessions and she reasonable. Oh wait... she voted for revenue last session that makes her a Democrat.

    Chubby Gazelle

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    I like how my post ripping on Rep. Wayne Scott for not paying attention to detail has typos. HA, I'm an ass.

  • Aaron (unverified)
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    chubby not an ass, just your fingers are too fast for your own good hehe. I'm glad that Rep. Kropf did not get the job.

  • Mac Diva (unverified)
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    He's gone and the allegations appear to have a basis, according to Channel 6. In addition, his license to practice law has been suspended in an unrelated matter having to do with money. I wonder what Doyle felt he needed the money for.

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    I just wanted to echo the item about Rep Morgan. The pettiness of the House GOP Leadership was such that she was denied the post in favor of someone now demonstrated to be really unqualified to be overseeing money, and now after his outer, she is bypassed again.

    They didn't even offer it to the other first round consideree, Rep Richardson, who ISN'T in the Minnis doghouse.

  • Aaron (unverified)
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    John,

    Rep. Scott is Majority Leader so he has a larger say in positions of power in the House; Rep. Morgan might be in his doghouse.

  • Tenskwatawa (unverified)
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    <h1></h1>

    The bench warmers from Canby are game on. Scott remains suspect for wrangling through a bill last session which added one more exemption to state land use laws, allowing then a fireworks manufacturer in-district in which Scott had some part-ownership, (although dates of purchase and sale of his stake remain undisclosed), to avoid losses of some retained earnings by being exempted from having to relocate the business to an industrial zone from its (continuing) location in farm zone. Scott may have state ways-and-means sense we can only imagine to suspect.

    And the Canby City Judge Henricksen, 'The Law Along the Molalla,' had his law license suspended Jan. 10 for sixty days (twice as bad as Doyle) but would continue hearing cases and ruling in Canby during the suspension it was announced, after some incognito anticipatory City Council and City Attorney executive sessions at least as far back as early December in which was written the script for the Mayor et al's 'public front' handling in the event of the state Bar Association acting against the lawyer/judge. The Bar acted. Elected Canby officials 'acted,' too, reading their prepared script. Shocked! Shocked !! they were.

    What did Scott know of the ethical rot in his town's brain trust, if anything, and when did he know he didn't know it? 'No comment' is sad Scott comment.

    <h1></h1>
  • Rorovitz (unverified)
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    Don't worry Doyle has a "secret plan" to get himself out of this one.

  • Mac Diva (unverified)
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    Playing the new Oregon lottery slot machines-:).

  • LT (unverified)
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    Don't think Doyle has a "secret plan" to get out of this. Apparently Mann, the guy who was angry that his non-political company Red Cell showed up on the C & E is one of the guys who helped get Doyle elected in the first place, and this is how Doyle repays him? Has anyone (except Kropf being an attack dog) stood up for Doyle as an old friend they trust? Even Mannix sounded lukewarm.

    But this is also a cautionary tale on how "target" decisions are made when it comes to legislative races.

    From talking to Republican staffers, I hear that Doyle failed in his bid to be majority leader because people just plain don't like him (prob. for the same reasons as Ed Fadeley lost a primary nomination and an appointment nomination in the same year--bully enough people and they will turn on you when you want something from them).

    I spent a few hours one Saturday last fall putting out lawn signs for Grisham. One woman said "Gee, I don't know if we have room with the other lawn signs we have. Who is he running against?" When I said Doyle, she said "Put it right there!".

    But apparently some "genius" looked at some statistics and said "the numbers just aren't there" and so District 19 was not a district worth fighting for -- without actually visiting the district and talking to locals. And that is how the Democrats decided that was not a priority??

    I am not alone in saying that if there isn't more attention to having quality candidates in both parties in as many races as possible, why belong to a political party? I am currently a Democrat who admires such Republicans as Max Williams and Ben Westlund. If either of them ran against a Democrat I knew well and considered to be mediocre or worse, I don't know how I would vote.

    But people like me are often ignored by "professionals" who think there are 2 boxes (urban/rural, liberal/ conservative, etc) and anyone who doesn't fit in one of those boxes should just shut up and be a spectator.

    <h2>Baloney!</h2>
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