The Great Pork Chop Debate

Capitol Currents:

Baseball fans love obscure statistics. Read the morning paper and you're liable to see something like: "In last night's game, the Astros hit more triples following a rain delay of 45 minutes or more than any other team since the 1924 Philadelphia Athletics." I'm not sure if anyone keeps track of similarly obscure statistics here in Salem, but if they did, I'm willing to bet that they'd agree that the Senate today set a record for most mentions of "pork chops" during a debate lasting 15 minutes or less. I'm referring to the brief but spirited discussion over the merits of SB 424, which has absolutely nothing to do with pigs.The bill would require drivers to yield to pedestrians who have signaled their intent to cross a street at a crosswalk by extending a portion of their body (a hand, presumably) into the street. Right now, drivers technically don't have to yield to pedestrians until the pedestrian actually enters the crosswalk. While the bill passed, not everyone thought it was a good idea, including Senator Betsy Johnson. Her colorful analogy started off a string of pork chop references. Take a listen:In order, we heard from Senator Betsy Johnson, Senator Lee Beyer, Senator Frank Morse (twice), Senator Floyd Prozanksi, and Senator Jackie Dingfelder--the carrier of the bill, who actually broke the streak by simply mentioning "pork" (no "chop") but upped the rhetorical ante by mentioning the "hokey pokey."The bill now heads to the House.

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