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DEXTER Oregons leading anti-abortion political advocacy organization and a small group of Lane County Republicans gathered on the banks of the Dexter Reservoir on Wednesday, vowing to do everything they could to make sure the areas first-term Republican state representative loses his job in 2024.

Rep. Charlie Conrad, R-Dexter, has become a top target for Oregon Right to Life, the Oregon Firearms Federation and other right-wing groups over his vote for a bill intended to guarantee access to abortion and gender-affirming care. For some voters, Conrads decision to support House Bill 2002 after researching and learning more about transgender youth served as a welcome sign of a possible return to a less polarized politics, and some community members and elected leaders interviewed by the Capital Chronicle on Wednesday described the freshman representative as a good listener and a strong advocate for rural issues.

But others have seen his endorsement of the bill, which passed, as a betrayal: Within minutes of his vote on the House floor, Conrad said he began receiving emails calling him a traitor, shameful, a pedophile.

A Wednesday press conference for the newly formed political action committee opposing Conrad garnered 11 people, including at least two Oregon Right to Life employees and a Springfield woman who doesnt live in the district. Lois Anderson, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, said the organization will use every tool it has to ensure Conrads defeat.

That starts with an already ongoing paid door-to-door and phone campaign to notify every Republican primary voter of Representative Conrads deadly record, she said. Republican state senators gave up their jobs in an effort to retain the rights of parents and to protect minors from the abortion industry. We believe that the people of House District 12 will ensure that Charlie Conrad gives up his job for trying to endanger them.

Republican senators stalled the Legislature for six weeks with a walkout over a few bills, including House Bill 2002. Anderson declined to say how much Oregon Right to Life plans to spend targeting Conrad. A political action committee formed last week to support the effort hasnt yet reported any transactions.

In May, the Lane County Republican Party approved a resolution withdrawing all support for Conrad and asking him to resign. The Washington County Republican Party, far outside his district, called on the state Republican Party and the House Republican caucus to deny any financial or volunteer support for Conrad and bar him from attending caucus meetings.

At a coffee shop in nearby Lowell on Wednesday, Conrad said he doesnt know whether to expect campaign help from fellow Republicans. He deeply respects House Minority Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, and other caucus members, he said, and he made sure to give Breese-Iverson plenty of warning about how he would vote.

Part of the reason why I respect them is because they represent their districts, and I would never ask them to sacrifice their political career and their ability to really represent their districts as they should be represented to support me, Conrad said. So well see the conversations that happen, but at this point in time, I dont plan on jeopardizing anybody else. It was my vote, and I think I represented my district.

House District 12, a sprawling district that stretches south and east from the outskirts of Eugene through several small rural communities, is closely split among non-affiliated voters, Republicans and Democrats. As of June, non-affiliated voters made up about 33% of the districts voters, followed by Republicans with 31% and Democrats with 29%.

But only registered Republicans will be able to vote in the May 2023 primary. One of Conrads constituents, Dorena resident Walt Bernard, said hed consider changing his registration to Republican if thats what it took to re-elect Conrad.

Bernard is one of the leaders of an effort to establish a fire district in the Row River Valley, an area now served by fire and ambulance services in Cottage Grove nearly 30 minutes away. Bernard first met Conrad last fall when he was a representative-elect and said Conrad has helped him get in touch with other state elected officials and connect with law enforcement and fire officials who helped supporters of a Row River Valley Fire District get off the ground.

If (Conrads) the one thats kind of under threat, I might move my affiliation to Republican so that I could vote for him in the primary, Bernard said. And it would be the same way for a Democrat, he added, citing Democratic Sen. Floyd Prozanski of Eugene, who represented the area before redistricting in 2022.

Nicole De Graff, an anti-vaccine advocate who Conrad beat by 99 votes in last years Republican primary, said she doesnt plan to run again but has met with a potential challenger. She declined to name that person.

It was clear from day one that he doesnt care what his constituents think, De Graff said. It turns out, his constituents are (Democratic Gov.) Tina Kotek and (Democratic House Speaker) Dan Rayfield.

She and other opponents said Conrad, who won in the general election with 57% of the vote, sided with Democratic leaders 85% of the time, a statistic that belies the bipartisan nature of most votes in Salem. Most of the hundreds of bills passed by legislators each year pass with broad bipartisan support.

Both Lane County Commissioner Pat Farr and his wife, Debi, represented Lane County as Republicans in the state House in the 2000s. Pat Farr, now a non-affiliated voter, said he thinks most voters care more about economic issues than a candidates stance on reproductive rights or gender, though voters have opinions on the latter.

Farr said Conrad helped deliver on needs for the district, including advocating for a $300,000 allocation included in the states final Christmas tree bill of budget additions to upgrade the water treatment plant in Lowell. He understands rural needs and can articulate them well, Farr said.

When you talk to Rep. Conrad, its not like youre talking to a politician, he said. Its like youre talking to your neighbor. Hes really easy to speak to and really easy to get the feeling that he is understanding what youre talking about.

An early primary challenge may turn out to be beneficial to Conrad, Farr said, because it will give him more time to tell voters why he believes what he does. Conrad agrees.

The fact that theyre doing it this early, it just means that we get to have the conversation in public that much longer, Conrad said. We get to have this conversation about reproductive health. We get to have that conversation in the district and people get to weigh in. Im still the representative for another 18 months or so, at least, and there are a lot of things that I still get to do for the district.

One of those things, Oakridge Mayor Bryan Cutchen hopes, is helping his small city about 40 miles east of Eugene rebuild the Willamette Activity Center, a social services hub that fell into disrepair. A new center will cost about $5 million, and Oakridge is seeking federal and state funding. The community, like others on the western slopes of the Cascades, also needs more state support with fire preparedness and response.

Cutchen, a retired Navy rear admiral, ran for state Senate in Maine as a Republican in 2016. He registered as a non-affiliated voter when he moved to Oakridge in 2019 to serve as city administrator, and he said party politics arent a big issue in his town.

Parties never come into it in Oakridge, Cutchen said. There are positions that people have that you could attribute to a party. There are fiscal conservatives, there are fiscal liberals, there are social liberals, but the idea of pointing and saying Youre a Democrat or Republican, none of that ever comes up.

Leslie Rubinstein, a former school board member who has been involved in progressive politics in Cottage Grove for more than 30 years, supported Democratic nominee Michelle Emmons in the 2022 general election. Shell almost certainly vote for a Democratic candidate in 2024, she said.

But Rubinstein said she was pleasantly surprised when she first met Conrad on a Zoom call after he took office. She and a few other people set up a call to urge him to support a bill that would have required the state to divest any investments in fossil fuels something he didnt support and that ultimately didnt pass. Conrad spent twice as long on the call as they scheduled, asked questions and was open about who else had lobbied him, Rubinstein said.

She was also impressed reading in the Capital Chronicle about how Conrad changed his mind and ended up voting for a major bill on abortion and gender-affirming care after he learned more about care for transgender young people.

I still am wary of Republican politics in general, Rubinstein said. But I realized this is somebody who was willing to investigate something and then change his vote based on the information that he got. And if he had done that investigation, and hadnt changed his vote, I still would have been impressed to read that he had asked these questions and publicly spoken about it.

Conrad tries to make it to every meeting hes invited to, said Melanie Stanley, a Blue River business owner who lost her home and the store her family ran for nearly 30 years during the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire, one of the largest in Oregon history. Stanley said she has always tried to stay in touch with her state representatives, but the fire and continuing recovery made her become more involved.

Stanley is a registered Democrat so she can have a voice in primaries, she said, but she considers herself more of a centrist. Shes impressed by any candidate who will think for themselves instead of following a party line.

I think if a party is going to base representation on a single bill, then we have a problem and that goes for both sides, Stanley said. Because, and I told Representative Conrad this, I respect his ability to stand up even if hes standing alone because it means that he is holding true to what she thinks and how he believes, not just what the party thinks.

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Oregon Republicans mount campaign against one of their own ... - Oregon Capital Chronicle

A political action committee supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s presidential campaign has raised a total of $10.25 million, one of its leaders said on Monday, a signal that his long-shot challenge to President Biden has gained traction among donors, including many Republicans.

The precise level of fund-raising by the super PAC, American Values 2024, will not be known until later this month, when political action committees file midyear reports with the Federal Election Commission. But Tony Lyons, Mr. Kennedys publisher and the super PACsco-chair, said that the $10.25 million included two very large donations that each exceed $1 million, and that the contributions came from a right down the middle mix of Republicans and Democrats.

Mr. Kennedy, a 69-year-old environmental lawyer and prominent skeptic of vaccines and prescription medications, often cites contorted statistics and unfounded theories. He has gained a foothold in the race, even as he has railed against the Democratic Party, accused public health authorities of corruption and increasingly embraced conservative figures and causes.

Mr. Kennedy will not come close to summoning the kind of financial support that will flow to Mr. Biden, who as the incumbent has the might of the Democratic National Committee and a robust donor infrastructure behind him.

Mr. Kennedys support among Democrats has reached as high as 20 percent in polls, although a poll conducted in June by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center put his Democratic support in New Hampshire at 9 percent.

He has also appealed to prospective voters outside the party: A Quinnipiac University poll in June found that 40 percent of Republicans viewed him favorably, compared with 31 percent of independents and 25 percent of Democrats.

Mr. Bidens campaign has not yet announced fund-raising numbers.

The super PAC American Values 2024 was formed last year as the Peoples Pharma Movement, and wasinitiallyfinanced by $500,000 in contributions from Mark Gorton, a New York City investor, records show. Mr. Gorton, who is supporting Mr. Kennedys candidacy, has said he knows Mr. Kennedy through the health freedom movement, which broadly opposes vaccinations and the regulation of health practices.

The committee was renamed this past spring, after Mr. Kennedy entered the race for the Democratic nomination in April. A majority of the $10.25 million has come since then, Mr. Lyons said. As recently as the first week of June, the PACs total haul was $5.7 million, committee officials said, indicating that nearly $5 million more arrived in the weeks before the June 30 reporting deadline.

The range of political affiliations among the donors, Mr. Lyons said, showed that there really are people across the political spectrum who feel hes going to fight corruption in government and corporate takeover of government agencies.

In recent speeches and appearances, Mr. Kennedy has leaned on his familys storied political history, and framed his race as a bid to heal the divide in American politics, which he has described as being captive to corporate power.

The PAC is separate from his campaign, which last week sent out requests to hit a $5 million goal to close out its first full quarter of fund-raising. On Friday, the campaign boasted of a $1 million haul in a 24-hour period.

Dennis Kucinich, the former presidential candidate and former Ohio congressman who is serving as Mr. Kennedys campaign manager, said the campaign expected to make a fund-raising announcement this week. Official numbers will be filed with the F.E.C. this month.

A second group supporting Mr. Kennedy, Common Sense PAC, was formed in Los Angeles in April by Sofia Karstens, an actress who has been active in the health freedom movement.Common Sense hosted a fund-raiser for Mr. Kennedy last month in San Francisco along with two tech investors, David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya. That event raised nearly $1 million, Ms. Karstens said.

Ms. Karstens did not have the PACs latest total fund-raising immediately available on Monday.

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Pro-Kennedy Super PAC Says It Has Raised $10 Million - The New York Times

Following NASA's recently proposed rule that requires federal contractors to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, two Republican senators have accused the space agency of overstepping its authority and straying from its core space exploration mission.

Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas, a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Sen. Eric Schmitt from Missouri, another senior member of the committees space wing, voiced concerns that NASA is advancing the "woke" agenda of the Biden administration and could threaten the rare bipartisan support that NASA receives in Congress.

"I do worry sometimes that we may be losing focus on what makes America the preeminent spacefaring nation," Sen. Cruz told NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during a budget hearing on Tuesday (May 16), according to Space News' Jeff Foust. "Rather than helping us win the space race, the proposed rule would ensure that NASA could do less exploration and less science for more taxpayer dollars."

Related: NASA highlights climate research at opening of inaugural summit

"You and I in this committee have a different approach to what is happening to the Earth's climate," Nelson said. "It so happens that NASA is in the middle of this."

The regulation being slammed by Republicans was proposed jointly by NASA, the General Services Administration and the Department of Defense on Nov. 14, 2022. The rule, which requires federal contractors to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and submit science-backed targets to reduce them, would increase costs for federal agencies and contractors by $4 billion, over a dozen Republicans argued in a letter sent to the space agency in early March.

In addition to disclosing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the proposed rule also requires contractors to estimate and reveal climate-related financial risk, measures that are "ever-changing" and "impossible" for an entire industry to follow, Republicans said in the same letter. The high upfront and annual costs to adhere to the proposed rule would prompt companies with limited resources to quit working with government contracts, they wrote.

NASA would end up bearing a large chunk of the $4 billion costs, which would in turn "remove dollars that otherwise would be available to go to the moon and Mars Just how much are y'all driving up costs because of the political mandate from the White House?" Sen. Cruz told Nelson on Tuesday, according to SpacePolicyOnline.com's Marcia Smith.

Nelson defended the specifics of the proposed rule, saying he could waive the requirement for small businesses and emphasized that NASA will continue to operate as "not only bipartisan but non-partisan."

Cruz and Schmitt also raised concerns about NASA's budget request for fiscal year 2024, which includes $22 million for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives via its Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity. The senators said such efforts could cause NASA to lose focus from the purported space race between the United States and China, which has announced its own planned crewed landing mission to the moon around 2030.

The requested funds for NASA's diversity initiatives have "little to do with winning what you have called a space race between the free world and China," Sen. Cruz told Nelson on Tuesday.

"America cannot afford to take its eye off the ball with the rising threat of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. We must be laser-like focused on our approach, and I can assure you that China has no interest in out-DEI-ing us, and they're not intimidated at all by this divisive radical policy that's found its way into this budget," Cruz said.

Follow Sharmila Kuthunur on Twitter @skuthunur. Follow us @Spacedotcom, or on Facebook and Instagram.

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Senate Republicans criticize NASA for its climate change and diversity efforts - Space.com

WASHINGTON (AP) Debt limit talks between the White House and House Republicans stopped, started and stopped again Friday at the U.S. Capitol, a dizzying series of events in high-stakes negotiations to avoid a potentially catastrophic federal default.

President Joe Bidens administrationis reaching for a dealwith Republicans led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as the nation faces a deadline as soon as June 1 to raise the country's borrowing limit, now at $31 trillion, to keep paying the nations bills. Republicans are demandingsteep spending cutsthe Democrats oppose.

Negotiations came to an abrupt standstill earlier in the day when McCarthy said its time to pause talks. But the negotiating teams convened again in the evening only to quickly call it quits for the night.

Biden, attending the Group of Seven summit in Japan, continued to express optimism that an agreement will be reached, saying that negotiating happens in stages.

I still believe we'll be able to avoid a default and get something done, he said.

His press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, earlier had acknowledged the difficulty of the talks.

Theres no question we have serious differences," she said, without outlining any of them.

Top Republican negotiators for McCarthy said after the evening session that they were uncertain on next steps, though it's likely discussions will resume over the weekend. The White House publicly expressed optimism that a resolution could be reached if parties negotiated in good faith.

We reengaged, had a very, very candid discussion, talking about where we are, talking about where things need to be, whats reasonably acceptable," said Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a top McCarthy ally leading the talks for his side.

Another Republican negotiator, Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, was asked if he was confident an agreement over budget issues could be reached with the White House. He replied, No.

As the White House team left the nighttime session, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, who is leading talks for the Democrats, said he was hopeful. We're going to keep working, he said.

Biden had already planned to cut short the rest of his trip and is expected to return to Washington Sunday night.

Earlier in the day, McCarthy said resolution to the standoff is easy, if only Biden's team would agree to somespending cutsRepublicans are demanding. The biggest impasse was over the fiscal 2024 top-line budget amount, according to a person briefed on the talks and granted anonymity to discuss them. Democrats staunchly oppose the steep reductions Republicans have put on the table as potentially harmful to Americans, and are insisting that Republicans agree to tax hikes on the wealthy, in addition to spending cuts, to close the deficit.

Weve got to get movement by the White House and we dont have any movement yet,McCarthy, R-Calif.,told reporters at the Capitol. "So, yeah, weve got to pause.

White House communications director Ben LaBolt said Saturday that Any serious budget negotiation must include discussion both of spending and of revenues, but Republicans have refused to discuss revenue.

He added: "President Biden will not accept a wishlist of extreme MAGA priorities that would punish the middle class and neediest Americans and set our economic progress back."

Jean-Pierre insisted Biden was not negotiating on raising the borrowing limit, despite the clear linkage in talks between securing a budget deal and raising the debt ceiling.

It is not negotiable we should not be negotiating on the debt, she said.

Wall Streetturned loweras negotiations came to a sudden halt. Experts have warned that even the threat of a debt default would could spark a recession.

Republicans argue the nation's deficit spending needs to get under control, aiming to roll back spending to fiscal 2022 levels and restrict future growth. But Biden's team is countering that the caps Republicans proposed in their House-passed bill would amount to 30% reductions in some programs if Defense and veterans are spared, according to a memo from the Office of Management and Budget.

Any deal would need the support of both Republicans and Democrats to find approval in a divided Congress and be passed into law. Negotiators are eyeing a more narrow budget cap deal of a few years, rather than the decade-long caps Republicans initially wanted, and clawing back some $30 billion of unspent COVID-19 funds.

Still up for debate are policy changes, including a framework for permitting reforms to speed the development of energy projects, as well as the Republican push to impose work requirements on government aid recipients that Biden has been open to but the House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has said was a "nonstarter."

Look, we cant be spending more money next year, McCarthy said at the Capitol. "We have to spend less than we spent the year before. Its pretty easy.

McCarthy faces pressures from his hard-right flank to cut the strongest deal possible for Republicans, and he risks a threat to his leadership as speaker if he fails to deliver. Many House Republicans are unlikely to accept any deal with the White House.

The internal political dynamics confronting the embattled McCarthy leave the Democrats skeptical about giving away too much to the Republicans and driving off the support they will need to pass any compromise through Congress.

Biden is facing increased pushback from Democrats, particularly progressives, who argue the reductions will fall too heavily on domestic programs that Americans rely on.

Some Democrats want Biden to invoke his authorityunder the 14th amendmentto raise the debt ceiling on his own, an idea that raises legal questions and that the president has so far said he is not inclined to consider.

Pressure on McCarthy comes from the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which said late Thursday there should be no further discussions until the Senate takes action on the House Republican plan. That bill approved last month would raise the debt limit into 2024 in exchange for spending caps and policy changes. Biden has said he would veto that Republican measure.

In the Senate, which is controlled by majority Democrats, Republican leader Mitch McConnell has taken a backseat publicly, and is pushing Biden to strike a deal directly with McCarthy.

They are the only two who can reach an agreement, McConnell said in a tweet. It is past time for the White House to get serious. Time is of the essence.

___

Miller reported from Hiroshima, Japan. Associated Press Business Writer Stan Choe and writers Kevin Freking, Seung Min Kim, Stephen Groves and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Josh Boak in Hiroshima, Japan, contributed to this report.

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Debt limit talks start, stop as Republicans, White House face 'serious ... - Chattanooga Times Free Press

House Republicans on Wednesday repelled an effort by Democrats to force a vote on expelling Representative George Santos of New York, who was charged last week in a 13-count federal indictment covering wire fraud, unlawful monetary transactions, stealing public funds and lying on financial disclosures.

Republicans voted along party line 221 to 204, with seven Democrats voting present to refer the resolution to expel Mr. Santos to the House Ethics Committee, which has been investigating Mr. Santoss finances and campaign activity for months.

The measure to expel Mr. Santos, introduced by Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat of California, was unlikely to succeed in the House, where it would have required a two-thirds supermajority to pass. Republicans hold a majority so thin that Mr. Santoss vote remains crucial, reducing the political incentive for them to support his ouster.

Indeed, by delaying the vote, House Republicans including some who have called on Mr. Santos to resign avoided having to commit to a firm position on his behavior. But their actions also may be construed as a tacit endorsement of Mr. Santoss remaining in Congress as he faces ethical and legal inquiries.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy has for months deferred action and defended Mr. Santoss right to his seat, arguing that the House should not punish Mr. Santos without a formal report by the Ethics Committee. But a handful of Republicans, many of them first-term representatives from New York, have for months said that Mr. Santos was unfit to serve and demanded that he resign.

A vote to expel Mr. Santos threatened to put those New York representatives, most of whom flipped swing districts that will be prime targets for Democrats next year, in a politically thorny position. Voting for Mr. Santoss expulsion would have put them at odds with their party. But voting against it might have made them appear hypocritical after months of forcefully denouncing Mr. Santos.

That tension was on display when Representative Anthony DEsposito, the first House Republican to call for Mr. Santoss resignation, introduced the motion to refer Mr. Santoss expulsion to the Ethics Committee.

Mr. DEsposito, who represents a district adjacent to Mr. Santoss, said that he would have voted to expel Mr. Santos. But since he knew the effort would fall short of the votes it needed, he said, he believed this is the quickest way of ridding the House of Representatives of this scourge on government.

After the vote, Mr. Santos, who voted with Republicans, said, I look forward to seeing the process play out. And if the Ethics Committee finds a reason to remove me, that is the process.

The timeline for the House Ethics Committees investigation remains unclear. The committee did not open its inquiry into Mr. Santos until March, nearly two months after two Democratic lawmakers first requested it do so. It is often criticized by government watchdog groups for moving too slowly.

The criminal case against Mr. Santos could further delay the committees work. In past cases when federal prosecutors have brought criminal charges against a representative, the Ethics Committee has deferred its inquiries at the Justice Departments request.

A spokesman for the Ethics Committee would not say whether it has received such a request regarding its work into Mr. Santos. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Still, Mr. McCarthy on Tuesday said that he wanted the committee to move quickly. I think they could come back faster than a court case could, he said.

Mr. Santos, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, is next expected to appear in federal court on Long Island on June 30. He has repeatedly insisted he had no plans to resign and last month announced his intent to run for re-election.

He said on Wednesday that he has been 100 percent compliant with the Ethics Committees investigation, but he has not appeared before them yet. As he spoke, Representative Jamaal Bowman, Democrat of New York, loudly heckled him, urging him to step down.

You gotta resign, bro, Mr. Bowman said, extending his thumb in a hit-the-road gesture. You gotta resign.

Catie Edmondson contributed reporting from Washington.

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House Republicans Stall Effort to Kick George Santos Out of Congress - The New York Times