Ore-goners

Fighting for economic growth and jobs where anti-business forces thwart prosperity.

[Ore-goners @Save_Our_Cities]

Journalist Dennis Kneale’s new book “Oregoners” is available on Amazon now, click the link below to learn more!

https://t.co/4w4yJiCSh8

[Dennis Kneale @denniskneale]

Boom! Electric utilities see cost per megawatt in OR doubling in five years, tripling in 10 years and quintupling in 15 years. Because of forced shift to solar and wind.

[Portland Moderate. @pdxmoderate]

A foie gras ban is not an issue of pressing importance for Portland.
What makes this proposal even more frustrating is that the City recently advanced a budget involving cuts to police, fire, and parks services, yet taxpayers will now be expected to fund the implementation, monitoring, enforcement, and inevitable legal defense of a foie gras ban that affects only a handful of restaurants.
This is not sound governance or responsible prioritization.
Portland’s restaurant industry is already under enormous economic pressure. Independent restaurants continue to navigate inflation, labor shortages, declining downtown activity, and razor-thin margins.
Adding another layer of regulation on a niche product does nothing meaningful to improve life for Portland residents, but it does create additional burdens for small businesses already struggling to survive.

The restaurant community, cares deeply about food sourcing, animal welfare, and ethical agriculture.

The foie gras served in Portland restaurants comes from a single immigrant-owned, vertically integrated organic farm in upstate New York. Restaurants and diners alike should be trusted to make informed choices without City Hall dictating what consenting adults may or may not eat.

And if the goal is meaningful animal welfare reform, this proposal simply does not meet that standard. Roughly 350,000 ducks are raised annually for foie gras nationwide, compared to approximately 9 billion commercially raised chickens each year.

By any honest measure, this ordinance is symbolic politics rather than policy capable of delivering measurable impact.

This legislation perfectly illustrates the problem with performative politics: “If I don’t like it, nobody else should be allowed to have it.”

If you don’t like foie gras, then don’t eat it. Millions of people manage to avoid foods they dislike every day without demanding government bans on the personal choices of others.

Who are you to decide what consenting adults can legally consume?

That is not public service — it sounds like control-freak activism masquerading as compassion.

Foie gras has been legally produced and consumed around the world for centuries. People can debate farming practices without resorting to paternalistic bans and moral grandstanding.

Calling it “not a viable food source” is absurd given that it is already an established culinary product served legally in restaurants across the world.

As a long-time District 4 resident and business owner, I have zero interest in voting for candidates who believe government should police lawful consumer choices simply because they personally disapprove of them. Portland already has enough people trying to micromanage how everyone else lives

At a time when Portland residents are asking for leadership on homelessness, addiction, crime, economic recovery, and restoring confidence in the city, this proposal sends exactly the wrong message about priorities.

[Ciatta Thompson @CiattaForHD33]

I testified before the Multnomah County Board today in support of stronger protections around our schools.

My position is simple:

If mobile syringe distribution programs are truly healthcare services, they should be located near hospitals and medical facilities — not near schools where children walk every day.

What I still haven’t heard is a clear explanation for why proximity to schools was ever considered acceptable in the first place.

Why should schools absorb the impact of policies intended to address adult addiction?

Oregonians already sacrificed financially through Measure 110 and the SHS tax because they wanted to help vulnerable people.

Why must families now also accept the consequences of these policies near their children’s schools?

Compassion should be measured by results — not rhetoric.

Compassion without accountability can become enablement.

The goal should be recovery.

#Portland #Oregon #Measure110 #PublicSafety #HD33

[Common Sense Institute Oregon @CSInstituteOR]

Did you know?

Since 2019, Oregon has ranked as the 5th least affordable state in the country. While incomes have increased by 34%, the cost of living has risen even faster - leaving households with 2.4% less purchasing power in 2025 compared to 2019.

Learn more by reading CSI's analysis here: https://t.co/Zf78pVUIPJ

[Oregon Business & Industry @OBIOregon]

Companies increasingly want regulatory speed and certainty when deciding where to invest, says Ted Abernathy of Economic Leadership at OBI's Oregon Economic Summit.
#orpol #orleg

[Oregon Business & Industry @OBIOregon]

Job growth in Oregon among the nation's worst over the last year, according to @econorthwest economist Mike Wilkerson at OBI's Oregon Economic Summit. Policymakers need to prioritize economic development.
#orpol #orleg

[Hester Communications @CustomHester]

.@Jeff_Eager kicks off a new Oregon Roundup series on the #2026election with a focus on #taxes. (Paid subscribers) I'll have column (available to all subscribers) posting Sunday on questions I want both gubernatorial candidates to answer. https://t.co/48IO96BQlQ

[Ore-goners @Save_Our_Cities]

Oregon 'Canary in the Coal Mine' for Blue States, Dems https://t.co/T7pX7OYyE1

[Eric Fruits, Ph.D. @ericfruits]

The only explanation for this is that Portland's chamber of commerce took a huge bong rip before writing this letter.

[Dennis Kneale @denniskneale]

From the pages of "Oregoners: How One State Chased Away Businesses and People." My #1 bestseller up now on @Amazon.

1.) “The problem here is, without any kind of loyal or disloyal opposition, there is no accountability to anyone. The voters are stuck with no choice here. And I helped to create that situation.”

--Kevin Looper, Democrat strategist, co-founder, People for Portland.

2.) On the downside of Portland Polite:

“Even as a sixth-generation Oregonian, I would way rather have somebody say ‘F-you' to my face. I am so sick of this, it makes everything feel deceptive and untrustworthy, generally, which it is.”

--Kristin Olson, Portland lawyer, crime victim, host of the pod “Rational in Portland.”

3.) “It’s not rocket science. When you raise taxes on the producers in the state, and you keep on laying more and more regulation, what do you expect them to do?

"They’re going to leave, because there’s a lot of other places where they aren’t penalized like they are here.”

--Bruce Starr, Republican minority leader of the Oregon State Senate

"Oregoners." Canary in the coal mine for blue states.
Buy it here:
https://t.co/Oochp8LX8X

[Ore-goners @Save_Our_Cities]

https://t.co/pB8OnojZpY

[Ore-goners @Save_Our_Cities]

Future Oregoners?...https://t.co/KLH4RMjORV

[Chris Dudley @Dudley4Oregon]

More than 40% of Portland residents are considering leaving the city, and without new leadership in Salem, that number is only going to rise.

For years, Salem leadership has defended the status quo while families deal with rising costs, struggling schools, homelessness, addiction, and businesses closing their doors.

I’m running for Governor because I believe we can turn Oregon around and rebuild a state where families thrive, businesses grow, and communities feel safe again.

Vote for me by Tuesday because I’m the only candidate who can win in November and get Oregon back on track.

https://t.co/hOFTxl8x4E

[Jeff Eager @Jeff_Eager]

West coast progressive incumbents have no good results to run on. Like, none. Everything they said they'd fix has gotten worse because of their policies while places not governed by progressives have done much better. So, as they've done since '16, they're running against Trump.

[Eric Fruits, Ph.D. @ericfruits]

Portland has a donut problem, too. Population changes from 2020 to 2025:

City of Portland: -17.4k
Rest of MultCo: -3.5k
WashCo: +10.7k
ClackCo: +3.8k
ClarkCo, WA: +26.8k
Rest of PMSA: +4.3k

Portland/MultCo are dragging down the region and the state along with it.

[Jeff Eager @Jeff_Eager]

This is true of all west coast large cities and all three state governments. The goal is to model progressive values by spending lots of money a good portion of which finds its way to unions & prog-aligned groups that keep progressives in power. Services at best tangential.

[Jeff Eager @Jeff_Eager]

NEW by .@mhester9777 in Oregon Roundup

Most Oregonians don’t vote in primaries.

That gives a small group of highly motivated voters enormous power over Oregon politics.

Should that change?

[Jeff Eager @Jeff_Eager]

On the trail of the company that hoovered up Portland homeless, forced them to fraudulently sign up for Washington Medicaid, and kicked them out when they asked questions.

[Ore-goners @Save_Our_Cities]

Book has been at the top of Amazon's charts in key categories like energy policy, environmenal policy and social policy. Available now in hardcover, paperback and Kindle (ebook is a 99 cent bargain.) https://t.co/4w4yJiDq6G

[Dennis Kneale @denniskneale]

Great convo yesterday with @GuyLambertNews on Fox 5 in DC about my new book, "Oregoners: How One State Chased Away Businesses and People."

My opening bite:

"California, New York, they're so big that it takes a long time for the bad outcomes to show up in sharp relief.

"In a small place like Oregon, it is a canary in the coal mine for where blue state policies will lead you.

"This state is hurting, it's losing thousands of jobs and businesses and taxpayers, and, meanwhile, though, they are attracting ever more street urchins who love the benefits they hand out hand over fist, over $700 million a year for the homeless industrial complex and the Portland metro area.

"Yet their homeless ranks went up 64% in two years, according to a formal count by Portland State University.

"It is craziness there. They no longer even recognize insanity, they've been inside of it for so long. I, the outsider with 40 years in Brooklyn, am here to wake them up."

.@ChristineDrazan .@MrAndyNgo .@SizeofTheMtn .@KatieDaviscourt .@RightSideR3bel .@DrunkRepub .@RepYunker .@ORDiscussion .@oregoncitizen .@kevinvdahlgren
.@nicooregon .@C_3C_3 .@oregonducksmama
.@LarsonLarsonShow .@davidmedinapdx .@CascadePolicy .@Jeff_Eager .@deepwebslinger

[KATU News @KATUNews]

Property owners and Portland leaders look to confront the vacant building crisis, but their initial ideas are diametrically opposed.
https://t.co/xIMSVJFT9D