‘Greater Idaho’ billboards send message to lawmakers: ‘Free Eastern Oregon’ | Opinion
“Please release me, let me go
“For I don’t love you anymore
“To waste our lives would be a sin
“Release me and let me love again.”
— Engelbert Humperdinck
The folks in eastern and central Oregon trying to secede from their state and join Idaho have come up with a clever way to get their message across to Oregon lawmakers.
The Greater Idaho Movement organization has put up five billboards across the Salem area just as Oregon legislators are returning for the start of their legislative session.
The billboards have four messages:
“Respect Rural Voices - Free Eastern Oregon”
“Respect Rural Voices - Release Eastern Oregon”
“The People Have Spoken - Let Eastern Oregon Go”
“It’s Our Choice. We Choose Idaho.”
The Greater Idaho Movement is seeking to move Oregon’s border so that the conservative eastern counties of the state can become part of deep-red Idaho.
The Oregon Legislature is expected to have two bills before it this session, one in the House and one in the Senate, according to Greater Idaho president Mike McCarter.
One bill would invite the Idaho Legislature to begin border talks with the Oregon Legislature, and the second bill would create a body to assess the advisability of relocating the state line.
“With bills being introduced in both chambers the Oregon Legislature has no excuse to ignore this issue any further,” McCarter said in a press release. “Eastern Oregon leaders have heard their voters and are ready to move forward on this. Western Oregon leaders need to hear them out.”
The Idaho House in 2023 passed a memorial supporting border talks, but it never made it to the Senate floor.
Having worked in Ontario, I know the frustrations that eastern Oregonians have with a Democratic-controlled Legislature that passes laws they don’t agree with and sometimes infringe on their way of life or their ability to set their own destinies.
Whenever I crossed the Snake River from Idaho into Oregon to go to work at the Argus Observer newspaper, I felt like I was entering Bizarro World, the comic book version of Earth that was the exact opposite of the real Earth.
In Idaho, outnumbered liberals constantly complain about the Republican-dominated Legislature; in Oregon, the outnumbered conservatives in eastern Oregon constantly complain about the Democratic-controlled Legislature in Salem.
They complain about gun control measures, abortion, marijuana legalization — although notably, eastern Oregon counties have passed and benefited from marijuana legalization, including Malheur, home to Ontario — and environmental policies that restrict development.
But becoming part of Idaho they’d have to accept some changes, such as a sales tax, including on groceries, and lower teacher pay. Also, have you noticed how the roads seem to be better maintained once you cross into Oregon?
A remarkable change like this would require the approval of both states’ legislatures, as well as the U.S. Congress. The Idaho Legislature might talk a big game now, but once it comes down to brass tacks, I suspect the Legislature would balk at the idea.
As for the Oregon Legislature, why would lawmakers even consider it?
And as for Congress, well, they can barely even pass a budget.
In all, 13 counties in eastern Oregon have passed measures asking their elected officials to look into the idea, but some narrowly. And I think it’s worth pointing out that most of those measures passed during the pandemic. Oregon’s pandemic restrictions were much tighter, and many of our neighbors longed for the looser regulations of Idaho.
So the billboards might be a nice publicity stunt, and the Greater Idaho Movement has been good at garnering attention. But the chances of this moving the border thing ever happening are slim to none.
Instead of being swayed by the billboards, Oregon legislators likely will tell the Greater Idaho Movement folks what Idaho’s Democrats get told all the time: “If you don’t like it here, then move to another state.”
