Dennis Linthicum
Linthicum at the 2022 Hazlitt Summit hosted by Young Americans for Liberty Foundation
Member of the Oregon Senate
from the 28th district
Assumed office
January 9, 2017
Preceded byDoug Whitsett
Klamath County Commissioner
In office
January 2009 – January 2015
Succeeded byKelley Minty Morris
Personal details
Born1956[1]
California[2]
Political partyRepublican
ResidenceBeatty, Oregon
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Biola University
Dennis Linthicum campaign sign at the Jackson County Republican Party headquarters, August 2016

Dennis Linthicum is an American politician serving in the Oregon Senate. A member of the Republican Party, he has served in the senate since 2017.

Career

Linthicum graduated with a bachelors in economics from University of California, Los Angeles in 1978, and received his master's degree in Christian Apologetics from Biola University in 2009.[3][4] He began a software developer career in California, working of Hughes Aircraft. Later, he was the senior vice president of management information systems at Lange Financial and again at Pacific Mutual Life Insurance.[5]

He was elected as a Klamath County Commissioner in 2008. In 2013, he was involved in a recall petition to remove all of the commissioners. The reason for the recall, according to the filed petition was,

"Commissioner Dennis Linthicum has failed to listen to constituents of Klamath County on issues vital to our economy and to the benefit of our citizens. Examples are; lack of support for the county trapper, the Meals on Wheels [program] for our senior citizens, funding for our Sheriff's Department, water issues for the Klamath Basin, etc."[6]

Recall backers did not gather enough signatures on petitions to qualify the issue for the ballot.

In 2016, Linthicum ran as a conservative insurgent for the 2nd U.S. Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River.[7] Walden won over 74% of the May primary vote over Linthicum. Walden won re-election in November with over 70% of the vote over two opponents.

Linthicum won election to the Oregon Senate in 2014. He and Oregon House candidate E. Werner Reschke, were the center of efforts to change candidate filing deadlines - nicknamed the "Whitsett Maneuver".[8] None won approval of the Legislature.

During the 2019 legislative session, Linthicum was among 11 Republican state senators who walked-out. The move was to deny the Democratic-majority Senate the minimum of 20 senators required to establish a quorum to do any business. Oregon is one of five states in the nation requiring a two-thirds quorum. The walkout’s aim was to prevent a vote on a cap-and-trade bill that supporters said would lower greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to combat climate change. With the state budget unfinished, Democrats withdrew the carbon cap bill. Republicans returned on June 29 for a weekend marathon of votes, narrowly avoiding the constitutional deadline to complete the 160-day session. Linthicum remained absent, saying he had a prior commitment.[9][10][11][12]

Linthicum was elected to a second 4-year term in November 2020.

On December 11, 2020, Linthicum and 11 other state Republican officials signed a letter requesting Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum join Texas and other states contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election in Texas v. Pennsylvania. Rosenblum announced she had filed in behalf of the defense, and against Texas, the day prior.[13]

Linthicum was elected treasurer of the Oregon Republican Party in February 2021 as part of a conservative insurgent slate that also elected Sen. Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg, as chairman and former Sen. Herman Baertschiger, Jr., R-Grants Pass, as vice chair.[14]

In October 2021, Linthicum signed a letter along with other Republican politicians from around the nation calling for an audit of the 2020 election in all states and the elimination of voter rolls in every state. The letter also claimed that the Arizona audit found evidence of fraud.[15]

Senator Linthicum, a supporter of the organization Stand for Health Freedom, contacted Oregon's attorney general in late 2021 and requested that he initiate a DOJ investigation into alleged mishandling of COVID-19 data by the CDC, as admitted to by director Rochelle Walensky herself.[16][17] The Senator further supported the filing of a civil rights lawsuit against Walensky and colleagues to make COVID-19 data public in the federal Ninth Circuit Court in March 2022, with the aim of determining whether the true COVID-related death count actually supported assertions of a full-blown pandemic and hence the vaccine Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).[18]

Linthicum sponsored the Greater Idaho bill in the Oregon Senate on January 10, 2023, which would have required Oregon officials discuss the border between Idaho and Oregon from the Snake River to roughly follow the Cascade Range (with a conspicuous loop to ensure the booming and increasingly Democratic-tilting resort town of Bend) that would make 15 counties currently in Eastern Oregon part of Idaho.[19] The bill died without coming to a vote by the end of the session.

2023 Unexcused absences

While participating in a Republican-led walkout in May 2023 Linthicum reached the 10 unexcused absence threshold set by measure 113, disqualifying him from running for reelection after his current term ends.[20] Linthicum and 4 other Senators filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade in response, arguing that the measure's wording allowed them to serve one additional term before being barred from reelection.[21] In September Linthicum filed for reelection despite the disqualification.[22] On October 24 the Oregon Supreme Court agreed to hear the case with arguments beginning December 14.[23] On February 1, 2024, the Court unanimously ruled against the Republican Senators, confirming Linthicum's disqualification after his current term ends in January 2025.[24]

Personal life

Linthicum and his wife, Diane, have two children. He attends Bonanza Community Church.[4]

Electoral history

2016 Oregon State Senator, 28th district [25]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dennis Linthicum 37,119 61.3
Democratic Todd Kepple 23,153 38.2
Write-in 283 0.5
Total votes 60,555 100%
2020 Oregon State Senator, 28th district [26]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dennis Linthicum 54,800 72.7
Democratic Hugh Palcic 20,444 27.1
Write-in 102 0.1
Total votes 75,346 100%

References

  1. ^ "State of Oregon: Blue Book - State Senators by District". Archived from the original on 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  2. ^ "State of Oregon: Blue Book - State Senators by District". Archived from the original on 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  3. ^ "Oregon Secretary Of State". secure.sos.state.or.us. Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Dennis Linthicum's Biography". Project VoteSmart. Archived from the original on January 16, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
  5. ^ RICARTE, RAELYNN (3 May 2014). "Dennis Linthicum wants incumbents replaced with true conservatives". Columbia Gorge News. Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  6. ^ "Dennis Linthicum recall, Klamath County, Oregon (2013)". Ballotpedia. Archived from the original on 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
  7. ^ "May 20, 2014 Primary Election Abstract of Votes: Representative in Congress". Oregon Secretary of State. Archived from the original on October 18, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  8. ^ Bulletin, The (Bend) (2017-01-21). "Change the election filing rules". Mail Tribune. Archived from the original on 2019-05-05. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
  9. ^ "Oregon Republicans walk out on state Senate over climate change bill as governor threatens police roundup". CBS News. Archived from the original on 24 June 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  10. ^ Osborne, Mark; Youn, Soo (June 23, 2019). "Oregon's Republican state senators go into hiding over climate change vote amid militia threat". ABC News. Archived from the original on June 23, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
  11. ^ Selsky, Andrew; Zimmerman, Sarah. "Oregon Republican senators end walkout over carbon bill". Associated Press. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  12. ^ Radnovich, Connor (June 30, 2019). "Oregon Republican senators end walkout, but legislature remains dogged by controversy". Salem Statesman Journal. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  13. ^ Tess Riski (13 December 2020). "A Dozen Oregon Republican Lawmakers Urged the Attorney General to Support Texas Lawsuit Undermining U.S. Election Results". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on 14 December 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  14. ^ "Oregon GOP ousts chair, taps state Sen. Dallas Heard as new leader". opb. Archived from the original on 2021-03-10. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  15. ^ Cappelletti, Joey (2021-10-28). "State Sen. Kim Thatcher signs letter calling for election audit in 50 states". Keizertimes. Archived from the original on 2021-10-28. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  16. ^ "COVID-19 Data Disaster Created | Stand For Health Freedom". 2021-02-11. Archived from the original on 2022-09-20. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  17. ^ "Dr. Rochelle Walensky Knows the CDC Made 'Dramatic Mistakes.' Now She's Trying to Fix Them". Time. Archived from the original on 2022-09-19. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  18. ^ "Ealy et al v. Redfield et al". UniCourt. Archived from the original on 2022-09-20. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  19. ^ Rawlings, Matt (January 10, 2023). "Greater Idaho bill introduced in Oregon State Senate reading". KOIN. Archived from the original on February 4, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  20. ^ VanderHart, Dirk; Dake, Lauren (May 18, 2023). "Oregon Republican walkout: 6 more senators are potentially ineligible for reelection". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on October 23, 2023. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  21. ^ VanderHart, Dirk (August 29, 2023). "Challenge to anti-walkout law could go straight to Oregon Supreme Court". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  22. ^ Selsky, Andrew (September 14, 2023). "GOP senators who boycotted Oregon Legislature file for reelection despite being disqualified". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on September 16, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  23. ^ VanderHart, Dirk (October 24, 2023). "GOP senators' challenge to walkout penalties lands before Oregon Supreme Court". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on October 31, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  24. ^ Shumway, Julia (1 February 2024). "Oregon Supreme Court bars Republican senators who participated in walkout from reelection". Oregon Capital Chronicle. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  25. ^ "November 8, 2016, General Election Abstract of Votes". Oregon Secretary of State. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved October 30, 2023.
  26. ^ "November 3, 2020, General Election Abstract of Votes" (PDF). Oregon Secretary of State. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 12, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2023.

External links

Members of the Oregon State Senate
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