Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello, Oregonians, and welcome to Life and Legislation with Lucetta. If you've ever wanted to get to know your politicians personally or understand what it is they are actually doing, then you're in the right place. I'm your podcast host, Jessica Campbell.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: I'm your state representative for House District 24, Lucetta Elmer.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: This podcast is a place for you to get to know Representative Elmer both personally and professionally.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: We want Oregonians to feel connected with and educated politics. So we're so glad you've joined us on a fresh new podcast adventure as we cover all things about life and legislation.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Hi, Oregonians, and welcome back to Life and Legislation with Lucetta. Today's episode is kind of fun because we have a special guest here. But first, Lucetta, how are you? How was your week? And then I'd love to have you introduce us all to your guest.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Thanks, Jessica. My week is great. It is still summer and that's my favorite. So I'm enjoying all has to offer. And it's been a medium week. I would say there's definitely some things happening, but it's not all in all, you know, all out crazy. So I feel like it's manageable and I am excited because today I have. My friend and colleague, Representative Virgil Osborne is going to be on with us today. And I think it will just be fun to have another legislator's perspective. I'll let him tell where he's from and how our voices are similar yet different.
[00:01:33] Speaker C: Sure. Well, thanks for having me. So I'm Your House District 2 rep from Southern Oregon, and I'll just go ahead and say it, Lucetta. The most beautiful district in the whole entire state.
Okay.
There might be some others that are close and we don't have the Pinot noir or the Pinot noir stuff that you have. But you know what? We have a lot of wineries too. It's a pretty cool place.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: So I'm going to jump in really quick. I'll let you finish in a moment. But for those who are listening, who really don't even know what area you're talking about, you know, we say house, district or HD and then numbers, but I would say probably the majority of your average Oregonians don't know what land that is. So this is Southern Oregon or can you give a little picture of what area you have?
[00:02:14] Speaker C: Absolutely. So it's. It's Douglas county for the most part. I mean, my. I don't have the entire county, but every bit of my district is within the county and we go from almost the coast all the way to Crater Lake park boundary, and then all the way down to Myrtle Creek and then all the way up to Rice Hill. So it's. We have most of the Umpqua Valley.
And the centerpiece of my district is Roseburg, which is the biggest population area that I represent. So I grew up there, born there, raised there. It's a beautiful place to live. But unfortunately, we also suffer the same problems that all the districts are suffering through the homelessness issue and all the things that we're dealing with, and then the ODOT issue, which is why I'm in Salem today.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Can I ask, have you been in politics your whole career, or was this a newer venture?
[00:03:08] Speaker C: Ooh, that's almost a dirty word. No, no, I. This is. I wouldn't say it's a new adventure. I've been involved in county government.
I was chair of the county planning commission for several years, and then I was also on the. One of the local cities, a smaller city, their planning commission for, I don't know, five, six years. And then I've been involved with the sheriff's department, with search and rescue. I've been a special deputy for the sheriff's department for quite some time, and I've been involved in search and rescue for a little over 20 years with. With Sheriff's department. So, you know, I just keep busy with the community and public service. You know, after there was a time period where in 20, relatively around 2021, that I just didn't feel that we were being represented well by our current, you know, House rep. And I decided that, you know what, we looked at his voting record and we started talking and I said, you know, I think. I think I need that position. So, you know, frankly, we're a very conservative district. I'm a pretty dar. Conservative person, probably one of the most conservative that serves in the House today.
And I decided it was time to take a run at that spot. So, you know, unfortunately, during the primary, he passed away. He had had cancer. So that, you know, ended up. There was. You know, I ended up winning the position over the Democrat. But he was a good guy. Just. I just didn't feel like he represented our district well. So that's what got me into the House, and this is my second term and third year.
So, yeah, here I am.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: And for those who noticed that we recently had Oregon Adoption Day, and anybody who follows Lucetta on social media, hopefully you saw a little video of how that all came to be and all the different people who shared their stories during that moment that everyone was going to vote on whether or not we could move forward with having Oregon Adoption Day. And you were one of the people who shared a story, and I just wanted to give you the chance to, you know, maybe give the Cliff Notes version of your story here.
[00:05:09] Speaker C: Well, there's not much quick about it. It's. It's quite a story, to be honest with you. You know, I was born in 1968, and my dad was black, my mom was white. And those were back in the days when that wasn't something that was. That was accepted. Well, my dad, you know, the conception happened at a party, I'm sure. I don't know. I wasn't there, obviously, yet, but she moved from Arizona out to Oregon to, you know, carry her full pregnancy term and had me and then moved back to Arizona. Never told anybody I knew. Obviously, I knew I was adopted. My adopted parents never tried to hide anything, and they always wanted us to know who our real parents were. But when it came time, when I turned 18 and we were able to unseal the records, we actually made contact with my biological dad, actually his wife, who had no idea that he had a son, nor did he, because nobody had ever told them. So you can imagine the shock. And he's pretty well to do. He's a doctor, and he does pretty well in Georgia. And I think their first thought was, oh, these guys are, you know, gold diggers or something. And, you know, I personally, my adoptive parents were the best parents anybody could ever ask for, so I didn't even really care, really. I was fine. I didn't need to know who my biological parents were, but my adoptive parents wanted me to know, so we ended up having a great relationship. You know, I still talk to my dad often, and now my. I've now met my biological mother, and we have a great relationship as well. And it's a good story. It ends well. And thank God she didn't abort me. I mean, I made it. So here I am now I'm in the House and I get to. I get to pick out all those people that seem to like abortion rights. So. Yeah, well.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: And I know that's something you and Lucetta have in common, both being adoptees and caring about that and obviously having a very, you know, personal passion for it as well. So thank you for, you know, sharing your story during that time. Thank you for sharing it here. And one of the purposes of this little podcast is for constituents to get to know Lucetta personally and then also get to understand what's going on in Oregon, in sort of layman's terms.
So I want to start with just focusing on that, getting to know her personally, because you get to work with her. So if anyone was curious who she was, what she. What is she like? As a colleague, how would you describe her?
[00:07:24] Speaker C: Describe Lucetta. I love Lucetta. She's like one of my favorite people in the house. And. And I was so upset with her when she moved from one side of the building because she used to be my next door neighbor in the building. And then when she was elected to be our deputy leader, she moved her office over to be closer to the leader, which I understand, but Lucetta is always just one of those. She's just one of those solid people. She's. She's. You know, we've been. We've served on the labor committee, labor and business and labor, whatever it was called. And, you know, we both were just always getting our asses kicked. And, you know, we fought really hard against folks like Holvi who are no longer there, thankfully. And. And Lucetta just never gave up. I mean, she was like one of those people. And it's because she's just so doggone nice, right? It's like you look at her and go, oh, I want her to be like my mom or something, right? I mean, she's just so nice and such a sweet person, but, man, you cross her and you get sideways with her and she doesn't forget. And she will.
That's when she gets even quieter and then she comes out swinging. And I appreciate that, but I love her conservatism. I love, you know, her leadership. She's been great, you know, as a leader, and her and I, we actually talk a lot behind the scenes, especially, you know, during sess. And, you know, we're all on the same team. And she's. She's just. She's just been a really good person to be with. So. So thank you, Lucetta, for everything you do. And thank you for the bill, too, for the adoption thing. I, you know, I remember when you came to me and was telling me about it, I was like, oh, that's cool. You know, I didn't think much of it. And then it's like, well, that's kind of a big deal.
So. Yeah, she's awesome.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Thanks. I agree. We. We did go through it in business and labor. That was a tough committee. And Osborne and I were freshmen and we came in at the same time to serve in the House, and we both, just as freshmen, got put on this terrible committee. Terrible in the Sense that it's a big committee and it's a heavy committee, and it's one where it's always partisan. You're just always going to fight because it's just conservative versus liberal on every. Every bill. There's not a lot of middle ground in that, in that committee.
So that was hard. But Adoption Day was the opposite. That bill was fun to work, and it, you know, we picked something that obviously means something to. Means more to some of us who are adoptees or who've been touched by adoption, but a very vibr. Bipartisan bill and didn't. It didn't have to do with party lines.
[00:09:46] Speaker C: It was great. You know, I have to say, I. I felt a little guilty when they redid the committees and you got stuck with the same folks on business and labor and they put me into a different committee protection.
I think you're. You're. The new committee. They call it, what, labor and labor now or something?
[00:10:06] Speaker B: It should be called labor and Labor. It's labor and workplace standards.
[00:10:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: So they took the business out of it, which was the only positive for me.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: So.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: Yeah. And I'm sorry for deserting you, but that's payback for moving your office to the other side of the building. There you go. We're even.
I'm just kidding.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: It's so fun to get to, I don't know, be the fly on the wall and hear real people at the Capitol and what you're all doing and how your days go and what it's like, because most of us don't really know. And that's the whole, whole purpose of this. And I want to get an update on, I don't know, the state of Oregon over the last week. But a couple of things happened.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: We had adoption Day, so, you know, if you want to speak to that. Also, there was a birthday.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: There was a birthday. Yep, yep. That happened last Friday. That was a great, fun day. I do like to do parties and make intentional moments. So I had a lovely day.
Adoption day was Monday, and we celebrated here in District 24 by having just a celebration in one of the parks and invited people to come out and share if they wanted or just come get coffee and donuts. And it was great. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I think one of the sweet spots for me was all of the emails I received, people thanking me. As legislators, we get hundreds of emails, and oftentimes they're form emails, meaning it's the exact same email. You just get it 500 times, but these were all personal. And you Know, people actually took the time, time to just maybe it just said thank you for adoption Day. But most of them, you know, said that. And then they went on to say how they've been touched by adoption. And a couple of them made me cry. I mean, it. They were. It was really sweet. So that was fun to see some more personal emails in my inbox.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: I love that. We might have to, I don't know, read some of those on an episode sometime just to share the stories. That's, I mean, you know, that's my heart is people being real with each other.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: Now, there's other things going on, right?
[00:12:12] Speaker B: Yeah, there are. I'll let Osborne start. He's in Salem, so you're right there.
You had the revenue forecast today. I don't know if you went to that.
[00:12:20] Speaker C: I. I did not, but I. Now, let's hold on just a second. I gotta back up. Just, just a. Just a minute or two. Did I hear something about her birthday?
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it was my birthday.
[00:12:30] Speaker C: Happy birthday. I did. I don't know how I missed it, but I'm sorry that I did. So I'll be sure to. Somehow, I don't know. I'll wish you a happy birthday when I see you.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:41] Speaker C: Thank you. Let's see. I have not seen the revenue forecast. I saw some comments.
It didn't sound like it was good.
I'm not surprised. I expected it to be poor because they can't lie all the time, and they lied last time, so now it's catching up to them. And yeah, I'm in Salem today. So we kind of had a plan for this session, the short session that Governor Kotak called.
And I think the plan originally was to provide Quorum with the minimal number of Republicans needed to let the Democrats pass their own bill. I think that number grew. I've heard there's going to be as many as eight of us or something along those lines. So I was asked to not be there necessarily, but I am in town, so I'll be in my office if necessary, and I can be at the Capitol shortly if I need to be to provide quorum or whatever. There's lots of stuff going on behind the scenes. A lot of it I can't really talk about today, but doing our best strategically to battle this bill, which is a very, very, in my opinion, horrible bill for the. For the state.
The headlines keep coming. I mean, there's now there has a group of counties and cities have decided that they are going to support the bill financially. I can see why they would do that. But ultimately I have had tons of ODOT people that I know have emailed me, called me, said they hate this bill, they don't want it. So, you know, I don't want to see anybody laid off from their and we're here to fight, so bring it. And if they win the fight, it'll be they won't win the war, they'll win the fight, they'll win the battle and hopefully we will see them lose some seats over it. And frankly, I would be happy if the governor didn't end up back in her seat. So we'll see how it goes.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a lose lose. I think for them it is their solution to an issue that I believe they've caused. It's no surprise and it's not new news that so many of our government agencies in Oregon have not been ran fiscally soundly. And so now we're short again. And our revenue forecast today was looking at our overall state budget which is short hundreds of millions of dollars. And I mean, I don't know. I mean, you know, Jessica, you had said this podcast is to put thing in layman's terms. So my layman's terms for the revenue forecast and then her response, which was to blame it all on the federal administration would be okay if, you know, for your household budget, you found out that you were going to be short X amount of dollars, which is what the state of Oregon found out. We're going to be short X amount of dollars from the federal money that we would may have received from federal in the past. So we're going to be short.
So if that were my household budget, I would need to tighten up my budget. I would need to maybe put on hold the new car or the trip that I was planning that I could tighten up. I would need to. But that's not what the state of Oregon currently some with our leadership says. Instead they just double down and they say, oh, we're over a billion dollars short on the rose quarter project. We're going to do it anyways.
Or you know, oh, we're hundreds of millions of dollars short on this last revenue forecast. Well, that doesn't matter. We're going to move forward with our social service plans and we're going to try to move this LC which is that's the concept for this bill that we're talking about during the special session this upcoming weekend, which is raising taxes to help cover costs for our Department of Transportation agency that has publicly admitted to mismanaging so much Money.
And so I just don't see where Oregonians say, oh, yeah, we trust you. Go ahead, take more of our hard earned money. Sure, raise our taxes.
We want to help out.
I don't think that's where we're at. Instead they're saying, wait, we've heard this same song and dance before and can someone please show us that you're going to be responsible with our dollars? And then maybe, maybe we could come to the table and say, oh, okay, yeah, this makes sense. We see we're short, we're willing to whatever. That's not where we are today. And I think Oregon is just really tired of continuing to just, just be.
[00:17:03] Speaker C: Hammered for money, you know, And I'll add to that, Lisette, the, the polling from, and I guess it was a K2 News or whatever it was, was over 80% of the Oregonians polled, nonpartisan poll, did not want this tax.
And that doesn't seem, that seems to have fell on deaf ears when it comes to the governor. And I don't know about you, but I actually got a phone call from the governor's office. Did you get one, too?
[00:17:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: So, so I told, I told the person that called me, I'm not going to mention his name because he's a super good dude. But I said, you know, you know better.
I go, you're from my neck of the woods. I go, there's no chance on this planet that I'm going to be able to support your bill. And he goes, well, it's much better bill. You know, read it. It's a much better. I said, I don't care. It's a tax and there's no chance I will not support this, especially because they haven't listened to the Republican response at all. And had they even considered some of what we suggested it, it might be more palatable. And I might be able to go, well, you know, we get, you know, we got a lot of what we needed to get, but they haven't done that. This has been 100%. One party has pushed this, this concept.
And I'm sure there's lots of behind the scenes stuff going on that I don't know about that has brought some people to the table and finally they've agreed to it, but nothing that's going to make me agree to it. So, yeah, yeah, I'm sad for the state right now. If this thing goes through. I'm really sad for the state now. There is a, there is a silver lining, I do believe. And Lucetta, you can correct me on this if I'm wrong. But I still believe that there is a way, if it does pass, it can be, with the right amount of signatures, can be put on a ballot.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: Yeah. We can do a referendum to the voters. And I.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: So that would put the bill on hold until that referendum is voted on. And I mean, if it goes to the ballot and it's voted down, oh my gosh. And the, the good thing about that is that would get the Republicans to the ballot box.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:02] Speaker C: We would come out to vote against it. So. Which we need that in the midterm.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because we. Rev. Osborne and I will be up for reelection in 2026. Since it's a two year cycle, we're always running.
So next year's an election year.
[00:19:21] Speaker C: Yeah. I finally had to go ahead and put something on my social media that said I'm running again, which was great. I mean I got tons of people saying, oh, thank you very much. And you know, it was 100%. I never had anybody that was against me running. But you know, there's always, you know, I mean, it's already started. I mean, I've already got those people out there going, well, you're going to get primaried. Your golden boy is going to get, you're going to lose your seat. It's like, well, you know what? I'm going to do what the people want me to do. The people that put me here. That's why I'm here.
I'm not going to play politician. I'm playing for the people. The team that wanted me, that put me in the position as the captain.
That's who I support, you know, that's who my support is and that's who I, I represent.
And you know, if that team decides they want to get rid of me, I mean, that's, that's up to them. But so far they seem to be holding pretty strong behind me.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: Well, we'll get to hear all kinds of updates when really campaigning starts because I know there's like the official start, but then you're always doing things behind the scenes and always working and, and then we will get to hear a big update next week on how this meeting went that you have coming up.
[00:20:28] Speaker C: Oh, I would say that social media will blow up statewide. Everybody will know exactly what went down.
Right.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Will be a big episode next week to just hear from you and hear all of the details and so look forward to getting updates on what's going on for those of us who aren't there.
[00:20:47] Speaker C: Yeah. My crystal Ball tells me that it's going to be exciting.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: Well, Virgil, thank you so much for joining us on our life and legislation with Lucetta. It's, it's fun to get to hear from and meet new people. And as I understand it, you have a podcast. And so we'll put that link in the episode notes in case some people want to follow along and hear more from you in your district, in your area. I know your podcast has a different style to it. It's much longer and it's live. And so just it's fun to have all the different ways to communicate with people in Oregon and share information and share opinions and share where those opinions come from. And hopefully people get to know those who are working in the Capitol as more than just a name on a ballot.
[00:21:32] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for that. And my podcast is on the verge. So it is on Facebook and it, we do live on Tuesday now. We've, we've been to Tuesday evenings at 6, but we also, it goes to, oh gosh, YouTube and Spotify and Apple Music, Amazon Music. There's like 13 different platforms that it goes onto. As soon as it's, as soon as the live is done, just Google on the Verge and you'll, you'll find it just about everywhere. Lucetta was just on it. So we appreciate that. It was, it was a great, it was a great episode. And yeah, we do take a little different approach. Like I said, ours is actually videoed live. We actually have a, we do it in a studio. And, and so we, we also let people ask questions, and that's been actually pretty good. I was a little reticent about it at first, but once we actually got through the first few live episodes, I realized that, you know what, There really isn't anything I'm afraid of. So ask away.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: I think that would be fun. I would love to have questions.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: I think that's amazing. I think we need to move in that direction. And as listeners know, we have put out that anytime you have a question, you can email the email link in the episode notes. But yeah, it might be fun to try some social media, some, some live questions and just keep going from there.
[00:22:50] Speaker C: So it's critical that we reach a segment of the population that doesn't pay attention to what our message is. And that segment, I mean, nowadays, I mean, even in my house alone, I don't have cable tv, I don't have satellite tv, I have Internet and, you know, I have the live streaming stuff. But kids these days especially, I'll be honest with you. I mean, the kids are our next generation. They're the most important generation right now because they're the ones that are going to run our state in the future when we're long retired and moved to Mexico or wherever we go. But they pay attention to podcasts. And the other thing is, when I'm driving down the road and I got nothing else to do, I flip on a podcast. I listen to them all the time. I listen to podcasts when I'm in the shower. I listen to podcasts when I'm at the gym. And that is the new way to communicate. Nobody watches the 5 o' clock news anymore unless there's something really major going on.
So these things are great and what you guys are doing is awesome. I love your, I love your format, although I think you should go live because you both have faces for tv. So I think it would be cool.
And then I'll have to take my glasses off if I have to do that because my assistant Jen will, she doesn't like when I wear glasses because it makes me doesn't look like I don't have a good TV view or something like that. Whatever. But thank you so much for having me on though. I've loved it.
[00:24:02] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you, thank you.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: We really, really appreciate it. I look forward to doing more and just continuing to learn and listeners again. Hopefully you getting to know these people from the Capitol better and learning a little bit more about what's going on in Oregon. So thank you so much for tuning in and we hope you come back next time for Life and Legislation with Lucetta.
