Lynn Snodgrass
Encyclopedia
Lynn Snodgrass is a politician in the U.S. state of Oregon
. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives
. A Republican
, she was elected Speaker in 1998, succeeding fellow Republican Lynn Lundquist. At the time, many Republicans felt Lundquist was too accommodating to Democratic Governor
John Kitzhaber
. Snodgrass was the first Portland-area Speaker since Vera Katz
, whose term in that position ended in 1991.
. She attended Oregon State University
, and earned an elementary teaching degree at Portland State University
. She competed for the Miss Oregon
crown in 1969, losing to Margie Hunt (née Huhta). She competed again, and was crowned Miss Oregon
in 1971. She married Drake Snodgrass in 1974. , they owned a successful local nursery and landscaping company. They moved to Boring, Oregon
in the early 1980s. She held a seat on the Damascus
school board, and served on Portland's Metro Home Builder Association. (Drake's family owned the $15 million business 7 Dees Nursery.)
forced Boring's school district to merge with that of neighboring Gresham
. Snodgrass was enraged by that and her daughter's increasing class size, and made her first run for the legislature in 1994, which she won.
She represented District 10, which included her home town of Boring
as well as Clackamas, Happy Valley, Damascus, South Gresham, Estacada, and portions of Oregon City. It straddled Portland's urban growth boundary
. She ascended quickly in the ranks of the Oregon House, as a result of the term limits that were in place in the late 1990s
.
Snodgrass was chosen Republican majority leader for the 1997 session. In 1998 Snodgrass defeated Democratic challenger Mike Smith, who got only 35% of the vote.
She supported sending the then-recently-approved Oregon Death with Dignity Act back to voters, and pushed for a bill to recriminalize marijuana
. She supported Senate Bill 600, an early version of Measure 37
, and a bill requested by the Associated Oregon Industries that would have limited student activity fees for political purposes. The Oregon League of Conservation Voters asserted that she cast environmentally-friendly votes 7 percent of the time in the 1997 session, and 0% in 1995. She led the campaign to send Measure 65 to the voters in 1997. Measure 65 was widely viewed as an attempt to gut the powers of the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission.
She drew support from the Oregon Right to Life PAC and the NRA
.
She is a deeply religious woman, and holds early-morning bible studies in her home. She occasionally sang hymns with fellow legislator Margaret Carter
. (Carter considered Snodgrass a close friend, but worried in 1998 that her social agenda would undermine important social services.)
Snodgrass tried to pass a law in 1997 that would have established April as "Christian Heritage Month."
A 1998 Willamette Week
article questioned the accuracy of Snodgrass's understanding of how tax laws affected urban and rural school funding. The article asserted that Measure 5
of 1990 impacted Portland schools negatively, while benefitting schools like those in Snodgrass's district; and contrasted that fact with Snodgrass's assertion that her district's schools had suffered while Portland schools did not.
Kate Brown was elected Senate Minority Leader in the same year. Fellow Representative Chris Beck, a Democrat, noted that Snodgrass was the first Portland-area speaker in over 10 years, and expressed hope that she would rise above partisan politics and help solve the problems of Portland. Snodgrass was noted for strongly supporting an openly gay candidate for the House, Chuck Carpenter, over a more religious and conservative Republican (Bill Witt, who went on to win the election). She had a contentious relationship with her predecessor, Lynn Lundquist, over education funding.
Snodgrass ran unsuccessfully for Oregon Secretary of State
in 2000. She was defeated by Democrat Bill Bradbury
; it was suggested that the loss resulted from the labor vote energized in opposition to anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore
.
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives
Oregon House of Representatives
The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 57,000. The House meets at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem....
. A Republican
Oregon Republican Party
The Oregon Republican Party is the state affiliate of the United States Republican Party in Oregon, headquartered in Lake Oswego. The first state party convention was held in Salem on April 21, 1859, and its first nominee for Congress, Portland attorney David Logan...
, she was elected Speaker in 1998, succeeding fellow Republican Lynn Lundquist. At the time, many Republicans felt Lundquist was too accommodating to Democratic Governor
Governor of Oregon
The Governor of Oregon is the top executive of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. territorial governments....
John Kitzhaber
John Kitzhaber
John Albert Kitzhaber is the 37th Governor of Oregon. He served as the 35th Governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003 and became the first person to be elected to the office three times when he was re-elected to a non-consecutive third term in 2010...
. Snodgrass was the first Portland-area Speaker since Vera Katz
Vera Katz
Vera Katz is a Democratic politician in the state of Oregon. She was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and was the 45th mayor of Portland, Oregon's most populous city. Growing up in New York City, she moved to Portland in 1962 and was elected to the Oregon...
, whose term in that position ended in 1991.
Early life
Snodgrass was born in Oregon, growing up in MilwaukieMilwaukie, Oregon
Milwaukie is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. A very small portion of the city extends into Multnomah County. The population was 20,291 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1848 on the banks of the Willamette River, the city, known as the Dogwood City of the West, was incorporated in...
. She attended Oregon State University
Oregon State University
Oregon State University is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are more than 200 academic degree programs offered through the...
, and earned an elementary teaching degree at Portland State University
Portland State University
Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...
. She competed for the Miss Oregon
Miss Oregon
The Miss Oregon competition is a regional scholarship competition and beauty pageant that selects the representative for the U.S. state of Oregon in the Miss America pageant...
crown in 1969, losing to Margie Hunt (née Huhta). She competed again, and was crowned Miss Oregon
Miss Oregon
The Miss Oregon competition is a regional scholarship competition and beauty pageant that selects the representative for the U.S. state of Oregon in the Miss America pageant...
in 1971. She married Drake Snodgrass in 1974. , they owned a successful local nursery and landscaping company. They moved to Boring, Oregon
Boring, Oregon
Boring is an unincorporated community located in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, on Oregon Route 212. It is approximately eight miles south of Gresham and about the same distance from Clackamas, both suburbs of Portland. The town is roughly twenty-two miles southeast from downtown...
in the early 1980s. She held a seat on the Damascus
Damascus, Oregon
Damascus is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. Incorporated in 2004, the city is located east of Happy Valley and Interstate 205 and west of Boring. The area that later became the city had a population of 9,022 in 2000...
school board, and served on Portland's Metro Home Builder Association. (Drake's family owned the $15 million business 7 Dees Nursery.)
Political career
Snodgrass's political involvement began when a bill advanced by then-Speaker Larry CampbellLarry Campbell (Oregon politician)
Larry L. Campbell a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Oregon, served as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives in the early 1990s, representing Eugene....
forced Boring's school district to merge with that of neighboring Gresham
Gresham, Oregon
- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there were 90,205 people, 33,327 households, and 22,695 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,071.6 people per square mile . There were 35,309 housing units at an average density of 1,593.8 per square mile...
. Snodgrass was enraged by that and her daughter's increasing class size, and made her first run for the legislature in 1994, which she won.
She represented District 10, which included her home town of Boring
Boring, Oregon
Boring is an unincorporated community located in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, on Oregon Route 212. It is approximately eight miles south of Gresham and about the same distance from Clackamas, both suburbs of Portland. The town is roughly twenty-two miles southeast from downtown...
as well as Clackamas, Happy Valley, Damascus, South Gresham, Estacada, and portions of Oregon City. It straddled Portland's urban growth boundary
Urban growth boundary
An urban growth boundary, or UGB, is a regional boundary, set in an attempt to control urban sprawl by mandating that the area inside the boundary be used for higher density urban development and the area outside be used for lower density development.An urban growth boundary circumscribes an...
. She ascended quickly in the ranks of the Oregon House, as a result of the term limits that were in place in the late 1990s
Term limits in Oregon
Term limits legislation – term limits for state and federal office-holders – has been a recurring political issue in the U.S. state of Oregon since 1992...
.
Snodgrass was chosen Republican majority leader for the 1997 session. In 1998 Snodgrass defeated Democratic challenger Mike Smith, who got only 35% of the vote.
She supported sending the then-recently-approved Oregon Death with Dignity Act back to voters, and pushed for a bill to recriminalize marijuana
Cannabis in Oregon
Cannabis in Oregon relates to a number of legislative, legal, and cultural events surrounding use of cannabis Oregon was the first U.S. state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of cannabis, and among the first to authorize its use for medical purposes...
. She supported Senate Bill 600, an early version of Measure 37
Oregon Ballot Measure 37 (2004)
Oregon Ballot Measure 37 is a controversial land-use ballot initiative that passed in the U.S. state of Oregon in 2004 and is now codified as Oregon Revised Statutes 195.305. Measure 37 has figured prominently in debates about the rights of property owners versus the public's right to enforce...
, and a bill requested by the Associated Oregon Industries that would have limited student activity fees for political purposes. The Oregon League of Conservation Voters asserted that she cast environmentally-friendly votes 7 percent of the time in the 1997 session, and 0% in 1995. She led the campaign to send Measure 65 to the voters in 1997. Measure 65 was widely viewed as an attempt to gut the powers of the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission.
She drew support from the Oregon Right to Life PAC and the NRA
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...
.
She is a deeply religious woman, and holds early-morning bible studies in her home. She occasionally sang hymns with fellow legislator Margaret Carter
Margaret Carter
Margaret L. Carter was a Democratic member of the Oregon State Senate, representing the 22nd District from 2000 to 2009...
. (Carter considered Snodgrass a close friend, but worried in 1998 that her social agenda would undermine important social services.)
Snodgrass tried to pass a law in 1997 that would have established April as "Christian Heritage Month."
A 1998 Willamette Week
Willamette Week
Willamette Week is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Portland, Oregon, United States. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business and culture....
article questioned the accuracy of Snodgrass's understanding of how tax laws affected urban and rural school funding. The article asserted that Measure 5
Oregon Ballot Measure 5 (1990)
Ballot Measure 5 was a landmark piece of direct legislation in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1990. Measure 5, an amendment to the Oregon Constitution , established limits on Oregon's property taxes on real estate....
of 1990 impacted Portland schools negatively, while benefitting schools like those in Snodgrass's district; and contrasted that fact with Snodgrass's assertion that her district's schools had suffered while Portland schools did not.
Kate Brown was elected Senate Minority Leader in the same year. Fellow Representative Chris Beck, a Democrat, noted that Snodgrass was the first Portland-area speaker in over 10 years, and expressed hope that she would rise above partisan politics and help solve the problems of Portland. Snodgrass was noted for strongly supporting an openly gay candidate for the House, Chuck Carpenter, over a more religious and conservative Republican (Bill Witt, who went on to win the election). She had a contentious relationship with her predecessor, Lynn Lundquist, over education funding.
Snodgrass ran unsuccessfully for Oregon Secretary of State
Oregon Secretary of State
The Secretary of State of Oregon, an elected constitutional officer within the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Oregon, is first in line of succession to the Governor. The duties of office are: auditor of public accounts, chief elections officer, and administrator of public...
in 2000. She was defeated by Democrat Bill Bradbury
Bill Bradbury
Bill Bradbury is an American politician from the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of Illinois, he grew up in Chicago and Pennsylvania before moving to the West Coast where he worked in broadcast journalism before running for public office. Democrat, he served as Oregon Secretary of State from 1999...
; it was suggested that the loss resulted from the labor vote energized in opposition to anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore
Bill Sizemore
Bill Sizemore is a political activist in Redmond, Oregon, United States. Sizemore has never held elected office, but has nonetheless been a major political figure in Oregon since the 1990s. He is considered one of the main proponents of the Oregon tax revolt, a movement that seeks to reduce taxes...
.