Hanna's Heartburn

Carla Axtman

With all of the convention hullaballoo, I'd forgotten that yesterday was newly appointed House District 26 Rep. Matt Wingard's introduction day at the Capitol. My sources tell me that GOP leader Bruce Hanna said, in talking about the nerves/jitters of that big first day, "”For all of you with a little churning in your stomach, you should.”

Perhaps. But given Hanna's early withdrawal of support for Wingard--I'm willing to bet that's a big reason for Hanna's own heartburn:

Back in January of this year Wingard admitted to being convicted for hitting his son who was seven years old at the time. House Minority Leader Bruce Hanna (R-Roseburg) quickly withdrew his support for Wingard and demanded the GOP start hunting for a more viable candidate. He stated in an email to his supporters that "after seeing records and learning more details about the incidents . . . [I] made an immediate decision to withdraw both my personal support and the caucus' support" from Wingard's candidacy.

Well, no new Republican candidate ever surfaced and Hanna certainly sang a different tune yesterday after Wingard's appointment when he stated he thinks Wingard "will provide excellent service to the people of House District 26."

So now Hanna is stuck with both Wingard as his nominee and his own comments denouncing his support for the candidate.

In fact, the Oregonian uncovered an email that Hanna sent to his members in January, decrying Wingard:

“It was just recently brought to my attention that one of our filed candidates -Matt Wingard in HD26 (Krummel's seat) - had some civil and criminal child abuse issues in their recent past.

When I learned about this, which was just days ago, we discussed the
situation with the candidate. I then - after seeing records and learning
more details about the incidents - made an immediate decision to withdraw
both my personal support and the caucus' support from their race.

This is an exceptionally personal issue and I am not interested in
discussing details about the incidents, but it I believe it is imperative
for me to be clear with you and our supporters that 1) I had no knowledge of this situation and 2) I have withdrawn my support and the caucus support as well.”

So Hanna dumped the guy when he actually saw what went down with the legalities--and now he's stuck with him in the caucus.

In other "Hanna Rejects" news, the House GOP has failed to find a replacement on their ballot for Jeff Duyck. According to the Forest Grove paper of record, they're going to hitch their star to former Cornelius mayor Terry Rilling, who is running as an Independent:

Rilling fell out with party leadership earlier this year when he caught wind of an effort to recruit Duyck, a Forest Grove businessman, to run in the May primary. Rilling dropped out of the Republican Party and filed to run in the race as an Independent.

After that split, he said, party officials stopped returning his calls.

But without a Republican in the race, that enmity seems to be fading.

This snippet really doesn't tell the full story. My sources in that district have told me that Rilling was promised by the caucus that he'd be the GOP guy--and then the caucus got cold feet and dumped Rilling for Duyck. So apparently the second of "Hanna's Rejects" has a shot at being in the legislature.

By Carla Axtman Aug. 28, 2008