LaPine, OR – Leaders of the Greater Idaho movement are asking the
Governor of Oregon to sit down with them and talk about next steps for
the 13 counties in eastern Oregon who have passed measures supporting
exploring moving the Oregon/Idaho border. The organization has reached
out to the Governor’s office with a formal invitation to meet, and
offered to sit down with her at a time and place of her choosing. The
invitation comes on the heels of Crook County becoming the 13th county
in the eastern part of the state to pass a measure supporting border
relocation. Several of the counties boards of commissioners have
already sent letters to state leaders requesting action towards
beginning border talks (those letters can be seen at
https://greateridaho.org/more_info).
“The people of eastern Oregon have made their voices heard, loud and
clear,” said Matt McCaw, Executive Director of the movement. “We
believe the Governor owes it to the people she represents to sit down
with our leadership team and discuss how we can all work together to get
better governance for eastern Oregonians.”
President of the movement, Mike McCarter, echoed those thoughts. “Our
organization, which is a grass-roots group of rural Oregonians, has been
going directly to voters for 4 years to ask them what they want their
elected leaders to do. They’ve told us, and it’s time those leaders
started listening to the people and working towards the policy outcome
they say they want.”
The Greater Idaho movement began putting votes to counties in 2020 and
seeks to move the Oregon/Idaho border westward so that the traditionally
conservative eastern counties would join the state of Idaho, which the
movement says better matches eastern Oregonian values. The group
believes that moving the border would create a win-win situation for
both Oregon and Idaho by better matching voters to state governance and
would lower political tension across the state. State lines can be
moved through a process called an insterstate compact. The change would
require the approval of both states’ legislatures, as well as the US
Congress. In 2023 the Idaho house passed a Memorial resolution inviting
the state of Oregon to begin border talks.
A copy of the invitation to the Governor can be found at
https://greateridaho.org/view/77
Unlicensed images are available for media use at
https://greateridaho.org/gallery
Learn more at www.greateridaho.org