Tim Knopp

Tim Knopp is an American Republican politician. He was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives from 1995 to 2005 and has been a member of the Oregon Senate since 2013.

Tim Knopp
Member of the Oregon Senate
from the 27th district
Assumed office
January 14, 2013
Preceded byChris Telfer
ConstituencyCentral Oregon
Member of the Oregon House of Representatives
from the 54th district
In office
1999–2005
Succeeded byChuck Burley
Personal details
Born (1965-09-30) September 30, 1965
Portland, Oregon
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Melissa Knopp
ResidenceBend, Oregon

Early life and education

Knopp attended York Community High School.[1]

Political career

Oregon House

Knopp served three terms in the Oregon House of Representatives.[2][3] He was first elected in 1998 and left the House in 2005.[2] Knopp was majority leader in 2003.[4] In 1999, Knopp helped enshrine Oregon's unique "kicker" law, which returns excess tax revenue back to taxpayers, into the Constitution by sponsoring referral legislation that brought Measure 86 to the voters in 2000.[5] Measure 86 was approved by a 62% of voters.[6]

Oregon Senate

Knopp was first elected to the Oregon Senate in 2012. At the time, Knopp was executive vice president of the Central Oregon Home Builders and a past president of the Deschutes County Republican Central Committee.[7] He defeated incumbent Senator Chris Telfer in the Republican primary, winning 38% of the primary vote to Telfer's 32%.[8] Knopp then defeated Democratic nominee Geri Hauser in the general election.[9] In 2014, Knopp was named deputy caucus leader of the Oregon Senate Republicans.[4]

Knopp won reelection in 2016 with 60.9% of the vote, defeating Democratic nominee Greg Delgado.[10][11]

Considered a voice of bipartisanship in the Oregon Senate, Knopp has led efforts aimed at addressing workplace sexual harassment, public pension reform, equal pay, and paid family and medical leave.[12][13][14][15]

Knopp opposed the 2019 cap and trade bill that was reported to increase the cost of living on large portions of his constituency.[16][17][18] In 2019, Knopp and the other 11 state Senate Republicans walked out of the state Senate session, seeking to block the passage of the bill in a session of Democratic supermajority. Most Republicans fled to Idaho, depriving the chamber of a quorum.[19] Republicans maintained that the bill would do nothing to stop climate change and dramtacally increase costs of living in Oregon.[20] In an interview with The Oregonian Knopp said, "I feel no constitutional obligation to stand around so they can pass their leftist progressive agenda ... I think that’s true for every other Senate district that's out there that's represented by Republicans."[21]

Knopp was an opponent of legislation in 2015 and 2019 to eliminate non-medical exemptions to the requirement that Oregon schoolchildren be vaccinated.[22][23] While speaking against the bill at a rally in 2019, Knopp said passage of the legislation would lead to "no freedom in America."[22]

Personal life

Knopp is married to his wife, Melissa and has four children.[1]

References
  1. Voters' Pamphlet: Oregon Primary Election, May 17, 2016, Oregon Secretary of State, p. 29.
  2. James Sinks, Knopp leaves the Oregon Legislature, Bend Bulletin (January 8, 2005).
  3. Janie Har, Did Tim Knopp honor his pledge to eschew PERS?, Politifact Oregon (February 23, 2013).
  4. Yuxing Zheng, Tim Knopp named as deputy leader of Senate Republicans, The Oregonian (July 16, 2014).
  5. Editorial (2018-12-09). "Editorial: Stop the kicker heist". The Bulletin. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  6. "Oregon Taxpayer Refunds from General Fund, Measure 86 (2000)". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  7. Jeff Mapes, Tim Knopp, former legislator, challenges Sen. Chris Telfer in GOP primary, The Oregonian/OregonLive (March 6, 2012).
  8. Official Results: May 15, 2012 Primary Election, Oregon Secretary of State.
  9. Taylor W. Andersen, State Senate races set for Central Oregon districts, The Bulletin (March 9, 2016).
  10. Oregon 27th District State Senate Results: Tim Knopp Wins, The New York Times.
  11. Official Results: November 6, 2012 General Election, Oregon Secretary of State.
  12. Editorial (2019-06-30). "Editorial: State Sen. Tim Knopp fights workplace harassment". The Bulletin. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  13. "Bipartisan Oregon Equal Pay Act passes in State Senate unanimously". KOBI-TV NBC5 / KOTI-TV NBC2. 2017-05-18. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  14. "HB2005 2019 Regular Session - Oregon Legislative Information System". olis.leg.state.or.us. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  15. "A Bipartisan Plan to Revamp Oregon's Pension System | Chief Investment Officer". www.ai-cio.com. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  16. Sickinger, Ted (2019-06-19). "Cap and trade: What could Oregon's carbon policy cost you?". oregonlive. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  17. Profita, Cassandra. "Risk Of Natural Gas Price Hike Looms As Oregon Lawmakers Finalize Cap And Trade". www.opb.org. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  18. Schatzki, Todd; Stavins, Robert (2018). "GHG Cap-and-Trade: Implications for Effective and Efficient Climate Policy in Oregon". scholar.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  19. Joe Parris, Oregon state senator explains why he and ten other senators fled Salem over climate change bill, June 21, 2019).
  20. "Timeline: Oregon GOP walkout over climate change bill". KGW. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  21. What happens if Oregon Senate Republicans don't come back?, The Oregonian/OregonLive (June 20, 2019).
  22. Connor Radnovich, Bill to remove vaccine exemptions returns to Oregon Capitol, sparks charged debate, Salem Statesman-Journal (April 23, 2019).
  23. Gary A. Warner, Vaccination bill is dead, but controversy lives on, The Bulletin (May 14, 2019).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.