Local Rep Town Hall

On April 18th, our local state representatives from the house and senate will be holding a Town Hall at Roseburg City Hall’s Council Chambers, starting at 6 pm. State Senator David Brock Smith will be joined by his legislative colleagues in the Oregon House: Virgle Osborne (HD2), Alek Scarlatos (HD4), and Court Boice (HD1). Sen. Smith represents most of Douglas County, while House Rep. Virgle Osborne represents the largest number of voters here, including the city of Roseburg. We encourage you to attend and be ready with questions because we need answers.  

In these times, there are many questions due to what is happening at the federal level, but some are being proposed by our state representatives.They range from the attack on our democratic institutions and services, attempts to derail environmental protections in our state, as well as making continued access to basic needs uncertain for our most vulnerable people. We need to hold our state legislators accountable to work for us to protect all of these. Here is an opportunity to hold our local state representatives' feet to the fire.  

Although each of these Republicans is not directly responsible for the DOGE “chainsaw massacre,” the State of Oregon will suffer significant economic hardship if we are not able to make up the deficit created by it or better yet stop the implementation of Project 2025. The amount of money Oregon, including Douglas County, gets in federal aid is a significant part of our economic base. Approximately 75% of the money for Medicaid or the Oregon Health Plan comes from the federal government. Federal dollars fund not just basic needs for those who need it, but provide the infrastructure for systems that help everyone. Besides attacks on government programs and services, we are seeing attacks on our very system of democratic government.  

These attacks are not just coming from elected representatives in the White House and Congress, but from the elected reps in our own state legislature, starting with Douglas County’s state representatives and the attacks on our time-honored vote by mail. All three reps who will be at the Town Hall support voter suppression and are attempting to undermine the twenty-five year history of a system that is working and has Oregon’s voter turnout higher than the national average.  

There are many things we can hold our elected representatives accountable for, starting with their answers to our questions at this Town Hall and ending at the ballot box in 2026.   

Want to know more about what our GOP representatives in the state legislature stand for and are supporting or opposing on our behalf? Check out the state legislature’s website where you can find almost anything you want to know. This includes pages for each of our elected officials in the state legislature, as well as access to the bills they support. https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/.  If you look up each of the legislators who will be at the Town Hall, you can find information about committees they are on and legislation they support.  

Here is a link to the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS): https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1. This gives specific information about various functions of the legislature including access to each bill, ability to track legislation, and provide testimony when hearings are held. 

Hope to see you on the 18th.