FEATURE
WWW.BENDSOURCE.COM / AUGUST 12, 2021 / BEND’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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E N O G E OR
gines a m i o h a ater Id e r G a r o one’s t al f s s o a p t o s r u j p A town, r e d r o b Idaho , d n o Bend as a m d rom Re f y a w a throw el By Jack Harv
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efore there was Oregon the state there was the Oregon territory, made up of what’s now Oregon, Washington, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. Borders were set for all these western states by 1890, but now, a group of residents in central, eastern and southern Oregon are seeking to move the historic border and be absorbed by Idaho. Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho was formed in January of 2020, stemming from discussions on Facebook pages and in-person meetings with dissatisfied southern Oregonians. The group asked Mike McCarter, a born-and-raised Oregonian with a long career in Oregon agriculture, to take the lead on the project. They filed their corporate papers and before long they were collecting signatures advocating for a ballot measure. “It’s not a secession, but it’s a vote to start looking into the possibility of a county becoming a county of Idaho,” McCarter said. “The basic idea behind it is, in a representative government, an organization like Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho, you need to find out what the people think.” The group was able to get ballot measures in four counties during the 2020
general election. The first election showed mixed results, with Jefferson and Union counties supporting the measure and Wallowa and Douglas opposed. In May 2021 elections the movement was able to pick up five more counties and no losses. “We figured out how to win, how to get the word out,” McCarter said. “It’s expensive when you start going direct mail to every voter in each of those counties, but that’s what it took, to get the right word out. Our battle is not with people against us, our battle is to get the information out.” What Information? The information Move Oregon’s Border spread involved, largely, grievances between urban and rural populations. A pamphlet from the organization asserts that Idaho has, “lower overall taxes, less regulation and interference, less unemployment and cost of living, no arsonists or rioters set free and American values.” Its website features elections maps that visualize the vastly different voting patterns of rural and urban Oregonians. “If you look at the United States map for the presidential election, you see it’s almost all red, and then you got
blue pockets, and those blue pockets are actually controlling everything, because that’s where majority of the people are,” McCarter told the Source. “We’re seeing some change in the Boise area, but all in all, Idaho is a pretty traditional-valued state: faith, family, freedom, independence, and it lines up very well with the people in rural Oregon.” Move Oregon’s Border also spells out its strategy in six steps: Collect sig-
third-largest state by landmass and would increase its population from 1.8 million to 2.6 million. The border would follow the Deschutes River from the Washington border, circumnavigating Bend and moving west along the Klamath County lines. “It does not include Bend and that’s because we don’t feel that Oregon would ever let Bend go—it’s a rich city as far as revenue goes,” McCarter said.
“It does not include Bend and that’s because we don’t feel that Oregon would ever let Bend go—it’s a rich city as far as revenue goes.” —Mike McCarter natures, win elections, go through Idaho hearings and analyses, lobby state legislators to negotiate a compact, vote on it as a whole in rural Oregon and, if approved, get approved by Congress. If successful, this would transfer 18 Oregon counties and three partial counties to Idaho, which is about 76% of Oregon’s landmass and 21% of its population. It would make Idaho the
Current Idaho Idaho was the fastest-growing state between 2019 and 2020, according to a report from WalletHub, and over the last five years 46% of immigrants were from California. If the borders were moved Idaho’s population would instantly rise about 50%. The Idaho legislators McCarter has met with have been open to the idea of a Greater Idaho.
