In response to a press release by the Democratic Party of Oregon, Multnomah County Republican Chair James Buchal issued the following response.

Like the rest of the nation, the Multnomah County Republican Party (MCRP) mourned the senseless loss of life in the October 1 shooting in Las Vegas. The scope of the tragedy is impossible to comprehend. Unfortunately, too many folks rushed to politicize the tragedy and make it an excuse to punish law abiding citizens. Now, a full month after the tragedy, the Democratic Party of Oregon and Multnomah County Democrats have jumped in. The fundraiser by the Multnomah County Republicans began months ago, and runs through December 4th. This smacks of cynical political posturing and opportunism – especially in light of their citing of misleading statistics. The Democrats at all levels, in an effort to make excuses for their gun grabbing policies, cite gun violence stats that include suicides, which serve to greatly magnify the so called crisis. We’ve held these raffles for many years, and every time MCRP holds a raffle like this, the professional agitators that make up the DPO and Leftist blogs attempt to tie us to some unconnected tragedy for which we bear no responsibility. Last time, they tried to claim that we should have known it was the six month anniversary of some shooting, but they couldn’t exactly be sure which one. Oregon voters are tired of being used as vessels of political outrage messaging, and would prefer that the two parties come together to solve real problems in Salem and DC. The politics of destroying the other guy have led to predictably disastrous results in our body politic. We invite the DPO and Multnomah Democrats to come together with Republicans for a bipartisan discussion that leads to actual results.

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