Kim Thatcher

Early life

Thatcher was born in Pocatello, Idaho in 1964 and attended Portland State University.

Political career

Thatcher was first elected to the Oregon House District 25 in 2004, representing the Keizer area. Early in her career, as the owner of the highway construction firm KT Contracting, she was well known as a critic of the Oregon Department of Transportation. In May 2005, Thatcher successfully sponsored a bill to limit public access to information about concealed handgun license. She was reelected in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012. In 2014, Thatcher chose to run for Oregon State Senate Seat 13, held by the retiring Larry George, rather than seek reelection to her house seat.

Thatcher's 2014 campaign for State Senator got off to a strong start. She earned the endorsement of The Oregonian on October 9, 2014 and won the election.

Thatcher was a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention, where she cast her vote for Donald Trump as the nominee. While she initially was a Ted Cruz supporter, she came away from the convention supporting Trump for president, stating “I can honestly say I feel less uncomfortable with Trump.”

Legislation

Oregon Transparency Web Site

Senator Thatcher serves on the Transparency advisory commission. She also currently sits on the General Government and Accountability Committee. From 2009 all the way to 2017, Senator Thatcher has been a bipartisan leader in passing numerous bills to increase transparency in Oregon.

In 2009, Senator Thatcher was able to establish Oregon’s first transparency web site by passing HB 2500. The bill allows the public to see how their money was being spent by a number of different agencies.

In 2011, Senator Thatcher was able to pass House Bill 2825, which expanded Oregon’s transparency web site to include economic development tax incentives. This included program like the corrupt BETC program. The expansion of the web site helped to expose the corruption of the program that was spending hundreds of millions beyond it’s statutory mandate.

In 2013 Senator Thatcher helped pass HB 2370. The bill directed Oregon Department of Administrative Services with link to agency website where minutes or summaries of public meetings or rules of agency to be made available on Oregon’s transparency website. It also required the posting of additional of state contracts, and links to websites established by local governments and by special government bodies for purpose of providing transparency in revenues, expenditures and budgets of public bodies. Furthermore, it required the posting of information on tax expenditures under Oregon Low Income Community Jobs Initiative. During the time, Senator Thatcher spoke to the bill saying,

"There are hundreds of public meetings taking place throughout the state… It is difficult to find rules that agencies make, and this bill helps enhance the public’s ability to be informed and engaged."

In 2015, Senator Thatcher expanded the transparency web site that allows users to offer suggestions on form and content of Oregon of the website. It also required the posting of economic development information related to Oregon Product Investment Fund, Farmer Loan Program, and the Oregon Innovation Council and strategic investment program. Furthermore, it required the web site to post a description of how the public can request public records from public bodies.

In 2017, Senator Thatcher was able to further Oregon’s transparency website and public participation by passing House Bill 3361. She also passed HB 2946 that required quasi-government agencies, such as public universities, OHSU, The Oregon Tourist Commission, The State Insurance Fund Corporation, and many others, to post revenues, expenditures an budgets to the transparency web site.

Rioting and Protecting Free Speech

On February 15, 2017, Thatcher introduced bill SB 540 to the Senate Committee on Education. The bill would "require Oregon's public universities and community colleges to expel students convicted of rioting." Rioting is defined in ORS 166.05. It states:

“A person commits the crime of riot if while participating with five or more other persons the person engages in tumultuous and violent conduct and thereby intentionally or recklessly creates a grave risk of causing public alarm."

Given the tumultuous and violent behavior of Portland rioters in 2016 and 2017, the bill was given praise by Oregon commentators that want to protect citizen’s right to peacefully assemble and protest. Even politicians on the opposite political spectrum of Thatcher agreed that the Portland protests were anything but peaceful. In fact, Senator Thatcher may be the Nostradamus on Oregon’s riot problem because she introduced the same bill, HB 3036, in 2011 before the riots had even taken place.

Senator Thatcher was quoted about the purpose of the bill protecting free speech:

"Free speech protects us all and ensures we can exercise the critical right to share our truth. Violence is not free speech. My bill will protect students who are peacefully protesting from bad apples in the crowd who exploit peaceful protests to engineer violent riots."