Dan Rayfield speaks at the Democratic election night party held at the Hilton in Portland, Ore., Nov. 5, 2024.
Brooke Herbert / OPB
Oregon’s incoming attorney general says he doesn’t need an infusion of cash to fund legal fights against the Trump administration next year. Instead, he’s looking for better intel from Democratic allies.
To that end, Attorney General-elect Dan Rayfield announced Thursday he’s creating a new “Federal Oversight and Accountability Cabinet” to give advocacy groups, unions and others a direct line to his office. It’s a way, Rayfield said, for people impacted by the new administration’s policies — likely to include steps like widespread deportations and environmental deregulation — to communicate those impacts to the office responsible for fighting what it considers federal overreach.
“If there were an attack on reproductive health,” Rayfield said, offering an example of the group’s utility, “we will have feelers out into the community, so that the state of Oregon can be more responsive and nimble in terms of protecting our values.”
A roster of participants in Rayfield’s proposed cabinet reads like a who’s who of prominent left-leaning groups, including public-sector labor unions, the ACLU of Oregon, the state’s largest Planned Parenthood affiliate, Basic Rights Oregon, and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. It also includes a pair of law professors, and is expected to rope in healthcare organizations that may be impacted if Trump attempts to cut Medicaid funding.
Rayfield told OPB the membership isn’t about picking favorites.
“It’s more issue-based on where the most likely impact is coming from the federal government,” he said. “It’s the high-impact areas where we think Oregon has stuck its neck out.”
The announcement comes as Democratic states around the country are preparing possible responses to a litany of campaign promises Trump made on the campaign trail. Those responses inevitably include state attorneys general, who repeatedly challenged Trump policies in court during his first term. Outgoing Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum participated in dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration during that time, often joining forces with the same group of more than a dozen Democratic-led states.
Following Trump’s victory in November, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, called a special session in order to set aside $25 million to challenge Trump’s actions in court. In a proposed budget unveiled earlier this month, Gov. Tina Kotek included a smaller infusion: $2 million to the Oregon Department of Justice to respond to federal actions.
Rayfield said that money might not be necessary.
“I think that there are ways to creatively work within the DOJ to meet the needs in Oregon,” he said. “It’s not like those things are done easily. You have to make sure that you’re utilizing resources and not taking away from other existing work.”
Among those planning to participate in Rayfield’s group is Melissa Unger, executive director of the state’s largest labor union, Service Employees International Union Local 503. Unger said Thursday her members are concerned about possible attempts to cut Medicaid, restrict access to abortions and deport undocumented immigrants.
“If things emerge that do not uphold Oregon’s values or the ways voters have spoken… how do we make sure that we’re standing up for Oregonians?” Unger said. “Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe it’s something. But having people prepared to engage in this discussion is an opportunity.”
Also involved in the cabinet will be Joe Baessler, executive director of Oregon AFSCME Council 75, another large public-sector union. Baessler said he only learned about the new group on Wednesday, but he welcomed the approach.
“One of the things that was really frustrating with previous AGs was, like, ‘Sorry, we’re lawyers. We’re not going to tell you what’s going on,’” Baessler said. “It’s good they are talking about how they communicate the work they’re doing.”
Willamette University law professor Norman Williams is one of two legal scholars on the cabinet. He said Thursday he hopes his background in constitutional law will help focus discussions about whether new federal policies run afoul of precedent.
“It made perfect sense to me that the Oregon Dept. of Justice is going to be thinking about protecting Oregonians from possible federal overreach,” Williams said.
But the move drew condemnation Thursday from one of the state’s top Republican lawmakers.
“I am both surprised and disappointed to see former Speaker Rayfield abandon his spirit of bipartisanship so quickly in favor of a hyper-partisan and national agenda,” said House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby. “The creation of a hostile, partisan cabinet is preemptively adversarial towards the incoming President and jeopardizes opportunities to collaborate with this new administration, seek federal dollars and resources, and achieve real progress for Oregonians.”
Leading the new advisory group are DOJ attorneys Dustin Buehler and Fay Stetz-Waters. Rayfield said he hasn’t set any meeting dates for the group.
A roster of participants in the planned cabinet includes:
- Joe Baessler, Executive Director, Oregon AFSCME
- Sandy Chung, Executive Director, ACLU of Oregon
- Prof. Greg Dotson, University of Oregon School of Law
- Dr. Sara Kennedy, CEO, Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette
- Kyndall Mason, Executive Director, Basic Rights Oregon
- Isa Peña, Director of Strategy, Innovation Law Lab
- Jeremiah Rigsby, Chief of Staff, CareOregon
- Lindsey Scholten, Executive Director, Oregon League of Conservation Voters
- Melissa Unger, Executive Director, SEIU 503
- Prof. Norman Williams, Willamette University College of Law
- Julie Hanna, Associate Vice President of Government Affairs, OHSU
- Graham Trainor, President, Oregon AFL-CIO
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Fay Stetz-Waters’ name. OPB regrets the error.
