Smith has faced four investigations by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, and was fined for violating ethics laws and abusing his position as a public official. He has denied intentional wrongdoing.
Oregon lawmakers have largely stayed quiet on whether state Rep. Greg Smith, a Republican from eastern Oregon, should face any consequences in the Legislature for breaking state ethics laws and sticking taxpayers with tens of thousands of dollars in costs.
Last week, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission hit Smith, R-Heppner, with a $12,000 fine for violating state ethics laws and abusing his position as a public official by padding his own salary and signing off on his own vacation time while serving as director of a federally funded public development authority. Even though the authority’s board told him to repay $33,000 tied to a raise he arranged without the board’s knowledge, Smith has held onto the cash.
Smith rejected any suggestion of intentional misconduct and said he is open to returning the money, but he opted to pay $12,000 to close out the case instead of fighting it at a contested hearing. The penalty ranks among the largest in state history and reflects the seriousness of the conflict-of-interest charges he faced.
The fine capped off four investigations into Smith by the commission over the past two years, including two that found he had failed to disclose clients of his private consulting business on annual economic interest statements. Those cases resulted in letters of education , essentially a formal reprimand. In response to one of the commission’s probes, Smith disclosed that his household income has averaged more than $1 million a year in recent years.
The ethics commission, established after President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, is charged with making sure public officials don’t exploit their roles for financial gain or to dodge financial losses. Although the commission can hand down civil penalties, it’s ultimately the Legislature’s job to police its own members’ conduct.
Smith, the longest-serving current lawmaker in the state, has not faced any significant punishment in the Legislature despite the ethics investigations and an active civil lawsuit the state Department of Justice has filed against him and other eastern Oregon officials.
He still sits in House Republican leadership and continues serving as vice chair of the budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee. House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, did strip him as co-chair of the General Government budget subcommittee last Friday after the ethics commission’s ruling. He also retains his spot on the Capitol Construction Committee, a panel where public and private developers pitch projects for state funding.
Smith, who didn’t respond to a call, text or email from the Capital Chronicle, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that Fahey recently placed him on a subcommittee that could shape how the state carries out its Medicaid program following major federal cuts.
“Speaker Fahey made the decision to remove him as Co-chair of the General Government Subcommittee of Joint Ways and Means, but to make no changes to his committee memberships,” Jack Lehman, Fahey’s chief of staff, told the Capital Chronicle in an email.
Beyond Fahey, Capital Chronicle reporters contacted all 35 Republican members of the Oregon House and Senate, along with their communications staff and the House Republicans’ chief of staff, to ask what consequences, if any, Smith should face given the ethics commission findings. Reporters also reached out to Rep. Ben Bowman, House majority leader and a Democrat from Tigard, who declined to comment.
‘Failure to respond’
Reporters pressed lawmakers on whether Smith should stay in the Legislature, whether he should continue running for re-election as the Republican nominee for the 57th House District in the November election, whether he should remain in House Republican leadership and whether he should keep his committee assignments.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been pushed by colleagues to resign and have lost committee posts and leadership positions for allegations of sexual harassment, for letting armed intruders into the Capitol, for smoking inside the Capitol and for making inappropriate remarks.
Last June, after Sen. Chris Gorsek, a Democrat from Troutdale, raised his voice at Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, a Republican from Albany, during a heated meeting over transportation funding, House Republicans swiftly accused him of gender discrimination and harassment. They demanded Gorsek be publicly censured, pulled from all committees, sent to anger management training and that a building-wide alert be issued whenever he was in the Capitol.
Gorsek stepped down from the transportation committee. A bipartisan panel of senators cleared him of engaging in discrimination or harassment, though it found he had been disrespectful.
House Republicans said in a news release at the time that his conduct “weakens our democratic institutions,” and criticized Senate President Rob Wagner, a Lake Oswego Democrat, for his “shameful silence, failure to respond and inaction.”
‘Actions have consequences’
Of the 35 members of the Oregon House and Senate Republican caucuses that Capital Chronicle reporters contacted, only three senators and two representatives replied. Reps. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, and Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River, both declined to comment.
House Minority Leader Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, didn’t answer a call, text or email. Sen. Christine Drazan, a Republican from Canby who is running for governor and led the House Republican caucus when it pushed to punish Gorsek, didn’t respond to multiple calls, emails and a text.
Rep. Dwayne Yunker, R-Grants Pass, didn’t respond to inquiries but posted on Facebook earlier in August to say House Republicans need to urge Smith to “take responsibility and do the right thing,” without spelling out what that means.
“Leadership sometimes requires difficult conversations with people we respect. Our caucus should have that conversation and ask Rep. Smith to do the right thing,” he wrote. “We cannot demand accountability from others while remaining silent when it is our own. Our principles must mean the same regardless of whose name is involved.”
Sen. Todd Nash, a Republican from Enterprise who also represents voters in Smith’s district, said any decision about consequences for Smith belongs to the House and the voters.
“That’s really a House decision. I’m on the Senate side and I don’t really have input on that,” Nash said. “As far as running for reelection, that’s between Greg and the voters of House District 57 and I respect the voters there and their decision-making, and Greg’s ability to run.”
State Sen. Suzanne Weber, an outgoing Republican from Tillamook, said the commission’s ruling shows that “actions have consequences, particularly for those of us entrusted with public office.” Weber is barred from running for re-election after joining a six-week walkout in 2023 over Democratic bills on abortion, gender-affirming care and guns.
Like Nash, she said it would be up to voters in Smith’s district to decide whether he keeps representing them.
“I believe all of us who hold public office have an obligation to maintain the public’s trust and to accept the consequences when we fall short of that responsibility,” she said in an email.
Sen. Noah Robinson, a Republican from Cave Junction in southern Oregon, said he struggled to believe a public official would intentionally and repeatedly run afoul of conflict-of-interest laws and figured Smith must have erred by mistake. He agreed with Nash and Weber that voters should determine Smith’s future in the Legislature.
“I think they (lawmakers) should be held to a high standard. And I think we should give people latitude for mistakes,” he said. “If there’s a pattern of fraud, that’s a different matter.”
The latter question could play out in court in the coming months.
Smith is among several public officials in eastern Oregon being sued by the state for allegedly scheming to enrich themselves through a deal with Amazon tied to data center growth in their area. State attorneys claim Smith worked to help local officials devise a plan for hiding their efforts. He has denied the allegations and any wrongdoing.
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