NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: Good News; Bad News; and Other News

By Representative David Gomberg, House District 10

8/31/2026

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This week I have good news, bad news, and mixed news.

The good news: As we struggle to confront the challenges that will confound our collective futures, I remain profoundly proud of the work being done right here in our district.

That’s the message I delivered Thursday to 250 people who had come from around the nation to celebrate the completion and ribbon cutting at Oregon State University’s PacWave center. I was not exaggerating. Hatfield, NOAA, the Marine Science Center all based in Lincoln County work every day to better understand ocean science and the effects of a changing climate on acidification, hypoxia, warming or rising waters and how, in turn, those things effect our fisheries, our health, and our future. And now, PacWave is using that same ocean science to help address our growing demand for renewable electrical energy.

PacWave is the nation’s first grid-connected open-ocean wave energy test facility, turning the motion of the Pacific into affordable, reliable, secure energy. More than 15 years and $130 million in the making, this first pre-permitted wave energy testing site in the United States is complete.

Graphic shows how the PacWave testing system works, from undersea cables stretching 12 miles out to sea to the connection and monitoring facility north of Waldport. (OSU)

As the Lincoln Chronicle reported, the site will allow companies experimenting with wave energy to have a place to test their devices and see if they can truly generate electricity on a utility scale to support hundreds or even thousands of homes.

Underneath the endless waves at Driftwood Beach State Park north of Waldport, buried beneath the ocean floor are four tubes carrying 12 miles of copper and fiber cables. There, up to 20 testing devices can connect, converting the perpetual movement of the ocean to electricity that travels to a vault under the state park before making its way to the OSU-owned facility where it can flow into the local grid.

Consider three examples. A point absorber is the most common type. These buoy-like devices move up and down, converting the motion of waves into electricity. An oscillating water column uses the rise and fall of waves to push and pull air through a turbine to generate electricity. An attenuator is a long, floating device. As its sections flex with the motion of the waves, that movement is converted into electricity. These devices use subsea cables to connect to the grid to supply that electricity to shore.

Or as I said to the crowd, we’re using the power of the moon (that generates tides and waves) to produce the electricity we need.

Companies can now bring wave energy technologies off the coast of Oregon to PacWave South to test their ability to generate power in the open ocean and deliver it to the local grid. The goal is to advance an industry that’s still in its infancy but has enormous potential for cleanly generating large amounts of electricity.

Construction crews installed conduit and high-capacity power cable under the beach at Driftwood State Park and out into the ocean to the test site 7 miles offshore. Lines then run under Highway 101 to the $130 million PacWave testing system in three buildings on Wenger Street north of Waldport. It’s here that companies with energy machines will test how effective they are at generating electricity, which will then be put into the Central Lincoln People’s Utility District grid. (OSU/Lincoln Chronicle/OPB photos)

Belinda Batten – Interim Executive Director, Hatfield Marine Science Center, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Tim Ramsey – U.S. Department of Energy, OSU President Jayathi Murthy (with scissors), U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle, myself, and PacWave director Dan Hellin. (Macey Moore, KLCC)

Now the bad news: Between 10:00 p.m. on Friday August 21 and 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, August 22, multiple state park facilities along a 20-mile stretch of our coastline were methodically and maliciously vandalized.

Locked doors in men’s and women’s restrooms were broken open, doors pulled off stalls, paper dispensers ripped from walls, sinks damaged, toilets shattered, plumbing broken, mirrors smashed, and fires started. Restrooms at Gleneden Beach, Fogarty Creek, Boiler Bay, Rocky Creek, Devils Punchbowl, and Agate Beach parks or waysides sustained serious damage and are partially or fully closed. The damage north and south of Cape Foulweather was discovered Saturday by park rangers.

Over the weekend vandals destroyed much of the interior of restrooms at six coastal state parks and waysides. (Oregon State Parks)

Some restroom buildings remain entirely closed. Others such as Agate Beach Wayside in Newport are closed on the men’s side, but the women’s side was not damaged and remains open. Two portable toilets were set up near the Agate Beach restroom on Monday. Parks staff are working on repairs and will reopen the restrooms as soon as possible.

Damage to state property is damage to your property, and all of us along the coast well understand the importance, popularity, and high visibility of parks and waysides, especially during the busy summer months. Vandalism to public toilets affects our welcoming reputation, our tourism economy, our joy at being close to the ocean, and occasionally our personal comfort as we drive Highway 101.

I find this attack on each of you and our guests unacceptable and intolerable. And for that reason, my office will offer a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of those responsible. We will find them!

State police said they are seeking information from anyone who may have witnessed suspicious activity in or around the restrooms late Friday or early Saturday. Investigators are also asking anyone with video footage from roads leading to or adjacent to the affected state parks to review their recordings for potentially relevant activity.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact state police dispatch at 800-442-0776 or by dialing *OSP* (677) from a mobile phone and reference case number SP26-274452.

State parks personnel had portable toilets brought in Monday after vandals damaged the restroom at six locations. (Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle)

In other news, I am hearing a lot of concern and a bit of confusion about mail-in voting in the upcoming election.

On March 31, 2026, President Trump issued an Executive Order on elections, requiring the Department of Homeland Security to create lists of eligible voters in each state, directing the states to submit lists of eligible voters to USPS, and for USPS to refuse to deliver ballots to anyone not on those lists. The order would also require states to redesign and reprint mail-in ballot envelopes, mere weeks before the 2026 midterm elections begin—creating enormous chaos and confusion for voters.

A coalition of 24 states sued to block the order from being implemented. On Monday, the Supreme Court appeared to rule that the executive order could move forward. But to be clear, this was only a procedural decision deciding that the two dozen Democratic state officials had sued too early when they challenged the order since USPS had not yet codified it in a final rule.

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read at a press conference August 25 where he announced a directive to all county clerks to follow existing election law. (Statesman Journal photo)

On Thursday, a federal judge froze for two weeks any regulation to restrict mail voting, calling the U.S. Postal Service rule a violation of states’ power to administer elections. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s temporary restraining order said the government had not produced any evidence of fraudulent mail-in voting that the rule was intended to fix. She wrote the voting rights groups and Democratic states that sued had shown that voters would be disenfranchised in the November midterm elections if the rule remains in place. The federal government will likely appeal Thursday night’s order.

“The USPS’s interest in correcting an unsubstantiated problem through likely unconstitutional means is dwarfed by the overwhelming risk of pervasive disenfranchisement of citizens who need access to mail ballots in order to vote,” Talwani said.

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read issued a directive August 25 to Oregon’s 36 county clerks and local elections administrators in which he said, “Our elections will go forward as they normally do.” The directive orders county clerks and election officials in the state to continue adhering to all ballot mailing timelines. Some key dates include September 19, when officials are required to mail ballots to military and overseas voters, and October 5, the first day to mail ballots to voters with a non-Oregon mailing address who aren’t military or overseas voters. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to the rest of us October 14 for the November 3 election.

All states allow some form of mail voting. Eight states, primarily in the West, and the District of Columbia, mail ballots to every registered voter. States, not the President or the USPS, are granted power by the Constitution to run elections. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced, should USPS unlawfully attempt to interfere with Oregon’s vote-by-mail process, Oregon will immediately sue to stop that threat.

As he has done repeatedly in the last year, AG Rayfield will continue defending Oregon’s election system against unlawful federal interference.

Read more about ballot processing and counting procedures here.

A video monitor in the Lincoln County Courthouse allows citizens to monitor the vote process.

I’ve been writing recently about health care and the application of local Samaritan Health Services to affiliate with MultiCare Health System of Washington state.

The state’s Health Care Market Oversight program on Monday approved the merger on several conditions, including that the much larger MultiCare system follow through on its promise to invest $700 million in Samaritan and makes sure that, for at least five years, any money made from its newly acquired Oregon facilities is reinvested in the communities that Samaritan serves.

Samaritan Health Services says its proposed merger with a Tacoma-based medical provider will not immediately affect the operations of Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport and Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital in Lincoln City. (Lincoln Chronicle file photo)

According to Samaritan, “This approval brings us much closer to officially beginning our partnership with MultiCare and realizing the benefits it will bring to our patients and communities. Most importantly, your care will continue as it does today. You can keep seeing your Samaritan providers, attending scheduled appointments, using Samaritan pharmacies, and accessing your health information through MyChart. There are no planned changes to the health insurance plans accepted by Samaritan through 2027.”

“Over time, the affiliation will give Samaritan additional resources to expand access to care, recruit and retain providers and other healthcare professionals, invest in facilities and technology, and bring more services closer to home. Samaritan will continue to be locally led and focused on the needs of the mid-Willamette Valley and central Oregon Coast.”

A few legal and administrative steps remain. The merger, along with MultiCare’s proposed takeover of Samaritan’s Medicaid plan for lower-income Oregonians, had been in a holding pattern while state officials and executives discussed details of how the deal might affect Oregonians. The systems are awaiting two additional approvals from state regulators, both concerning MultiCare’s application to take over the health plans offered by Samaritan, including the InterCommunity Health Network that serves about 87,000 Oregon Health Plan members.

For the latest information, visit samhealth.org/Affiliation. Questions may also be sent to affiliation@samhealth.org.

Boiling just below the surface of our coastal ports is a conflict getting plenty of my attention, but which you may not have heard about.

Supporting the fishing fleets that fan out to sea from the Oregon coast, there are about three dozen industrial processing businesses that clean, cut and package the products before they’re shipped to consumers around the world.

Processing plants have been locked in a battle with environmental regulators over water pollution, with millions of dollars in fines piling up and legal fights that have spanned years. Meanwhile, the business is consolidating and, from an employment standpoint, shrinking. The fight pits the state’s environmental aspirations against one of its legacy industries—one that remains a defining part of life on the Oregon coast.

Coastal processors say it’s a case of “out-of-control” regulators promulgating wastewater standards that are nonsensical and economically unachievable, squeezing an industry already under pressure, and threatening businesses and jobs. Environmental regulators contend they are protecting Oregon’s waterways and environment.

The number of jobs processing supports fluctuates based on the volume of seafood landed, and employment has shrunk in recent years. Some firms are suggesting the regulatory environment is pressing them to leave the state which in turn, raises concerns for the fishing fleet on how their catch gets to market.

Most recently, Pacific Seafood was assessed a $2.9 million fine that DEQ levied on the company’s Southern Oregon Charleston plant. After the fines, legislators in the bipartisan Coastal Caucus came to the company’s defense. “We are also concerned by the broader regulatory framework under which this enforcement action is occurring,” the caucus wrote in a letter to DEQ, in which it claimed the agency’s water standards are more stringent than drinking water benchmarks.

To be clear, I want clean waterways and also want secure good local jobs. I believe we can have both. And I’ve urged more state investment in our working waterfronts. I wrote, “Coastal employers deserve the same good-faith partnerships that other regions around the state enjoy. Just as the MODA Center recently received support to ensure its survival, working waterfronts along the Oregon coast need support to deal with aging infrastructure, limited state investment, and evolving regulatory expectations.”

Both Pacific Seafood and DEQ say they remain committed to a good-faith resolution. But there is still a wide gulf between them after years of documented pollution and an underlying dispute over the way DEQ permits the facilities.