Lynn Snodgrass

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Lynn Snodgrass ( Grenz; born c. 1951) is an American politician who served in the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the upper house being the Oregon State Senate. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of ...

from 1995 to 2001. A Republican, she was

Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives #REDIRECT List of speakers of the Oregon House of Representatives #REDIRECT List of speakers of the Oregon House of Representatives {{R from other capitalisation ...

{{R from other capitalisation ...

from 1999 to 2001.

Early life

Snodgrass was born in

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, growing up in Milwaukie. She attended

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

, and earned an elementary teaching degree at

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the next ...

. She competed for the Miss Oregon crown in 1969, losing to Margie Elaine Huhta. She competed again, and was crowned Miss Oregon in 1971. In 1974, she married Drake Snodgrass. , they owned a local nursery and landscaping company. They moved to

Boring, Oregon Boring is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. It is located along Oregon Route 212 in the foothills of the Cascade mountain range, approximately southeast of downtown Portl ...

in the early 1980s. She held a seat on the

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

school board, and served on Portland's Metro Home Builder Association.

Political career

Snodgrass' political involvement began when a bill advanced by then-Speaker

Larry Campbell Larry W. Campbell (born February 28, 1948) is a Canadian politician who was the 37th mayor of Vancouver, Canada, from 2002 until 2005, and a member of the Senate of Canada from 2005 until his retirement in 2023. Before he was mayor, Campbe ...

forced Boring's school district to merge with that of neighboring Gresham. Snodgrass was enraged by that and her daughter's increasing class size, and made her first run for the legislature in 1994, which she won. She represented District 10, which included her home town of Boring as well as Clackamas, Happy Valley, Damascus, South Gresham, Estacada, and portions of

Oregon City Oregon City is the county seat of Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, located on the Willamette River near the southern limits of the Portland metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 37,572. Established in 1829 ...

. It straddled Portland's

urban growth boundary An urban growth boundary (UGB) is a regional boundary, set in an attempt to control urban sprawl by, in its simplest form, mandating that the area inside the boundary be used for urban development and the area outside be preserved in its natural s ...

. She ascended quickly in the ranks of the Oregon House, as a result of the term limits that were in place in the late 1990s. She supported sending the then-recently approved

Oregon Death with Dignity Act Measure 16 of 1994 established the U.S. state of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act ( ORS 127.800–995), which legalizes medical aid in dying (commonly referred to as physician-assisted suicide) with certain restrictions. Passage of this initiati ...

back to voters, and pushed for a bill to recriminalize marijuana. She supported Senate Bill 600, an early version of Measure 37, and a bill requested by the Associated Oregon Industries that would have limited student activity fees for political purposes. The Oregon League of Conservation Voters asserted that she cast environmentally-friendly votes 7 percent of the time in the 1997 session, and 0% in 1995. She led the campaign to send Measure 65 to the voters in 1997. Snodgrass was chosen Republican majority leader for the 1997 session. Snodgrass tried to pass a law in 1997 that would have established April as "Christian Heritage Month." She is a religious woman, and holds early-morning bible studies in her home. She occasionally sang hymns with fellow legislator and friend

Margaret Carter Margaret Louise Carter (née Hunter; December 29, 1935) is an American politician who was a Democratic member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly from 1985 to 1999 and 2001 to 2009 and was the first black woman elected to the state's legislature ...

. In 1998 she defeated Democratic challenger Mike Smith, who got only 35% of the vote. In 1998, she was elected Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, succeeding fellow Republican Lynn Lundquist. At the time, many Republicans felt Lundquist was too accommodating to Democratic

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

John Kitzhaber John Albert Kitzhaber (born March 5, 1947) is an American former politician and physician who served as the 35th and 37th governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003 and again from 2011 to 2015. In February 2015, shortly after beginning his fourth term, ...

. Snodgrass was the first Portland-area Speaker since

Vera Katz Vera Katz (née Pistrak; August 3, 1933 – December 11, 2017) was an American Democratic politician in the state of Oregon. She was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and was the 49th mayor of Portland, ...

, whose term in that position ended in 1991. She drew support from the Oregon Right to Life PAC and the

National Rifle Association of America The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...

. A 1998 ''

Willamette Week ''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture. History Early history '' ...

'' article questioned the accuracy of Snodgrass's understanding of how tax laws affected urban and rural school funding. The article asserted that Measure 5 of 1990 impacted Portland schools negatively, while benefitting schools like those in Snodgrass's district; and contrasted that fact with Snodgrass's assertion that her district's schools had suffered while Portland schools did not.

Kate Brown Katherine Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 38th governor of Oregon from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as the state representative from the 13th distr ...

was elected Senate Minority Leader in the same year. Fellow Representative Chris Beck, a Democrat, noted that Snodgrass was the first Portland-area speaker in over 10 years, and expressed hope that she would rise above partisan politics and help solve the problems of Portland. Snodgrass was noted for strongly supporting an openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

candidate for the House, Chuck Carpenter, over a more religious and conservative Republican (

Bill Witt William David Witt (born December 12, 1951) is an American politician. He served two terms in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1999 until 2003, and was twice the Republican nominee for Oregon's 1st congressional district. Early life Wit ...

, who went on to win the election). She had a contentious relationship with her predecessor, Lynn Lundquist, over education funding. Snodgrass ran unsuccessfully for

Oregon Secretary of State The secretary of state of Oregon, an elected constitutional officer within the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon, is first in the line of succession to the List of Governors of Oregon, governor. The duties of the offi ...

in 2000. She was defeated by Democrat

Bill Bradbury Bill Bradbury (May 29, 1949 – April 14, 2023) was an American politician who served as a member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly and as the 23rd Oregon secretary of state from 1999 to 2009. Bradbury was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2 ...

. Since 2015, Snodgrass has been CEO of the Gresham Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snodgrass, Lynn 1950s births Living people Miss America 1970s delegates Miss Oregon winners Oregon State University alumni People from Milwaukie, Oregon School board members in Oregon Speakers of the Oregon House of Representatives Republican Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives Women state legislators in Oregon Women legislative speakers 21st-century American women 20th-century members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly 20th-century American women politicians Year of birth missing (living people)

Early life

Political career

See also

References