Political Quotes

“This is a tough night for those of us on the Energy and Commerce Committee. We come to the floor tonight to pay honor to our staff director Ray Baum, who passed away after a valiant multiyear fight with cancer. He left this world on February 9, unexpectedly in many respects. He left before we were ready, but not before he filled us with love and grace and kindness, shared his intellect and his great humor. I got to know Ray in 1988. I know you don't know this is actually me on the right here. I had hair. I was younger. This is Ray here. We were both elected to the legislature. And I don't know about you all, but oftentimes you meet people and you don't remember 30 years later or whatever where you first met them. With Ray, I absolutely remember the minute I met him. Then-State Representative Bob Brogoitti from La Grande decided not to run and was announcing that pretty late in the process. I happened to be in Salem at the capitol when he brought this young attorney out of La Grande, Ray Baum, into the capitol and said: I am going to announce I am not running, and he is my guy to replace me. Well, Ray and I both were first-time candidates in 1988; he in La Grande in northeast Oregon, and I in Hood River, Sherman, Gilliam, Wheeler Counties and part of Wasco. We both ran in the seats that our fathers had held and, in different eras, both been defeated. His dad already had the votes to be speaker of the house, he just didn't quite get reelected in his seat.…”