| Lynn Snodgrass | |
| Office: | CEO of the Gresham Chamber of Commerce |
| Term Start: | January 5, 2015 |
| Office1: | 61st Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives |
| Term Start1: | January 1999 |
| Term End1: | January 2001 |
| Predecessor1: | Lynn Lundquist |
| Successor1: | Mark Simmons |
| State House2: | Oregon |
| District2: | 10th |
| Term Start2: | January 1995 |
| Term End2: | January 2001 |
| Predecessor2: | Ken Baker |
| Successor2: | Jan Lee |
| Birth Place: | Oregon, U.S. |
| Party: | Republican |
| Education: | Oregon State University Portland State University (BA) |
Lynn Snodgrass (née Lynn Dee Grenz, born c. 1951) is a politician in the U.S. state of Oregon. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives. A Republican, she was elected Speaker in 1998, succeeding fellow Republican Lynn Lundquist.[1] [2] At the time, many Republicans felt Lundquist was too accommodating to Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber. Snodgrass was the first Portland-area Speaker since Vera Katz, whose term in that position ended in 1991.[1]
Snodgrass was born in Oregon, growing up in Milwaukie.[1] She attended Oregon State University, and earned an elementary teaching degree at Portland State University.[1] She competed for the Miss Oregon crown in 1969, losing to Margie Elaine Huhta.[3] She competed again, and was crowned Miss Oregon in 1971.[1] She married Drake Snodgrass in 1974.[1], they owned a successful local nursery and landscaping company.[1] They moved to Boring, Oregon in the early 1980s.[1] She held a seat on the Damascus school board, and served on Portland's Metro Home Builder Association.[1] (Drake's family owned the $15 million business 7 Dees Nursery.[1])
Snodgrass' political involvement began when a bill advanced by then-Speaker Larry Campbell forced Boring's school district to merge with that of neighboring Gresham.[1] 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.[1]
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.[1] It straddled Portland's urban growth boundary.[1] 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.[1]
Snodgrass was chosen Republican majority leader for the 1997 session. In 1998 Snodgrass defeated Democratic challenger Mike Smith, who got only 35% of the vote.[1]
She supported sending the then-recently approved Oregon Death with Dignity Act back to voters, and pushed for a bill to recriminalize marijuana.[4] 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.[1] 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.[1] She led the campaign to send Measure 65 to the voters in 1997.[1]
She drew support from the Oregon Right to Life PAC and the National Rifle Association of America.[1]
She is a deeply religious woman, and holds early-morning bible studies in her home.[1] She occasionally sang hymns with fellow legislator Margaret Carter.[1] (Carter considered Snodgrass a close friend, but worried in 1998 that her social agenda would undermine important social services.[1])
Snodgrass tried to pass a law in 1997 that would have established April as "Christian Heritage Month."[1]
A 1998 Willamette Week 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.[1]
Kate Brown was elected Senate Minority Leader in the same year.[1] 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.[1] Snodgrass was noted for strongly supporting an openly gay candidate for the House, Chuck Carpenter, over a more religious and conservative Republican (Bill Witt, who went on to win the election).[1] She had a contentious relationship with her predecessor, Lynn Lundquist, over education funding.[5]
Snodgrass ran unsuccessfully for Oregon Secretary of State in 2000.[5] She was defeated by Democrat Bill Bradbury.
Lynn currently holds the Gresham Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center, CEO position. [6]