Lynn Snodgrass

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] As of 1998, 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]

• List of female speakers of legislatures in the United States