Oregon Rep. E. Werner Reschke, R-Malin, in 2019.

Members of the Oregon Legislature and legislative branch employees are “expected to conduct themselves in a manner that is free of harassment and to discourage all harassment in the workplace and at professional meetings, seminars or at any event at which legislative business is conducted.”

That is what is known as the Legislature’s Rule 27. The question a Legislative committee considered Monday was if state Rep. Werner Reschke, R-Malin, violated the rule. The vote was split, so the decision in the end was “no.” That means no remedial action was taken.

Reschke said in an interview that atheists and Muslims are not the “types of people you want in government making tough decisions at tough times.”

There is a larger context to the conversation. We listened to the whole thing. He has said his remarks were taken out of context. We don’t think so. We did find his remarks online here: tinyurl.com/Reschkeinterview a few months ago. We could not find the same recording on Tuesday.

He did later tell OPB that he did not mean to suggest that a Muslim legislator, state Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, or any other non-Christian legislator was unfit to serve.

The question for the House Committee on Conduct was if his remarks violated Rule 27. If he had said the remarks on the House floor or in a legislative committee, we think it would have been clear that it was a violation of the rules.

That’s our opinion.

But note that the rule does say: workplace, professional meetings, seminars or events where legislative business is conducted. Does that include a recorded and broadcast interview? It’s not crystal clear.

State Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, who was on the House committee, did vote that Reschke’s conduct fell within the rules. He said he understood why some of his colleagues believed it did not. The definitions in the rule should be revisited, Kropf said.

We agree.