Skip to main content
Republicans in Columbia County purged another party member this month as the sexual abuse scandal involving state Rep. Brian Stout (R-Columbia City) and a reported fundraising investigation continue to roil the conservative stronghold just north of Portland.
The central committee of the Columbia County Republican Party passed a resolution Oct. 9 banning Drey Layda, a candidate for the Oregon House of Representatives, from all of its “meetings, gatherings and events” because Layda has “repeatedly accused the chair and the CCRP of illegal activities, without evidence, in order to harm the reputation of the CCRP and the chair.”
The chair of the CCRP board of directors is Traci Brumbles. Layda has been pressing Brumbles and others to disclose more about an annual fundraiser called Bourbon in the Barn, where guests sipped whiskeys and bid on hard-to-find bottles of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, according to The Oregonian. Brumbles, one of the organizers, owns the liquor store in Rainier, Ore.
Held in March 2022 and 2023, the events apparently violated state rules prohibiting the sale of take-home liquor at fundraisers, The Oregonian reported. As of May, when the piece ran, the fundraisers “were entangled in a broad criminal investigation into the diversion of high-end bourbons by Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission managers,” the paper said.
The OLCC didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
Layda, 49, says he wants Brumbles and others to “come clean” about the fundraisers.
“Republicans are always talking about respecting the rule of law, and then this rolls down,” Layda tells WW. “I think they’ve been lying to all their precinct committee captains, saying, ‘No, we’re not under investigation, keep the contributions coming.’”
Reached on her cellphone, Brumbles said she was taking her husband to the doctor and couldn’t discuss the matter at the moment.
Layda, a deep-sea “saturation diver” who once worked on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, ran in the 2022 Republican primary to represent House District 31, which includes much of Columbia County. He lost to Stout who went on to win the general election Nov. 8. He has registered to run again next year.
The day before the 2022 election, a female campaign volunteer asked a Columbia County circuit judge for a sexual abuse protective order alleging a series of abusive, threatening encounters with Stout, including one in which he threatened to throw her off a cliff at Multnomah Falls if she said anything about their relationship. The judge granted the order.
House Speaker Dan Rayfield removed Stout from his committee assignments soon after he was sworn in in January. Four months later, Columbia County Circuit Judge Cathleen Callahan ruled that the protective order would stay in place, denying a motion by Stout to remove it.
Unlike Layda, Stout appears to remain in good standing among Columbia County Republicans. He spoke at the party’s annual picnic Sept. 9, according to a Facebook post by Brumbles thanking him for appearing. “You absolutely rocked the house,” Brumbles wrote.
Stout’s accuser hasn’t fared as well. The party banned her from all party events and activities in July, citing reasons similar to those in Layda’s ban.
The woman “has falsely accused chairwoman Traci Brumbles of holding an illegal fundraiser for the Columbia County Republican Party, making false statements of internal workings of the Columbia County Republicans and leaking private, internal communications to the liberal Oregonian newspaper,” the resolution banning her says.
It is WW’s policy not to name the victims of sexual abuse. Stout didn’t return a call seeking comment.
Layda says he wants Columbia County Republicans to apologize for slandering him in the resolution that kicked him out. The resolution says that the CCRP “will no longer tolerate the ongoing false, malicious and defamatory statements and online posts” made by Layda.
Layda counters that there is nothing false or defamatory about his statements.
“Several news outlets have published articles since May of 2023 regarding the alleged illegal activities of the CCRP, and these allegations have been further substantiated by correspondence from the OLCC dated Sept. 18th, 2023, indicating that an investigation regarding these activities is in progress,” Layda wrote in a letter to Brumbles.
Layda says he plans to file a lawsuit against the Columbia County Republicans for false publication regarding a candidate.