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Oregon Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, appears with supporters of his bill on gun background checks after chairing a hearing on the legislation in April at the Capitol in Salem.

(Jeff Mapes|The Oregonian)

A Republican activist from Cottage Grove has filed a recall petition against Democratic state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, largely because of his sponsorship of a controversial bill that requires criminal background checks on private gun transfers in Oregon.

Prozanski, from Eugene, is the fourth legislator -- all of them Democrats -- to face recall efforts that stem from the legislative fight over the background check bill, which Gov. Kate Brown signed into law last month.

Patricia Michaelson-Duffy, a Republican precinct committee person in Lane County, had the recall petition accepted by the secretary of state's office on Monday. She declined to discuss her campaign in detail, saying she wanted to wait for a kick-off event. But she cited the gun issue as her top concern.

She said in her recall petition that the measure, Senate Bill 941, turned "law abiding citizens into criminals" because they would violate the law if they stored guns in a friend's safe or kept guns for a friend who didn't have a safe place to keep them. Under the bill, gun owners could do each of those activities, but they would have to get a background check conducted by a federal firearms dealer.

Michaelson-Duffy also criticized Prozanski for not giving more time for the public to testify on the gun bill. And she also panned his votes on bills dealing with crime sentences, illegal immigrants, the proposed Columbia River Crossing and the failed Cover Oregon health exchange.

Prozanski said voters had the opportunity to consider most of the votes brought up in the recall petition when he was handily re-elected in 2014. He said he thought the recall should be reserved for cases of personal or financial misconduct in office, but he also staunchly defended his support for the background check bill.

"It's very good policy to pursue," he said, arguing that this bill was merely an extension of the state's longstanding policy of trying to keep guns out of the hands of felons and people who are mentally ill.

Prozanski also argued that he gave ample opportunity for written and oral testimony, especially since the Senate held hearings on similar bill in 2013 and 2014.

The veteran lawmaker, who has been in the Legislature for 18 of the last 20 years, said he did not know what efforts he would make to fight the recall, but he added, "I'm taking it very seriously."

The secretary of state's office has not yet given Michaelson-Duffy approval to begin collecting signatures. Once she does, she will have until Sept. 4 to gather the 8,415 signatures needed to force a recall election. Recall campaigns have to collect 15 percent of the votes cast for governor in the elected official's district.

Recall petitions have also been filed against House Majority Leader Val Hoyle, D-Eugene; Sen. Chuck Riley, D-Hillsboro; and Rep. Susan McLain, D-Forest Grove.

Tony Green, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said that none of the recall campaigns have yet submitted signatures to the state. The signatures for the Hoyle recall are due on July 13; the deadline for the other two is on July 14.

If the secretary of state certifies that the recall campaigns meet the signature threshold, the elected official has up to five days to resign. If he or she does not, an election is scheduled for no later than 35 days after the last day for resigning.

Green said the state elections officials are still looking into a complaint charging that the backers of the recall effort against Hoyle violated laws governing signature collection.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of signatures the recall campaign needs to collect to qualify for an election.

--Jeff Mapes

503-221-8209

@Jeffmapes