Democrats for U.S. Senate
Cook says Oregonians deserve more input
vern Cook, an Oregon state
legislator trying to gain the Demo
cratic nomination for the U.S. Se
nate seat now held by Republican
Mark Hatfield, says a main focus
of his term in office would be to
increase the input Oregonians
have to their elected representa
tives.
“Senator Hatfield is not respon
sive to the public will,” says Cook,
“and his attitude on the subject
was very clearly set forth in his
voting on the Panama Canal
(when he voted for the treaties
even after a poll indicated the ma
jority of Oregonians wished to
keep the canal). That concept is
contrary to the role I believe a
Senator should play."
Cook says a Senator should
come to his constituents and urge
the point of view he supports on a
particular issue and try to educate
them on the issue. But after he has
done that, Cook feels the Senator
should vote the way the majority
feels about it.
Cook says a legislative priority
of his relates to timber. He says he
Anderson claims
spending misguided
Steve Anderson, a Salem attor
ney seeking the Democratic
nomination for the U.S. Senate
seat now held by Republican Mark
Hatfield, says the U.S. needs to be
more “sophisticated” in its poli
tics.
“It used to be like flies on a big,
healthy bull,” he says. “They were
an irritant and a nuisance, but it
didn’t make any difference.” Now,
offs, we’d probably find we could
get along with them.”
Anderson says we’ve been
spending capital “very foolishly on
nuclear power plants, and that the
waste problem is not solved and is
nowhere dose to being solved. He
predicts that some day there will
be a real catastrophe, and used
the problems in the past as exam
ples.
‘‘We would have been off nu
dear power a long time ago except
for the political power of the
utilities in this state,” he says. “I
think we should stop all nuclear
plants already in operation and
accomodate ourselves in the
meantime until we develop an al
ternative.
Anderson says adding the neu
tron bomb would be like “adding
another rifle to an over-extended
gun collection. We could defend
ourselves with the armaments we
have now. If we ever started using
all our armaments we’d send the
world back to the dark ages.”
Higher education is facing a
crisis, according to the candidate.
“There are not going to be enough
students for all the professors and
the buildings. And there is also a
dogfight between public and pri
vate institutions.” Anderson says
he is opposed to the idea of tuition
(Continued on Page 7B)
Steve Anderson
he says, things have changed,
and our current philosophy on
spending is misguided. “If we
spent as much money trying to get
acquainted with them (the Rus
sians) instead of on military stand
Brown plans to vote
as constituents feel
Jack Alan Brown, Jr., a Grants
Pass saw filer seeking the Demo
cratic nomination for the U.S. Se
nate seat now held by Republican
Mark Hatfield, says he will vote as
the people of Oregon indicate they
want him to vote and will go to
great lengths to find out his con
stituents’ feelings.
“Mark Hatfield shows a lack of
consideration of Oregonians’ feel
ings,’’ says Brown. “This was
especially seen on the Panama
Canal issue, where a poll was re
leased showing the majority of
Oregonians wished to keep con
trol of the canal, yet Hatfield still
voted to relinquish control.’’
Brown plans on getting input in
various ways, including running a
legislative report in newspapers
with a poll built into it concerning
pending legislation. He says he
will also have a toll-free number so
people can call him about things
already passed that they are
upset with, and will establish sta
tions throughout the state which
will be manned by his staff to take
further citizen input.
avt^ $$W^rimary objec*
Jack Alan Brown, Jr.
tives in the Senate will be to intro
duce bills to eliminate some of the
bills already in existence. “We
need a complete overhaul of the
Social Security system,” he says.
“It should be up to par with the civil
service system. It should also be
voluntary, so that someone could
contribute to a private retirement
plan if they so chose."
(Continued on Page 6B)
doesn’t support the suggestion
that we should increase the cut on
the national forests by 20 percent
to attempt to influence the price of
housing. “What we should do is
stop the exporting of our raw
logs,” he says. "A 20 percent in
crease in the cut would produce
1.1 billion board feet per year
using 1977 figures. To compare,
we exported 2.55 billion board feet
of timber in 1977, which is 46 per
cent of the cut that year. That
timber should be sold domesti
cally.”
Cook says we should put more
federal money into experimenting
with alternatives like solar, tidal,
wind and geothermal, but that we
can’t count on it being available
soon enough. “In the meantime,
since we don’t have any real op
portunity for more hydro power,
we are left with the known sources
of energy — petroleum, coal,
natural gas and nuclear,” says
Cook. “We should proceed cauti
ously with nuclear if it proves to be
the best choice and is the
cheapest.” .
weaker than other nations.”
Cook favors welfare abortions,
saying “the right to have an abor
tion through the second trimester
was established by the Supreme
Court—it isn’t a crime. It’s a ques
tion of whether a poor woman can
have elective surgery. If she had a
cancer tumor in her uterus that
would cause death, I would think
welfare would cover that. I don’t,
however, feel that abortion should
be used as a method of birth con
trol — we should use Planned
Parenthood for that.”
Cook wishes to double the
number of admissions to medical
schools in the country to double
the number of physicians, and
says we also need a radical in
crease in enrollments to nursing
schools. Ho also favors student
loans to help students complete
their education, but says the fed
eral government should specify
that student loans are not dis
chargeable — which means a
person can’t rid themselves of the
obligation to repay by dedarihg
bankruptcy.
Vem Cook
With respect to national de
fense, Cook says we need to up
grade our position, including the
production of the B-1 bomber and
the neutron bomb. “From a prag
matic standpoint,” he says, “we
should be in a position to involve
ourselves militarily on an interna
tional basis as well as our adver
saries can. We shouldn’t be
bweeney focuses on security
John Sweeney, Democratic
candidate for the U.S. Senate,
says his priority if elected will be a
three-pronged program on sec
urity: national, domestic and per
sonal.
Sweeney feels that by beefing
up our national security we will
create more public service jobs,
and that a larger military would
also help reduce unemployment.
Domestically, Sweeney wants
to push for an “all-out crime sup
pression effort. There are enough
laws already, we just need to en
force them. We need to have a
certainty of punishment.”
Sweeney says he would try to
implement a "seniority force-out”
system for the nation’s prisons,
which would include making a
seniority list of criminals. When a
new prisoner was brought in,
Sweeney says the person with the
most seniority would be freed.
“People will say that will put
murderers back on the street,”
Sweeney says, “but most people
convicted of manslaughter, mur
der and negligent homicide are
not criminals by lifestyle, just by
circumstances.” Sweeney says
this system would ease the crowd
ing problems in prisons.
Sweeney says better crime con
trol will also aid personal security,
but he would like to see health
(Continued on Page 6B)
John Sweeney
FOR CHARACTER
POLITICS...
Steve Anderson
for U.S. Seriate
Emily Ashworth
for Governor
Paid Slava Andarson for U.S. Sonata Commlttao, 4M Stata Straat, Satam, Oragon 97301