Candidates for Oregon secretary of state gear up
■The race is heating up as three
Republicans are fighting for the right
to take on incumbent Bill Bradbury
By Josh Ryneal
Oregon Daily Emerald
Democratic incumbent Secretary of State
Bill Bradbury and three Republican chal
lengers are all looking to overhaul the Ore
gon office. Bradbury is running unopposed
in the May 16 primary, and only the victo
rious Republican will move on to face Brad
bury in November’s general election.
The secretary of state assists with the
management of state lands and audits state
programs and agencies. The office is also re
sponsible for overseeing state elections.
Rep. Lynn Snodgrass, R-Portland; Rep.
Lynn Lundquist, R-Baker; and electrical en
gineer Paul Damian Wells are all running on
the Republican ticket and hope to use the
office to reform Oregon elections.
Snodgrass, the Oregon speaker of the
house, wants to use the office to remedy
voter apathy among college-age Oregonians
and to encourage those already registered to
vote in future elections.
If elected, Snodgrass said she would ap
point a youth council composed of 18- to
30-year-olds to investigate the issue and
have that group report back to her and rec
ommend solutions.
Snodgrass said she would also streamline
the secretary of state’s audit division to
eliminate inefficiency and improve its cred
ibility among state agencies.
Under her plan, the secretary of state’s of
fice would conduct an exhaustive audit of
itself and then use that information to im
prove the auditing process of other pro
grams and agencies.
“By asking employees their opinions
about what is wasteful and redundant, [the
process] becomes less hostile,” Snodgrass
said.
Lundquist, a rancher, businessman and
current state representative, sees a “crying
need for leadership” in the secretary of
state’s office.
His campaign platform also includes
plans to increase voter turnout. To accom
plish this, Lundquist said, he would push
for schools to teach
mandatory civics
courses in schools
to “increase aware
ness of government
and how it func
tions” and get chil
dren engaged in the
voting process at an
early age.
“I remember pa
triotism and civic
duty being taught
when I went to
school, but it’s not out there now,” he said.
Revamping the audit process is also part
of Lundquist’s plans.
“My goal would be to inform taxpayers of
what they exactly receive for every tax dol
lar spent,” he said.
Lundquist said he would establish six
councils of private citizens to work with
agencies and help determine when and
where to perform an audit.
He said he would also reform the office’s
stewardship of state-owned lands.
The secretary of state works with the gov
ernor and state treasurer to manage state
owned lands for the Common School Fund,
a trust that uses revenue from unclaimed
property and taxes to help fund Oregon
schools.
LANE CO.
ELECTIONS
BRADBURY
LUNDQUIST
SNODGRASS
WELLS
Currently, 5 percent of the fund’s total
value is distributed to schools, but
Lundquist would propose an increase to 6
percent, with one-half used for the opera
tion of schools and the other put into a se
curity fund.
“If the economy takes a downturn, that
security fund can be used to help get us
through rough times,” Lundquist said.
Wells, independent of party and a voting
rights advocate from Newberg, has regis
tered himself as a Republican to push for
elections reform in Oregon.
He has run for governor, secretary of state
and the U.S. Senate, each time switching
his party affiliation between Republican
and Democrat. The reason for his actions,
Wells said, is that independent candidates
must collect 36,000 signatures to get on an
election ballot, while major party candi
dates only need 1,000.
Wells used the space available to him in
the Voter s Pamphlet to appeal for voters’
support in opening closed election primar
ies.
“You just can’t lock out 25 percent of the
voters,” Wells said.
Despite his laid-back campaign, Wells re
ceived 35 percent of the vote in the 1996 Re
publican primary for secretary of state.
“I guess people liked what I was saying,”
he said.
Bradbury, who was appointed by Gov.
John Kitzhaber to finish Secretary Phil Keis
ling’s term, said that he is committed to
“maintaining the integrity of the elections
process.”
Concerned about low voter turnouts in
past elections, Bradbury said he would like
to see the highest voter turnout in the coun
try in the November 2000 elections. To
achieve this, Bradbury’s office created
www.oregonvotes.com, a voter information
Web site with links to various voter out
reach programs around the state.
He also said that he would work to in
crease voter registration among minorities.
Bradbury served in the private sector as
executive director of For the Sake of the
Salmon, a non-profit organization dedicat
ed to salmon preservation. He said that he
would bring the same leadership to the sec
retary of state office.
“Being secretary of state is about integrity,
accountability and service,” Bradbury said.
Bradbury said that he “will continue to
uphold these ideas if I keep my job as secre
tary.”
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