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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2000)
Thursday Editor in chief: Jack Clifford Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com Think globally, vote locally This is the second half of the Emerald's endorsements for the 2000 election. Ballots can be returned to any drop box location or to the Lane County Elections office by 8 p.m. Nov. 7. State Representative, 41st district — Vicki Walker District 41, which includes the campus area, is lucky to have two strong candidates for the state House of Representa tives. Jeff Miller and Vicki Walk er both have the experience and drive necessary to make a differ ence for us in the Legislature. Both candidates profess to work in a bipartisan manner, and this endorsement was a difficult deci sion. The current Republican-con trolled Legislature, however, showed during this past session that their priorities don’t include campus issues like education funding and health care. For that reason, and for her experience, we endorse Vicki Walker for Dis trict 41. Jeff Miller spent eight years in local government as a city council member and mayor of Eugene. Miller accomplished much, work ing to create jobs and helping es tablish the Human Rights Com WALKER mission in Eugene. When he spoke with us, Miller emphasized the bipartisan nature of his hu man rights efforts in Eugene. Many of Miller’s ideas were fine, but he seemed a bit too polished and slick. His down-home style felt calculated, as when he told us that local leaders are good choic es to work in state government because “mayors think differently than partisan folk.” We applaud Miller’s emphasis on children’s lit eracy, but he sidestepped ques tions about business and growth, saying that we “want to preserve quality of life,” but offering no concrete commitment to nodal development or protecting the Urban Growth Boundary. Vicki Walker spent the last two years in the Legislature, working from the minority side of the aisle but still accomplishing many of her goals. Her focus has been edu cation funding and a variety of health issues. Walker used parlia mentary procedure to bring a bill requiring pesticide-use tracking to the floor and got enough biparti san support to get it passed in spite of the agricultural industry’s opposition. She helped pass a bill providing deafness screening for newborns, worked on youth sui cide prevention, fought to have HMOs cover mental illness as well as physical illness, and won tax deferrals for senior and disabled homeowners. Walker also worked extensively to secure adequate funding for schools. Her two children are in college (one attends the Universi ty), so she understands student needs. Walker’s efforts for educa tion funding were overrun, how ever, by the Republican majority in the Legislature, who Walker said was unwilling to sit down with Democrats to talk about funding. Instead, the 1999 legisla tive session was the third-longest in Oregon history because of a lack of consensus on the school budget. Walker’s personal style seemed a bit brusque and perhaps conde scending. And for all her biparti san efforts, she seemed bitter to ward the majority party. She is certainly a no-nonsense, shoot from-the-hip kind of politician — and that could help her deal with the partisan attitude in the legis lature. But Walker’s personal style aside, the Republicans’ unwilling ness to work democratically makes us want to send a Democ rat back to the Legislature. If enough districts around the state do this, the Republican majority will be smaller. Perhaps then they’ll decide they have to com promise and let all Oregon voters have a say in state government. Vicki Walker will fight for students and campus issues effectively. u.s. Representative, 4th District — Peter DeFazio Peter De Fazio has served the 4th District in the U.S. House of Representa tives since 1986. His record on high er education is sues is clear — he has fought for more funding for higher educa tion on the state level and has worked with the president to pro cure more money for financial aid and student loans. He wrote legis lation protecting GTFs. DeFazio has regularly been given out standing grades by con servation groups for his voting record on the environment. He has voted for every piece of cam paign finance reform legislation to come before the House. Such legislation has been minimal, he says, and ultimately denied by the Republicans, but he’s trying. De Fazio helped write Oregon’s Mea sure 6, which is a well-crafted measure that would put Oregon at the forefront of the campaign finance reform movement. We also met with David Duem ler, the Socialist candidate for De Fazio’s seat. He had some impor tant concerns about more voices being heard in the political process, but ultimately he lacks the experience to represent us in Congress. DeFazio told us that he shares Duemler’s concerns about our narrow democracy, and that’s why he’s been fighting for cam paign finance reform. John Lindsey, the Republican can didate in this district, was unable to meet with the editorial board due to a busy campaign schedule, and he did not return our cal Is to sched ule a phone interview. We could say much more about DeFazio’s record, but suffice to say that he has, for 14 years, been an outstanding, principled politi cian. Opposed to Congressional pay raises, DeFazio has used his raises to establish scholarships for college students. He has the expe rience to get things done in Wash ington. We do have some concern that DeFazio may appear at times to represent only the most liberal constituents of his district. He should be sure that all citizens in his district have their concerns ad dressed. Let’s give him that chance with another term in Washington. City of Eugene measures Measure 20-36 NO* Would spend $47.5 million to 1 build a new, central police headquarters downtown. Almost $22 million of this money would be spent on interest, noton public safety. City leaders seem to really want a law enforcement edifice in the heart of the city. Voters have rejected this idea before, but the city has retooled it and focused on marketing the idea to citizens rather than coming up with new ideas. Eugene residents have expressed their desire, by rejecting previous measures and through surveys, to have a focus on community policing and crime prevention rather than pun ishment. We agree that the police need im proved facilities. City headquarters needs retro fitting. Substations need more money, and more substations need to be built. But Measure 20-36 is not the right solution. Measure 20-37 VCC Would raise $3.5 million over Tat two years to spend on commu nity programs for youth. Eu gene residents have also expressed their desire over the years for improved opportunities for children. Crime prevention starts by keeping kids involved in their community and off the streets. This is an inexpensive way to develop more programs for kids and deserves our sup port. Lane County measures Measure 20-38 VEC ♦ Wou*d impose a local option T levy to raise approximately $40 million over four years for ex panding the Forest Work Camp, increasing juve nile corrections and rehabilitation programs and maintaining current services. While this is a bit of money, some of it is being used to replace lost federal funding and some of it is being used to increase residential alcohol and drug treat ment and risk assessments for youth. This seems to be a good mix of a conservative in crease for services and additional spending on rehabilitation. Voters would be wise to make this investment. Measures 20-39 VCC ♦ Wou*d float 3 bond to spend Yt3t just over $8 million for con structing a new county jail in take center, increasing county jail beds and most importantly, renovating the county jail heating and cooling system. This is a prudent investment in our facilities. It is a small price to pay for a structurally sound building.
