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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2000)
Phil Barnhart Supports University Students Continue the tuition freeze Phil Barnhart for State Representative Together we can make a difference! www.philbamhart.com BOARD POSITION OPEN V /, hc * Oregon Daily Emerald, the independent student C ' newspaper at the University of Oregon, is seeking a volunteer to serve on its Hoard of Directors. The Board meets monthly (exeept during Deeember, July and August) to oversee broad poliey issues ineluding finaneial, legal and personnel matters. It does not get involved in day-to-day operations, and it is not involved in content decisions. 1 his thrcc-ycar term is open to any community member, including a student, faculty member, or employee of the University of ()regon. To express your interest in the position, please send a cover letter and one-page resume to: (>Uh(i( )N' DAILY EMERALD Hoard Search Committee I’. < *• l>ox A150, Eugene, < >K ‘>7403 Deadline tor applications is Wednesday, November 8. Ilw Orison Daily hmeridd is an ctfinil opjiortunity employer committal to a culturally diverse icarkphiee. Oregon Daily Emerald UO President Dave Frohnmayer has a Pulse. Do you have one? Pulse Check your Pulse, the Oregon Daily Emerald's entertainment section, every Thursday. Politicians run the gamut ■Three novice candidates speak on crime, education, health care and taxes By Lindsay Buchele Daily Emerald Three newcomers to Oregon poli tics are running for the state represen tative seat for District 40. One is a De mocrat who hopes to better fund education; another is a Re publican who stresses the need to improve the Oregon Health Plan; and the third is a Socialist who wants to “level the playing field” by taxing the rich at a higher rate. All about education Democratic candidate Phil Barn hart became concerned about Ore gon’s educational future when sever al tax-cut measures passed in the early 1990s. A practicing psycholo gist, Barnhart said he worried about how the measures caused the lay off of more than 100 teachers in the 4J School District. “When Ballot Measure 5 passed ... it cut property taxes, which had a major impact on the Eu gene School District,” Barnhart said. “I became very frustrated with this.” To make a difference in school funding, Barnhart ran for and was elected to the Eugene School Board in 1994, and he began lobbying state legislatures on behalf of the district. BARNHART wSte STATE ELECTIONS “I found that when I was lobbying in Salem, it was the Democrats who were more supportive and the Re publicans who were more skeptical about why we couldn’t fund our own program,” Barnhart said. As a result, Barnhart said he be came active in the Democratic Party, and is now chairman of the Democ ratic Party of Lane County. As for health care, Barnhart said he wants to make the Oregon Health Plan more available to students. Full time students generally do not quali fy because although their income lev el is low enough, they often don’t hold jobs, which is one of the require ments of the plan. Improving Oregon’s health Republican candidate Bill Young, who decided to run for office after his friends and neighbors waged a write in campaign, said his background in community service best qualifies him for the job. “I have the ability to represent everyone in the district,” Young said. “I’ve been a veterinarian in this dis trict for 30 years, and I’ve had my home in this district for 30 years.” One of the fo cuses of his YOUNG campaign is to improve the way the Oregon Health Plan is used. “There are a lot of abuses in the plan that can fc\e im proved,” Young said. “If we look at the qualifications and give the providers the ability to say what doee and doesn’t qualify people for the plan, we could eliminate those abus ing the system.” Young said another issue thal needs to be addressed is public safety He said he would support investing money into a rehabilitation program to prevent first-time offenders from committing crimes again. “There were 1,100 criminals who were repeat offenders last year and were arrested as many as 10 times in one year,” Young said. “Our police of ficers are wasting manpower by hav ing to arrest the same criminals over and over again.” Leaning to the left Socialist candidate Karl Sorg said the Democratic Party has gone “too far to the right.” A retired attorney, Sorg was a Democratic supporter un til he felt his views shifting to the left. “The two parties [Republican and Democrat] have pushed too close to gether,” Sorg said. As the secretary for the organiza tion Health Care for All-Oregon, Sorg said he focuses on establishing health care for all residents. Sorg also said a change in the tax structure in general would benefit the state. “I want to try to change the tax structure so the rich pay more,” Sorg said. “We really need to level the playing field.” Sorg said this would help pro tect the ordinary working person. “Minimum wage should be at $12 an hour, because any thing less is be low poverty lev el,” he said. As for educa tion, Sorg said it’s an atrocity that there are soft-drink machines in schools. “We shouldn’t be funding our schools by placing Pepsi machines in them because it’s not healthy for our kids,” Sorg said. “If we want to fund our schools, we should raise the tax es for the rich.” SORG success,
