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REGION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022 THE OBSERVER — A7 ‘Life-changing experience’ Baker City mayor’s confidence grows as campaign wears on By JAYSON JACOBY Baker City Herald BAKER CITY — Kerry McQuisten has met many thousands of Oregonians during her campaign to be the state’s next governor, a blur of faces and hand- shakes and forums and events in each of the 36 counties in the 10th-biggest state. But one face remains especially vivid in her memory. And she suspects that it always will be. McQuisten, a sev- enth-generation Baker County resident who is seeking the Republican nomination in the May 22 primary, was in Tygh Valley, near The Dalles, for the Wasco County Fair in late August. An older gentleman approached. He was wearing a cap identifying him as a mil- itary veteran. The man pulled out his wallet, reached in and extracted the only bill tucked in the folds. It was a $5. He handed the bill to McQuisten, insisting that she take it. “Something has to change in Oregon,” the man told her. “I will never forget it,” McQuisten said. That moment in the wheat country of Wasco County, one of so many in seven months of cam- paigning, continues to inspire McQuisten. It’s not the amount of the donation, of course. But that brief conversa- tion, and the man’s insis- tence that she accept his modest contribution, con- vinced her then, and reminds her still, that some of her fellow Oregonians believe she can help to fi x some of the problems that she — and they — believe are plaguing the state. “My campaign is steadily gaining traction,” said McQuisten, who is Baker City’s mayor, elected to that position by her fellow Baker City Council members in January 2021. “I’m reaching out across the whole state.” A unique opportunity for a Republican After so many miles and so many meetings, McQuisten, 49, said she is even more confi dent now than she was when she started that 2022 pres- ents an opportunity that Republicans haven’t had in Oregon for more than four decades. No member of her party has been elected governor since November 1982, when Victor Atiyeh won the second of his four-year terms. But McQuisten believes that voters are more dis- satisfi ed with their state’s condition under the lead- ership of Democratic gov- ernor Kate Brown than at any time since Atiyeh’s tenure. Brown’s executive orders during the pandemic, with their eff ects on businesses and schools in particular, have seriously weakened the Democrats’ once-in- domitable electoral founda- tion, McQuisten believes. “The more Kate Brown mandates, the worst it gets for the Democrats,” McQuisten said. And although Brown can’t run for reelection due to term limits, McQuisten contends that the Demo- cratic nominee, whoever that is, will be linked to Brown’s legacy, to the ben- efi t of the Republican on the November general election ballot. McQuisten said she has talked with, and received emails from, many Dem- ocrats and nonaffi liated voters who are troubled by what’s happening in Oregon. She was surprised to receive a $25 donation from an Ontario Democrat who voted for, and formerly supported, Brown. “That’s when you know something is really shifting,” she said. McQuisten said a few issues have come up at vir- tually all of her campaign events, concerns that seem universal in the state. Public safety is one of these. McQuisten said she’s talked with many people, including in Demo- crat-dominated Portland, who are incensed by vio- lence, including the wide- spread rioting in Port- land during the summer of 2020, and a record number of murders — 90 — in the state’s largest city in 2021. “People don’t feel safe,” she said. Oregonians are angry not only about the level of violence, McQuisten believes, but also by what some consider a milquetoast response by prosecutors. And although crim- inal prosecution typically is handled at the county level, by district attorneys, McQuisten contends that Brown has failed to show leadership in the midst of the violence. McQuisten points out Kerry McQuisten/Contributed Photo Kerry McQuisten stands outside Mahonia Hall, the Oregon governor’s mansion in Salem. McQuisten, a Baker County native, is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in the May 22, 2022, primary. that state law allows the state, through its Depart- ment of Justice, to pros- ecute cases that district attorneys decline to take on. The problem of home- less residents camping on public property is no longer confi ned to larger cities, McQuisten said, citing another issue she believes Brown has not addressed forcefully enough. “I talked to people about homeless camps in the forests around La Pine,” McQuisten said, talking about the town in Deschutes County about 30 miles south of Bend. “People don’t feel safe going for a walk in the woods.” Pondering the primary and general elections McQuisten, of course, won’t have a chance to try to break the Democratic Party’s 40-year run of vic- tories in the general election unless she wins the Repub- lican nomination in the May 22 primary. She’s optimistic about her position. In a recent straw poll from Oregon Catalyst — one McQuisten herself on her Facebook page notes has a “huge” margin of error — she polled second with 27.9%. The frontrunner was Stan Pulliam, the mayor of Sandy, east of Portland, with 41.3%. Pulliam has a signifi cant advantage in fundraising, as well. According to campaign fi nance reports as of Jan. 12, Pulliam’s campaign had a cash balance of $264,258, compared with McQuisten’s $60,493. Two Republicans topped Pulliam’s balance — Christine Drazan, House Minority Leader who is resigning from the Oregon Legislature Jan. 31, with $702,138, and Bridget Barton, a political consul- tant from West Linn, with $345,208. But McQuisten said she’s confi dent that her grassroots campaign, relying on trav- eling across the state and meeting as many people, and voters, as possible, can overcome both her fi nancial disadvantage and her lack of name recognition, at least compared with Drazan, a longtime legislative leader. McQuisten believes 2022, with the unprece- dented eff ects of the pan- demic, is diff erent, and that Globe Furniture is proud of our 75 year tradition of serving the families of Northeast Oregon. 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I go on as far as I can see, and then go on from there.” McQuisten said she knew that running a con- sistent statewide cam- paign would be demanding, “mentally, emotionally and spiritually.” But she said she wasn’t quite prepared for the purely physical challenge of spending so many hours on the road, away from home. “Physically it does take its toll,” she said. “It’s taxing.” 599 Dresser, Mirror, Queen Bed 3 Pc. Bedroom only $ 999 Luxurious linen-like sofa only ™ • Free Delivery • In-Store Credit • 70 Store Buying Power • Decorating Assistance Experience of a lifetime Lay-Z-Boy ® Recliner Queen-sized Beautyrest Mattress $ a Republican running her kind of campaign can beat what she calls “establish- ment” Republicans such as Drazan. 499 $ 999 HOURS:Mon. - Fri. 9:30 am-6:30 pm Sat. 9:30 am-5:30 pm Sun. 12:00 noon-4:00 pm 1520 ADAMS AVENUE La GRANDE, OREGON 97850 (541) 963-4144 • 888-449-2704