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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 2016)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2016 THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5 Local Senate candidate Carpenter Huntington’s birthday party stops by Baker City • GOP HOPEFUL SET TO SQUARE OFF AGAINST SEN. RON WYDEN BY KERRY McQUISTEN News@TheBakerCountyPress.com Incumbent Senator Ron Wyden has a campaign war chest of $6 million—a daunting amount for any opponent. 66-year-old Sam Car- penter of Bend is taking up the challenge—that is, if he can beat a slug of other GOP candidates in the primary. Carpenter, along with campaign manager, Noel Fritsch, stopped by the Sunridge Inn in Baker City early Monday morning as part of what is shaping up to be a nonstop, nine- month tour of Oregon. “Oregon is God’s coun- try,” said Carpenter, who emphasized his plans for a “robust campaign.” A SuperPac is currently being set up through an outside party to help sup- port his campaign fi nan- cially, Carpenter said. Carpenter moved from upstate New York to Or- egon at the age of 24 with all his family’s belongings in one trailer and $400 in his pocket. Bud Pierce CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Pierce also served as a U.S. Marine. UCLA offered him a position as an assistant professor of medicine but he declined, and he and his wife Selma relocated to the Pacifi c Northwest, Salem to be exact, where he has served as the anchor of one of the last physician- owned oncology practices in the Northwest. He estimates that work- ing 12-14 hour days, fi ve days a week for the past 20 years, he has cared for nearly 15,000 patients. After moving to the area, he also quickly became a clinical assistant professor at OHSU and over the past 20 years, he has volun- teered at OHSU, teach- ing clinical medicine and helping to review research protocols. He also has been the president of the Oregon Medical Association. Pierce has been happily married to his wife Selma for 34 years with two adult children. He considers himself a small business owner hav- ing a small private prac- tice, and says he knows the value of training employ- ees and turning them loose to do their work to their full ability. He has been involved in medical reform, liability reform with trial lawyers and medical politics. The campaign slogan Pierce is standing be- hind? “New Vision. New Direction.” Pierce is not a career politician and says he believes that to be in his favor, because he feels he can see beyond the narrow At the time, his dream was to work in the forest, and with an Associate’s degree, began working for the Forest Service. Carpen- ter moved through a series jobs over the years—from construction to electrical utility work—before even- tually founding one of the largest private 911 answer- ing services in the nation. Carpenter also provides services as a business fi xer, analyzing and repairing failing business models. “It’s what I’m good at,” he said, and hopes to apply those skills to the U.S. Senate for Oregon. Carpenter believes gov- ernment serves a purpose that includes national security and the military, infrastructure maintenance, federal-level regulations and so forth. “What we don’t need,” he said, “is for government to get into our personal lives as if we’re too stupid.” An outspoken opponent of government overreach, Carpenter favors the transfer of public lands back to local control and cites federal failure in lands management as a hot button issue. From his forestry background, Car- penter says he has watched catastrophic wildfi res, road closures, lack of thinning and maintenance, etc. become detrimental to the scope of what career politi- cians get caught up in. Pierce says his decision to run was based upon the realization that the current leadership is broken. Pierce is narrowing his focus on three areas, spe- cifi cally: 1. Safety. He said, “We have to be safe. The Second Amend- ment right to carry a gun is in question. Ultimately we’d like to be a society where you don’t need to carry a gun for your safety. We need to support our law enforcement, have even more. I’d like to see them patrol together more. Let the governor worry about terrorism, work with state and federal entities regard- ing that. I really think our risk is fairly low.” 2. Prosperity. “That’s going to take a lot of work. Focus on rural Oregon, although I consider there to be only one Oregon. Government agencies need to be on our side, and what that means is that if you’re regulating grazing you should have a dual mandate. “Your job is make sure the environment is kept nice but also to make sure that people that are using it are successful so you don’t put in place rules that make businesses unsuc- cessful. There has to be that balance. I think that is where we’re going wrong with government we’ve got a police-like action where we’re just making the citizens mad. “We could have heathy forest and good logging if managed properly. Same with manufacturing. We have to ship smaller loads and that’s more expensive. In other states they can ship larger loads, is more cost effective. We need to look at things like that,” he said. 3. Education Reform. He said, “Trust and kicks off Kerry McQuisten/ The Baker County Press L-R: Campaign Manager, Noel Fritsch, and Senate Candidate Sam Carpenter stopped by the Sunridge Monday morning. land and the people. “Big government messes up everything it touches,” he said. Another of Carpenter’s key points is the elimina- tion of “the thought police mentality.” He believes that conservatives have been “made to feel guilty about their thoughts and feelings” by the liberal establishment and by faux conservatives who don’t stand up for their values. His campaign will emphasize that this sort of political correctness must end, and cites a national thirst toward this goal as the primary reason for presidential hopeful Don- ald Trump’s popularity. Another of Carpenter’s goals? “To unshackle small businesses,” he said. “Small business drives everything.” Other issues of interest to this candidate are Second Amendment rights, immi- gration and energy. With a team including his campaign manager and four other campaign pro- fessionals from around the U.S. and Oregon, he plans to blanket Oregon not only with boots on the ground, but social media. Carpenter said if elected, he plans on serving no more than two terms. “I really have no reason to join those (establishment) in D.C.,” he said. More on Carpenter can be found at www.carpen- terforsenate.com. Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press Dr. Chuck Hoffman with candidate Bud Pierce. support our teachers and principals. Let them create a learning environment for our children, with an agreed on curriculum that makes sense for students and teachers. “Testing but not over testing so we really know where each student is. Giving options with career technical skills educa- tion because a lot of kids don’t want to be a doctor or lawyer but they like to make stuff so give them opportunities well. “Advanced education can cost $100-200,000 our colleges an advanced training education systems need to fi nd ways to lower that cost and make it so its affordable. “Encourage the Portland, valley area businesses to come out here. Intel, Nike they need to move some of their operations out here, give them some incentives to do so. “Transportation is an issue for them so I’d love to see better more regional transportation options so that could become a possi- bility, something low cost.” He went on to say that while in the Marines he learned the value of “say what you mean, mean what you say and do what you say.” He said, “I’ve carried that on though out my life. People may see me as a little bit blunt or plain spoken.” Pierce also said, “Timber is our greatest gift. We should be one of the lead- ing timber people in the world in terms of growth and sustainability.” He added, “Government should help people be free, be a mediator. Laws are laws they don’t make people agree. They just tell it the way it is. We need to get down and discuss the nitty gritty of it. When people are having trouble getting along don’t throw kerosene on the fi re. Help them get along.” Pierce also noted that he feels government need to be more frugal. There is “lots of waste,” he said— at least 17% annually in administration costs for agencies with middle management staff that are ready to retire and not es- sential to daily governmen- tal operations. At any rate, Bud Pierce asks for a good look by voters before casting fi nal ballots next November. Those interested can visit his Facebook page, Bud Pierce for Governor, or watch new clips, review his history and see his views on issues at bud- pierce.com. Eileen Driver/ The Baker County Press L-R: Tim Matthews, Bruce Hinchcliffe, Mayor Travis Young, Tony Tamburello. BY EILEEN DRIVER Eileen@TheBakerCountyPress.com The fi rst of the Huntington Birthday Celebration events were held on Saturday, February 20 starting with the pool tournament at 4 p.m. at Grady’s Tavern located at 20 E Washington. The place was packed wall-to-wall with contestants and spectators rooting for their favorites. The atmosphere was very festive and everyone was treated to Grady’s delicious pizza to keep them happy and content during the fi ve-hour-long contest, which was full of oohs and ahs at the amazing shots that made it and groans of disappointment at the ones that missed. The brave tournament entrants were as follows: Crystal Harding,Wiley Harding, Tim Matthews, John Howland, Bruce Hinchcliffe, David Hanks, Kendra Hanks, Nick Watson, Tony Tamburell, Dale Reed, Roger McDowell, Allan Driver, and Brad Albro. Play was exciting throughout and capped off by Tony Tamburello taking fi rst place from Bruce Hinchcliffe by beating him in two straight games for a double elimina- tion. Making the ending lineup: First Place Tony Tamburello winning a large trophy and $125. Second Place Bruce Hinchcliffe winning a trophy and $75. Third Place Tim Matthews winning a trophy and $50. Mayor Travis Young was on hand to congratulate the winners and hand out the winnings. The beautiful trophies were donated by Chuck Guerri owner of Guerri Transportation of Huntington who specializes in school bus operations and repair. Cash winnings were donated by Indianhead Electric of Weiser, Idaho, which specializes in residential electrical services. Grady’s Tavern holds smaller pool tournaments every Saturday night at 5 p.m. for anyone wanting to play. From there everyone wandered over to historic How- ell’s Cafe and Streamliner Lounge located at 40 E. Wash- ington to join the birthday dance, which started at 8 p.m. and the awesome musical sounds of Big Blue Johnson. The standing-room-only crowd was treated to delicious and beautifully presented meat and cheese trays, crackers and vegetable trays to keep up their strength for dancing the night away to classic rock and country tunes. Everyone who attended received a free raffl e ticket and the option of purchasing more at 5/$1. At half-hour intervals, Mayor Travis Young and City Recorder Tracy McQue chose a handful of winning tickets and gave out over 40 special prizes including $25 gift certifi cates from Candy’s Corner Market, Huntington Bait and Tackle, Howell’s Cafe & Streamliner Lounge, Grady’s Tavern and The Country Store as well as a T-shirt and baseball cap donated by 420Ville. A great time was had by the attendees and the City of Huntington would like to thank all the people of Hun- tington who helped make it possible. They are looking forward to the birthday cake competition in June and hope the public will join in the celebration. Tony's Tree Service Free evaluations for: • Proper Trimming • Safety • Removal •Disease Control • Insect Control • Tree Replacement • Stump Grinding Licensed | Insured | 48 years experience. Tony's Tree Service. Accepting payment plans and credit cards. 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