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.
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