May 7, 2010:NWLP
5/4/10
10:12 AM
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Labor-friendly Democrats square off in governor’s race
Union Democrats have a welcome
choice in the May primary race for
Oregon governor: The two leading con-
tenders have longstanding close rela-
tionships to organized labor, and have
been competing for labor’s support.
John Kitzhaber, a former Roseburg
emergency room doctor, served as state
representative, state senator, senate
president, and two-term governor from
1995 to 2003.
Bill Bradbury, a former Coos Bay
restaurant owner and KGW television
newscaster, served as state senator,
Senate president, and Oregon secretary
of state from 1999 to 2009.
Most unions back Kitzhaber, but
several are behind Bradbury, and at
least one remained neutral. The Labor
Press interviewed both candidates and
sifted through their records and cam-
paign platforms to see how they meas-
ure up on the issues most important to
working people and their unions.
Dr. Kitzhaber is best-known as ar-
chitect of the Oregon Health Plan,
which he helped create as Senate pres-
ident and sustain as governor. After
leaving office, Kitzhaber founded the
Archimedes Project to advocate even
more far-reaching health care reforms.
Jeff Anderson, secretary-treasurer of
United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 555, said health care was the cen-
tral issue that led Oregon’s largest pri-
vate sector union to be the first to en-
dorse Kitzhaber. By providing health
insurance to otherwise uninsured low-
income individuals, the Oregon Health
Plan takes financial pressure off union
health plans, and it serves as a safety
net when union members and other
workers lose their jobs. Anderson said
Local 555 expects Kitzhaber to lead the
next wave of reform as national health
care legislation is implemented.
Kitzhaber told the Labor Press he’s
open to a state-level public insurance
option. His priority would be system-
wide reform in how health care is de-
livered — to focus more on prevention
and management of chronic illnesses.
That would restrain costs, and improve
outcomes; for example, getting
Medicare to pay for a $500 air condi-
tioner and visit from a community
health professional for a 90-year-old
woman, instead of $50,000 when she
shows up at an emergency room with
congestive heart failure brought on by
heat exhaustion.
Bradbury, meanwhile, would like to
be known as “midwife” to Oregon’s
vote-by-mail-system, which he helped
implement as secretary of state. It’s not
a big union issue, but it did figure in the
decision of the National Association of
Letter Carriers to endorse him.
Kitzhaber vetoed a bill to establish
vote-by-mail when he was governor.
With the Great Recession continu-
ing to wreak economic havoc, every
candidate for political office is pushing
back-to-work plans.
Kitzhaber’s Jobs Plan consists of 21
pages of bullet points like “incorporate
the non-profit sector in identifying and
initiating changes in past practice,” and
“use available resources to help busi-
MAY 7, 2010
nesses … reach their
job-creating potential.”
By phone, Kitzhaber
got down to specifics:
“The no-brainer, for
next year, is embarking
on really large-scale en-
ergy efficiency proj-
ects,” Kitzhaber said. “I
would start with public
schools.” Oregon public
schools account for 94
million square feet of
space, Kitzhaber said,
with energy costs from
22 cents to $2.10 a
square foot. So the po-
tential cost savings —
and jobs creation —
would be tremendous.
Kitzhaber wants to fund
energy retrofits by sell-
ing bonds and repaying
the bonds with the Democratic gubernatorial candidates John
money saved on energy. Kitzhaber (left) and Bill Bradbury crossed paths at
For Bradbury, the last summer’s Oregon AFL-CIO convention in
central jobs idea is to Bend. Kitzhaber has received the state labor
create a new state bank federation’s endorsement in this month’s primary
that would partner with election.
credit unions and com-
munity banks to make
small business loans with money the plant in Boardman.] But Bradbury
state now deposits in the big out-of- takes the stronger environmental posi-
state banks. No, Bradbury said, he did tion on these. Kitzhaber wants a
not steal the idea from the union- smaller, cheaper bridge; Bradbury to
backed Oregon Working Families reinforce the existing span and build a
Party, which is also advocating it. transit-only bridge. Kitzhaber says he
North Dakota has had such a bank for doesn’t support any current LNG pro-
posal, but doesn’t slam the door. Brad-
nearly 100 years.
Tax and budget issues will plague bury is running television ads touting
the next governor. Projections are for a his opposition to LNG.
“You can’t take the attitude that any
recession-caused budget shortfall next
year, but even in normal times, Ore- job is okay,” Bradbury said. “I’m not
gon’s fiscal picture is unstable. Both
Kitzhaber and Bradbury say they
would seek to refer to voters a ballot
measure diverting the kicker to a rainy
day fund. Oregon is the only state that
refunds money to taxpayers if tax col-
lections exceed projections. Bradbury
said getting rid of the kicker would
“level-ize” the budget, but he would go
farther than Kitzhaber in advocating
tax reform. Bradbury is proposing to
reduce tax loopholes 11 percent, and
use the resulting $1.2 billion a year to
restore funding to K-12 public schools.
That plank — and the fact that
Kitzhaber has flirted with teacher pay-
for-performance proposals — were
major reasons Bradbury won the en-
dorsement of the Oregon Education
Associa- tion, the American Federation
of Teachers-Oregon, and their affiliated
Oregon School Employees Associa-
tion.
That completes the list of Brad-
bury’s labor endorsements, however.
Virtually every other union is back-
ing Kitzhaber.
One reason is a slight difference be-
tween the two over two projects of ma-
jor importance to building trades
unions. Both Kitzhaber and Bradbury
describe themselves as environmental-
ists, and oppose a 12-lane bridge over
the Columbia River and a liquid natural
gas terminal and pipeline. [Both also
want to close PGE’s coal-fired power
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
supportive of committing ourselves to
50 years of dependents on foreign fos-
sil fuels … but I am a strong supporter
of additional supplies of gas from the
Rockies and Canada, and they’re going
to have to build pipelines. I’m okay
with that.”
Among unions, Bradbury had an-
other liability: his failure, during the
nine years he served as secretary of
state to aggressively fight abuses by
union foe and ballot measure scofflaw
Bill Sizemore.
“Leaders of organized labor met
with Bradbury on a few different occa-
sions to try to get enforcement,” said
Oregon AFSCME Council 75 Execu-
tive Director Ken Allen. “We always
got, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll do it,’ and then we
never got any action.”
Unions spent millions and millions
of dollars fighting Sizemore-sponsored
ballot measures, some of which quali-
fied for the ballot thanks to fraud. Two
unions spent millions in legal expenses
suing Sizemore for abuses he and his
groups committed, and won a jury ver-
dict against him for racketeering. They
even at one point sued Bradbury him-
self to get him to enforce the law.
Bradbury’s answer to that was that
those were tough times for him. “I did
not like getting on the opposite side of
some of my very good friends,” Brad-
bury said. “But the reality is, as an ad-
ministrative officer of the state, my re-
sponsibility is not to have a political
view. My responsibility is to administer
the law to the best of my ability.”
But it calls into question how likely
he is to follow through on what he’s
promising.
Kitzhaber, meanwhile, doesn’t al-
ways say what labor wants to hear. His
campaign has emphasized “post-parti-
sanship,” and he has said that stake-
holder politics is the biggest problem
facing Oregon. To the Labor Press, he
confirmed that public employee unions
are one of those stakeholders.
Public employee union members
with long memories may fault
Kitzhaber for signing Senate Bill 750
into law in 1995. The bill, crafted by
leaders of the Republican legislative
majority, rewrote public employee col-
lective bargaining law in ways that
unions have tried ever since to overturn.
But Allen said it was Kitzhaber who
made the bill much better than it might
have been. Kitzhaber told the Labor
Press he was afraid that if he didn’t sign
something, Republicans would go
around him with a referendum; by
agreeing to sign it, he was able to get
Republicans to remove some of the
most objectionable provisions.
Even if they favor one or the other,
most in labor look at both candidates as
having been labor allies. When they
were legislators, Kitzhaber had 96 per-
cent rating from the Oregon AFL-CIO
for his votes, and Bradbury’s was 93
percent. Bradbury was Senate president
right after Kitzhaber was, and it was
Kitzhaber who appointed Bradbury
secretary of state when Phil Keisling
stepped down in 1999.
In the Republican primary, several
candidates are seeking the GOP nomi-
nation. One, Chris Dudley, is a former
secretary of the National Basketball
Players Association and a player’s
union rep for the Portland Trail Blaz-
ers. No candidate has received a union
endorsement.
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