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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2010)
8 area news april13 2010 Robinson Challenges Wu for First Congressional Seat A Conversation with Candidate David Robinson By Scott Laird David Robinson, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and Com- mander in the U.S. Navy Reserves is challenging Congressman David Wu in the Democratic Primary to represent the First Congressional District of Oregon. Robinson, who lives in Aloha/ Beaverton, has a Masters Degree from Oregon State University and has worked recently as the Director of Facilities, Fleet, Capital Planning and Develop- ment for the City of Hillsboro. According to Robinson’s cam- paign literature, he intends to bring en- gaged, responsive and respected leader- ship as the U.S. Representative for the region that covers Columbia, Clatsop, Washington and Yamhill Counties. Vernonia’s Voice had the oppor- tunity to meet with David Robinson in mid-March and hear about his campaign to unseat Wu, who has held office for eleven years. During our discussion, Robin- son was knowledgeable and informed and provided some clear ideas for issues he would work to address and changes he would attempt to make. He offered and outlined specific plans for address- ing Oregon’s struggling economy, help- ing citizens who have been impacted by that economy, and the wars in the middle east. He also offered additional thoughts on bi-partisanship in Washington, D.C., and the job that our current Representa- tive, David Wu, has been doing. “The people in the First District need to make a determination of what they feel is the level of success and the level of engagement of Mr. Wu in the community and whether it’s time for a change,” said Robinson towards the end of our conversation. During his Navy career, Rob- inson has worked in Iceland managing large construction projects and been posted to a number of other foreign countries working to provide humanitar- ian assistance, including Ascension Is- land, Puerto Rico, Japan, Haiti, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Yemen. Robinson worked on negotiating with govern- ments, embassies, and NGO’s initiating projects to drill new water wells, and build schools and medical clinics. In 1998, Robinson coordinated the Navy’s support for the National Ocean Confer- ence convened by President Bill Clinton, leading Robinson to develop an inter- est in serving in elected office. He has also served as an instructor at the Naval Academy in courses in leadership, naval architecture, ocean engineering, and ad- vanced modern history. “My background definitely shows an interest and commitment to public service,” said Robinson. “This office has a broad range of issues it has to deal with; everywhere from the local level all the way up to policies that have Nehalem River photo by David Ellingsen an impact all over the world. Under- standing the linkage that ties Vernonia to policies around the world is important. My travels and my jobs throughout the world give me that broad perspective of how national policy affects things here in my home district.” I asked Robinson if he thought a newly-elected Congressman would have the ability and the influence to have an immediate impact in Washington, D.C. “A committed freshman Congressman, with a will and a drive to get things done, can be effective,” said Robinson. “Kurt Schrader, in his first year in office, had a significant public law introduced and passed to protect Oregon’s waterways. It can be done. Congressman Wu has introduced 115 bills in eleven years and only had two become public law-- one of them was to change the name of a post office.” Preferred Committees Robinson says if elected, he would be interested in serving on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), not just because of his exten- sive military background, but because he believes Oregonians are impacted by decisions made there. “We have a large number of Reservists here, National Guardsmen here, retirees and veterans here who are impacted by the decisions made in HASC,” said Robinson. “Here in Oregon, we don’t have a large active military force, but our perspective and input into those policies should carry weight.” Robinson says he would also be interested in working on Commerce, because Oregon has a strong jobs and business environment that needs to be addressed. He is especially concerned about Oregon’s infrastructure needs and the international structures that exist that prevent Oregon businesses from engag- ing in foreign trade along the Pacific Rim region. “How those structures are improved will definitely improve the job environment here in Oregon,” Robinson said. He says he is also interested in working on forests and farms, “...as that has a large impact into the local commu- nities here in the First District.” Improving Oregon’s Economy When asked about ways he might work to improve economic condi- tions in the United States and in Oregon, Robinson was right to the point. “The short-term fixes are difficult. We should be looking, as we extend unemployment benefits, to tie that to incentives for em- ployers to start employing people again and ramp up business activities. It used to be that foreign consumers helped drive our economy. We’ve lost that-- that edge to be the supplier of choice to the rest of the world and we need to fix that. It’s a structural problem that’s out there.” “The longer-term fixes involve building a well-rounded economy here in Oregon, not one that relies almost solely on farms and timbers and high tech. When we rely on small slivers of the economy, we are not going to be re- cession-proof. We should be looking at revitalizing our ports in St. Helens and Astoria. These offer great opportunities for us to engage in trade, manufacturing and logistics-- and they are not being used properly. Also, the rail transporta- tion system here in Oregon has been al- lowed to become degraded. Most of Or- egon’s goods are moved by trucks now and that makes Oregon’s goods and Or- egon’s manufacturing less competitive. It’s the most inefficient method and it’s the worst form of transportation envi- ronmentally. The Ports of Tacoma, Long Beach and Los Angeles, even in a bad economy, they have ships lined up wait- ing to get pier space. And if you look at those areas, they are not just a logistics hub, they’re a manufacturing hub. Not everything that goes on or comes off those ships are finished goods. They still need local businesses with good-paying jobs to do that finish work. So, revital- izing local ports ties into how to bring money from outside the state and bring it into Oregon. And the longer we can keep the money circulating here in Or- egon, it’s creating even more jobs.” “We also need to take another look at the “Buy America Act” espe- cially as it related to Federal Stimulus Funds. It was almost irresponsible that we didn’t strengthen the Buy America Act provisions as it relates to stimulus money. Eighty percent of the monies we spend on stimulus projects are leav- ing our country. Other countries put in strong domestic purchasing require- ments, and they’ve been able to recover much faster than we have.” War in the Middle East Robinson’s military experience gives him an interesting perspective on the current war effort in the middle east. I asked him about Iraq and Afghanistan. “The war in Iraq is winding down at the proper pace and we should look to see if we can accelerate that as much as we can. The policy to go in in the first place was definitely dead wrong. And now it’s not an easy task to get that much stuff and that many people out of that country, and at the same time, be looking to do an intra-theatre move of all those assets from Iraq into Afghanistan. “I am not one hundred percent on board about the President’s policy there that is being rolled out. I think that the message we are sending the world by having General [Stanley] McCrys- tal in charge says we are interested in solving the problem with a gun. When the focus of what we should be doing is building civil capacity, building those institutions in place. I think a Civil Af- fairs General in charge would tell the world a much better story and tell the locals in Afghanistan a better story and tell everyone that we are serious about building a long-term, stable society. We really should have focused more on building the civil capacity, holding the areas we held, holding the communica- tions routes we held, and building up the locals’ ability to house and feed and care for themselves and provide civil struc- tures and industries to be self-sufficient and then expand to the periphery.” Bi-partisanship in DC Robinson talked about the cur- rent climate of bi-partisanship in Wash- ington, D.C. “I’m quite concerned about the breakdown in civility inside Wash- ington. People need to be willing to sit down and engage with each other and recognize that they can have honest dis- agreements over policy, but at the end of the day they can go and enjoy each others’ company. I have lots of acquain- tances who I’ve worked with in the past, that are running for office, who I know I have strong differences of opinion with on policy. But it doesn’t stop us from being able to sit down and have a beer together. I think having those past expe- riences of working together, we can start building those bridges of civility.” If Elected... I asked Robinson what would be his main focus in Washington, if he were elected. “I would definitely like to work on what federal assistance is needed to break through those barriers that keep our manufacturing logistics base here in Oregon from being effective.” “Another thing I would like to see very quickly is something I’m call- ing the ‘Higher Education Portability Act.’ I would like to introduce legisla- tion that takes into account that so many people in the down economy have gone back to school to improve their creden- tials and find a way to make ends meet. If someone has to move away to a differ- ent part of the country while in the mid- dle of getting a degree, any credits they have previously earned are not necessar- ily transferable-- there is no mechanism for them to finish their degree. I would like to propose that an accredited insti- tution, collecting federal money, would have to set up a system to allow people to transfer and finish.” The Upper Please join the council and guest speaker Chris Knutsen, “A third thing is to put consumer Nehalem Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife district biologist. protection items in place that allow Chris will talk about Nehalem River stock status (coho and people to get back on their feet. In Watershed chinook) and 2010 temporary angling regulations. His office this down economy, people have Council is located in Tillamook. Light refreshments provided. lost their jobs, they’ve lost their homes and they are getting by on invites you nd expanded unemployment benefits. April 22 , 2010 to attend People’s ability to declare bank- 7-9 pm ruptcy and get a fresh start was se- its Vernonia hrange, 375 North Street in Vernonia verely hampered a number of years quarterly ago when Consumer Bankruptcy Upper Nehalem Watershed Council. 825 Bridge St. Suite A. Vernonia, OR 97064 Laws were weakened-- and I’d 503.429.0869 www.nehalem.org maggie@nehalem.org meeting. continued on page 10
