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
