2012 ELECTION COVE RAGE
E
t tu, Andy Stahl? P olitical smears are hardly a modern phenomenon, nor is political intrigue. You can’t throw a stick
at the corpus of Shakespearean tragedy without hitting one in which a character is killed or victimized through
ugh the
evil machinations of another. To the audience of a play, it’s soon made clear who the true villains are, but in politics
where we are not just the audience but actually part of the action — all the world’s a stage — who the good
d guys
are can get a little unclear once the mud-slinging begins.
Commissioner Pete Sorenson has been hit with a lot of mud, and yet his supporters haven’t come to bury
ry him,
but to praise him. He’s one of the good guys, say the unions, the enviros and the teachers. The news media and the right
ht wing
have tried to make the mud stick, but once the facts are examined, none of the accusations that have made headlines actually
lly pan
out. For some reason the truth doesn’t seem to make the headlines.
Sorenson’s record says he shouldn’t have to beware the “Ides of May” in this primary election against challenger Andy
y Stahl
for the South Eugene commission seat. Sorenson can point to his votes on issues that south Eugeneans care about, from voting
against the Willamette Water Company water grab to standing up for unions and schools. Some say Stahl is taking advantage
tage of
the right-wing attack on Sorenson for his own political gain. Is this a case of Democrats eating their own in the politics of personal
ersonal
destruction?
The Issues
The South Eugene race has been framed by many as a liberal
versus liberal, green versus green, but Sorenson says to look at
it that way is wrong. “There are a hundred other issues — public
health, human rights,” he points out. And he’s clear on where he
stands on the issues, he says, and that he is willing to vote in the
minority if that vote is the right thing to do.
Sorenson says even the votes he has lost to the conservative
majority are important, such when he voted to keep the Lane
County Human Rights Commission, because those votes
represent the dominant point of view of his district and causes
that south Eugene cares about.
A key vote just last week reflects Sorenson’s concerns with
labor and health care. On April 24, the conservative board
majority of Sid Leiken, Faye Stewart and Jay Bozievich voted
in favor of authorizing County Administrator Liane Richardson
to execute a contract with Corizon, an inmate medical services
company, to provide medical and mental health services at the
Lane County Jail. Sorenson voted against it.
Sorenson says contracting out rather than using the county’s
unionized nurses might seem as if it saves money at first, but he
says there is only an initial savings, not a long-term savings of
money.
That’s not the only reason Sorenson voted against a contract
with Corizon. Not only could contracting out hurt the county’s
union labor, Sorenson says that “the company has had a great
deal of litigation against it over substandard care.”
A recently released report on conditions at the Idaho State
Correctional Institution called health care conditions there in
violation of “the right of inmates at ISCI to be protected from
cruel and unusual punishment.” The report included allegations
12 MAY 3, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
that a prisoner who scored high as suicide risk was not referred
to mental health services and committed suicide, and another
patient was left unattended by a nurse during cardiac arrest and
later died.
Corizon is the company Idaho contracted to provide health-
care services at the prison, and the same company over which
Sorenson is voicing his concerns over hiring here in Lane
County.
Stahl is new to public office, though not new to issues like
public schools and the environment. He is the executive director
of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics and his
prior elected office was serving on the school board of the
Crow-Applegate-Lorane School district, which has a student
population of 300. While on the school board Stahl spearheaded
a grant effort to turn Lorane Elementary into a charter school.
Stahl has not been willing in public debates thus far to be
clear on where he stands, Sorenson says. Sorenson on the other
hand has been vocal about his issues, campaigning for schools
and voting to keep the Human Rights Commission. His
campaign page lists veterans, animal welfare, jobs and a
sustainable economy, human rights, public education and the
environment as key issues.
When asked by EW, Stahl, like Sorenson, says he would
bring back the county’s Human Rights Commission, is pro-
union, pro-open conversations about the future of animal control
and pro-adoption over euthanasia, to name a few.
So why run against a commissioner who already votes and
speaks out on the same issues?
Stahl’s campaign page doesn’t appear to have a section on
issues, but does list out a few things that he stands for and the
top of his list is, “Transparency and accountability. No
more government in secret.” There’s no doubt Stahl’s for open
government — he points out that he’s defended the rights of
public employees to blow the whistle when laws are violated.
But when it comes to the accusations leveled against
Sorenson by right wing and conservative interests, it seems that
Stahl has either drunk the Kool-Aid or is using those accusations
for political gain.
The Why
Don’t believe everything you read in the papers.
Sorenson says the positions he has taken on issues from
logging to sprawl to the Strong Schools initiative over the years
have reflected the views of the people in his district but have
“infuriated really powerful interests.”
Those powerful interests include a timber company, Aaron
Jones’ Seneca Sawill Co. — the same company that just bought
the much-protested Goose Timber Sale. Seneca funded a lawsuit
that alleged Commissioners Sorenson and Rob Handy, as well
as former commissioner Bill Fleenor, violated public meetings
laws in their discussions about the county budget.
Coos County Circuit Judge Michael Gillespie, in a
controversial ruling, found that Sorenson and Handy had done
so, even though the evidence did not show that any three
commissioners were ever in the same room together talking
about the issue.
Interestingly enough, Gillespie also found that current
conservative Commissioner Faye Stewart had also met
inappropriately, but because the suit did not name him, he was
not found in violation and his name has stayed clear of the
headlines in the R-G bashing the liberal commissioners. Also
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM