• In case you have been misled by mainstream
media or TV ads to think Dennis Richardson is a
reasonable candidate to be Oregon’s secretary of
state, heed this message from Rep. Phil Barnhart: “I
have known both major party candidates for many years.
I served with both of them in the Oregon House at
different times … Brad Avakian, the Democrat, can be
BRAD AVAKIAN
depended upon to continue the efforts of Kate Brown to
promote voting in Oregon by helping register and
encourage voters to vote. His Republican opponent
sponsored several voter suppression bills similar to
those that are being litigated in the Southern states of the
United States today. In my view, this effort disqualifies
the Republican from running the Oregon Elections
Division, one of the major duties of the secretary of
state.” Phil says Richardson has proposed that Oregon
ship prison inmates to China to save money. He does
not support the rights of women. He is a right-wing
Republican with bizarre ideas. EW repeats our
endorsement of Brad Avakian.
• Yup, that is the real Jim Weaver on your ballot for
EPUD director. As our congressman pre-DeFazio, Weaver
usually was well ahead of the curve, wanting to fund
organic farming before anybody knew anything about it,
opposing the corrupt WPPS nuclear power plan all by
himself. It’s good to have him back in the fray.
• A voter still wavering on Measure 97 should
peruse the list of endorsers, from Bernie Sanders and
the League of Women Voters of Oregon to the Portland
City Club to the AFT Oregon and SEIU, Planned Parenthood
Advocates of Oregon, Sierra Club, NARAL, Causa,
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and the list goes on. Go
to the OregonVoterGuide.org. Interesting to us that
Willamette Week, one of the Portland alternative
newspapers, opposes 97, along, of course, with The
Oregonian. We remember that WW favored Measure 5,
the property tax lid that has done so much damage to
public education in this state.
• If you’re still feeling the Bern, then Stefan Ostrach
of the Working Families Party suggests you buck EW’s
endorsement of incumbent U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, and
check out Shanti Lewallen, the Working Families Party
candidate at shantiforsenate.org. He says Lewallen, like
Bernie Sanders, opposes unfair, pro-corporate trade
deals and supports single-payer health care for all and
free college education. “Lewallen is a young
longshoreman who went to law school to learn to defend
workers. He still works on the docks. Wyden has become
the senator from Nike and Intel, who doesn’t even live in
Oregon anymore,” Ostrach says, adding that, “Shanti
stands for working families. No doubt Wyden will win, but
a solid vote total for Shanti will send Wyden, and other
‘business Democrats’ a strong message.”
• Once again, we welcomed the civility of the City
Club of Eugene forum Oct. 21 between Emily Semple
and Josh Skov — a civility too often absent from the
national stage. We hope both these candidates, win or
lose, continue their valuable work in public life in Eugene.
The forum did not change our endorsement of Semple,
whose work in the trenches of homelessness makes her
uniquely qualified to join the City Council from Ward 1 at
this time. She shares Skov’s passion for fighting climate
change, and we confess to favoring another woman’s
perspective on the council. Semple’s endorsements from
George Brown, Betty Taylor, Bonnie Bettman McCornack,
David Kelly, Paul Nicholson and even Pete Sorenson also
speak to the confidence we have in this newcomer.
• An incident Friday afternoon at the downtown
Parks Blocks yet again calls attention to our need to get
our act together in downtown Eugene, and no, that
doesn’t mean cracking down on the homeless and
criminalizing them. It means making public spaces an
inviting haven for everyone — something we hope the city
takes into account as it works on its downtown place-
making project. Eugene police have been commended for
de-escalating when the situation got out of hand (and we
commend them for negotiating with an armed man who
fired shots from his house on West 18th last weekend,
instead of killing him as in the case of Brian Babb). But on
the other hand activists tell EW that the man who police
say resisted arrest at the Park Blocks was detained for
questioning and told the police that he did not want to
answer any questions. He then asked if he was being
detained. The officer said no, and the man started to leave
but the officer grabbed him and pinned his arm. In this
scenario it seems the young man in question knew his
rights and acted on them. So what happened?
• Makes us proud to see McKenzie Funk’s cover
story in the magazine section of the Oct. 18 New York
Times. A Eugenean who grew up here and studied in our
public schools, Funk is best known for his fine writing on
environmental issues, but this piece is different. “Should
We See Everything a Cop Sees?” is a Seattle story about
the complexities of cops and body cameras.
BY EW STAFF
EW’S ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS
AT A GLANCE
SL ANT INCLUDES SHORT OPINION PIECES, OBSERVATIONS AND RUMOR-CHASING NOTES COMPILED BY THE EW STAFF. HE ARD ANY GOOD RUMORS L ATELY? CONTAC T EDITOR@EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
President
Hillary Clinton
District 11 Phil Barnhart
District 12 John Lively
District 13 Nancy Nathanson
District 14 Julie Fahey
LOCAL BALLOT MEASURES:
Lane County Measure 20-261 Point of sale tax on
recreational marijuana. Yes.
Oregon State Senate
District 5 Arnie Roblan
City of Eugene Measure 20-253 City tax on sale of
recreational marijuana. Yes.
Oregon Governor
Kate Brown
N O N PA RT I S A N R A C E S :
South Lane County Commissioner
Pete Sorenson
Oregon Secretary of State
Brad Avakian
Lane County Justice of the Peace
Richard B. Brissenden
Oregon State Treasurer
Tobias Read
Eugene Mayor
Lucy Vinis
Oregon Attorney General
Ellen Rosenblum
Eugene City Council Ward 1
Emily Semple
Oregon State House
District 7 Vincent Portulano
or Fergus Mclean
District 8 Paul Holvey
District 9 Caddy McKeown
Springfield City Council Ward 3
Sheri Moore
S TAT E B A L L O T M E A S U R E S :
• Measure 94 would repeal the mandatory judicial
retirement age, which is currently 75 years old. Yes.
• Measure 95 would allow public state universities to
invest in equities. Yes.
• Measure 96 would devote 1.5 percent of state lottery
net proceeds toward veterans’ services. No.
• Measure 97 would raise corporate taxes on businesses
with annual sales that exceed $25 million. Yes.
• Measure 98 would require state funding for dropout-
prevention and career and college readiness programs
in Oregon high schools. Yes.
• Measure 99 would create an “Outdoor School
Education Fund,” sourced from state lottery proceeds,
to support outdoor school programs. Yes.
• Measure 100 would prohibit the sale of products from
and parts of 12 species of endangered animals. Yes.
U.S. Senate Sen.
Ron Wyden
U.S. House
Peter DeFazio
Emerald People’s Utility District Director Sub 5
Jim Weaver
eugeneweekly.com • October 27, 2016
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