OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Astoria preschool is
a winning strategy
Preschool is the right decision from
a progressive school board
ormer Gov. John Kitzhaber talked about it. President Barack
Obama has talked about it. The value of preschool is widely
acknowledged. The general concept is that children begin the
learning process well before they arrive in kindergarten. Children
who are fortunate get a lot of this from their parents. Many other
children do not.
Inside the Capt. Robert
Edward Stratton reported
Gray School are a child care last Friday that, “A wide
program, Head Start and an swath of Astoria east of the
alternative school. These pro- Astoria Bridge has been iden-
grams are evidence of Astoria ti¿ed as a µhot spot’ by the
School District’s history of state Department of Human
being innovative in response Services, based on high rates
to the needs of the school-age of poverty, public assistance,
population. Now the Astoria mobility and families with
School Board has agreed to school-age children.”
This assessment coincides
establish a preschool within
with the advent of a new state
the Gray School building.
“We have kids starting kin- program called Preschool
dergarten already behind,” Promise, funded at $17.5 mil-
said Astoria Superintendent lion. Hoppes says the board
Craig Hoppes. “They have is intent on building a ¿nan-
a hard time catching up. We cial plan to keep the preschool
need something to catch them going past the initial state
funding source.
up.”
This is the right decision
Warrenton-Hammond and
Jewell school districts have from a progressive school
their own preschool programs. board.
F
µAg gag’ laws
are a mistake
he Lower Columbia
region is well endowed
with farmers, ranchers and
family foresters who their
neighbors know to be among
the most conscientious stew-
ards of the land. You don’t
take on a life of long hours
and uncertain rewards raising
crops, animals and trees — or
stay in these endeavors — if
you hate the natural world and
all that lives there.
What is true on the local
scale — that farmers and for-
esters are natural conserva-
tionists worthy of steadfast
support — is not universally
true on the larger industrial
scale. There are irresponsible
operators in every economic
pursuit and this is also true of
agriculture.
Wonderful people but a lit-
tle tone deaf when it comes to
public relations, agricultural
producers in some states are
incensed by the efforts of a
few activists to bring attention
to instances of malpractice
and misbehavior in the indus-
try. This has led to efforts by
ag groups and supportive leg-
islators in places like Idaho
to initiate “ag gag” laws,
described in our sister publica-
tion Capital Press as prohib-
iting hidden-camera ¿lming
and obtaining employment
under false pretenses.
A story in the Capital
Press last Friday reported on
T
just how big a blunder these
laws have been in terms
of con¿dence in farmers.
A study of U.S. consumers
by the University of British
Columbia shows that such
heavy-handed efforts to keep
agricultural practices under
wraps has the opposite of the
desired effect.
Instead of shielding squea-
mish consumers from agri-
culture’s facts of life, ag gag
laws evidently leave the public
assuming there is something to
hide.
No industry would be
happy to be targeted by “secret
agents” posing as visitors or
employees, but agriculture
occupies a central position in
people’s lives, providing suste-
nance for purchasers and their
children. Heightened scrutiny
is to be expected.
Oregon and Washington
state lawmakers clearly should
resist the siren call of ag gag
laws. Agricultural producers
in our states, who enjoy pub-
lic support and positive rep-
utations, can do far better by
continuing to reach out to con-
sumers with truthful informa-
tion, while working to further
enhance animal husbandry
and environmentally friendly
practices.
The vast majority of farm-
ers are heroes with noth-
ing to hide. They should act
accordingly.
Photos by R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Oregon Treasurer candidates Jeff Gudman and Chris Telfer debate, moderated by Oregon gubernatorial
candidate Allen Alley.
Will the real Oregon
GOP please stand up?
SOUTHERN
EXPOSURE
B Y
R.J.
M ARX
here’s the “N” word again.
“New York.”
T
The NRA maintained a presence at the Dorchester Conference.
I was hanging out at lunchtime
at the Seaside Civic and Convention
Center on a Saturday earlier this
month. The Dorchester Conference
was meeting for the 52 nd time, most of
those years in Seaside.
In a display area ¿lled with can-
didates and causes, we sidled over to
the National RiÀe Association booth.
Unfortunately, the NRA gals couldn’t
speak on the record because only the
national organization is authorized to
communicate with the press. Shoot.
We stepped up to U.S. Senate can-
didate Mark Callahan’s table. He was
standing alone while participants in
the main area were eating turkey sand-
wiches, tangelos and chocolate chip
cookies.
Originally from Eugene and now
residing in east Portland, Callahan
calls himself a “can-do person” and a
“troubleshooter.”
He was one of the Republicans in
the 2014 primary seeking to challenge
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
During that election, he called out
free-wheeling alt-press reporter Nigel
Jaquiss for writing “blah, blah, blah”
on a notepad during a candidate inter-
view with the Willamette Week.
Callahan told Fox News he took
the conservative ¿ght “directly to
the heart of Portland’s liberal media
establishment.”
Callahan is continuing the ¿ght,
back among the four Republican
U.S. Senate candidates (along with
Sam Carpenter, Dan Laschober and
Faye Stewart) vying for U.S. Sen.
Ron Wyden’s seat. Wyden, D-Ore.,
has been in the Senate 35 years and
“spends most of his time in New
York,” Callahan said.
We heard that Wyden had a place in
Gearhart. Gearhart residents are proud
of it. He’s got a place in Portland, too.
His wife Nancy, whom he married in
2005, has a place in New York. That’s
where she’s from. Her family owns
the city’s most famous bookstore, The
Strand.
But those words — “New York”
— are anathema to some Republicans,
despite it being the birthplace of one
Donald Trump.
Just like Portland. “Keep Port-
land Weird” is the cry. Just keep it in
Portland.
When we asked Callahan if he was
a social, political or economic conser-
vative, he said: “All of the above.”
Sam Carpenter of Bend makes Cal-
lahan look like Harry Reid.
“I’m kind of a constitutional guy,”
Carpenter said at the Seaside Signal
of¿ce this month. “I’m a limited gov-
ernment, grassroots kind of guy.”
Carpenter said he likes to go back
to the “original documentation,” the
U.S. Constitution.
“I’m a businessman, and most busi-
nesses don’t have documentation,”
Carpenter said. “Try to keep it simple.
Things have gotten too complex.”
“Government’s in our face every-
where,” Carpenter said. “People can’t
Dorchester President Tom Simp-
son at the Dorchester Confer-
ence in Seaside.
U.S. Senate primary candidate
Mark Callahan of east Portland at
the Dorchester Conference.
The GOP is at a crisis between
elites and grassroots. Between
ranchers and bankers. Between
Constitutionalists and neocons.
move sideways. It’s the sea lions on
the coast, wolves over here. … I’d
like to see the federal government
pull out their tentacles from the poor
¿shermen.”
Faye Stewart’s campaign stresses
a “common sense reform agenda” to
promote individual freedoms, expand
economic opportunity and protect
American security at home and abroad.
Seth Allan, whose motto is “send a
conservative to D.C.,” urges a “stead-
fast defense of religious liberty” in his
campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Kurt
Schrader, D-Ore.
We liked Tom Simpson, the presi-
dent of this year’s Dorchester Confer-
ence. We could almost hark back to
the halcyon days of Bob Packwood,
Mark Hat¿eld and Gov. Tom McCall,
all Oregon Republicans, in an era
when the GOP owned the state. It was
McCall, a Republican, who fought to
keep the beaches public.
Dorchester keynote speaker Tucker
Carlson of Fox News provided insight,
Simpson told us.
“Carlson was fabulous,” Simp-
son said. “He really unpacked Donald
Trump and Bernie Sanders.”
Trump and Sanders are tapping
into the same emotions, Simpson said,
describing Carlson’s message. “There’s
an underlying anger people get behind
at the establishment. I think that’s the
same on the left as on the right.”
“It used to be the Republicans who
were the superrich,” Simpson added.
“Now, the Democrats are the super-
rich, and the poor.”
The poor, he said, are Democrats
because they bene¿t from federal
policies.
On the Republican side, “it’s sort of
a big mess,” Simpson said. “You have
the Republican elite who are com-
pletely out of touch with the people,
and they’re not only out of touch but
they’re saying different things.”
Trump’s success is the busi-
nessman’s ability to “pivot on his
positions.”
“He’s a negotiator, so he pivots on
his positions pretty regularly,” Simp-
son said. “He doesn’t say, µThis is the
way it’s going to be and I’ll send you
back in the corner.’ He’ll pivot off that
and say: µYou’ll like this way better.’
So you think of Trump as a negotiator
instead of as a politician. That kind of
explains why you can’t nail him down.
He’s just trying to ¿nd a place he can
get to agreement.”
In Dorchester’s straw poll, Gov.
John Kasich of Ohio, considered the
most moderate of GOP presidential
candidates, was the big winner with 46
votes. Trump came in third with 33.
Nationwide, the divide between
left and right is getting wider and
the differences more extreme. Yet at
Dorchester, the conversation ultimately
represented a degree of moderation.
The Daily Astorian’s Edward Strat-
ton wrote, “Even Hillary Clinton and
Bernie Sanders managed three votes
between them.”
If national races remain compet-
itive, Oregon could be among the
deciding states for the primaries on
May 17.
I think Carlson and Simpson are
right. The GOP is at a crisis between
elites and grassroots. Between ranchers
and bankers. Between Constitutionalists
and neocons. Between Portland money
and rural poverty, high-tech versus van-
ishing manufacturing. Mitt Romney in
contrast to Sarah Palin. George H. Bush
could get elected as an Ivy Leaguer
from Connecticut. George W. Bush had
to move to Texas to win. The “liberal
media establishment” pivots to “fair and
balanced” to win ratings.
“Pivoting” in this election year will
be no easy strategy for members of the
GOP seeking good governance in our
state.
Another New Yorker, Joe Franklin,
was a pioneering radio and TV talk-
show host for decades. He was what
they call a “schmoozer,” someone
who cozies up to someone — anyone
— and wins them over with a friendly
word, a clap on the back, praise for
their kids and grandkids.
“Sincerity,” he used to say, “Once
you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Trump and Franklin were pretty
good friends.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s
South County reporter and editor of
the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach
Gazette.