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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, dEcEmbER 30, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
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BEHIND THE NEWS
‘It’s sort of a wide open landscape’
O
pen seats in state Senate District
16 and state House District 32
will put the North Coast in the
political spotlight next year.
The potentially competitive cam-
paigns, which will likely attract money
and interest from across Oregon, come
at a fraught moment for political parties.
After President Joe Biden was inau-
gurated last January, Gallup’s national
tracking on party affiliation found that
50% considered themselves indepen-
dents. The number was 41% in Novem-
ber. In Clatsop County, nonaffili-
ated voters outnumber Democrats and
Republicans.
“When people see the national gov-
ernment, and it seems very discon-
nected, they don’t feel that linkage to
the parties that I think used to exist,”
said Andy Davis, the chairman of Clat-
sop County Democrats and a research
analyst for the Oregon Health Authority.
“So we’ve got to create that again and
figure out ways to connect to people.”
Davis, who ran unsuccessfully for
the county Board of Commissioners in
2018, has chaired the Countywide Cit-
izens Advisory Committee and served
on the county’s budget
committee.
In an interview, Davis
talked about finding can-
didates for the state Sen-
ate and state House, the
challenges political par-
ties are facing and what
DERRICK
he sees as the dominant
DePLEDGE
policy issues for next
year’s campaigns.
Q: Betsy Johnson resigned from
the state Senate to run for governor as
an independent. State Rep. Suzanne
Weber is giving up her state House
seat to run for the Senate. That leaves
two open seats on the North Coast
next year. How does the Democratic
Party intend to compete?
A: Betsy stepping down amplified the
timelines for a lot of these things.
Obviously, we knew that she was
running for governor. We had heard
that Suzanne was going to try and step
into the Senate seat. So we had already
started the process of sounding out can-
didates, trying to talk to people who we
thought were likely. There’s also the
dynamic of Brad Witt stepping down
from his seat (for reelection to the state
House as a Democrat from Clatskanie).
So it’s a really wide open race in the
broader Senate District 16 area.
And I think one of the challenges
right now is that at most levels of county
and city government — we’ve looked
for candidates out of those pools — and
a lot of those folks are either spoken for
or retiring or something like that.
So while we’ve got a lot of people
who might be interested, I would say
there’s not easily anointed candidates
who are going to step into those roles.
Suzanne is probably the most natu-
ral in a lot of ways in that she worked
her way up from (Tillamook) mayor to
House Rep. and now wants to be the
Senate representative for the area. That’s
a pretty normal progression.
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Andy Davis is the chairman of Clatsop County Democrats.
But a lot of the candidates that we’ve
talked to, they’re either happy in their
roles or they’re looking to retire anyway.
So I think that’s a challenge. It’s sort of a
wide open landscape.
Q: Democrats have held the polit-
ical advantage in Clatsop County.
But the party seems to be losing some
momentum. Johnson is running for
governor as an independent, not a
Democrat. Weber was the first Repub-
lican to win House District 32 for
nearly two decades. President Don-
ald Trump did better in the county in
2020 than he did in 2016. What do you
see as the party’s challenge?
A: I think our biggest challenge, and
I think it plays out here on the coast, is
connecting with groups like labor, which
have traditionally been a strong point for
Democrats.
In the recent ups and downs of the
economy — and, frankly, over the last
30 years or so since sort of Clinton Third
Way Democrat theory took over — it’s
been more difficult for Democrats to
connect with labor, with working people.
And I think there’s a lot of people
within the party who still believe in sup-
porting those groups. But how that trans-
lates to — especially visible national
policy — has changed.
I think in our district that comes
out strongly. I think we’ve had, say,
disagreements. When Tiffiny Mitch-
ell was the representative for the dis-
trict — she’s a modern Democrat in a
lot of ways, progressive Democrat, any-
way. And the steelworkers’ union out at
Wauna (Mill) had some disagreements
with her and her policy.
And I think that’s indicative of some
of the struggles and divisions within the
party.
One thing that’s been instructive to
me since I became more involved has
been just a sort of reality check about
the divisions within the U.S. elector-
ate and how sustained they are. I read
John Adams talking about thirds of the
electorate, in essence, or loyalists ver-
sus folks who wanted independence and
then a third of the people who didn’t
know, right?
We’re still in a situation that’s not
that different.
Media landscape has changed. The
way conversations happen has changed.
Community linkages have changed. But
there’s still camps in opposition, and
then a lot of people in the middle who
are trying to make up their mind about
what the best situation is for them. And
it varies over time about how they can
connect to parties.
We’re sort of in a space where that’s
true. It’s changing a little bit, and the
party has to respond to that, frankly.
Q: In Oregon, the share of non-
affiliated voters has grown. Part of
that is due to the Oregon Motor Voter
Act, which made it easier for people
to register to vote. But there appears
to be some disillusionment with the
two major political parties. As of this
fall, there were more nonaffiliated
voters in the county than Democrats
or Republicans. How does the party
combat this trend?
A: There’s traditional mechanisms,
where you’re trying to go out and get
people registered to vote and registered
for the party.
When we had a booth at the county
fair, we’re trying to get people regis-
tered, too. So those sort of outlets will
likely always exist, where we’re trying
to sort of actively recruit people.
I do think there’s an issue — and this
is not unique to the Democrats — but
we need to figure out how to connect to
younger voters as they’re coming on the
rolls as voters and make clear to them
that they have a home in either party,
assuming that they do align with us in
some way.
One of the advantages that both par-
ties had as far as numbers in the past,
even when the registration laws came
into effect, was you had a lot of mid-
dle-aged and older voters who were pre-
viously registered or previously affili-
ated or at least thought of themselves
as part of one party, right? It’s easy for
them to register and say, ‘OK, I’m a
Dem’ or ‘I’m a Republican.’
I think there’s enough disillusion-
ment, especially with younger people,
and disconnection from what the parties
do, what the government does.
I’ve had conversations with (Warren-
ton Mayor) Henry Balensifer, who occa-
sionally does some school events and
things like that. Just talking to students
about how we get electricity, who pays
for our roads — basic infrastructure
things that are fundamental to how we
live, and ultimately a lot of that service
comes through government, and there’s
a connected part of government that is
related to partisan politics.
On the local level, often we are nom-
inally nonpartisan, but I think there’s
also a portion of it that people have ide-
ologies that they carry with them even if
they’re nonpartisan. And so these things
effect us on a day-to-day level.
When people see the national govern-
ment, and it seems very disconnected,
they don’t feel that linkage to the parties
that I think used to exist. So we’ve got to
create that again and figure out ways to
connect to people.
Q: What do you see as the dom-
inant policy issues heading into the
2022 elections?
A: Well I think, nearly always, econ-
omy is a huge one.
How we recover and the characteris-
tics of recovery coming out of COVID
are going to be important.
Obviously, things like inflation are an
issue for a lot of people now.
Housing prices, certainly on the
North Coast, have escalated almost con-
tinuously since our last big downturn.
So those create challenges for people
— they’re real, felt, real things.
And, often, if they’re not good —
if those challenges are presenting in a
way that makes people’s lives harder,
they’re going to vote against the people
in power no matter who that is.
And that’s completely understand-
able, too.
I think that there are issues in the
U.S. right now that have a lot to do with
distrust of government, broadly. I think
that a lot of the conversations we have
around school boards, around what’s
happening with COVID, boil down for
a lot of people to whether they trust the
people that are making statements at any
given point.
And that changes sometimes, based
on partisanship. But for people in the
middle, there’s some track record of the
government not always being upfront
with people.
So I think there’s justifiable reason
for people to say, ‘Do I want to go along
with these regulations?’ ‘Do I trust these
people to teach my kids the right way?’
And all that’s valid — valid in the sense
of there may be a track record where I
should not take things at face value, and
I should do my own homework, and
things like that.
So there’s a big challenge for anyone
in government right now to get across to
people that they’re trying to do the right
thing.
derrick dePledge is editor of The
Astorian.
GUEST COLUMN
Child care a boost our economy needs
C
hild care is one of the biggest
and Development countries in its spend-
ing on family benefits including child
expenses many families face —
care, at less than two-thirds of one percent
in much of the country, it can
run higher than college tuition. Could
of gross domestic product.
a national child care program ease that
Only Turkey trailed us. The United
burden?
Kingdom, a lot like us in many ways,
We’ve come close before. During
spends more than five times as much as
World War II, the federal government
the United States.
provided child care around the clock to
Yet the economic case for investing
enable more women to work in the war
in early childhood education and care is
industries. In 1971, we nearly got
strong. Universal preschool is a
a national child care program until
two-generation anti-poverty strat-
egy that also benefits the mid-
President Richard Nixon vetoed
dle class. Decades of research find
legislation that had strong biparti-
san support.
that it reduces inequality by gen-
der, race, ethnicity and income.
Now, with U.S. Sen. Joe Man-
chin stalling President Joe Biden’s
Children from families with lower
Build Back Better Act, we could be
incomes gain the most, but all chil-
MARY C.
dren make gains.
on the brink of another disappoint-
KING
ment. Or, if the bill can be res-
As it is now, young children
cued, our country may get another
have the highest poverty rates of
opportunity to make a historic investment
any age group in this country — and the
in our future.
cost of child care helps explain why.
Among many other things, the Build
Child care is simply so expensive that
Back Better Act would cap child care
many parents, especially mothers, cannot
payments for working families at no more
afford to work, which permanently lowers
than 7% of their income — while raising
their lifetime incomes. Single mothers,
wages for child care workers.
who are raising almost a quarter of U.S.
The U.S. is far behind other affluent
children, are particularly vulnerable.
— and even less affluent — nations, in
Women’s ability to work in the U.S. is
the support it provides families with chil-
falling behind other countries — includ-
ing Germany, Canada and Japan — due
dren. In 2017, the U.S. was 37th of the 38
to our weak family policies. But we don’t
Organisation for Economic Co-operation
have to look far to find successful exam-
ples of public investments in child care.
Washington, D.C.’s universal preschool
program has increased the labor force par-
ticipation of mothers by 10 percentage
points, raising family incomes.
Care like this isn’t just good for par-
ents. High quality preschool eases the
transition to kindergarten and raises high
school graduation rates, college atten-
dance and incomes. Down the line, it also
reduces unemployment, crime, incarcera-
tion and other social ills.
Even families without kids benefit.
The higher the education rate in a local-
ity, the higher the wages are for everyone,
regardless of their education, because
companies can be more productive with a
skilled labor force.
Finally, part of ensuring quality child
care means paying child care workers sal-
aries comparable to elementary school
teachers. Without decent wages to support
their families, these jobs see very high
turnover — which limits the experience
and relationships that are critical to qual-
ity care.
Federal investment in early child-
hood and care is long overdue. It’s the
best economic development project we
could undertake, with significant gains
to the community as a whole, as well as
to children, their families and preschool
Elaine Thompson/AP Photo
Young children have the highest poverty
rates of any age group in this country — and
the cost of child care helps explain why.
workers.
The rest of the wealthy world has far
lower rates of child poverty, a critical pre-
dictor of future marginalization, than we
do — largely because they invest much
more in their children. Let’s not waste
another 50 years before investing in our
children, our families and our future.
mary c. King is a professor of econom-
ics emerita at Portland State university.