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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2019)
OFF PAGE ONE Saturday, October 26, 2019 East Oregonian A9 Money: First battle of Oregon Secretary of State race Continued from Page A1 RUNDOWN OF PROPOSALS corporations to $2,000 per election, meaning she would take that amount from such groups in both the May pri- mary and November general election. Williamson also said she’ll reject any contributions from companies that don’t do business in Oregon. State Sen. Mark Hass Hass on Thursday said he’d be putting forth a far more stringent proposal: ask- ing all candidates to agree to limit donations to $250 per contributor. The longtime lawmaker, who has seen his share of large checks from corporate and institutional supporters over the years, said he’s seek- ing to set an example in the current race. “All the candidates — Democrats included, and maybe especially — have had to resort to taking these large contributions to survive in a system that has no rules,” Hass said. “Let’s set some rules.” Jamie McLeod-Skinner McLeod-Skinner, who last year challenged U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore- gon, wants the candidates to adhere to federal contribution rules. Those set a range of limits on what different enti- ties can donate to candidates — for instance, a $2,800 limit per election from individuals and a $5,000 limit per elec- tion from many PACs and party committees. “In absence of Oregon leg- islation on campaign contri- bution limits, my proposal is to use the federal limits,” said McLeod-Skinner. “Last year, I didn’t take corporate PAC or fossil fuel money, and my proposal is to do that as well.” None of the three cam- paigns had posed their sug- gestions to their opponents as of Thursday morning. Hass and Williamson said they were preparing to unveil their ideas in coming days. A fourth candidate for the Dem- ocratic nomination, Ryan Wruck, has not filed a can- didate committee. He said he is uncertain whether he will raise or spend enough to meet the $750 threshold for doing so. Williamson’s proposal is similar to controls on corpo- rate contributions in Wash- ington state elections, which OPB Photo/Bradley W. Parks, File OPB Photo/Bradley W. Parks, File House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, sig- nals her vote during the 2019 legislative session at the Cap- itol in Salem. Former congressional candidate Jamie McCleod-Skinner waits for the start of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s inaugural ad- dress at the state Capitol in Salem. are also set at $2,000 per election. Washington also imposes limits on how much individuals, PACs and unions can give. “It’s time to loosen the grip big corporations and their political action commit- tees have on our politics and public policy,” Williamson’s statement said. “I think one significant step towards doing that is to limit the amount of money they can contribute to campaigns.” Asked whether the limits apply to nonprofit corpora- tions, Williamson’s campaign initially said yes. But the cam- paign clarified Thursday that it had only meant that state- ment to apply to 501©3 orga- nizations — not member- ship-supported groups such as labor unions or the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association that have been top supporters of Williamson’s in the past. Many of those groups are also registered nonprofits. The campaign has since updated its proposal to refer to “for-profit corporations.” “Representative Wil- liamson believes that profes- sional organizations, mem- bership associations, unions and small donor political action committees play a crit- ical role in empowering thou- sands of individual Orego- nians who otherwise would not have a voice in our current political climate,” campaign spokesperson Ruby LaBrus- ciano-Carris said. Told of Williamson’s pro- posal, McLeod-Skinner said it sounded like it had “a lot of loopholes.” Williamson has tapped generous donations from cor- porations in past races. In her 2018 re-election bid, she accepted $4,000 from Nike. That money would the- oretically fall in line with Wil- liamson’s proposal in the cur- rent race, since the footwear giant split the money between two checks — one before the primary and another before the general election. But Wil- liamson also accepted $1,000 from Nike in October 2017 that could count toward her 2018 campaign. Williamson did not face an opponent in either election last year. In past races, Williamson has leaned more heavily on Nike. Records show that the company contributed nearly $10,000 to Williamson’s 2016 re-election bid, in which she faced only token opposition. Many of Hass’ top donors have been corporations over his years in the Senate. Records show Nike, which sits just north of his district, has given Hass more than $13,000 since he won his last race in 2016. Hass has also seen consis- tent support from Comcast and from grocery chains such as Safeway and Kroger. All of those companies took interest in a new “corporate activi- ties tax” that Hass was key in crafting and which lawmak- ers passed this year. Hass, who has long voiced support for stricter campaign finance rules, said such big checks are the opposite of what Oregon politics need. “This is the Wild West,” he said. “If you’re in the Wild West, you’ve got to wres- tle with rattlesnakes some- times. This is what we’ve got to end.” Hass had debated in past days what contribution lim- its would be appropriate for the secretary of state race, and wound up settling on an extremely restrictive for- mula for a statewide race. He argues a $250 limit on all contributions would change the tenor of the race for the better. “I think it makes it more OPB Photo/Bradley W. Parks, File State Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, in the Oregon Senate earlier this year in Salem. honest. I think it forces us to take our message to the streets, to the people,” Hass said. “That’s where these races need to go. We’ve just got too many huge contrib- utors that are drowning out voices.” The proposed limit would be stricter than $500-per-do- nor caps approved by Mult- nomah County and Port- land voters in recent years — regulations that have yet to be approved by the courts. And Hass’ proposal would go much further than a cam- paign finance bill that failed in this year’s legislative session. So far, Hass has not been constrained by the limits he’s now proposing. In the last month and a half, his candi- date committee has reported checks of between $1,000 and $2,500 from healthcare-re- lated groups, some of his Sen- ate colleagues and others. Hass acknowledged an oft-mentioned side effect that can come along with strict campaign finance rules: They can drive well- heeled interests to cre- ate their own “independent expenditure” campaigns to tout a favored candidate. The senator said Thursday he’d call on all candidates to “disavow” any such efforts if they agreed to his idea. “It’s the one fly in the oint- ment here,” he said. “It’s a lit- tle bit risky.” Hass also plans to propose a series of debates statewide, something McLeod-Skinner had previously supported. It appeared unlikely Thursday that candidates would find common ground in their various proposals. For her part, Williamson said she would stick to her plan. “Regardless of what the other candidates for secretary of state may choose to do, Jen- nifer Williamson has decided to voluntarily limit big corpo- rate money in her campaign,” LaBrusciano-Carris wrote. She noted that Williamson “needs the resources to reach out to and engage nearly a mil- lion Democratic primary vot- ers and 2.8 million total regis- tered voters across our state.” She also said the campaign was unwilling to turn down donations from PACs that steer donations from “small donors” to candidates. Oregon’s loose campaign finance regulations have long been a target for reformers, and they drew renewed criti- cism last year during a guber- natorial campaign that shat- tered fundraising records. The top Democratic candi- dates running for Oregon secretary of state next year are each proposing limits to campaign finance contributions, even though state law requires none. The problem: They don’t agree on what those limits should be. Here’s a rundown of the proposals. State Rep. Jennifer Wil- liamson For-profit corporations or political action commit- tees run by for-profit cor- porations limited to $2,000 per election. No donations by companies that don’t do business in Oregon. No limits on other donations, including money from individuals, labor unions, or member associations. State Sen. Mark Hass All donors limited to giv- ing no more than $250 to candidates. Jamie McLeod-Skinner Candidates abide by fed- eral election rules, which set contribution limits of $2,800 per election for individual donors and $5,000 per election for many political committees. According to the National Conference of State Legisla- tures, Oregon is one of just five states to impose no lim- its on the money that can be given in campaigns. The lax rules derive from a 1997 state Supreme Court opinion that found such limits would violate the state’s constitu- tional protections on speech. Campaign finance advo- cates are hoping to test that concept in a case that’s sched- uled to be heard by the court in coming months. No matter the outcome there, voters will have their say. Lawmakers this year passed Senate Joint Reso- lution 18, which will allow voters to decide in Novem- ber 2020 whether to amend the state constitution to allow campaign finance lim- its. If the measure passes, it would likely fall to lawmak- ers to decide what those lim- its could be. “The real issue here is get- ting big money out of poli- tics,” said Hass, a sponsor of SJR 18. “It’s not selectively raising big money from this group and not that group.” Opera: ‘He absolutely drove us nuts playing Gilbert and Sullivan’ Continued from Page A1 Chorus, performing with the group until cardiac arrest took his life on Oct. 8. Phil found his brother deceased when he went to pick him up for choir practice. Besides heart prob- lems, Quade struggled with blood cancer and diabetes, say family members. Not that he talked much about his health. Phil Winter said his brother lived his life exactly as he wanted. During Quade’s boy- hood, he regularly vexed his father, Melvin Winter, with his theater ambitions. Mel- vin, a local car dealer and for- mer Pendleton mayor, was a no-nonsense, “pull-yourself- up-by-the-bootstraps kind of guy” who wanted his four sons to go into business. “Quade was always dif- ferent,” Phil said. “He never quite fit the mold.” The introspective and independent Quade had no interest in sports or business, though he treasured his time as a Boy Scout and enjoyed science. “He wasn’t just a music nerd,” Phil said. “He loved science and he was a real Jules Verne fan.” His family adapted to his quirky ways. “We learned to let Quade be Quade,” he said. Joyce Hoffman taught Quade in French class at PHS and led a group to France in which he was the only boy with 19 girls. “He assured me he’d be fine with that,” Hoffman said with a grin. She remembers Quade as a nice, quiet, average stu- dent who stayed off the radar except for acting. He has no official yearbook photo in his junior and senior yearbooks. Phil’s wife, Boone Winter, met Quade in eighth grade. She remembers the year he ran for school treasurer. His signs read, “E. Quade Winter. Vote for me and I’ll tell you what the E stands for.” E stands for Edward, but save for his sister Liz Nase who refers to him as “Eddy,” everyone else calls him Quade. Quade, Phil said, was his grandmother’s maiden name. Those who knew Winter will miss his humor. “He was easy to be around,” Boone said. “He had a way with words.” “His sense of humor was very dry,” said Bill Mayclin, who directs the Pendleton Men’s Chorus. “He was so funny.” During one Men’s Cho- rus concert, Winter sang his own comic opera composition called “The Audition.” The song describes the gritty, ter- rifying process of auditioning for an opera role and includes this phrase: “Your accompanist grins as the music begins, And it’s clear that he’s totally blotto. You are simply aghast cause he’s playing too fast In a key that would kill a castrato.” Mayclin remembers see- ing Winter as a young man singing a lead role in a Czech opera called “Jenufa” in Port- land in 1996. Winter, who had sung the part before, had been asked to step in at the last min- ute after the original singer had to drop out. Mayclin, who directed the PHS choir at the time, leaned over and proudly told his friends, “That guy’s from Pendleton.” After Winter’s death, the family gifted Mayclin with boxes and boxes of Winter’s music CDs and sheet music, many of his own arrangements and original compositions. “There are 26 banker boxes — over 300 CDs of opera and musical theater and 21 boxes of opera scores,” Mayclin said. Mayclin said it may take years to go through them all, but “they’re kind of precious. This stuff just can’t be tossed out.” There will be no memo- rial service at Winter’s request. The guys in the Pendleton Men’s Chorus, however, plan to assemble at the Prodigal Son to raise a glass in his honor. High-speed: EOT to extend fiber optic to Athena by the end of the year Continued from Page A1 population 2,230 — the devel- opment made more financial sense. While all three cities struggle with internet speed and consistency issues, Spur- geon argued that Weston had it the worst. Spurgeon said Weston’s geography made it diffi- cult for many households to get reliable wireless inter- net, while the DSL available often chugs along at 1 mega- bit per second. In compari- son, EOT is planning to offer Weston 100 megabits per second. At an Energy and Com- merce Committee hearing in September about the inac- curacies of the FCC’s broad- band coverage map, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., relayed a conversation he had with Spurgeon where she called Weston’s internet “dial-up, just without the modem noise.” Franell thought it was a fitting comparison, even as Weston’s DSL service is slightly faster than the days of America Online. But 1 megabit is hardly compatible with modern internet speeds. Franell said even basic internet functions like email are rendered slow with those kinds of speeds considering all the pictures and graphics that now accom- pany them. Spurgeon anticipated that EOT’s service would not only improve the way the city government func- tions, but could be a boost to some of the organiza- tions that call Weston home, like PARC Resources, a consulting agency for rural communities. Laura Prado, PARC’s cli- ent services manager, said whether it’s email, docu- ment sharing or video con- ferencing, her organization conducts a lot of its business online. That can be a problem in Weston, especially on a dead- line. Prado said she can often get faster internet speeds at her home in Milton-Freewa- ter than in the office. “It’s a noticeable differ- ence,” she said. Franell said EOT’s invest- ment in Athena, Weston and Adams won’t end with infrastructure. The company is planning a digital transformation pro- gram to give residents a bet- ter idea of what they can do with their strengthened internet connection. He said the company is currently distributing a sur- vey to get a sense of what locals use the internet for and what they want to do with it in the future. Based on their responses, Franell said EOT could help coordinate classes on topics like e-commerce, telehealth and distance learning. Franell said broadband could not only be used as an economic development tool to attract businesses, but also keep these small towns as viable communities. Citing a study done by the Strategic Networks Group, Franell said 45% of house- holds would move for broad- band service, a number that jumps up to 65% for house- holds 35 and younger. “It’s not about conve- nience,” he said. “It’s about survivability.” Internet on the reservation Only a few miles away from Athena, Weston and Adams, the Confeder- ated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are plan- ning their own broadband network. Ryan DeGrofft, an eco- nomic planner for the CTUIR, said the tribes are planning the project in three phases. The first would create a fiber loop between the CTU- IR’s government facilities and tribal enterprises like Wild- horse Resort and Casino. The second phase would connect the reservation to Pendleton’s fiber infrastructure. The final phase would see the tribes becoming its own internet service provider for residential customers living on the reservation. DeGrofft cautioned that the plan was still in its early stages, and even if all phases came to pass, there still might be some remote parts of the reservation that might not get the service. At this point, DeGrofft said the CTUIR is conduct- ing a survey to get a sense of where internet speeds are across the reservation. Anec- dotally, even some locations in Mission are experienc- ing slow and spotty internet service. DeGrofft said the proj- ect is dependent on obtaining funding through grants and other sources, so there isn’t a definitive timeline for it yet.