Opinion
2 candidates,
1 opening
for GOP
governor
From The East Oregonian
Two Republican candidates for governor — Bud Pierce
and Allen Alley — are facing off in the May primary.
Five names will actually appear on the ballot for
Republican voters, but the race will undoubtedly come
down to Pierce and Alley, who have both the funding and
wherewithal to win the
nomination.
It’s a solid 1-2 punch
for a party that hasn’t
held the governor’s ofice
since 1987. (Incidentally,
Republican governors led the state for 42 of the 48 years
before this recent 30-year drought.)
But only one can survive to take on Kate Brown in
November, and Republican voters should consider the
general election when voting in the May primary.
If Oregon is to avoid the one-party rule that has plagued
other states, Republicans need to prove they can win every
once in a while.
Which potential Republican nominee has the best
chance this time around? We’ve spoken to both, and are
impressed with both.
Pierce is the kind of Republican we’d have supported in
the last few elections, when the GOP let social issues derail
campaigns.
He doesn’t have time for that kind of nonsense. He is a
successful doctor and private sector businessperson, with
reasonable solutions to making state government more
eficient and customer friendly. He has taken a keen eye to
rural issues and has pounded the pavement (and the wheat
ields and the forests and the deserts) of Eastern Oregon to
secure support and raise money. He may lack in pizazz, but
he’s a well-informed outsider with a reasonable approach
to the big state issues that Democrats have been unable
to tackle — PERS, a statewide transportation package,
Columbia River Crossing and rural economic struggles.
Perhaps his nice-guy image carries with it some naiveté.
And if Republicans can somehow claim the governor’s
mansion — they sure want someone who can swing some
elbows, cut some bloated departments and shake up Salem.
It’s dificult to picture Pierce in that role.
Alley is similar to Pierce in many regards, but he may
have more political polish and the hard edge needed to step
into what would be a dificult situation.
He is a latecomer to the campaign and this election
cycle has not reached out to Eastern Oregon as much as
he said he would like to. But you can bet if he survives in
May, he’ll be drumming up votes in the reliably red side of
the state.
He, too, has stayed away from the unpopular issues
that have tripped up predecessors, most notably Dennis
Richardson who was in a seemingly winnable race with
John Kitzhaber just two years ago.
Alley told the editorial board this week that he watched
the Kitzhaber debacle and resignation from afar and saw
the state needed a change in party, a change in culture and
a change in leadership.
He spoke mostly about Oregon’s poor education system
— near the bottom for K-12 graduation rates despite a
recent overhaul of the entire system — and the quickly
rising costs of a college degree. He’s got ways to ix it, and
doesn’t believe another dump truck of dollars is the answer.
Perhaps it will not matter which Republican wins in
May.
Perhaps Gov. Brown is untouchable in November —
especially in a liberal state where Donald Trump may be
on the ballot. Trump will cause 7 in 10 Oregonians to vote
against him, and any Republican candidate is going to have
to win back at least some of the anti-Trump anger.
For Oregon’s sake, we hope Republicans are able to
claim statewide ofice soon. The irst step to doing so is
ielding quality candidates like Bud Pierce and Allen Alley
and letting the best candidate advance into the second round.
EDITORIAL
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Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction
without permission is prohibited.
Volume 134
Listen, Springtime. Take it down a
notch. I’ve got neighbors and they’re
probably wondering what kind of show
I’m running over here. I just started an
important business call the other day and
we were still in the pleasantries stage
when a commotion under the footbridge
in my yard forced me to say, “Hold on.
Something’s happening.” Two ducks
were wrestling in the water under the
bridge. Then another duck lew in and
the two boy ducks started ighting. Ev-
erybody knows where baby birds come
from. You go to Grain Growers during
Chick Days. So I don’t know what these
ducks were so angry about, but I hope
they worked out their differences.
Later the very same day I’m talking
to my sister on the phone and two hawks
start having Chick Days up in a tree —
and you can’t not mention it when nature
is happening like that right before your
eyes. Oh, yawn. Nothing going on over
here. Nope. Two raptors are most dei-
nitely not procreating in a tree right now.
No big deal.
So I had to narrate Springtime in full
swing over the phone to my own sister
and a friend I’d called to broker a power
deal on the sale of used picnic tables. It’s
just getting a little out of hand, Spring-
time. That’s all I’m saying. Get a room.
Next topic: further proof that Wal-
lowa County is wired to all things.
AND
FURTHERMORE
Jon Rombach
There’s a viral photo blowing around
the internet from the last Prince concert.
Atlanta photographer Evan Carter was
at the show and snapped a quick shot
after the inal encore. Concertgoers are
waving at Prince. He’s standing with a
purple background in a beam of bright
light, holding up a purple power salute,
one arm in the air. It would be a heck of a
picture any time, but in light of his death
not long after, it raises arm hairs.
The Wallowa County connection
to the photographer is Joseph resident
Mary B Fort. She used to babysit Evan
when he was just a duckling. One of the
best child care anecdotes I’ve heard is
how Fort was taking care of the Carter
kids and this young fella Evan was sup-
posed to go off to kindergarten for the
day, but decided not to go — and stuck
to it and won. Lots of kids declare a per-
sonal boycott of school, but this is the
irst I’ve heard of ditching kindergarten.
The snacks, Evan. The naps. Stories. Re-
cess. Arts and crafts. Kindergarten is the
apex of human activity. How could you
not want to go to kindergarten? I used
to be a substitute teacher and illing in
for kindergarten was like R&R at Disne-
yland compared to the running battles of
older grades.
I’ve illed out your report card, Evan
Carter of Atlanta. Your Prince photograph
earns a score of ten lashbulbs. Your de-
termination to avoid kindergarten scores
one graham cracker, because the rules
state I cannot award any lower score. But
I have to admire the pluck required to
take a stand at such an early age, so you
also get a bonus of one juice box.
On a inal note: rental housing is
tough to come by these days and I’ve
got a one bedroom available. It’s small.
About eighteen inches by eighteen inch-
es. It’s a houseboat, loating on my little
pond. I built it for those wrestling ducks
because I’ve been inding broken eggs
along the edge of the ditch. I igured
the mother duck would move right in
to this loating nesting box, secure from
egg poachers out there on the water. But,
nope. She has shown no interest. So un-
grateful. If you know of any waterfowl in
the market for housing, have them drop
an application off with my rental proper-
ty manager. A family of starlings applied,
but their references look shady. First, last
and security deposit required.
Jon Rombach is a local columnist for
the Chieftain.
Monument idea ignores our voices
My family has lived and worked in
Southeast Oregon since the 1800s. We
are people of the land and for the land.
Our businesses have worked hand-in-
hand with the U.S. Bureau of Land Man-
agement, Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife and Oregon Department of
State Lands to care for this land since the
agencies were created.
With our intimate knowledge of
the lands, we assist in reporting, locat-
ing and ighting rangeland ires and help-
ing with search and rescues missions.
Our goal for our own land and the pub-
lic’s land is to maintain a healthy viable
sagebrush ecosystem in the high desert
of southeast Oregon.
Now, all of this may come to an end.
An outdoor clothing corporation and
special interest groups have proclaimed
2.5 million acres in Southeast Oregon as
“unprotected” in their campaign to pres-
sure President Obama to turn the land
into a monument.
To call this public land “unprotected”
is like saying the land in downtown Port-
land has no zoning code.
The Owyhee Canyonlands along the
Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border and the
GUEST EDITORIAL
Linda Bentz
water and wildlife that run through it
enjoy protections from more than seven
layers of local, state and federal govern-
ment and is actively managed by profes-
sional resource managers employed by
the three state or federal agencies.
The protections include at least ive
federal acts (Taylor Grazing Act of
1934, National Wild and Scenic Rivers
Act of 1968, Endangered Species Act of
1973, Federal Land Policy and Manage-
ment Act of 1976 and Archaeological
Resources Protection Act of 1979) and
three land-use plans (Federal Land Pol-
icy and Management Act, Southeastern
Oregon Resource Management Plan of
2002 and Oregon Greater Sage-Grouse
Approved Resource Management Plan
of 2015).
When likely Oregon voters were told
in a recent poll about the existing protec-
tions and plans in place for these lands,
61 percent said the Owyhee Canyon-
lands has enough protection.
This monument declaration doesn’t
offer further protection. It’s more an act
of exclusion.
Once a monument is declared, public
land becomes less accessible, not more.
It would restrict road maintenance and
that would inhibit search and rescue
and ireighting operations. It would also
restrict ranchers’ ability to care for the
land under their grazing permits, limit-
ing our ability to maintain water sources
and reservoirs that beneit all wildlife.
The monument would limit access for
people who are not aggressive hikers,
especially the elderly, handicapped and
veterans. Those who enjoy hunting, ish-
ing, rafting and viewing birds, wildlife
and wildlowers in the Canyonlands area
also will be greatly restricted.
Special interest groups are urging
President Obama to act alone under the
Antiquities Act of 1906 to cut Congress
and our community out of this decision.
But their agenda runs counter to the voice
of Oregonians across the state, from Mal-
heur County to Multnomah County.
See VOICES, Page A5
Irresponsible suggestions on wolves
p ublished every w ednesday by :
EO Media Group
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Wallowa County
Out-of-County
All alutter as spring hits high gear
Barry Qualle’s dad must have been
a heck of a guy, but I wonder if he also
believed like his son that if the law don’t
suit, then break it.
In his piece (April 20), Barry implic-
itly threatens to illegally kill wolves if
conservationists don’t kowtow to his in-
terpretation of the wolf plan. He igures it
a good idea if wolves were blamed right
off for all dead, missing or injured cattle
or economic loss in any place that’s wolf
habitat, and all presumed losses compen-
sated by wolf supporters. And he reck-
ons if wolf supporters (the majority of
Oregonians) would just agree with him,
it “would bring a lot of good will to the
range.” Un-hunh.
Barry also congratulates himself for
not poaching wolves — that is, commit-
ting a crime — just the way regular cit-
izens should congratulate themselves for
not mugging old ladies or robbing banks.
The thousands of Oregonians who
LETTERS to the EDITOR
don’t shoot cows, yet deeply resent cattle
on public lands, must also feel virtuous.
They might feel that there would be
“good will” in the West if producers
would remove from public lands the
introduced European species that have
over-run native grazing ranges, trampled
streams and marshes, browsed aspen sap-
lings so much that groves must be fenced,
and required barbed wire to protect ripar-
ian zones.
They must also wonder if livestock
producers shouldn’t consider voluntarily
changing public land grazing rules so that
ranchers should pay for the environmen-
tal damage their stock cause. After all, a
cow-calf pair currently grazes on public
land for a measly $2.11/month, a tenth of
the commercial rate.
Barry’s article encourages law-break-
ing, suggests blackmail and is entirely at
odds with the statements of the Oregon
Cattlemens’ Association and the editorial
position of other EO Media Group publi-
cations on the wolf issue.
The Chieftain should be ashamed of
printing it.
Wally Sykes
Joseph
A nod to reporter
What treasure you found when you
hired Steve Tool. Such style, compassion
and warmth he brings to a story. Espe-
cially one of “human interest”; his sum-
mation of the life of my friend Bob Fer-
gison (April 20) epitomizes his skills. He
is thorough, immensely articulate and to-
tally enjoyable to read. Thank you, Steve.
Mike Koloski
Enterprise