Wednesday, June 1, 2022
A4
OPINION
VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN
We are
failing our
children
F
or anyone following the news of
the school massacre in Uvalde,
Texas, it should be clear that we
are failing our children.
For anyone following the news of
Oregon’s state audit of the Oregon
Department of Education titled “State
Leaders and Policymakers Must Address
Persistent System Risks to Improve K-12
Equity and Student Success,” it should
be clear that we are failing our children.
For anyone following the news about
the nationwide shortage of child care and
preschool, it should be clear that we are
failing our children.
We are America. We are the most
wealthy and powerful country in the
world by some measures. Yet, by many
other measures, we suck.
Here are a few from the Children’s
Defense Fund’s 2021 report:
Child poverty: Nearly 1 in 6 children
under age 6 live in households below the
poverty line.
Child hunger: More than 1 in 7 chil-
dren live in “food insecure” households.
Gun violence: Guns — not motor
vehicle accidents — were the leading
cause of death in 2018 in children ages
1-19. Nine children die of gun violence
every day in this country.
Bullying: In 2019, 22% of students
age 12-18 reported being bullied during
the school year.
Education: In 2019, at least 67% of
public school eighth-graders were not
proficient in reading and math. And, only
85% of high school students graduate on
time.
Early childhood care and educa-
tion: Our lack of investment in child
care and early education means that
most families cannot afford (or even
find) quality care and education for their
infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
All this, despite plenty of research
showing that for every $1 invested in
early childhood — birth through kinder-
garten — the lifelong return on invest-
ment is more than 13% a year.
We have neglected our youngest chil-
dren and their parents for far too long.
Lack of investment in quality early
childhood programs has ripple effects.
Children who have no exposure to
high-quality preschool often struggle in
kindergarten. Those children struggle to
read by third grade, and struggle to grad-
uate from high school.
Brain development begins at birth,
and so much intellectual and socio-emo-
tional development happens in the first
five years. Yet we only begin public
investment in our children when they
turn 5 and enter the K-12 school system.
Our tax dollars would go so much fur-
ther if spent on younger children.
We all need to focus on investments in
early child care and preschool.
Universal federally-funded pre-
school for 3- and 4-year olds would be a
great place to start. This does not mean
expanding the K-12 school system,
although that may work in some areas. It
means supporting high-quality, nonprofit
child care centers and in-home child care
as well.
Let’s stop failing our children.
Republicans splintered vote for governor
OTHER VIEWS
Randy Stapilus
W
ith 19 distinctive — not to say
sometimes colorful — can-
didates for governor, Oregon
Republicans should have told us some-
thing about themselves by their choices in
the just-ended primary election.
They did: They are split. Many seem
driven by abortion or other culture issues,
some are powerfully drawn by regional
preferences, but a plurality just want to
win in November.
No single overriding motivation
appeared to apply overwhelmingly to Ore-
gon Republican voters.
Former legislator (and House Republi-
can caucus chairwoman) Christine Drazan
was the clear winner from early on, and
she won a majority of Oregon’s counties.
She led (decisively) in the three Portland
metro counties, and her four best counties
(in order — Wallowa, Curry, Klamath and
Benton) were widely scattered across the
state. Her win cannot be called narrow.
What drew Republican voters to her?
Likely not the media endorsements
(her website’s endorsement page didn’t
even link to them). But she was endorsed
by a slew of Republican elected officials
and a number of GOP-leaning organiza-
tions. She had an extensive county organi-
zation, and it seems fair to say she was the
closest thing to an (informal) candidate of
the statewide Republican organization.
That helps a lot. And she was articulate
and likable.
Careful messaging
She did not emphasize hard-edged
messages. Her website’s tag lines called
out “lower taxes, safer neighborhoods,
brighter future, better schools” — some-
thing Democrat Tina Kotek could use as
easily (maybe with some tweaking of the
first one). She did offer some specific pol-
icy proposals, but she was not among the
candidates with quotable lines on abor-
tion, stolen elections and similar subjects.
Was this the candidate considered by
voters as best equipped to fare well in
November? Probably that was part of it.
Remember though that she received
just 22.7% of the Republican primary
vote, a support level that looks better only
in the context of her 19-person field. Her
nearest competitor, former state Republi-
can Chairman Bob Tiernan, was not ter-
ribly far behind with 17.8%. Seven can-
didates received more than 5% of the vote.
If there’s another contender who might
logically be called a Republican estab-
lishment candidate — because of service
in elected office and as chair of the state
party — that would be Tiernan, who won
six counties — Clatsop, Coos, Columbia,
Douglas, Lane and Tillamook. His sec-
ond-place vote actually may owe to some
of the same factors as Drazan’s.
Candidates who lost past major races,
like Bud Pierce and Bill Sizemore,
underperformed.
So, there’s a good chance electabil-
ity was heavily on the minds of close to
half of the Republican electorate, maybe
reflecting both desire to win and a sense
that 2022 might not be a good Democratic
year.
But that still leaves a majority of the
Republican primary voters apparently sig-
naling other concerns.
What powered Sandy Mayor Stan Pul-
liam to a third-place showing with 10.4%
of the vote? There are a few possibilities,
but a good bet might be abortion, high
profile during the voting period. Though
not endorsed by Oregon Right to Life,
Pulliam got attention for the edgiest abor-
tion portion stance in the campaign, criti-
cizing his competitors as being wimps on
the subject and saying without qualifica-
tion he would as governor sign any “pro-
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life piece of legislation.”
Votes for him may be a reasonable
measure of the abortion-driven segment of
the Republican vote.
Anti-masker fizzles
That seems a little bigger than the cli-
mate change and anti-masking approach
of Marc Thielman, the former Alsea
school superintendent who won a straw
poll at the Dorchester event. He had back-
ers statewide — he had more than a few
signs in Eastern Oregon — but still man-
aged just 7.8% of the vote.
If you’re looking for a candidate testing
the salience of rural and anti-metro appeal,
look at Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuis-
ten. She won seven counties, more than
anyone but Drazen, carrying most of the
land area of Eastern Oregon with Baker,
Grant, Harney, Malheur, Sherman, Union
and Wheeler counties. No candidate got
a higher percentage in any single county
than McQuisten did in Grant (44.6%).
Of course, relatively few voters live
in those counties, and McQuisten wound
up just sixth in the results. But she left
a stronger marker of the east-west and
urban-rural gap in the state.
Some messages seemed not to catch
on. Nick Hess, who pressed for a tradi-
tional conservative style (and was nearly
alone in the field to do so), got only 1.1%
of the vote.
And if there had been more “electable”
candidates and fewer “message” candi-
dates? This primary could easily have
seen different results. The instability of the
parties — Democrats too but especially
the Republicans, even in a time of polar-
ization — may be one of the primary les-
sons of this year’s Oregon primary.
———
Randy Stapilus has researched and
written about Northwest politics and
issues since 1976 for a long list of news-
papers and other publications. A for-
mer newspaper reporter and editor, and
more recently an author and book pub-
lisher, he lives in Carlton.
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