OREGON
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2020
BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
Merkley seeks third term in Senate
DROUGHT
■ Republican Jo Rae Perkins hopes to replace Merkley, keep Senate in GOP hands
In order for the reservoir to fi ll, Wickiup typically has
to be at least 25% full at the end of an irrigation season.
Even a strong winter won’t fi ll the reservoir in the com-
ing year, said Kyle Gorman, Oregon Water Resources
Department Manager.
“There is no scenario that could I imagine where
Wickiup will fi ll this winter,” said Gorman. “Its infl ow
is largely dependent on groundwater, and it just doesn’t
respond quickly enough in one winter to fi ll the reser-
voir given where it is today.”
While drought has caused Wickiup Reservoir to
empty, a better water conservation plan in Central
Oregon could help patrons in the North Unit Irrigation
District, said Tod Heisler, Rivers Conservation Program
Director for Central Oregon LandWatch.
Heisler blames Central Oregon Irrigation District,
one of the largest and oldest districts in the area, for
using too much water in the Deschutes Basin.
“State law requires irrigators to put the water to
benefi cial use without waste, but COID does little to
reduce its waste, other than its big piping project, which
will not solve the current water supply problem,” said
Heisler. “Rather than manage the water wisely, we saw
business as usual, a tragedy of the commons.”
Gorman said the state water resources department
cannot force other districts to use less water to as-
sist a junior water rights holder, unless it can identify
legitimate waste. When water waste is identifi ed, the
department can curtail the district’s diversion until the
waste is stopped.
“This would likely play out with a change of a couple
of cubic feet per second and in the big scheme of things
and overall supply, would not make any difference for
NUID,” said Gorman, referring to the North Unit Ir-
rigation District.
Gail Snyder, executive director for Coalition for the
Deschutes, advocates collaboration between the senior
water rights holders and irrigation districts to fi nd solu-
tions that benefi t both farmers and the environment.
“Farmers are the stewards of the land and water. If
we in the broader community hope to have a healthy
environment for all, including farmers and rural com-
munities, we need to step up and support our neigh-
bors,” said Snyder.
Oregonians should “urge decision-makers to make
much-needed changes to Oregon water law and policies
that allow water to be shared more equitably between
stakeholders, including rivers,” said Snyder.
As the irrigation districts continue to seek ways
to collaborate and share water, and everyone crosses
fi ngers for a few wet winters needed to fi ll Wickiup to
the brim, farmers in the North Unit district count their
losses and wonder how much longer they can stay in
business.
“I am hoping for a miracle, but if it ends up being less
water than we received this year, then if that is the case
it’s going to be a one-and-done deal for a lot of people,”
said Thomas. “Fifty percent (of fi elds) will probably be
fallow. That is losing too much money to continue for
long.”
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley is seeking to sew up
his seat for another six years,
hoping Democrats can snatch
the Senate majority from
Republicans on Nov. 3.
“I’m going
to work to fi x
our broken and
dysfunctional
Senate so it isn’t
just a graveyard
Merkley
for good ideas,”
Merkley said in
a March 3 video to support-
ers.
Merkley ironically made
the comment while throwing
in the towel on his unoffi cial
bid to be the Democratic
nominee against President
Trump.
Since 2019, he’d visited
Iowa and New Hampshire
to court progressive Demo-
crats. He’s the third most
liberal member of the Sen-
ate, according to voting site
GovTrack.us, with only Sen.
Bernie Sanders of Vermont
and Kristen Gillibrand of
New York to his left.
Unfortunately for Merkley,
Sanders and Gillibrand were
also running for the presiden-
tial nomination.
With his polling numbers
behind most of the 15-person
primary fi eld at the time,
Merkley switched his atten-
tion back to the Senate. There
he starts out with the advan-
tages of incumbency and the
286,560 voter registration
edge Democrats hold over
Republicans in Oregon.
Linn County
Republican Par-
ty Chair Jo Rae
Perkins is his
opponent in the
Senate race, but
Perkins
Merkley more
often is running
against Donald Trump and
the Senate majority that has
made the president’s policies
into laws.
Merkley voted for Trump’s
impeachment and against
the president’s nominees for
the Supreme Court, Brett Ka-
vanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
Against a Senate Republican
majority, Merkley was on the
losing end of those votes.
Merkley has called out the
“racist rants and glorifi ca-
tion of violence” of white
supremacist groups he says
Trump implicitly condones.
He co-sponsored legislation
to ensure there are enough
polling places on election day.
He’s criticized what he says
was Trump’s dismissal of
COVID-19 at the beginning of
the pandemic crisis. Merkley
says presidential inaction,
delay and misinformation
undercut efforts to slow the
virus, which has killed more
than 208,000 people in the
PRISONS
United States.
Merkley has been outspo-
ken on what he says is the
mistreatment of immigrants
at the U.S.-Mexican border.
He gained national attention
in June 2018 when he tried
to visit a shuttered Walmart
in Brownsville, Texas, that a
federal contractor had used
as a detention center for
immigrant children sepa-
rated from their parents. The
contractor called local police
to bar him from entry.
Last month, Merkley called
for an investigation of hyster-
ectomies allegedly forced on
immigrant women by the U.S.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement at a facility in
Georgia.
Merkley’s also hit issues of
local importance to constitu-
ents. Following wildfi res that
burned 1 million acres across
the states, he joined other top
Oregon Democrats meeting
with FEMA Administrator
Pete Gaynor to push for faster
federal aid on safe drinking
water, emergency housing
and debris removal.
With Oregon’s senior sena-
tor, Ron Wyden, Merkley an-
nounced that schools across
Oregon will receive over $150
million in federal support to
better educate low-income
students.
Democratic Party of Ore-
gon chair K.C. Hanson points
to Merkley’s roots in southern
Oregon and his tenure in the
Legislature, including a stint
as Speaker of the House, as
giving him the political skills
needed to take action on re-
gional to international issues.
“The best advocate we
have,” Hanson said. “I chal-
lenge anybody to name an
Oregonian who cares about
people as much as Jeff does.”
That’s a narrative that
Perkins, the Republican
Senate nominee from Albany,
would like to fl ip around.
Perkins says she is a social
and fi scal conservative who
is an outspoken supporter
of Trump and his policies on
immigration, gun rights and
taxes.
In her online ads, Perkins
portrays Merkley as an
absentee senator enamored
with issues beyond Oregon.
She paints him as one of the
Democrat “leftists” leading
the state, the state, abetted by
fellow Democrats including
Wyden, Gov. Kate Brown and
state Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum.
Perkins says Democrats’
impact on the state is best
illustrated by the 100+ days
of protests in Portland. In a
recent online ad, she zeroed
in on Merkley amid visuals
of demonstrators running in
streets, law enforcement in
riot gear and the air swirling
with tear gas.
“This is not the Oregon you
signed up for,” the ads say
before shifting to a scene of
Perkins looking out across a
sweeping rural landscape.
“She wants to bring back
a kinder, more caring, more
loving Oregon that we used to
know,” the ad says.
Oregon Republicans hoped
to recruit a state lawmaker
or other high profi le Orego-
nian to run against Merkley.
Merkley was fi rst elected to
the Senate in 2008, when he
beat incumbent Sen. Gordon
Smith by just over 2% of the
vote. Merkley’s fi rst bid for
re-election in 2014 attracted
multiple well-known, well-
connected GOP opponents.
Former Oregon Medical
Association President Monica
Wehby beat Rep. Jason Con-
ger, R-Bend in the 2014 GOP
primary. Wehby ran as an
opponent of Affordable Care
Act with the campaign slogan
“Keep Your Doctor, Change
Your Senator.” She raised $3.3
million.
Merkley beat Wehby 56%
to 37%.
In 2020, none of the 30+
Republican state legislators
signed up to run against
Merkley. Neither did retiring
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-
Hood River, who had passed
up earlier opportunities to
run for the Senate or gover-
nor.
The May 19 Republican
Senate primary ballot fea-
tured unknowns and peren-
nial candidates who were
also-rans in previous bids for
public offi ce. Perkins won with
49.2 percent of the vote. It was
her fi rst primary win in three
tries for congressional offi ces.
Perkins lost the 2014 Repub-
lican primary won by Wehby,
receiving 2.8 percent of the
vote. She lost GOP primaries
for the 4th Congressional
District in 2016 and 2018.
Merkley ran unopposed
in the Democratic primary
and received 564,000 votes —
200,000 more votes than all
the GOP candidates com-
bined.
Perkins has attracted
national attention for her
support of QAnon, a growing
conspiracy theory movement
that believes a “deep state” of
government offi cials is trying
to undermine Trump. The
group is designated by the
FBI as a domestic terrorist
threat.
After winning the Senate
primary, Perkins made a
video using the QAnon slogan
“Where we go one, we go all.”
“I stand with President
Trump,” Perkins says. “I stand
with Q and the team. Thank
you, anons, thank you, patri-
ots. Together, we can save our
republic.”
Perkins has since deleted
the video from her websites,
contract, each school would need to agree to a
standardized contract that would pay out based
Continued from Page 3A
on each prison’s capacity. Additionally, each
Pete Hernberg, the president of BMCC’s
school would also need to offer fl exible class
faculty union, said prisons could actually see a
schedules and year-round education, disregard-
dip in quality from running its own education
ing school or term breaks.
program, citing a press release from the Oregon
Regardless of who leads the adult education
Education Association announcing the union’s
programs, the DOC wants to continue contract-
support for the community colleges.
ing out vocational training.
In the press release, the educators’ union
Cam Preus, the executive director of the
states that successful program completion
Oregon Community College Association and a
dropped by 50% and costs rose when the
former BMCC president, said her organization
Oregon State Penitentiary moved its education is acting as a “convener” for the community
program in-house from 2003 to 2006.
colleges that are affected by the state’s decision,
“We really think it’s a disaster for the state
which also includes the community colleges in
and its AICs,” Hernberg said.
Portland, Salem, Bend, Ontario and Coos Bay.
Vanderzee couldn’t verify the statistic, but
Preus said the college presidents and their
added that it only applied to one institution
staff are currently formulating a response
from 15 years ago.
to Peters’ letter, but have indicated that they
Much has changed since then, Vanderzee
need more time to study the proposed funding
wrote, including the use of inmates as tutors
formula and look at how the new requirements
and educational software that can adapt to the would affect their institutions.
inmates’ needs.
“We are committed to the success of adults in
As the year winds down, the department isn’t custody,” she said.
backing down from its proposed reforms to its
In the meantime, the colleges and their labor
adult education program.
unions are trying to rally support for their cause.
If community colleges wanted to keep their
Hernberg said BMCC’s faculty union has
contracts, Peters wrote in her Sept. 30 letter,
already put in calls to the governor’s office and is
they would need to agree to a list of require-
organizing an effort to call legislators.
ments determined by the DOC. The colleges
The college is trying to stave off another round
could take it or leave it, but the requirement
of cuts after encountering a $2.8 million shortfall
list wasn’t meant to act as an opening offer for
earlier this year. BMCC closed the gap by elimi-
negotiations.
nating two dozen positions, cutting half of them
Instead of each college negotiating its own
through layoffs.
but it was downloaded by
media organizations.
The “digital soldiers” of
QAnon fi rst gained public
attention in 2017 for posting
that Hillary Clinton and other
top Democrats were running
a child prostitution ring out
of a Washington, D.C. pizza
parlor. That March, Edgar
Maddison Welch of Salisbury,
N.C., drove more than four
hours to the Comet Ping Pong
Pizzeria in the nation’s capital
and stormed inside with an
AR-15 semi-automatic rifl e
and a revolver. Customers
and workers fl ed as Welch
stormed through the small
restaurant, fi ring three
shots that injured no one. He
searched closets and a small
storeroom in what he later
said was an attempt to free
captive children, but found
none. He was sentenced to
four years in prison for the
assault.
Perkins supporters either
can’t or won’t put their money
where their mouths are.
Federal Elections Commission
reports are fi led quarterly.
The current campaign fi nance
reports only run through
June, with totals through
September expected to be
released soon. The early totals
show a yawning gap between
the candidates: Merkley has
raised $4.7 million and spent
$2.8 million since the begin-
ning of 2019; Perkins has
raised $ $37,255,and spent
$31,389.
All major national non-par-
tisan vote analysis websites
rate Merkley the overwhelm-
ing favorite and the Senate
seat as “solid Democrat.”
Merkley has also been
endorsed by the Independent
and Working families parties.
Gary Dye is the Libertarian
and Ibrahim Taher has been
endorsed by both the Pacifi c
Green and Progressive par-
ties.
Continued from Page 3A
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