A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2022
ELECTION 2022
Republican candidates promise victory
through uncompromising conservatism
therapist Amber Richard-
son, Redmond contractor Bill
PENDLETON — There
Sizemore and former Alsea
wasn’t much daylight between School District Superinten-
the eight candidates on stage dent Marc Thielman — had
at a Tuesday, March 24, Uma- only 30 seconds each to an-
tilla County Republican Party swer most questions.
gubernatorial forum at the
But all candidates still got
Pendleton Convention Cen-
a shot at making their case
ter.
to a good-sized audience in
The candidates generally
Pendleton. The candidates
agreed they were going to re- were mostly polite with one
verse the policies of Demo-
another but occasionally took
cratic Gov. Kate Brown, the
shots at some of the candi-
state should move to a school dates who weren’t in Pend-
choice model, the Second
leton, which included many
Amendment needed to be
of the field’s top fundraisers:
protected and all government former state House Minority
mandates needed to be re-
Leader Christine Drazan
pealed.
of Canby, Salem oncologist
The candidates didn’t get
and 2016 Republican nomi-
much time to expound on
nee Bud Pierce, Sandy Mayor
their thoughts. The size of the Stan Pulliam and former state
field — West Linn political
representative and Oregon
consultant Bridget Barton,
Republican Party Chair Bob
Hillsboro retiree Reed Chris- Tiernan of Lake Oswego.
tensen, Tigard entrepreneur
Oregon hasn’t elected a Re-
Nick Hess, Baker City Mayor publican governor since 1982,
Kerry McQuisten, Bend mar- but each candidate explained
keting consultant Brandon
how they would be the one to
Merritt, White City massage
reverse the trend.
BY ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Barton stressed to the au-
dience both her experience
advocating for rural Oregon
and her status as an “outsider.”
She told the audience that she
would work hard in Salem to
advance their priorities.
“I’m here to tell you that I
would stand in front of a train
for you,” she said.
As governor, Barton said
she would immediately re-
place the state’s deputy super-
intendent of public instruc-
tion, who leads the Oregon
Department of Education.
Christensen said the most
important issue was to end
Oregon’s vote-by-mail system
in favor of a one-day, in-per-
son election so the state could
get “election integrity.”
He also highlighted his par-
ticipation in the attempted
insurrection in Washington
D.C. in 2021. Christensen
faces federal charges for as-
saulting Capitol police.
“I was arrested by the FBI,”
he said. “I’m currently in the
system. I care.”
In almost all of his answers,
Hess said he would work to
make Oregon government
more transparent and listen to
residents instead of lobbyists.
Like former Gov. Vic Ati-
yeh, Hess said he was a Re-
publican from the Portland
metro area, which would give
him an advantage in trying to
break the GOP’s losing streak
in gubernatorial elections.
“I know it sucks to think
about a Portland person, but a
Portland person is how we get
somebody who’s conservative
elected,” he said.
McQuisten used her open-
ing remarks to remind the
audience she helped pass a
Baker City resolution that
criticized Brown and her
COVID-19 restrictions.
“I wrote a resolution you
may have heard of that told
Kate Brown to pound sand,”
she said.
McQuisten said moderates
such as Pierce and Knute Bue-
hler couldn’t win the general
election, but she, as a “staunch
conservative,” could.
Nonaffiliated voters re-
cently surpassed Democrats
as the largest group of voters
in the state, and Merritt said
Republicans needed to win
those voters if they were go-
ing to win general elections
and govern effectively.
He also criticized Drazan
for allowing a gun control bill
to pass so Republicans could
get a seat at the table for redis-
tricting only for Democrats to
gerrymander anyway.
“Compromise is never an
option,” he said.
Richardson said she was in-
tentionally running her cam-
paign frugally, adding she had
only spent $3,000 on her cam-
paign.
She also compared herself
to former President Donald
Trump, saying she was un-
predictable and was able to
successfully evade the state’s
attempts to censor her.
“The state doesn’t know
what I’m going to do next,”
she said. ”Every time I try
to do something, they never
know what to expect.”
Sizemore owns a painting
business, but he might be best
known for passing multiple
ballot measures that limited
property taxes in the 1990s.
He also ran for governor in
1996, but lost to Gov. John
Kitzhaber in a landslide.
Sizemore leaned on his ex-
perience passing ballot mea-
sures and fighting with pub-
lic employee unions, skills he
thought would help him re-
form Salem.
Thielman touted his time
as a “man of action” in Al-
sea, where he and the school
board passed a resolution
making face masks optional
before the state lifted its own
mandate.
He said the state should
require schools to teach gun
safety courses in fifth, eighth
and 10th grade. As governor,
he also would have the state
arrest Multnomah County
District Attorney Mike
Schmidt.
Kitzhaber, Roberts endorse Read for Oregon governor
now, the steps it will take to get
there and an honest conversa-
Two former governors have tion about the difficult choices
endorsed state Treasurer Tobias involved with securing that fu-
Read among the 17 Democrats ture. Tobias Read has the cour-
age and the integrity to lead us
seeking their party’s nomina-
tion for governor in the May 17 in that conversation and be-
yond the polarization and di-
primary.
visiveness that is shredding the
They are John Kitzhaber, a
fabric of our community.
Democrat who was governor
“Bold, outcomes-based lead-
from 1995 to 2003, and again
ership, unfettered by the status
from 2011 to 2015, and Bar-
bara Roberts, a Democrat who quo, is what Oregon needs and
what Tobias brings to this race.
was governor from 1991 to
I am proud to support him.”
1995.
In statements released by
Read’s campaign, each had a
Roberts, on March 3:
unique commentary (following
“Oregon needs a governor
below).
with a statewide record of tack-
ling tough issues, delivering
results, and fighting for Orego-
Kitzhaber, on Tuesday,
nians living in every corner of
March 22:
this great state.
“What Oregon lacks today
“Tobias has shown he can
is a vision of where we want
bring people together, and he
our state to be a decade from
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
will continue his work to build with a teenage babysitter while
mayor of Portland in the 1970s.
economic opportunity and a
Read has been elected twice
better future for all. That’s why
as state treasurer — he
I’m supporting To-
cannot seek a third
bias. Oregon needs
consecutive term in
his proven and steady
2024 — and was a
leadership.”
state representative
Democratic Gov.
from Beaverton for 10
Kate Brown, who is
years beforehand.
barred by term limits
He has raised less
from running again
Kitzhaber
so far this year than
after serving almost
his main rival for
two full terms, is not
the nomination, for-
endorsing anyone.
mer House Speaker
Neither is former
Tina Kotek — about
Gov. Ted Kulongoski,
$337,000 to $608,000
a Democrat who
— but Read has
served from 2003 to
begun airing TV
2011, although he said
commercials. As of
Wednesday he may
Read
Wednesday, Read
do so in the future.
reported $761,000
Former Gov. Neil
cash on hand; Kotek about
Goldschmidt withdrew from
$1 million.
public life in 2004 after news
Though neither mentioned
disclosures that he had had sex
Rich, poor,
old, young.
Compassion
doesn’t
discriminate.
it in their endorsement state-
ments, Kitzhaber and Rob-
erts have had past issues with
Kotek, who led that chamber
for a record nine years.
In February 2015, Kotek
and Senate President Peter
Courtney called on Kitzhaber
to resign amid an ethics scan-
dal primarily involving Cylvia
Hayes, his fiancée. Kitzhaber fi-
nally did so just 38 days into his
fourth term and was succeeded
by Brown, who was next in line
as secretary of state.
Roberts, the first woman to
be Oregon’s governor, said last
year that Kotek and Courtney
had been the Legislature’s pre-
siding officers for too long. She
said their long tenures concen-
trated too much authority in a
few hands.
Courtney, a Democrat from
Salem, is retiring after a record
38 years in the Legislature and
20 years as Senate president.
Kotek stepped out Jan. 22 as
speaker and from her north/
northeast Portland House seat,
which she held for 15 years, to
focus on her current campaign.
Although there is no official
limit for presiding officers —
who appoint the leaders and
members of legislative com-
mittees, assign bills to them
and otherwise control the flow
of legislation — the informal
limit was four years, until Ja-
son Boe won a third term as
Senate president in 1977. Boe
did so despite opposition from
a group of Democratic sena-
tors, including Frank Roberts
of Portland, who was Barbara
Roberts’ husband. Boe ended
up being president eight years,
until he lost a primary bid for
state treasurer in 1980.
LIFE IS SHORT
BUY THE TIRES
TAKE THE TRIP
Our calling is you.
Call or go online
for an
appointment,
or drop in and
see us!
FREE PRE-TRIP SAFETY CHECKS
3 Batteries
3 Tires
3 Suspension
LEW BROS TIRE
(541) 523-3679
210 Bridge St., Baker City, OR 97814