A8
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Eric Burnette
James Crary
Jamie McLeod-Skinner
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Michael Byrne
Dr. Jennifer Neahring
Tim S. White
Democrats hope to unseat Walden
Candidates
present their
case in Canyon
City forum
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
A crowded field of Dem-
ocrats aiming to unseat U.S.
Rep. Greg Walden answered
questions during a forum at
the Canyon City Community
Hall March 7.
Oregon’s Second Con-
gressional District by area is
the largest in Oregon and sev-
enth-largest in the U.S., en-
compassing two-thirds of the
state and including all of 19
counties and part of one more.
The district has been repre-
sented by Walden since 1999.
The Republican has taken
about two-thirds or more of
the vote in 10 straight elec-
tions, leaving the Democrats
facing an uphill battle.
About 30 people listened
to the six candidates, who
have been criss-crossing the
district to spread their mes-
sage.
Motivations
Eric Burnette, a retired
Merchant Marine officer from
Hood River, is the executive
director of the Oregon Board
of Maritime Pilots. He said he
once voted for Walden, who
lives only two blocks away,
but his views of the con-
gressman drastically changed
after Walden voted to repeal
Obamacare.
“This is a winnable race,”
he said, a point echoed by oth-
er candidates that night.
Michael Byrne, a licensed
stonemason from Parkdale,
grew up working on wheat
and cattle ranches in East-
ern Oregon. He wants the
district’s representative to
support working families,
Medicare for all, social and
environmental justice and a
transition away from fossil
fuels. Many of these posi-
tions were shared by the oth-
er candidates.
“I’m not a politician,” he
said, noting that it’s impos-
sible to present yourself to
the voters in one-minute “el-
evator speeches.” Byrne said
he felt things were so bad he
had to do something, and that
meant “going to the top.”
“Things at the top can
kill you,” he said, adding,
“Walden has got to go. He’s
going to get us killed.”
James Crary, a retired
supply-chain manager for
British Petroleum from
Ashland, was defeated by
Walden in 2016. He has a
law degree and taught at the
University of North Dakota.
Like the others, the direction
of today’s politics drove him
to run.
“When something really
irritates me, you can sit back
and complain or do some-
thing,” he said.
Campaign finance reform
is Crary’s No. 1 issue. The
voice in Washington, D.C.
is not coming from the peo-
ple but from corporations, he
said.
Social issues
Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a
former Phoenix city manager
who lives in Terrebonne, has
degrees in civil engineering,
regional planning and law and
has served on the city council
in Santa Clara, California.
People in the district are
hurting, and Walden is not
trying to help them, she said,
noting that she is the only
candidate in the room who
has won an election.
Jennifer Neahring, a phy-
sician from Bend, is a kidney
specialist who has a med-
ical practice in Salem and
Portland. Her No. 1 issue is
health care, which she says
costs too much and affects
everything in government.
“The system is broken, so
broken,” she said.
Tim S. White, a retired
Chrysler Corp. finance direc-
tor from Bend with a master’s
in business administration,
used his experience as a turn-
around specialist to write an
award-winning book about
business. He agreed that the
race against Walden was win-
nable, but Democrats need to
change their platform.
The No. 1 issue is not
health care, he said, it’s jobs.
And campaign finance issues
are not going to go away, he
said, so the No. 2 issue is
protecting Social Security.
“The government needs
to keep its hands off Social
Security and Medicare,” he
said.
Burnette noted that the
Democratic platform is
26,000 words long, and very
little of it deals with rural
problems.
“The party is not paying
attention to rural issues,” he
said.
But neither are Republi-
cans, who believe the market
can fix everything, Burnette
added.
“We don’t need a tax cut.
We need a raise,” he said.
Crary noted that the big-
gest obstacle to health care
reform “is Greg Walden.”
The solution is Medicare for
all, he said.
“I’ve never heard a person
complain about Medicare,”
he said, noting how much
money in private insurance
goes to executives and profits.
Infrastructure
Byrne suggested bring-
ing broadband internet to the
John Day area could help stop
young people from leaving,
but he noted that the area is
also a good place for retirees.
“I’d like to live in John
Day,” he said.
Crary said the answer
to keeping young people in
Grant County is good-paying
jobs, so they can save up to
buy a house and send their
children to college. Instead
of a $1.5 trillion tax give-
away for the wealthy, federal
money should be spent on
infrastructure — repairing
roads, bridges, sewer and wa-
ter, which would also provide
those good-paying jobs, he
said.
McLeod-Skinner has a lot
of experience in infrastruc-
ture, having repaired water
and sewer projects damaged
during the war in Bosnia. She
sees two types of needed in-
frastructure improvements:
physical and social, the lat-
ter including education and
health care.
Neahring agreed with the
importance of education but
pointed out the diversity of
the huge Eastern Oregon con-
gressional district.
“There’s no two-minute
answer,” she said.
She also noted that the
Trump administration had
promised a “grand infrastruc-
ture plan” that has never ma-
terialized.
White suggested revamp-
ing an existing federal educa-
tion act that has long gone un-
funded and giving $300,000
to $400,000 to every high
school in the nation.
McLeod-Skinner
said
broadband access could im-
prove health care in rural ar-
eas, but a better way to finance
health care is also needed.
White pointed out that 20
health care CEOs take home
about $400 million in com-
pensation. The country needs
a better tax policy to address
that, but big health care com-
panies are Walden’s No. 1
contributor, he said.
Burnette took issue with
the Democratic platform —
it’s not clear on health care
reform, he said. He wanted to
see support for rural facilities
folded into improvements for
mental health and drug treat-
ment.
“Should you have to drive
100 miles to a doctor?” he
asked. “No.”
Public lands
All six candidates support-
ed keeping federal lands pub-
lic. Neahring wanted to see
more collaborative efforts and
not some bureaucrat flying
in from Washington, D.C., to
make quick decisions.
White wanted politicians
in Congress to keep their
hands off national monu-
ments. He wanted to preserve
the legacy of grazing leas-
es for ranchers in a sustain-
able way, and he criticized
Walden’s support of the 2017
Resilient Federal Forests Act,
which he called a “hand-off”
to timber companies.
Burnette noted that if
Grant County one day was
given all the federal lands
in this area, the county gov-
ernment would be unable to
manage the lands and would
be faced with bankruptcy or
a big sale to private inter-
ests.
Byrne said he wanted to
see public lands managed
for multiple use — includ-
ing a new use called “carbon
banking,” in which forests are
maintained as an asset for cli-
mate change financing.
White called for building
a major north-south interstate
highway through Central Or-
egon and paying for it with a
big cut in defense spending —
from the current $800 billion
to about $300 billion.
Burnette noted how much
better America’s middle class
was doing when unions were
strong.
“We need to re-unionize
the U.S. economy,” he said.
White called for changing
the Democratic Party para-
digm. He called himself “pol-
icy-driven” and wanted to
figure out a way to make the
issues of jobs and protecting
Social Security work politi-
cally.
Neahring said Congress
needs to focus on the tough
issues — education and infra-
structure — before more peo-
ple get hurt.
Looking around, Byrne
noted that he was running
against “a wide field of su-
per-qualified
individuals.”
But Congress doesn’t need
more politicians — it needs a
working man, he said.
EOU hopes ‘rural university’ designation will help with enrollment, funding
EO Media Group
Eastern Oregon University
has always been a home for
students looking for a smaller,
more rural college experience
in Oregon, but that role is now
official.
The La Grande-based uni-
versity has been designated by
the state legislature as Oregon’s
Rural University.
“It defines our role in the
state and shows our unique
mission,” said Tim Seydel,
EOU’s vice president for uni-
versity advancement.
The designation — which
passed both chambers of the
legislature unanimously and
was signed by the governor last
week — doesn’t come with a
boost in state funding or new
rules for how the university is
run. But Seydel said it could
help set EOU apart when ap-
plying for state and federal
grants for programs that are tar-
geted toward helping first-gen-
eration college students, for
example, or those from rural
communities.
“When they say, ‘Why East-
ern?’ we can say, ‘That’s what
we do,’” he said.
Seydel said it could also
help with recruitment at the
university, which was at 3,016
students during the fall term.
He said some students are
searching for a smaller, more
rural experience where their
professors know them by name.
Rep. Greg Smith, who
sponsored the bill, agreed that
the designation as Oregon’s
Rural University could help
EOU with recruitment of stu-
dents from rural areas who
don’t want to attend school in
a big city.
“They’ll know that they’ll
be coming to an environment
they’ll be comfortable in,”
Smith said.
Officials in other parts of
the state have sometimes eyed
closing the small university as a
way to save the state money, so
Smith said he also felt the des-
ignation will remind lawmak-
ers from more urban areas of
EOU’s importance in serving
Eastern Oregon residents.
The rural university desig-
nation may help EOU’s future,
but things have already been
looking up for the school.
In 2014 morale at the uni-
versity was low. EOU was
in financial difficulty, cutting
majors and laying off staff.
Students told EO Media Group
during a visit to campus that
they had seen friends give up
on the university and transfer
elsewhere.
While low enrollment num-
bers are still a struggle four
years later, Seydel and Smith
said other areas — from finan-
cials to academics to the suc-
cess of the university’s sports
teams — have improved con-
siderably.
The university’s reach ex-
tends far beyond its hometown
of La Grande. Only half of
EOU’s students this fall were
attending the university on
campus. Another 1,415 were
taking classes online and 88
were high school students earn-
ing EOU credit at their schools
through the Eastern Promise
program. Seydel said commu-
nity colleges throughout the
region have EOU staff located
on-site to advise students con-
sidering transfer to EOU.
Seydel said the university
is also building partnerships
with area industries and gov-
ernment agencies so that stu-
dents can find more meaning-
ful work study and internship
experiences.
One thing EOU staff and
students are particularly excit-
ed about is the $9 million the
university just received from
the legislature for creation of
a large indoor multi-use track
and field facility on campus.
The fieldhouse will help EOU
expand its physical activity and
health plus outdoor recreation
and leadership majors, which
Seydel said have been growing
already, and give student ath-
letes indoor, on-campus facili-
ties for practices.
Committees are formal public bodies required to comply with
Oregon Public Meetings Law ORS 192.610.
45451
By Jade McDowell
Eleven members
serve three year terms and meet semi-annually to provide guidance and
assistance to local OSU Extension staff in planning, developing, and
evaluating balanced educational programs directed to high priority
needs of county residents. Membership is limited to one re-appointment.
ORS 215.020. Nine members serve four year
terms and two alternates serve two year terms, meeting as needed to
review land use and zoning applications and discuss city and county
growth issues and the siting of new facilities. Members must be residents
of various geographic areas within the county and no more than two
voting members shall be engaged in the same kind of business,
occupation, trade or profession with agriculture designations of livestock
/ forage crop production and horticulture / specialty crop production.
Commissioners serving in this capacity must file an Annual Verified
Statement of Economic Interest with the Oregon Government Ethics
Commission. Members must re-apply to the County Court before their
term ends if they wish to be re-appointed.
45632