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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 2018)
PROSPECTORS JUMP TO 6-0 IN CONFERENCE – PAGE B1 The Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 W edNesday , o ctober 3, 2018 • N o . 40 • 18 P ages • $1.00 www.MyEagleNews.com Kate Brown Knute Buehler Calls herself a consensus builder Rejects ‘partisan labels’ D OREGON GOVERNOR By Paris Achen By Paris Achen Oregon Capital Bureau Oregon Capital Bureau emocratic Gov. Kate Brown — the nation’s first openly bisexual governor and the face of progres- sive policies such as no co-payments for reproductive health care — is seeking a final term as Oregon governor. On Nov. 6, she is up against a moderate Republi- can, Oregon Rep. Knute Buehler of Bend, who she defeated in a 2012 race for sec- retary of state. As a Dem- ocrat, Brown enters the race with an advantage among the state’s lib- eral-leaning electorate. Her cam- paign has focused on her wealth of political experi- ence beginning in 1991 and has sought to discredit Buehler’s claim to support pro-choice policies. In response to Buehler’s outreach to In- dependents, nonaffiliated voters and even Democrats, Brown has highlighted the times when she brought conservatives and liberals together to address shared prob- lems. Last year, for instance, she negotiat- ed with Republicans to secure their votes for a $5.3 billion transportation package. “I’m the only one in the race that has a track record of bringing Oregonians together to tackle difficult issues facing Oregon,” Brown said during an editorial board meeting at Pamplin Media Group on Sept. 19. “I’m a consensus builder and a collaborator. And that’s the same kind of strategies I’ll use if Oregonians give me the opportunity to serve as governor for four more years.” Here are the specifics on where she stands on the issues: Education One of her top priorities for another term is to improve the state’s four-year high school gradu- ation rate. Only 74.8 percent of high school se- niors earned a diploma in 2016, mak- ing Oregon’s the third worst on- time gradua- tion rate in the nation. The first part of her strate- gy is to follow the statute that voters ap- proved with Measure 98 in 2018. Brown says she will seek to nearly double the investment in high school career and technical education to $300 million in the next biennium. Secondly, she wants to expand access to prekindergarten programs to an additional 10,000 students. She wants to expand the school year to 180 days. Finally, she wants to look for ways to im- prove teachers’ access to professional de- velopment and mentoring. D espite running for governor on the Republican ticket, state Rep. Knute Buehler has increasing- ly used the word “independent” to de- scribe himself. Buehler says he rejects the “narrow partisan labels” that have increasingly polarized the nation. “Oregon is hungry for an in- dependent-minded leader who is able to close a lot of these divides ... and is a gov- ernor for every- one no matter who you are, where you live, who you love or even how you are registered to vote,” Buehler said during a recent editorial board meeting of the Pam- plin Media Group. Since his election to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2014, Buehler has voted both with and against his party. This is the second time he has chal- lenged Democratic incumbent Kate Brown for state office. That last time they faced off was for Oregon secretary of state in 2012, a race won by Brown. Here are the specifics on where he stands on the issues: Health care Education Another of her priorities is to in- crease the number of insured adults from Buehler released an ambitious outline earlier this year to boost the state’s public education system from bottom five among the states to the top five in five years. See BROWN, Page A10 “ I’m the only one in the race that has a track record of bringing Oregonians together to tackle difficult issues facing Oregon.” Health care Buehler has pledged to protect Ore- gonians from federal cuts to the Medic- aid program, which provides health care subsidies for low-income residents, and to advance the state’s innovative coordi- nated care organizations. He said he wants to integrate men- tal health care into the Oregon Health Plan — the state’s ver- sion of Medic- aid — and in health care delivered by those CCOs. He says he supports a wom- an’s right to choose but has been criti- cized for voting against the state’s Reproductive Health Equity Act, which bans a co-payment for reproduc- tive health care and also requires the Oregon Health Plan to provide that care to undocumented residents, without charge. Housing and homelessness Buehler has proposed creating 4,000 emergency shelter beds statewide to get homeless residents off the streets, partly with state funding and partly with fed- eral and philanthropic contributions. He supports measures to fast-track housing See BUEHLER, Page A10 “ Oregon is hungry for an independent- minded leader who is able to close a lot of these divides.” McLeod-Skinner brings message to Grant County Walden’s Democratic challenger calls for consensus By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle Unlike Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and the late John McCain, Rep. Greg Walden has chosen the path of divisiveness, Jamie Mc- Leod-Skinner told listeners at a Sept. 26 town hall meeting in the Canyon City Community Hall. The Democratic candidate for Oregon’s Second Congressional District, one of the largest in the U.S., McLeod-Skinner faces an up- hill battle to defeat Walden, who has won re-election nine times in a row. She said she put 41,000 miles on her car campaigning across Eastern Oregon. McLeod-Skinner accused Walden of failing to address the issues constituents are concerned about and being a top recipient of campaign donations from the health care industry. Three core issues cut straight across all Eastern Oregon counties, she said — access to health care, improved educational opportuni- ties and “putting food on the table.” Solving these issues starts with good ideas and building consensus, she said. McLeod-Skinner suggested consol- idating insurance Jamie companies and nego- McLeod- tiating pharmaceu- Skinner tical prices to deal with skyrocketing health care costs. She noted that for rural residents in Eastern Oregon, access to health care means more than cost — it also means physical proximity. She called for retaining Obamacare and addressing specific problems in the affordable care pro- gram. Equipped with an engineering de- gree, a master’s in regional planning and a law degree, McLeod-Skinner was a reconstruction and water pro- gram manager in war-torn Bosnia See MCLEOD-SKINNER, Page A10 Legislation delisting gray wolves passes House committee By Dan Wheat EO Media Group Contributed photo/ODFW A young female from the Walla Walla wolf pack in northern Umatilla County. Legislation that would take the gray wolf off the federal list of protected species has passed a U.S. House committee. A bill to remove gray wolves from federal threatened and en- dangered species lists in the 48 contiguous states has passed the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. “The best available science used by the U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows that the gray wolf has recovered and is no longer endangered,” said Rep. Dan New- house, R-Washington, co-sponsor of the Manage Our Wolves Act, HR 6784, introduced Sept. 12. It passed the committee 19-15 on Sept. 26. Newhouse said he continues to work with the Washington Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife, which has been asking for federal delis- ting of the gray wolf since 2013. “We must return management of the species to states to allow for more effective and account- able management that responds to the needs of the ecosystem, other species and local communities,” Newhouse said. “Science, not politics, should decide when to list and delist spe- cies. Gray wolf recovery is well underway, but the work is not done,” said Jason Rylander, De- fenders of Wildlife attorney. “If Congress really is committed to preserving and protecting wildlife, it would spend its time finding the funding needed to recover species, not attacking the process.” Other sponsors include Reps. Cathy McMorris Rogers, R-Wash- ington; Sean Duffy, R-Wisconsin; and Collin Peterson, D-Minnesota. Management of gray wolves was transferred from states to the federal government following two 2014 U.S. District Court decisions that reinstated gray wolves under the protections of the Endangered Species Act. The designations leave farmers and ranchers in those states with- out a legal avenue to protect their livestock from wolves, Duffy and Newhouse have said. A Newhouse amendment to an Interior appropriations bill, HR 6147, now in conference com- mittee between the House and Senate, also directs the Interior secretary to delist gray wolves in the 48 states. HR 6784 is another legislative path and would require delisting beyond fiscal year 2019, a Newhouse aide said.
