NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Drazan: Opportunity for GOP
Candidate touts
party’s chances in
governor’s race in
John Day visit
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Former
state House Minority Leader
Christine Drazan, one of 15
candidates
vying
for
the Republi-
can nomina-
tion for gov-
ernor in this
year’s elec-
tion, made
a campaign
Christine
Drazan
stop Satur-
day, Jan. 8, at
the Squeeze-In Restaurant and
Deck in John Day.
The two-term state rep-
resentative from Canby was
joined by Rep. Mark Owens,
R-Crane, who has thrown his
support behind her campaign.
Drazan said voters have
a real opportunity to elect a
Republican governor in Ore-
gon, given the historical trend
of the sitting president’s party
performing poorly in midterm
elections. Add to that Demo-
cratic Gov. Kate Brown’s lack
of popularity as well as Presi-
dent Joe Biden’s, she said —
which prompted an audience
member to show off his “Let’s
go Brandon” T-shirt — and
the conditions are even more
favorable.
During her stump speech,
Drazan talked about her time
as minority leader and how she
led her caucus on a trip out of
state to deny House Democrats
the quorum they needed to pass
legislation aimed at reducing
carbon emissions.
A Republican governor
with veto power would bring
the Democrats to the table
for negotiation, according to
Drazan.
Currently, with a Demo-
cratic majority in the House
and Senate and a Democratic
governor, there is no incentive
to negotiate, she added, saying
that’s bad for Oregonians.
“If you don’t involve the
people who are impacted,
you’re not going to get it right,”
Drazan said. “You’re going to
get it wrong. And it’s going to
harm communities. It’s going
to harm families, it’s going to
harm our kids and our future.”
Grant County Republican
Chair Frances Preston asked
Drazan about her role in the
passage of Senate Bill 554,
which broadened a ban on
guns in public buildings and
opened the door for additional
restrictions.
The measure did away with
a longstanding provision that
allowed people with concealed
handgun licenses to carry guns
in public buildings and gave
local governments, school
districts and universities the
option to enact tighter regula-
tions if they so choose.
Gun rights supporters heav-
ily criticized lawmakers for not
fl eeing the Capitol to block the
bill. One detractor launched
a failed recall attempt against
state Sen. Lynn Findley for not
walking out to deny the Demo-
crats a quorum.
Drazan said every Repub-
lican in the Legislature voted
no on the bill and that its pas-
sage was not the outcome they
wanted.
“But that’s the hard thing
about being in the supermi-
nority,” she said. “We need to
elect more Republicans.”
Preston asked how, as gov-
ernor, Drazan would address
the impacts of the regulations.
Drazan said that she would
veto any bills that infringed
on Second Amendment rights
if elected governor. How-
ever, unless the courts over-
turn SB554, it would remain
the law.
“The governor has got to
live within the scope of the
governor’s authority,” Drazan
said. “And if there’s a gun bill
that comes my way, I’ll veto
that.”
Sena Raschio, a kindergar-
ten teacher at Humbolt Ele-
mentary, asked what Drazan
would do to help with rural
public school infrastructure.
Drazan cited Measure 50,
a property tax limitation ini-
tiative from the 1990s. Essen-
tially, the measure shifted the
responsibility to fund schools
to the state and local taxpayers.
The state provides basic sup-
port proportional to the num-
ber of students in each district.
For additional funding, districts
can also ask voters to approve
local option levies. What that
created, she said, was a sys-
tem of “haves and have-nots,”
where one community might
be able to actually aff ord to fi x
crumbling schools, while oth-
ers may not.
Drazan said she wants to get
a sense of the needs at the state-
wide level and see what the
best support for rural schools
would be.
In one of the campaign
stop’s fi nal questions, Preston
asked Drazan if she could con-
fi rm whether she led the eff ort
to oust a Republican state law-
maker from the House.
Mike Nearman, a former
state representative from Inde-
pendence, who unanimously
voted to expel the House, ulti-
mately pleaded guilty to ille-
gally allowing armed protest-
ers into the state Capitol during
a special session in Decem-
ber 2020 when the building
was closed to the public due to
COVID-19.
Drazan said the Republi-
cans all agreed that the build-
ing should have been open, but
Nearman coordinated with the
protesters without the knowl-
edge of anyone else in the
caucus. Not until a video of
Nearman planning the event
surfaced did she fi nd out that
he lied to her, Drazan said.
“Mike’s decision to let
people into the building actu-
ally harmed police offi cers.
Mike’s decision for how he
did what he did was the prob-
lem. It’s not his intent. It was
how that intent played out,”
she said.
Gomez courts Grant County voters
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Guberna-
torial hopeful Jessica Gomez
held a lively conversation with
a dozen Grant County res-
idents
last
weekend
during a cam-
paign stop at
a John Day
restaurant.
Gomez
is one of 15
Jessica
people who
Gomez
have thrown
their hats in
the ring for the Republican
nomination in the race to suc-
ceed term-limited Democrat
Kate Brown as Oregon’s next
governor.
The Medford resident,
founder and CEO of Rogue
Valley Microdevices, spent
90 minutes on the morning
of Sunday, Jan. 9, discuss-
ing campaign issues at the
Squeeze-In Restaurant and
Deck.
The conversation covered a
wide range of topics, including:
• Education: Gomez, who
has served on several edu-
cation and workforce devel-
opment boards, favors an
approach that encourages high
school students to explore
potential career pathways.
“We are in a global compe-
tition for technological devel-
opment and a lot of other
things, and our kids have to be
able to compete,” she said.
• Violent elements in Port-
land protests: “We need to put
a stop to it,” she said, adding
that people who commit prop-
erty crimes and other off enses
need to be prosecuted. “We
have to support our men and
women in blue.”
• Grant funding: “I think
we are wasting a lot of money
in the way that money fl ows
down from the federal govern-
ment to the state government
and on to local government,”
she said, citing high admin-
istrative costs and excessive
restrictions on how the money
can be spent.
“I’m a big believer in fl exi-
ble dollars.”
• Forest management:
(cardio, weight machines,
free weights), fitness classes,
silver & fit member.
Gomez said Oregon needs to
take a leadership role on this
issue. She advocates partner-
ing with other Western states
to pressure the federal gov-
ernment to streamline the pro-
cess of thinning and logging to
reduce fuel loads on fi re-prone
public lands.
“If you care at all about car-
bon emissions, you can’t allow
a million acres to go up in
fl ames,” she said.
“We have the knowl-
edge and the expertise to do
this properly,” she added.
“And there’s this mispercep-
tion among environmentalists
and others that rural Oregon
doesn’t care about the environ-
ment, and it’s just not true.”
• Immigration: Gomez said
American companies need
access to workers with certain
skill sets and that barriers to
legal immigration are driving
some people to enter the coun-
try illegally.
“We have to have a secure
border,” she said, “but we also
have to have an immigration
system that’s functional.”
• Top priorities: If elected,
Gomez said, her fi rst order of
business would be to stream-
line state agencies and make
sure they are delivering value
to Oregonians. “You have to
give them goals and you have
to hold them accountable,” she
said.
The second would be to
work with the mayor of Port-
land to address the city’s
homeless crisis and crime
problem. “We have to get
downtown Portland cleaned
up,” she said.
A3
Meeting set Wednesday
to discuss Pit Stop plans
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Downtown
business owners and John Day
offi cials will meet at 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 12, at the John
Day Fire Hall to discuss how
the city should use $1 million
in state funding for infrastruc-
ture improvements related to a
new Kam Wah Chung interpre-
tive center.
One bone of contention is
what should be done with the
city-owned land at Main and
Canton, dubbed the “Pit Stop.”
Public restrooms have been
built on the site, but otherwise
it remains undeveloped.
While some see the prop-
erty as a space for food carts,
bike lockers, and possibly a
farmers market to promote
tourism, others oppose the food
cart idea and want to see the
site used as parking for over-
size vehicles.
Sherrie Rinniger, owner of
Etc. on Main Street and pres-
ident of the Grant County
Chamber of Commerce, said
businesses originally asked for
a parking lot for big trucks and
motor homes.
Rinniger said she was not
against the restrooms but said
the city should have built them
with enough room to accommo-
date large vehicles.
Rinniger said she did not
believe the city needed food
carts and that they were not part
of the original plan.
Shawn Duncan, owner of
the Squeeze-In Restaurant and
Deck across the street from the
Pit Stop, said restaurants have
struggled throughout the pan-
demic and don’t need added
competition from food carts.
Duncan said there is limited
parking in downtown John Day,
especially near her restaurant.
John Day City Manager
Nick Green said the city had
not made any decisions beyond
building the restrooms.
“Council reviewed and com-
mented on preliminary plans,”
he said, “but there was never a
motion or a consensus on the
fi nal design beyond agreeing to
seek more feedback.”
Bryan Hubbard, owner
of the Grub Steak and Ugly
Truth bars downtown, said he
had purchased a food cart and
reached out to Green roughly
a month ago about parking his
food cart at the Pit Stop.
Hubbard said he wants every
business to succeed but doesn’t
believe the Pit Stop can accom-
modate oversized vehicles.
Besides, he added, downtown
merchants cannot expect peo-
ple not to park in front of their
businesses, which are located
on public streets.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12
Bud Pierce
• 11 a.m.-1 p.m., main con-
ference room, Grant County
Regional Airport, 72000 Air-
port Road, John Day
Dr. Bud Pierce, a candi-
date for the Republican nomi-
nation for governor, will meet
with area residents to discuss
their ideas for Oregon’s future.
Pierce, a Salem physician, was
the GOP nominee for governor
in 2016. Anyone interested in
attending is asked to RSVP via
email to info@budpierce.org.
FRIDAY, JAN. 21
Ellis Tracey American
Legion Auxiliary
• 2 p.m., Grant County
Chamber of Commerce, 301 W.
Main St., John Day
The group will hold an
in-person meeting. For more
information, call 541-575-0076.
Do you have a community
event in Grant County you’d
like to publicize? Email infor-
mation to editor@bmeagle.
com. The deadline is noon Fri-
day for publication the follow-
ing Wednesday.
WHAT’S
HAPPENING
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Friday
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Sat - Mon
12:45, 3:45, 6:45
Tues-Thurs
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A MAN
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The coalition has $12,000 from the Oregon Cultural
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