By: Pioneer Staff
Published: 10/13/2010 3:20:28 PM
Ballots for the Nov. 2 general election will start arriving in voters’ mailboxes later this week.
To help voters make informed decisions, the Molalla Pioneer sent questionnaires to the three candidates for Oregon House District 18 (Molalla, Silverton).Their responses are printed below.
Look next week for a Q and A with candidates for the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners and Molalla City Council, as well as information on Molalla River School District Bond Measure 3-365, which would provide funds to build a new middle school.
Oregon House of Representatives, District 18 candidates:
Rodney E. Orr, MD
Occupation: Family physician for 31 years in Silverton
Political Party: Democrat
Endorsements: Chose not to submit
Website: www.rodneyorr.org
If elected, what will be your top 3 priorities as representative?
Creating new jobs and maintaining jobs that are currently in place by supporting small business economics primarily by creating an environment where operating capital and credit are more available.
Education. Education brings people opportunity and through opportunity people are more likely to succeed.
Affordable health care by reducing the conditions that drive health care costs.
What is your strategy for working with fellow legislators of different political parties?
First of all is recognizing that we have more in common than we have differences; that we need to emphasize that commonality and recognize that our job is to find solutions for all people throughout the district regardless of political affiliation. People’s desires for a job, the ability to put their kids through school, the possibility of a secure retirement and affordable health care are issues of all people regardless of political affiliation. I am a person that is open to new ideas regardless of where they come from and am willing to accept the viewpoints of others, regardless of their political affiliation.
How do you plan to help Oregon balance its budget amidst a struggling economy?
We have heard the calls to cut spending and certainly reduced spending is a major part of the equation, however simply cutting spending is not going to continue to achieve our obligations to those who are poor, disabled, at risk and to education and public safety. We need to find strategies that allow us to spend smarter and achieve the goals that we are trying to achieve more efficiently and effectively. To do this we need to incentivize state agencies to become more efficient and effective and to constantly evaluate whether they’re achieving their goals.
We need to delay plans for the purchase of new equipment, hold off on training, travel and program development until we have additional funds which will support those activities. We need to work hard on reducing the cost of health care, which affects every part of our economy, particularly state budgets, taxes that are used to pay for supplementing health care for indigents and the costs to businesses for increased health care premiums. Reduced health care costs would dramatically improve the economy in this state.
Why should voters choose you to represent them in the Oregon House?
For 31 years I have practiced in this district so I have developed long-term relationships with people who represent the spectrum of families in this district. I see them every single day and listen to their struggles and their challenges. I am connected to these people, who I care a great deal about. I understand them and the issues of their lives. Who better to represent the people in this district than someone who is as connected to them as I am.
I have worked in a service industry for 30 years problem solving every single day. I am a common-sense thinker. I believe my job, as a representative, is to solve problems for people of this district but to do that you have to understand what the problems are. I will work hard to create an economic environment where jobs will expand and businesses will prosper; where agricultural businesses can maintain a sustainable lifestyle, where education is a priority and where affordable healthcare is a possibility.
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Vic Gilliam
Occupation: State Representative, Self-employed
Political Party: Republican
Endorsements: National Federation of Independent Businesses, Oregon Nurseries PAC, Clackamas County Farm Bureau, Marion County Farm Bureau, Oregon Farm Bureau Federation, Oregon Seed Council, Oregon Forest Industries Council, AG-PAC, National Rifle Association of America Inc., Oregon Right to Life, Oregon Police Chiefs for Safer Communities, Oregon Business Association, Taxpayer Association of Oregon, Associated Builders & Contractors, Pacific NW Chapter, Oregon Cattleman’s Association, Oregon State Police Officers Association
Website: www.repvicgilliam.com
If elected, what will be your top 3 priorities as a representative?
One: Our Constitution grants legislators broad authority but only one directive: balance the budget. Why mimic the current federal administration's example of a death spiral of endless debt, bail-outs, tax increases, “stimulus packages” and un-checked spending? Yet that is what Democratic leadership in Oregon has done - copied the fed’s doomed policies.
Two: Realize that government cannot create lasting jobs, but can help create an atmosphere where employers are welcome. Partnerships of trust yield healthy businesses willing to hire or re-hire. If companies are laying-off workers and the economy retracts, why is government hiring and expanding? Can we just continue to lose private jobs and add public jobs?
Three: Face our labor burden. This isn’t a referendum on state workers’ worth – rather it’s a courageous game-changing move to honor public servants with leadership that actually negotiates contracts and faces the impossibility of obligations created by reckless legislators, governors and union bosses. If the public patient is to be saved, there will be pain.
What’s your strategy for working with fellow legislators of differing political parties?
Find ways to laugh. If you don’t at least laugh at a legislature that considers a bill on "the right to dry clothes on a clothesline" and then decides to tax our way out of recession - then you may just end up crying. Find what unites rather than divides – like my hydrogen initiative. This renewable energy source leverages our northwest bounty while creating jobs and has attracted both parties resulting in at least one unanimous vote on the House floor - a rare occurrence.
How do you plan to help Oregon balance its budget amidst a struggling economy?
Ask the Governor and agency directors:
How many consultants were hired last year - at what cost? How many out of state vendors were used - why? How many middle managers are spending over 50% of their time on tasks not directly related to your mission?
Fund education in a session’s first 60 days. Come to grips with the fact the state cannot do everything for everyone but can prioritize the needs of our most vulnerable. Start zero-based budgeting. Repeal 66 and 67. Require state employees to pay a portion of health insurance (49 states do).
Why should voters choose you to represent them in the Oregon House?
I’m unafraid to vote no on out of control spending and taxes. We need folks on both sides of the aisle with common sense who know we have a jobs problem not a revenue problem. Most of all, I provide service in any way I can to the people of this district where real power and the wealth of human riches is vested. They are the hope for the recovery of our state and nation.
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Martin Soehrman
Occupation: Electronic Equipment Sales
Political party: Libertarian
Endorsements: Chose not to submit
Website: www.SoehrmanForOregon.com
If elected, what will be your top three priorities as a representative?
Our schools and our children are probably the most important things, both in our short run and our long run, whether we have our own children or not. Public safety is an important function for government. And, our economy may be among our top priorities, a healthy economy being the most important element affecting anything else that government does. Governments often do have a very significant negative impact on national and local economies and government is usually not equipped to “fix” an economy. Governments must know when to stay away from what it can only destroy. Excessive taxation of individuals and businesses along with unnecessary regulation filters down to increased costs to the public and drives away jobs. A government that doesn't see a problem in picking and choosing which individuals will pay for government and those who will benefit from government will likely destroy an economy leaving few winners.
What's your strategy for working with fellow legislators of differing political parties?
I believe that most of us have more in common than we have differences. Most of us have common ground in what we feel would be important in the good life. Somewhere we must first provide for the common, long term good and consider the costs of supporting too many special short term interests hurting us more than helping us. There can never be any kind of harmony if short term special interests are always the priority.
How do you plan to help Oregon balance its budget amidst a struggling economy?
I as a citizen must realize that government usually can't give anything to me without first taking it away from somebody else. It's not my place as a citizen to decide what should be taken away from somebody else to support my desires. Government should realize that even a majority must be very, very careful when it decides what any minority must give up. To summarize, we must understand that resources are usually limited and we must set priorities realizing that we cannot always do everything that we want to do right now. We must search for and concentrate on the common ground that we have.
Why should voters choose you to represent them in the Oregon House?
People are often drawn into government service in search for the power to make government better serve their personal needs. My priority is finding better ways for government to serve not ME, but a long term US. I believe that government should not try to do what government cannot do. I believe that the people can express their needs in both the wise use of their vote and their economic influence. Their representatives will represent the People. People cannot express their needs with a government that repeatedly tries to counteract these needs from “leaders” who do not know better than the People, their bosses.
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