Six Congressional Candidates Challenge Greg Walden
It was the first of two joint appearances in Jackson County. All six candidates were there. They made their cases.
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| Six Democratic Candidates |
The big message is that they are all essentially in agreement:
Expand health care coverage to everyone,
Protect Medicaid expansion benefit to the working poor,
Regulate guns,
Tax cuts for the poor and middle class but not for the rich,
Citizenship for DACA children, and do create a pathway to legalization for others,
Reduce the influence of special interest money in politics,
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| Neahring |
Interesting is what no one said:
No one was anti-abortion.
No one said gun control would not work and should not be tried.
No one spoke to American policy regarding Israel or North Korea or the Middle East.
No one defended a border wall or questioned immigration numbers.
Democrats do not yet have a big national spokesman, but at least at the Congressional level in Oregon, they do have a coherent message. We just heard it.
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| Burnette |
Audience members paying close attention would notice some nuance of differences, which show up as biography, not as policy.
Jenni Neahring is a physician and says that many seemingly unrelated issues go back to a broken health care system. She talked about pharmacy costs and healthcare delivery problems.
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| McLeod Skinner |
Jamie McLeod Skinner had experience in elected office in California. She seemed prepared with artful summaries of her positions. She has family all over the District.
Tim White made references to his corporate success at Chrysler in turnaround situations and marketing. He wants a big road project to open up Eastern Oregon, essentially a freeway to Burns. He writes sharp criticisms of Greg Walden's actions and policies in his blog: http://timwhiteoregoncd2.com/blog/
Michael Byrne made the point that he was working class, pro-union but spurred by them, had not had health insurance, that he struggled for money and that, therefore, he would be a candidate in sync with his District. He called himself a "redneck."
Jim Crary is a retired attorney and said that a corrupted campaign finance system is the centerpiece of American misrule. It all starts with the corrupting influence of money in campaigns.
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| White |
Six different personalities and biographies. All plausible candidates.
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| Crary |
No candidate chose to distinguish him or her self as the candidate who would take it to Walden. One or more of the candidates might have drawn sharp differences, e.g. Walden wants to repeal the ACA, I want to improve it; Walden wanted tax cuts for corporations, I want them for the middle class; Walden gets money from pharma and telecoms, and I think that is corrupt. Sharp contrasts. It could be done with a smile, perhaps in disappointment rather than anger, but it wasn't done, at least not at this forum. No one appears to want to come across as negative.
No candidate sounded angry. The candidates are optimistic and earnest, not indignant or angry or outraged. Democrats have the tone of NPR, not of talk radio.
No candidate clearly separated him or her self from the pack. I do not doubt that each candidate thinks his or her message was clearly unique and special and powerful. I was looking for that. I did not experience it either in policy or in tone. No candidate said anything that a significant number of people in that room would disagree with. No one carved out a niche. No one said, "Gun control wont work and it backfires." No one said, "I support a 100% draft or national service, and if you don't like it, tough." No one said, "I support reducing immigration to try to drive up the wages of young Americans."
There is time for candidates to change their pitches--if they choose to. There will be more forums, including another this evening. Each night's forum will have a straw poll and the results will be published.
5 comments:
Not impressed?
Given Walden's hold on the homesteaders in the Eastern half of the state this race is somewhat Quixotic. The successful candidate will be the one that can rouse turnout, and even then it will be close. A couple of these candidates are in the wrong party, BTW.
The Resistance, it has been foretold, shall rise up in an anti-Trump tsunami, fielding energetic first-timers to unseat the GOP in Congressional districts across America. GOP seats in blue states like Oregon will fall more easily than in red America, but fall they shall as Republicans like Waldem, alas, tremble as the New Democratic Majority proclaims: "We are the ones we have been waiting for".
Thank you for standing up for human and civil rights!! Don't let up, keep up the fight and we will keep supporting you!! Xo from Eugene
I didn't find the blog post to be about the candidates, I found it to be self-referential and a bit snotty, with very little content about the actual candidates. I think the guy that wrote it heard what he wanted to hear. And calling the female candidate a "cowgirl" is not accurate and is a bit sexist.
Thanks, Mystery Net, for the great comment. Of course it is written from a point of view, with a tone of authority. This is an opinion, written in the first person.
I think Jamie McLeod Skinner would be delighted to be called a cowgirl. She wears pants, drives a Jeep, and is justifiably proud of her farm family roots. She talks about them all the time, as qualifiers for the job. The worst insult/attack I could give Jamie would be to say that she is a city girl up from Silicon Valley who acts like a cowgirl when in fact she is highly educated simultaneously as an engineer, environmental planner, and attorney. She wants to be understood to be agriculturally oriented, fighting for water rights and the ability of farmers to farm and ranch. Cowgirl is a compliment and part of her public presentation. She isn't trying to present herself as an urban sophisticate with multiple advanced degrees.
Possibly "cowgirl" is pejorative for you, but it is most certainly not pejorative to a great many of the voters in the District she wants to represent. But Mystery Net's comment is useful information to me, showing that there are people protective of her who don't want her defined as she wants to be defined.
If you think the blog post is self-referential and a bit snotty you will find that every post has much the same placement of judgement and that this post is just one of hundreds just like it. Enjoy!
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