January 12, 2012

Cornilles for Congress

Editorial Comments

by Deborah Steele Hazen

The 2012 election season starts early for the residents of Oregon’s 1st Congressional District, which includes all of Columbia, Clatsop, Washington and Yamhill counties, and a little bit of Multnomah County.

Ballots will be mailed this Friday, Jan. 13, to elect a new United States House of Representatives member from our district to fill the vacancy left by the resignation last August of David Wu.

Most of the district is rural, but there is enough of Portland in it that the district has elected liberal Democrats for the past 40 years.

The registered voter breakdown in the district is 42 percent Democrat, 30 percent Republican and 25 percent Independent or nonaffiliated. The remaining three percent are registered as Libertarian, Pacific Green or other parties. With 28 percent of voters identifying themselves as something other than Democrat or Republican, it is the conventional wisdom that they will decide the race.

There are four candidates on the general election ballot – Democrat Suzanne Bonamici, Republican Rob Cornilles, Libertarian James Foster and Progressive Steven Reynolds.

Third party candidates and their supporters have issues on which they disagree with the two major parties. We understand and respect that. But the reality is that a third party candidate has virtually no chance of being elected. Voters who vote for them are, in effect, casting ballots that favor the major party candidate who least reflects their values and beliefs.

Voters – regardless of party affiliation or non-affiliation – should look closely at Bonamici and Cornilles and choose the one who comes the closest to their own political and philosophical viewpoints.

We recommend paying as little attention as possible to advertising sound bytes. They are purposefully misleading. Instead, read the voters pamphlet and other available literature on the candidates carefully.

In addition to the voters pamphlet produced by the Secretary of State, which will be included with the ballots, the League of Women Voters has produced an online voters guide at http://lwvpdx.org/files/voters-guide-jan-2012.

It asks the candidates to respond in 100 words or less to three basic questions, that give a pretty good snapshot of what they’re all about, including, if they’re just about regurgitating the party-line sound bytes.

Please take all opportunities to listen to debates and interviews of the candidates between now and when the ballots are due Jan. 31.

Suzanne Bonamici, who is very much a part of the Democrat party power structure which has dominated Oregon politics for the past four decades, is the nominee of her party. She is an attorney and a state legislator, who resides in Beaverton, and has a strong party-line voting record.

Bonamici has received the endorsements of the Independent party, public employees’ unions, the Oregon AFL-CIO, and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, among others. She votes for legislation that tends to expand government and raise taxes to pay for the costs of sustaining and expanding government programs and services – thus the endorsements from the public employees’ unions.

We have always had difficulty understanding why Oregon’s labor unions representing workers in natural resource industries endorse candidates whose environmentalist agendas harm the viability of those industries. Of course it is because of their votes that strengthen the power of the unions per se, but not necessarily the jobs of union workers.

We would hope that union members in Oregon’s 1st Congressional District whose jobs depend on the ability to harvest renewable resources will look more closely at the candidates and the issues before casting their ballots this time.

We will vote for Rob Cornilles, a Washington County businessman who was a newcomer to politics when he won the hotly-contested 2010 Republican primary, and then lost to the politically-ineffective, ethically-corrupt Wu in the general election.

We believe Cornilles is a candidate who should appeal to both moderates and conservatives. He has a bi-partisan approach, and we believe he will do a better job than Bonamici in representing the interests of the vast majority of the 1st district which lies outside the Portland metropolitan area.

For example, to the League of Women Voters’ question: “How would you further your constituents’ interests with Federal agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Forest Service?” Cornilles replied:

“The First District has been the “Forgotten District” for far too long. I’ll be a strong advocate for residents who have gone long enough without effective representation. I’ll restore balance to the Oregon Congressional delegation and work collaboratively to deliver results, including creating jobs and responsibly managing our natural resources. My vote always will be cast on behalf of what’s best for Oregon, not a party. I’ll measure my effectiveness by how many problems I solve for Oregonians, not how often I vote with my party. I invite you to raise your expectations of what a Congress member can be.”

We believe Rob Cornilles is our best opportunity for better representation for the people of Northwest Oregon in Washington, D.C.