Q) What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the University of Oregon?
Needs more money. Well, you know, with TAs not getting paid enough and so many people wanting to go back to school and record budget deficits, the University of Oregon’s going to be needing more money soon, and they’re going to need to know how to spend it.
Q) What excites students about your campaign?
That I’m not a traditional candidate that’s already been bought and paid for and that I’m the only candidate, I believe, in America that’s campaigning on a pro-hemp issue and I think that really resonates with a lot of students.
Also, I’m a legalization advocate. I think students would rather have somebody who’s closer to their age — I’m 36-years-old — and somebody who they can identify with a little bit better than some old fogeys who keep talking about more cops and more guns.
Q) Do you support the January income tax package? Tell us why.
No. Because it’s not necessary. If we rethink the whole problem, the state won’t have a budget problem ever again. What I mean by that is to just finally do the hard right rather than the easy wrong — which is legalizing hemp and marijuana instead of making it a criminal thing. If we can just legalize those things then we can tax them.
With that tax revenue, there will never be a need to raise income taxes in the history of the state. Once you make marijuana legal, there a bunch of people in jail that are non-violent marijuana users who we’re paying $40,000 a year per person to keep them in jail. I don’t even make $40,000 a year. That’s just the prison system. What about all the money spent on public defenders, district attorneys, judges, court clerks, transcriptionists, court cases, police on the street.
Once someone’s arrested to the point they get out of jail and go to rehab, we’re wasting all this money. Probably about the amount of money we’re missing to solve our budget problem. We have a huge police and judicial system that would go away, not to mention adult and family services which is another big waste of money.
If a mom or dad is caught with marijuana, they take their baby away for a year-and-a-half minimum so these peoples lives are completely invalidated and the state is spending money on “social workers” who make people jump through hoops to get their babies back.
Q) If the January income tax package is not passed, what will you tell students who have to pay higher tuition?
They won’t have to because like I said, the second I become governor, I’m going to limit the expense of incarceration. I’m going to meet with sheriffs, police chiefs, DA’s, public defenders and judges statewide.
I’m going to get them all together in the same room and tell them to stop wasting taxpayer money on these rinky dink drug cases ad non-violent cases and let’s focus on some real crime. Let’s focus on corporate polluters, let’s focus on people who are involved in the Enron scandal. Let’s really put the taxpayer’s money to good use instead of picking on these guys that really haven’t hurt anybody except for maybe themselves if they choose to use drugs.
So we will save money immediately by downsizing this judicial and criminal justice system. Right away, I can cut a huge chunk out of the state budget that doesn’t need to be there, that way students don’t have to be impacted.
Q) What’s the biggest challenge in governing Oregon?
Representing the people’s interest.
Q) What will you do to make higher education more affordable?
Let me put it into perspective for you. We have all these paper mills that are out of work. We have all these farmers who have land in Eastern and Southern Oregon who can’t realize the profit off their land who have to pay mortgages. And we have the trucking industry, we just lost the third largest trucking company in the state to bankruptcy.
If we legalize hemp, we can have around 100 billion dollar a year crop in a couple of years. Tax 10 percent on that — that’s 10 billion dollars — I believe that’s a couple of billion more that the current state budget. That just solved all the state’s economic problems right there. That’s not even talking about marijuana, we’re talking about hemp for paper, toilet paper, fiber, rope, fiber board. We’re talking about a whole array of products that can not only save the state economically but also provide a better environment for the state. With that money, I can actually probably reduce taxes and afford to bring better education to the people of Oregon.
There’s something else I’d like to say about the public education system: The Republican party since 1974 has been talking about how they’re the education party. They’re the ones who are going to provide the funding for special education and all kinds of things.
Well they never followed through on it. Currently the state pays for about 70 percent of all education and the county picks up the rest in property taxes. So where’s the federal government in all this. Instead of spending money on education, the federal government is spending money on guns and on big guns and they’re selling them around the world and we’re not seeing a bit of the profits.
As governor, one of the things I’d do is sit down with the President, our representatives in congress and senators and I’d say: “Hey look! What happened to the Republican party being the education part, to the federal government sharing the responsibility of educating its citizens. Let’s see the federal government pay a little bit more into the system and that way the state and county doesn’t have to worry about where they’re going to find the money.
Q) How do you stimulate Oregon’s poor economy?
Again, people say hemp’s a single issue, but it’s only a single issue because it can solve so many different problems. Here in Oregon, we have the land mass and paper mills.
Hemp is already legal in West Virginia and South Dakota. In West Virginia, they don’t have the land mass and in South Dakota, they don’t have the paper mills. We are placed in a good position to legalize hemp right now would mean a tremendous boon in our economy. All the paper mills would open up, all the farmers in Eastern Oregon who want to can make about $40,000 a year on just 10 acres of their land.
The trucking and shipping industry would boom as we export hemp products. For every four jobs created in the hemp industry, there would be at least one created in the service industry. We’re talking about a huge boost in the economy, not to mention the tax revenue created by income taxes by people going back to work and the hemp tax. There is no reason for this state to be suffering hunger rates that are the highest in the nation.
Q) What’s the most generous thing you’ve ever done?
After Hurricane Hug, I went to Jamaica after it was flattened. I gave thousands of dollars away to people who needed to rebuild their homes and I actually went to the stores with them and helped them build their houses. I never asked for anything in return.
Q) Does money talk? If so, what does it say?
Unfortunately, money does talk to a degree, and what it speaks of is corruption. Kulongoski and Mannix have each spent over a million-and-a-half on their campaign yet they’re campaigning for a job that will only pay them $89,000 a year. That would be like me walking into a 7-Eleven to interview for a job that pays $6.50 and hour and bringing $20,000. Why do you think they’re spending so much money? Because when they get into office, it’s not the $89,000 they really care about.
It’s all those state contracts they can hand off to their buddies and it’s all the corruption. I could tell you about corruption that you could actually verify. You could verify the state does business with companies that are owned by convicted felons. But if I went to the state and asked for a contract with them and I was a convicted felon, they would never give me a contract, because I haven’t paid anyone off.
I’m not bought and
paid for. I’ve spent less than $2,000 on my campaign. What I’m hoping is that people say no to big money and yes to real issues. Hemp is a real issue; it needs to be done, it needs to be legal in this country. It’s gotta be put back into the urban market. Only then and only when we legalize marijuana, will big money be taken out of it and kids and Mafiosos will be taken out of it.
We won’t have to worry about gun battles and we won’t have to worry about children using drugs because it won’t be available to them anymore. It won’t be anymore available to them than alcohol is now. Right now if I walked out on the street I could go anywhere and find marijuana as an 18-year-old way easier if I was looking for beer or hard d alcohol.
Q) Who’s your political role model? Why?
Che Guevara, a revolutionary with Fidel Castro and sub-commadante Marcos of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation. The Zapatistas are in Southern Mexico now fighting against the federal government because they’re trying to kill them and take their land away.
These are my role models because they stood up for people’s rights and they stood up for what was right and they really believed in what people were doing and weren’t just taking bribes from people to be corrupt and do the wrong thing.
Q) How do you think you relate to students when you’re twice their age?
First of all I look really young so a lot of students find me really approachable and I still have a very young mindset. I don’t believe that when people get older, they get more conservative. I’m 36 and I still feel like I’m 22. I’m still outraged about the same things I was then. The only thing that’s changed is I don’t drink beer anymore.
Q) What makes you the best choice for Oregon?
Many reasons. One of the reasons is I’m the only multi-lingual candidate. Bi-lingual means bi-lingual. It doesn’t mean I can speak enough Spanish to order a tequila. I can have a philosophical conversation with you in Spanish or English. I’m the only candidate who’s 36, and I’m the only one who’s been to more than one continent.
Having traveled so much, I have seen what works and what doesn’t. And I really represent the common man. I’m a father, a family man. And the most important thing, I’m not bought off. When I become governor, I will be working with the legislature and being the true checks and balances that the government requires. Right now the only checks and balances we have are the checks the Democrats write and the balances the Republicans cannot keep.
Q) Is there anything you would like to add?
The Democrats and Republicans are nothing more than lunching, brunching, buffet-browsing bureaucrats and they don’t deserve the vote anymore.