Sometimes, a person’s role model says a lot about them. In politics, things are no different.
The candidates vying to fill the District 4 State Senate seat look to Oregon legislators as role models, and politically speaking, both look a lot like their role models.
Incumbent Democrat Tony Corcoran sees U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Eugene, as a strong-willed, established leader.
“He’s a total straight-shooter,” Corcoran said. “He’s unintimidated by the power elites in this country; he speaks his mind, and he’s fearless.”
Republican David Alsup, the youngest of 14 children, has a role model who isn’t quite as well known: State Sen. Bill Fisher, R-Roseburg. Alsup, who is new to politics, respects Fisher because of his willingness to help him in a water rights situation. Fisher later helped Alsup when the state made it difficult for Alsup to be receive pay as a spousal caregiver while he aided his disabled wife.
Fairly different role models. Fairly different views.
Alsup’s platform emphasizes logging and allocating funds for poor children while Corcoran has other things in mind, such as a progressive tax reform and funding for higher education.
While both feel that clearcutting would help reduce forest fires, Alsup is a little more vocal about possible income generated by logging.
Alsup said that the more Oregon returns to the logging industry, the more money education will get.
“You figure 20 percent of the income generated by logging will go directly into education for the local counties,” Alsup said.
Both candidates have a passion for funding education, but Alsup appears more concerned with K-12 education.
Alsup also said he thinks the money Oregon needs is already allocated, and all that needs to happen is to recalculate the budget.
“When we get the budget thing figured out, that’s where the money will come from,” he said.
As for Corcoran, he said where and how the money is collected needs to be scrutinized.
“We have to get to an area of tax reform in the state,” he said. “Many of us, 10 or 12 years ago, predicted that Measure 5 would cause economic catastrophe. It’s left us as the most dependent state in the nation on personal income tax and small business
income tax.”
Corcoran said he thinks students aren’t involved in politics
because it’s something that hasn’t been presented in the right way.
“Students don’t see the impact of public policy on their lives,” he said. “Taxes aren’t sexy to anyone.”
Both candidates live in rural areas — Corcoran in Cottage Grove and Alsup in Drain — but both feel it will not be a challenge to represent more urban areas like the University.
Alsup feels his communication skills will help him relate to the entire district.
“One way (that I will make a good legislator) is that I have real good communication,” he said.
Corcoran also feels comfortable with the district.
“The areas that I’ve represented for the past eight years have basically included parts of Eugene and rural Lane and Douglas County,” he said, “so it’s not a new task, and essentially, a lot of the needs are the same,” Corcoran said.
See more below or click on the links:
Tony Corcoran Q & A:
David Alsup Q & A:
Richard Alevizos Q & A
Gary Alan Spanovich Q & A
Tony Corcoran Q & A:
Q) How will you balance representing areas such as Drain and the University in one district?
Well, the areas that I’ve represented for the past eight years have basically included parts of Eugene and rural Lane County and Douglas County, so it’s not a new task, and essentially, a lot of the needs are the same. Look at the K-12 needs of the small school districts of the rural areas: They’re really not that much different than the needs of 4J or Springfield. Their economies of scale are different, but basically, they need some revenue for the students. Actually, diminishing enrollment is as big of a problem for 4J as it is for smaller districts. A lot of the issues on economic development used to be a rural issue, but now it’s a statewide issue. The state is so dependent on income tax for funding education — whether it’s pre-K, K-12 or community colleges and universities — the revenue crisis hits everyone. We’re just trying to stifle the crisis.
Q) What specific policies will you have to stabilize funding for higher education?
We have to get to an area of tax reform in the state. Many of us, 10-12 years ago, predicted that Measure 5 would cause economic catastrophe for education, and we’ve come out looking pretty smart on that. The fact is that during the good economic times in the ’90s, we gave most of the money away to corporate and personal kickers and increased corporate tax breaks. It’s left us as the most dependent state in the nation on personal income tax and small business income tax to fund education.
There’s only three things you can do. You could stabilize it by what Washington does, which is to have some sort of value-added tax. They fund their entire K-12 on that, and it takes pressure off the general fund, which can then fund higher ed and human services and public safety.
The debate on tax reform is a very complex issue, but I think we should be looking at who pays taxes, economic levels and adjust accordingly. I think going to some sort of value-added tax is the [inaudible.] You have to be careful not to punish low-income working Oregonians. The way our tax structure’s set up right now, the working poor really get hit more heavily than in most states. So if you’re going to conduct any kind of tax reform, you’re going to need to do it in a way that makes it really progressive. That’s why I disagreed with going to 9.5 percent on the Jan. 28 referral. I would have rather added another bracket at 11 percent for income earners over $100,000.
Q) How do you plan on helping poor kids go to school in Oregon?
I opposed the death of the education endowment fund, which used the interest from that fund to fund opportunity grants. I lost. The majority of the people voted to refer it out, and then the voters killed it the first and passed it the second time. I don’t think the issue was ever explained appropriately that this trade-off was one-time money for K-12 in this biennium at the expense of thousands of kids over a two-year period. If you take away the opportunity grant and raise tuition, you’re just killing access to Oregon’s own kids to go to public university.
So what’s the definition of public education? So in terms of what I would do practically is to either make more money available to more kids, but I would take the lead of Oregon Student Association.
Q) Why do you think students don’t care about politics?
As someone told me the other day — I have a 20-year-old, so I’m an expert on this — basically, students are going through their own rite of growth, so that alone is an inhibition. I think that they don’t see the impact of public policy on their lives.
Maybe they’re not directly working to pay for their tuition, so a tuition increase at the expense of a tax break for the rich doesn’t turn them off or on. I think students start getting involved in politics when they start looking at issues of human rights and civil rights, typically not at issues of tax or tax laws. Taxes aren’t sexy to anyone, students or adults.
Q) What do you think should be done to manage our forests?
Basically, the public policy issue of trying to mitigate fire danger by creating forest practices that will do that. Clearcutting will help, but it’s unacceptable to some environmentalists, so you have to get down to a reasonable “greater good” argument.
Is it more practical to put up with the eyes
ore of a clearcut than to generate these megafires? And I tend to think that the megafires are incredibly destructive. The cost to the state this year — I think we ran through an entire $42 million fire insurance policy, and we probably won’t get it renewed. It got all used up, so the cost is tremendous. I think the current forest practices are the product of everyone at the table: environmentalists, the timber industry and public officials. So I don’t really fault our current forest practices. The failure to open up the federal forest to more cuts has in fact created this backlog of underbrush that tends to exacerbate these super fires.
Q) How will you involve students if elected?
The same way that I always have. I’ve worked closely with the Oregon Student Association, “Get Out the Vote” programs and I represented classified employees here at the University several times over the last 14 years and worked very closely with their leaders drawing up legislative forms. I have a good working relationship with (ASUO President) Rachel (Pilliod) and the OSA.
Q) Who are the top three contributors to your campaign?
Oregon Public Employees Unions, Oregon Education Association and either the optometrists or the beer and wine lobby or soft drink lobby. OPEU gave me $3,500, the teachers maybe $2,500 and the other maybe $2,000 to $2,500.
Q) What’s the most generous thing you’ve ever done?
Last fall, I helped our 80-year-old neighbor die over a period of time. I helped keep him in his home. He had cancer, and his family was distant, so I took him to the doctor. He just wasted away. I think that facing death alone without any other human interaction would be very cold, and generosity was time and companionship.
Q) Who’s your role model in politics?
Peter DeFazio, because he’s a straight-shooter. He’s unintimidated by power elites in this country. He’s meticulous and used to spend his time going back and forth on those red-eyes reading budgets. I’ve always admired him. I used to work for him. I worked on a task force with him.
Q) What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the University?
That it’s the largest employer in Lane County.
David Alsup Q & A:
Q) How will you balance representing areas such as Drain and the University in one district?
One thing that I’m going to be able to do is work across with urban and rural areas, which I feel will be a lot better than my opponent. One way is that I have real good communication with young people, and I got grandkids in the education system. I talk with people good. I don’t feel that my opponent will be able to represent the urban and the rural both. He refuses even in his own party to cross party lines. He’s made statements like “I will never compromise with the Republicans.” I feel with my compatibility and involvement with home health care, my kids and grandkids, I can be more effective and representative. I get along with people, and I like all types of people.
Q) What specific policies will you have to stabilize funding for higher education?
As far as funding, we’ve got good stabilized funding. There is money coming in. This year, on the state funds, $8,764 for every student was funded. Then you put in federal funds, and that makes about $10,000 total. That money is just not getting to the schools. I do feel that funding for education didn’t used to be a problem because we used our national resource industry, and 20 percent went directly to our school system. You take 20 percent of that revenue and that will direct in a lot of money that automatically goes directly into the local counties, and our reliability on the state will be reduced.
My goal is to get back to utilizing our natural resources. We also need to get money back to more county, local control. I also want to put a cap on tuition cost. There needs to be more fiscal accountability. Also, we’ve got to get the state of Oregon to be more business friendly. Our businesses are regulated and hammered so bad by government controls that they can’t afford to start a business in Oregon. With these regulations, we’re losing our bright, smart people.
Q) How do you plan on helping poor kids go to school in Oregon?
When we get this budget problem figured out, we will have the money. We ought to make low interest student loans accessible and keep furthering the grant system.
Q) Why do you think students don’t care about politics?
I’ve ran across a lot of students that are real concerned about politics. But I don’t think you can give a kid a 100 percent free ride. If they don’t have to earn anything or work, I think it’s an attitude they develop. But I have seen a lot of students who work and who are involved with politics. I also think lowering the office running age to 18 is a good thing as well. We need to let young people get an interest in politics.
Q) What do you think should be done to manage our forests?
I’ve logged for 12 years, and Oregon is one of the richest states in natural resources. We need to educate people. We got to get back into logging. We need to log the burnt timber. It would cause a real fast economic boom in Oregon. Then we can decrease the environmental regulations that Bush is trying to reduce. Also, this will give Oregonians living wage jobs. When I was logging, I was making $30,000 a year; I was making a good living.
Q) How will you involve students if elected?
I would like to make a program that I could get students involved in sitting on committees. Any of the several working committees. I want to get students from the U of O and LCC. That would give them a real taste of what the government is like and get their view. I feel that we are trying to run student’s lives without knowing what’s going on. We’ve got to be a government backed for the people — not for big lobbyists.
Q) Who are your top three contributors?
I’ve raised over $11,000 and had 150 donations, so you can figure out what my average donation is. I’ve had several $5 checks from people like a lady I met at a county fair who sent me $5 the next week. I have gotten a $1,000 check from a senator and four $500 checks, but the rest have been from individuals. I’m glad I haven’t gotten money from corporations. My campaign has been based on me shaking hands with 7,000 people.
Q) What’s the most generous thing you’ve ever done?
Taking care of my parents the last five years of their lives. They got the chance to die at home.
Q) Who’s your role model in politics?
(State) Sen. Bill Fisher, because he’s a senator for our people. He helped me with a water rights issue I had and also helped me get to be able to take care of my wife full-time.
Q) What’s the first thing you think of when you think of the University?
It’s big, and I like the Ducks.
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