Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., are warring as the November election nears — Bradbury seeking the U.S. Senate seat, and Smith fighting to protect it.
In separate question-and-answer sessions with the Emerald, both candidates appeared to be focused on improving higher education, and agreed on many issues, including forest management and a military presence in Afghanistan.
I will “continue to increase Federal Pell Grants and continue to fight for research grants and different aid to University of Oregon and other institutions of higher learning in the state,” Smith said.
He added that Federal Pell Grants are especially important for poorer students because it serves as “major sources for economic opportunity.”
Bradbury also supports increasing the Pell Grant, and specified setting a goal for at least a $1,000 increase per year.
“We have to make sure funding remains strong, which lowers the total cost of higher education to poorer students,” he said. This way, “you keep control of tuition and you make sure people can afford the tuition that is charged through the financial aid that the federal government offers.”
Bradbury added that because most college students come out of college deeply in debt, more money should be made available for grants instead of loans.
Both politicians said they’d enact similar forest policies in response to the wildfires that devastated Oregon.
“You reduce the fuel load — the forest fire fuel load — in the forest by thinning, but you also improve the growth of the trees you leave behind,” Bradbury said, echoing almost identical statements made by Smith.
The candidates also supported the United States’ continued presence in Afghanistan, but Bradbury said the situation should serve as a warning against the resolution to attack Iraq, legislation Smith supported in the Senate.
“What I’d say about Afghanistan is that it gives us a clue of the real pitfalls of taking unilateral, pre-emptive action against Iraq,” Bradbury said. “I think we need to make a strong commitment working with our allies around the world to keep Afghanistan safe for democracy and not let it go back to all these
regional warlords.”
Smith agreed.
“I think we should stay the course and help that desolate place to have a chance at democracy and decency,” he said. “For the first time in a decade, girls can go to school and women can walk free.”
The candidates couldn’t agree on why college students may not be interested in politics.
Smith said students can’t connect with government because they haven’t yet realized the impact of taxes.
“I think perhaps (students) haven’t connected the withholdings on their paycheck to what they’re being charged for government,” he said. “But as they leave home to go into the workplace, it will soon become apparent that there’s a price for all of our public institutions, and that price comes in the form of taxation.”
Bradbury blamed waning student interest on low voter turnout.
“As fewer and fewer students vote, those of us who seek elective office obviously want to talk to the people who vote,” he said. “So I think the key thing for young people to do is to engage in the process and start voting, and then, lo and behold, you’ll see the political system start to address issues that young people care about.”
To see full transcripts of the interview with the two candidates, simply scroll down the article
or click on the links below:
Bradbury’s full interview transcript
Smith’s full interview transcript
Contact the senior news reporter at [email protected].
Bradbury’s Q &A
Q) What specific policies do you have to stabilize funding for education?
(Inaudible due to technical difficulties)
Q) Do you have any plans for how poor students will have a better chance to go to school in Oregon?
(First part of question inaudible due to technical difficulties)
Bradbury: We have to make sure funding remains strong, which lowers the total cost of higher education to poorer students, so you keep control of tuition and you make sure people can afford the tuition that is charged through the financial aid that the federal government offers.
Q) Do you have any plans to involve students more if you’re re-elected?
(First part of question inaudible due to bad cell phone connection)
Bradbury: I was a huge supporter last election of the Oregon Student Association’s effort to have 27,000 additional students registered and voting. And I appeared on campuses, I went around the state encouraging turnout, and the OSA is to be commended for accomplishing their goal of 27,000 additional students registered and voting. And I’m doling the same thing this time, working I was just at Oregon State University; earlier today I was at Lane Community College; I was at Southern Oregon University a couple of weeks ago. We’ll do a big huge voter turnout rally at McArthur Court at the UO Oct. 31. I’m just committed to engaging — fully engaging — younger voters because they’re not voting enough and we need to have more of them vote.
Q) Why do you think most students are disillusioned or don’t care about politics?
Bradbury: (It’s a) chicken and egg situation. As fewer and fewer students vote, those of us who seek elective office obviously want to talk to the people who vote, and so the biggest issues in the last presidential campaign were Medicare, social security, health care, prescription drugs. Now some of those issues are ones that students care very directly about, but the reasons those were the issues that politicians talked about was because young people don’t vote. So I think the key thing for young people to do is to engage in the process and start voting, and then lo and behold, you’ll see the political system start to address issues that young people care about. And I believe very strongly that there are a series of issues that young people care about that I try very hard to speak about in my campaigns because I think it’s important that we speak not just to senior citizens but we speak to younger voters to encourage them to vote. So that’s why I talk about funding for education, that’s why I talk about making sure that we fund federal financial aid for college students, that’s why I talk about the environment. Because the environment is an issue that everybody should care about, particularly younger people, because they’re here for longer periods of time and they have a huge stake in what we do in terms of the environment.
Q) What’s the most generous thing you’ve ever done?
Bradbury: (Certainly one of the generous things I’ve done is) put both my daughters through college one to Middlebury, one to Stanford and I went for nine years with the same car, and then I got to have a new car after they both graduated.
Q) What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think UO?
Bradbury: Ducks! My wife graduated from there and graduated from UO law school, so the first thing that comes to mind when you say “UO” is ducks.
Q) Who is your role model in politics?
Bradbury: (It) would probably be Martin Luther King, with a close second to John F. Kennedy. They were people who very much shaped my younger life as I was growing up, and I have such respect for the impact that Martin Luther King had on all of us in terms of reshaping policy in this country, really making us deal with issues of civil rights and equal opportunity, and he did it in a way that was just incredible because he was so committed to non-violence.
Q) What national policies are you planning to prevent forest fires?
Bradbury: When we talk about forest fires, I am a very strong supporte
r of thinning our forests for two reasons. One is you reduce the fuel load — the forest fire fuel load — in the forest by thinning, but you also improve the growth of the trees that you leave behind. And it’s a basic civil-cultural practice to thin our forests, so I’m a huge supporter of thinning our forests. I’m not a huge supporter of using ‘thinning our forests’ and ‘reducing forest fire danger’ as an excuse to log old growth trees and to violate environmental standards or to override environmental standards. We don’t need to violate environmental standards to effectively thin our forests, and if you look at the proposal that came from the western governors, which is a very bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans in the West, they proposed thinning forests without violating environmental standards, and they proposed doing it without logging all the old growth. And we can do it in a very responsible way without doing what (President) George Bush and (U.S. Sen.) Gordon Smith proposed to do, which is (log) the old growth and violate environmental standards.
Q) A lot of attention right now is on Iraq, but what do you feel is the next step in Afghanistan?
Bradbury: What I’d say about Afghanistan is that it gives us a clue of the real pitfalls of taking unilateral, preemptive action against Iraq. I would be opposed to the President’s resolution authorizing preemptive unilateral action against Iraq, and I think Afghanistan gives us a clue. Because it’s been a country ravaged by warfare, but even with that there are all these regional warlords that we all the sudden have to deal with as we try to rebuild to try to do nation building in Afghanistan. I think we need to make a very strong commitment working with our allies around the world to keep Afghanistan safe for democracy and not let it go back to all these regional warlords. And that’s why I think the next step is there, to basically up the commitment of international forces in Afghanistan to make sure that democracy and the new government can in fact survive.
Q) Disconnected on last question.
Smith’s Q &A
Q) What specific policies do you have to stabilize funding for higher education?
Smith: Continue to increase Pell Grants and continue to fight for research grants and different aid to University of Oregon and other institutions of higher learning in the state. I think if you check the record, I can’t think of a tax deduction or grant for higher education that I haven’t voted for many different ways over the last six years. When I was elected I promised to do all I could to make higher education more affordable and more accessible, and I think the record will show that I have.
Q) Do you have any plans for how poor students will have a better chance to go to school in Oregon?
Smith: In Oregon … well, again it comes down to Pell Grants — that’s what the federal government provides, and it’s a major source for economic opportunity for the poor and underprivileged to access higher learning opportunity. That’s the program that works best and works still.
JM: And you say you’re going to try to add to it?
Smith: Absolutely, we keep adding to it every Congress. A lot of the problems for Oregon higher education are in Salem, not Washington. That’s where your tuition increases are coming from because that’s where most of the money comes from — from state higher ed.
Q) Do you have any plans to involve students more if you’re re-elected?
Smith: In my service?
JM: Yeah.
Smith: Yeah. Absolutely. (Inaudible) in the campaign we have many young people helping on Oregon campuses, and then we have an internship program that always has three or four Oregon students working at my office, and that’s something that will be ongoing.
Q) Why do you think most students are disillusioned or don’t care about politics?
Smith: I think perhaps they haven’t connected the withholdings on their paycheck to what they’re being charged for government. Our children have the great blessing of growing up in a place of peace and prosperity where public education and economic opportunities are possible. But as they leave home to go into the workplace, it will soon become apparent that there’s a price for all of our public institutions, and that price comes in the form of taxation. That will incentivize their involvement.
Q) What’s the most generous thing you’ve ever done?
Smith: It hardly seems generous because acts of generosity often come back as personal blessings. But, we have raised a Korean girl who otherwise would not have had a home. I have forgiven debts and given gifts as I’ve seen it appropriate to so give over the years. And we have a family tradition of designating a family in our community every year to anonymously play Santa Claus. Those are the kinds of things I try to do.
Q) What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think UO?
Smith: Ducks. Ever since I’ve been a U.S. Senator, the ducks have always gone to a bowl game. So I wouldn’t risk breaking this streak. (laughter)
Q) Who is your role model in politics?
Smith: I think my role model in history would be Abraham Lincoln, who was both principled and pragmatic in times of crisis and pressure. In modern times I think Winston Churchill for clarity of vision and strength of purpose. And in my lifetime, I think Ronald Reagan, who won the cold war without firing a shot and who put a check on the runaway rate of the welfare state.
Q) What national policies are you planning to prevent forest fires?
Smith: I believe more active management of the forests could improve both the ecology of the forest and improve the economy of our state. When nature clear-cuts, it leaves no buffer zone for fish or fowl. It destroys habitat for both. And with current fuel loading, it does so on a catastrophic scale. Fire is normal in the forest; catastrophic wildfire is not. We burned up a billion acres this year. That does little for fish, fowl, or forester.
JM (follow-up): And you said it would improve the economy? How would it do that exactly?
Smith: They could thin the logs, turn them into wood products. They could employ people at family wages with jobs. You could thereby generate products and prosperity that flows through local economies, producing taxes for public schools and public safety.
Q) A lot of attention right now is on Iraq, but what do you feel is the next step in Afghanistan?
Smith: Well I think we should stay the course and help that desolate place to have a chance at democracy and decency. For the first time in a decade, girls can go to school and women can walk free. We learned that when terrorists take over a country, their target will often become the United States. That stops after Afghanistan now. That was not a conquest — that was a liberation.
Q) How will you create more jobs for student graduates from Oregon universities?
Smith: I would keep tax rates at lower rates. I would incentivize purchases for plants and equipment. I would rebalance the natural resource equation to allow use but not abuse of the land. I would use the President’s authority to negotiate trade deals that are fair to the American worker. I would pass terrorism insurance. And I would continue to invest in infrastructure — like roads, rails, bridges — that enhance our quality of life.
