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REJECT THE CORPORATE CANDIDATE
In endorsing Daniel Nguyen for another term in House District 38 [“Vote While You Can,” April 29], Willamette Week was reportedly “sold” by his plan to “make Oregon a place where business booms.” Clearly, that’s where Nguyen’s priorities lie. It’s no accident that he’s funding his campaign with nearly $100,000 from corporations and corporate PACs, many from out of state. His backers run the gamut of American business: from Amazon, McDonald’s, Genentech, AT&T, Allstate, and Comcast to Anheuser-Busch, Lumen Technologies, Albertson’s, State Farm, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and Eli Lilly (to name a few). Among the industries prominently represented are Big Pharma, Insurance, Realtors, Finance, Breweries and Distilleries, Utilities, Telecommunications, and—notably—Data Centers, a special concern of the House committee that Rep. Nguyen chairs.
His challenger, John “Waz” Wasielewski, has no corporate contributors that I could find. He is a middle school teacher in Lake Oswego, and his campaign’s only big donations—at roughly one-tenth the amount of Nguyen’s corporate funders—come from the Oregon Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Besides advocating for public schools, Waz is stressing affordability for working families and ways to strengthen democracy. In other words, issues that matter to the communities he hopes to represent. Going up against such a well-funded incumbent is an uphill struggle, to say the least. But, if elected, he won’t be beholden to corporate interests.
The question for voters is: Which of these men would best promote the issues I care about? For me, it’s no contest.
James Crawford
Southwest Portland
ACCOUNTABILITY IS NOT ABUSE
On April 2, state Sen. Janeen Sollman and challenger Myrna Muñoz did an endorsement interview with Willamette Week. When unions told Sen. Sollman they would support a primary challenge over her votes on data centers and worker rights, she called it bullying and intimidation and cited her status as an adult survivor of domestic violence to lend more weight to the accusation. As someone who is also an adult survivor of domestic violence, I find that language troubling and revealing.
These organizations didn’t have to warn her of their intentions. They could have simply recruited and funded a challenger to catch her flat-footed. Instead they told her directly they were unhappy, giving her the opportunity to engage, explain, or reconsider, and the senator considers that bullying and intimidation. That is not intimidation. That is good faith political communication and exactly how accountability in a democracy is supposed to work. “We don’t like what you’re doing and don’t think you represent our interests, so we’re going to primary you” is how this is supposed to work.
Framing that courtesy as bullying suggests Sen. Sollman believes she is entitled to support regardless of how she votes, and that anyone who disagrees is attacking her rather than doing their job. A representative who experiences accountability as abuse is not well suited to representing the people with real stakes in her decisions.
Myrna Muñoz understands that holding power means answering for how you use it—to unions, to constituents, and to every family counting on her, and I believe she is a better choice for district and state. Vote Muñoz for Senate District 15.
Christian Bayless
Hillsboro
STUDY BEFORE YOU TAX
Your recent piece, “New Lease on Life,” [WW, April 22] pointed to a key question: What is causing vacancies and how best to address those causes? A proposed vacancy tax basically penalizes property owners for this Public Bad (a Public Bad is some outcome that isn’t desired). Counselors proposing this approach must believe that that’s needed to incentivize property owners to get off their duff. There’s plenty of examples where taxes (e.g., tobacco), subsidies (e.g., homeownership tax deductions) and regulatory mechanisms (e.g., require commercial ground floor space) have been used to solve a Public Bad or encourage a Public Good (e.g., homeownership). Your story indicated that some data are being collected to help determine the causes of vacancies. Still, a process is needed aimed at finding a fact-based solution to the issue of vacant properties. By process, I mean one that goes beyond filling up public comment time at council meetings with proponents of a vacancy tax. There are resources at Portland State, the City Club, among others, that can be tapped. Let’s work to avoid “shoot first, ask questions later.”
Robert Procter, Ph.D.
Southeast Portland
CORRECTIONS
Our endorsements incorrectly stated that Oregon Historical Society executive director Kerry Tymchuk told voters before the first OHS levy that seeking a second would constitute failure. Tymchuk actually made that remark to The Oregonian after voters approved the first OHS levy, not before.
In our endorsement of Peter Klym, we incorrectly claimed Klym was a deputy defender in the Appellate Division of the Oregon Department of Justice. In fact, he works in the Appellate Division for the Oregon Public Defense Commission.
WW regrets the errors.
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Email: amesh@wweek.com
