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Oregon candidates for governor John Kitzhaber and Chris Dudley met September 30 in what may well be their only debate before Election Day. They were asked about their different takes on economic issues, tax policy and the environment as well as the experience they each bring to the table. Some of the questions were submitted by the public.
Republican Chris Dudley is an investment adviser, and a former center for the Portland Trail Blazers. He currently heads a foundation for children with diabetes. Democrat John Kitzhaber is a medical doctor, who served two previous terms as Oregon's governor from 1995-2003 and currently leads a healthcare advocacy organization. A poll over the summer showed the two candidates neck and neck. A recent poll still reflects a close race, with Dudley pulling ahead by a few points.
The Dudley (pdf) and Kitzhaber campaigns announced different debate schedules, which only overlap on two dates. One was the KGW debate Thursday night; the other was their September 25 joint appearance at the League of Oregon Cities conference in Eugene. The two candidates did not directly respond to one another's remarks at that forum and the questions were provided to the candidates in advance. That leaves one formal debate between these two candidates on the calendar. Some members of the media contend that that is simply not enough.
Do you pay attention to debates? Do they influence the way you vote? What were you hoping to hear from the candidates on Thursday?
If you could ask the gubernatorial candidates anything, what would it be?
Thursday's debate, hosted by KGW with additional sponsorship from The Oregonian, will also be aired live at 7pm on OPB Radio.
GUESTS:
- Jim Moore: Political science professor and director of the Tom McCall Center for Policy Innovation at Pacific University
- Ross Day: Executive director and general council for the Common Sense for Oregon political action committee
- Carla Axtman: An editor for Blue Oregon
- Trent Lutz: Executive director of the Democratic Party of Oregon
Tagged as: 2010 election · governor
Photo credit: Chris Lehman/Northwest News Network
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The debate was a managed affair that did not allow free flow debate on specifics that each candidate supports or is against. Each camp is maneuvering carefully to gain footing but the debate was not much more than a “canned” response to prescreened questions. This show was not very reliable for the public but quite comfortable for political campaigning.
Paul C. Paz
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You can assert that cutting capital gains will stimulate job growth all you want; but you can not have job growth without demand for products and services.
Business owners could pay zero tax, but if there is no demand for their products they won't hire one additional worker. Established businesses know to stay in business you have to be fiscally conservative with your working capital. Demand drives business. Period.
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For non PDX Sports fans, Greg Oden is the Center of the Trailblazers Basketball team, which Chris Dudley once filled. Unlike Dudley, he was the NUMBER ONE OVERALL PICK IN THE NBA DRAFT. Quite a distinction, almost like heir to Michael Jordan. A franchise player.
But both Dudley and Oden are overpaid, large athletes, who lack the dominanting competitive edge to excel in the NBA, are not particularly fast or strong, have gimpy knees, lousy fundamentals like free throw shooting, and ultimately are underachieving athletes despite their million dollar salaries. Both took the advice of their lawyers and live in Washington State to avoid taxes. Both wear shorts to work.
Oden has been a terrible expensive gamble for the Trailblazers. He was on the bench for his whole rookie season and has been on and off the court due to bad knees. He has been out sick more than he has played, but due to generous contracts still rakes in among the best salary for his position in the NBA. Yes he is the Trailblazer's most expensive cheerleader and bench warmer in history. We will never see such extreme excess again, so enjoy it.
Oden and Dudley both share similar qualifications for the governship: No elected office experience, no intellectual depth, no knowledge of policy or government process, but they do possess youth and ambition.
When you think Dudley, THINK GREG ODEN FOR GOVENOR. It could happen in 20 years if Dudley is successful. Large and in Charge.
Being governor is tough work, experience is valuable. Try playing in the NBA without experience.
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I loved what John Kitzhaber had to say about merit pay for teachers. Using such a narrow, standardized test to measure success is a terrible idea, and I hope that our state and country moves away from the current pass/fail system of testing and towards one that monitors and rewards teachers for their students' progress. He has my vote for his stand on this issue alone!
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I am a “Disinterested Undecided Voter”.
There is little difference between the candidates in terms of what I see they will be able to accomplish. That is less of a statement on these two people, and more of a comment on the group of losers that are the dismal failure known as Oregon State Government.
I can say that ether of these two choices is better then the fool that holds the office currently. -
If you give Capital Gains tax cuts to the wealthy, they just use the extra money to buy up and consolidate small businesses into large Corporations, and then fire employees and management for efficiency.
So that would be going the wrong way.
Out here in Reality, giving tax cuts on Capital Gains actually ends up cutting jobs.
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I didn't watch or listen to the debate. My mind is already made up. I'm deeply disappointed that the candidates point fingers at each other. Neither has made me confident they are capable of doing what is best for the majority of Oregonians. They are fools full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
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I gave to the Kitzhaber campaign, now I am voting for Dudley. As a strategy we need more balance in Salem.
I am liberal, Dudley is ok on the social issues and he will give us more school choices. And a better shot at keeping on line education available to all who want it. Kitzhaber has to protect the unions.
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What does "protecting the unions" have to do with bringing the level of education up in the state?
How do you know what Dudley's position on social issues are? Where does he stand on same sex marriage? abortion? ADA? social security?
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If Dudley is "ready to be govenor" according to Ross why has he been running away from more of these debates? With no political experience I expect Dudley to earn my vote. His running away from debating makes me suspicious of what his handlers are hiding from the Oregon voters.
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You let Professor Moore dodge the land use question, albeit more adeptly than Mr. Dudley did last night. What do conservatives have to say to the question about where land should or should not be protected from development in Oregon, specifically in the Portland and Northwest Oregon areas?
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I am afraid of the precedent that's being set for holding public office with Chris Dudley's nomination. Complaints made about Obama in '08 hold little water when you consider his education and career as a law professor. Chris Dudley comes with absolutely no experience, and only has a shot because he played for the Blazers. Scary stuff.
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Dudley is an embarrassment. His lack of historical knowledge of Oregon's people, places and politics, along with his complete disregard for our environment and natural resources, makes him a potential catastrophe as Oregon's governor.
Dudley's intransigence in agreeing to debate the important problems facing this state is likewise disappointing. People should have been seeing these guys on stage together since the summer in from Astoria to Ontario and Brookings to Joseph.
Quite frankly, Oregon deserves better.
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Why do you have Ross Day on your panel today? Are you trying to redo the debate? Ross Day is a right wing ideologue who is not going to look at this debate in any kind of rational way. Have you forgotten his passionate support for Measure 37 and destroying our land use laws? While Carla Axtman is a Democrat, she is much more reasoned and objective. Isn't there some other Republican that you could have chosen?
Thanks, Jim Gilbert
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I have noticed this too. I would much rather have heard 3 experts, but it seems if you bring in two partisans, they should be objective. Ross Day isn't even trying.
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Two moments in the debate that spoke to me:
1. When asked to cite inappropriate development, Dudley basically said he never met development that he didn't like...classic Republican: drill baby drill, pave it, cut it down, sprawl out those cities, etc. ---
2. In contrast, Kitzhaber talked about values, protecting things that I (and I think many Oregonians) value. Development with intelligence. He also spoke about the complexity of government, which cuts against the grain of those who seek the simple, sound-bite solutions, but I, for one, appreciate being spoken to as an adult.
I was not red hot on Kitzhaber going into the debate, but from the above, you can guess where my vote will go.
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Tom Mccall never would have allowed a casino to be built in Oregon. Kitzhaber reflected Mccall's solid conservation values last night with his answer on land use.
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One of your guests suggested that trust funds do not accrue capital gains and, thus, do not pay capital gains taxes. I think your listeners deserve a correction. A trust that is funded by stocks that are sold do indeed accrue capital gains and pay capital gains taxes.
I appreciated Jeff Mapes' question to the gubernatorial candidates with regard to capital gains. How can we be sure that greater capital gains accrued by individuals and trust funds as a result of lowering capital gains taxes are indeed invested in creating Oregon jobs?
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Let's elect Kitzhaber and a Democratic legislature and give Kitzhaber a chance to actually try his ideas.
Republicans prevented him from governing the last time he was in office and now Republicans are blaming him for what they caused.
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hello all:
Oregon Voters would do well not to vote for a man that has done nothing in government. Done nothing...No experience and no knowledge of what it takes to run anything that speaks about government...Dudley needs to come up thru the ranks and learn about the issues..he was scripted last night tightly sharing errorneus facts. Talking so fast..You couldn't think about what he was saying. No substance except if you read his website...You know that he will cut all the programs that benefit the elderly and children. The minimum wage will be reduced or eliminated. He does not care about the law and would try to gut as many government programs as possible without regard to the Unions or the laws that help to protect workers and other citizens in the State..Read his website and then read Kitzhaber's and note the differences...Big differences...Dudley has ducked the debates not Kitzhaber because he knows he would be found out by the intelligent voters of this State. Get out to vote is the key in this election.
No right to choose,No unions, No corporate taxes, Kicker remains in place. Teachers pay tied to test scores of students. Business run schools. No pensions, No government. No taxes so cut everthing to balance a budget he does not understand...Bush politics and look where that has gotten us....Kitzhaber 8 year run was not perfect but a good one for Oregon...Clinton gutted regulation of the BIG banks. Bush did the final blow deregulated banks and everything else and here we are IN DEBT. Oil and the banks run the Federal government. Greed has eaten all our money...Time to stay local with our banks and put alternatives Wind and Solar and biomass into our energy present and future and create jobs, jobs, jobs and get away from dead dinosaur blood and bones. Kitzhaber has a plan let's go with him and pull Oregon out this stuck place.
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Considering his lack of experience, could someone please answer how Chris Dudley is in any way, shape or form fit to be governer?
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<crickets>
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Dudley seems like a nice enough guy, and sincere in wanting to do good things for Oregon. But it appears terribly arrogant to me that he has zero government experience, demonstrated no prior interest in politics, has a questionable voting record -- and out of the blue decides to go directly to the top by running for Governor.
Um, don't most NBA players have some basketball experience prior to getting a contract?
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It's easy to attack BETC but it actually does influence developers to build more energy efficient buildings. I am not clear on all of what happened with respect to the mis-spending of BETC money but I do not think it should be eliminated, just better managed. Also, Dr. Kitzhaber's idea of creating jobs by focusing on energy conservation in schools is a little specious as this is already being done by the Oregon Department of Energy fairly. However, Chris Dudley's response to cut the capital gains tax is even more specious. If either of them want to save the citizens of Oregon some real money they should take a real close look at the Energy Trust of Oregon, a top heavy, truly beaureaucratic organization that is supposedly the "watch dog" of the Oregon utility rate payer's money that is spent on energy conservation. There are approximately 200 employees at the ETO, none of whom do any actualy work other than manage another layer of people, over 300 at PECI, their Program Management Contractor for their Business Program alone, who then distribute the money to the people who do the work. How is this better than letting the utilities run the programs, as they used to do quite well?
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For thirty plus years, Conservatives have promoted Reagans Voodoo economics, promising us that if we give more and more tax cuts to the wealthy, we will all end up living in a Utopia where everybody has great jobs and standards of living.
Well, we let that camels nose into our tent and now it has not only forced its way into our tent, it has wrecked our tent.
Conservatives have demanded and received so many handouts from the government for the last 30 years in the form of tax cuts and De-Regulations and now our government is so broke and so far in debt that we can't even afford to take care of our People with education, and all of the other necessary services of government.
It is time for us to learn our lesson, we have taken our beating and now we need to throw all of the Conservatives out of office and elect moderates like Kitzhaber. Let's go back to the center.
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Everything you said about the Conservatives should be changed to those in power, Democrats and Republicans alike. There is no real difference in what they do when they have power.
The best we can do is try and keep it balanced. The Democrats in Oregon with no Republicans to balance them will not do what is right in the long term because the special interests that got them elected won't let them. Good government is best with opposing forces to help the best ideas move forward. A Republican governor will have a lot of counter balancing forces. I expect good things.
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Someone please ask Ross Day if having local blue collar workers involved in our election is better or worse than the massive amounts of OUT OF STATE money backing Dudley.
Also if the Unions have so much money to throw around why is Dudley out raising Kitzhaber by at least 2:1 right now.
Ross Day typifies how the disconnected Republican party is from the realities of working people and reality.
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Your guests were trying, in vain, to come up with a definition of a "negative ad". Please make it clear. A negative ad is ANY ad that mentions your opponent. Period. Is any candidate going to run a positive or neutral ad about his/her opponent...? Don't think so. Don't want to be accused of running negative ads? Don't mention your opponent. Just show us what is good about you!
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One item no one sems to address on the Capital Gains Taxes is that it unfairly targets the retired persons who have invested in various places stocks, bonds, and other properties that promise to increase in value.
With the 'baby boomers' coming into retirement in a large number, with the savings level low overall, and the reductions coming in Social Security - the only real income for many is - or will be - their investments.
Just ask any of those already retired - how the tax system, especially capital gains(and inheritance), is impacting their quality of life now and the future.
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if you have a good stockbroker, he'll sell some of the dogs as well as the good stocks to wipe out your gains. In our tax practice, we see very few middle income retired people paying "through the nose" in capital gains.
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HUGE difference between the capital gains tax and inheirtance (estate) taxes.
Unless you are passing on more than $3.5 million ($7 million as a couple) your heirs won't pay a dime in taxes. 1 in 300 estates are subject to the tax which is hardly a populous problem yet joe blue collar screams bloody murder about it. If you are passing on more than those amounts and are hit by the tax you should have hired better accountants and tax lawyers to minimize those taxes.
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A Govenor can not make a difference alone. A government needs to work together with intelligence to move forward. If we could show the world that we are caring, intelligent, hard working people, who look towards the future for the benifit of all, Oregon will prosper.
How do we measure sucess? A few getting wealthy? All getting healthy? If the government establishes our goals that benefit all or most and work towards them together, Oregon will attract the right kind of investment, like investment.
What do we want Oregon to be know for around the world?We have the funds and the people in place to turn out the smartest and best educated children in the world. Get it figured out and get it done. We all need to help out by being there at the schools, putting on camps, events, coaching, and taking an interest while supporting the teachers. Kids and parents need to be ingaged and motivated.
Being green is smart. Solar and wind power is amazing! Using less power is smart. We can do this together with a government that leads for the people and not a corporation or industry.
Regulate campain finance, it is the right thing to do.
Thanks for the chance to share my voice, long live opb!
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Caller Jim was mistaken. Kitzhaber did know which board he was on. He was on the board of the nonprofit, and not on the board of Cylvia's LLC after it was formed.
The media have been out-to-lunch on dispelling absurd campaign claims like this that bring us back to Kitz' Pynchon quote.
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Another idea to improve the economy, and one that no one has raised, is to figure out a way to help people who were hurt by the economy in the last 2 years to the extent that they had to declare bankruptcy, or had a loan foreclosed on, or maybe were even just late or unable to pay some bills. I had all of these happen to me because when the construction industry tanked in 2007-2008, my work load dramatically reduced. Now I cannot get a $5,000 loan for a car worth $6,800, low Blue Book. It doesn't matter that my credit score was in the mid to high 700s for years. I also can't get a line of credit, a business bank card, or even a personal visa. If I can't buy anything, a cheap car, etc., or build my business, how can I contribute to improving the economy? I would like to see the new Governor focus on a way that the state could help people like me.
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Poor Tom, the government went and doubled the minimum wage on him? He will have to pay capital gains taxes on the gain from selling his business that exceeds $250k? I noticed he didn't mention what kind of salary his business pays him. Or what he deducts as a business expense that he uses in his personal life.
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I heard a lot of vague generalities in Dudley's responses, and more specifics from Kitzhaber.
Kitzhaber was up against a Republican legislature while serving as governor. If Dudley wants to claim that Kitzhaber didn't accomplish anything, it could be because the Republicans blocked his proposals.
Dudley can say all he wants about "cooperation" but if he's elected governor and faces a Democratic legislature, he'll be in the same boat that Kitzhaber was in. Dudley, being a government newbie, lacks the connections and relationships within the capitol that Kitzhaber developed after years of service in the legislature. How does he intend to produce different results if he ends up in similar circumstances?
How will Dudley guarantee that a reduced tax on capital gains (and other tax breaks for upper income Oregonians) will directly translate to a new livable-wage job instead of a new luxury car or tropical vacation? Can the Dudley camp demonstrate how "trickle down economics" has actually reached me?
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The League of Women Voters of Oregon is looking for Oregon teenagers to record their questions for the candidates. If any readers know any kids that might be interested, please go to our site at http://lwvor.org/MockElection/?p=227 for more information.
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Comments are now closed.
I do pay attention to debates. I generally vote based on the issues and most candidates outline their positions on the issues at their website, debates, and news correspondence.
With the recent Supreme Court decision of Citizens United v. FEC, big groups like corporations and unions are basically free to spend as much money as they want in federal elections. What's interesting to me is that according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Oregon is one of the only 6 states that have no campaign contribution limits of any kind for its state and local elections (http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=16594).
If I could ask the candidates a question, I would ask them: do you think money is corrupting our elections process and if you think it is, how would you change things?