Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Renee Lindsey is challenging State Sen. Bill Morrisette in the District 6 senatorial race because she thinks the Legislature has lost sight of the priorities of Oregonians.
Lindsey, 51 (“I stopped counting at 40”), is a former Lebanon Community School District Board member (1999-2003) who works as a Network Operation Supervisor for Quest Communications in Albany. She has attended Linn-Benton Community College and Linfield College.
She moved to the Lebanon area in high school and has lived there since. She is single, with twin 17-year-old boys.
The Issues
Illegal Immigration: Lindsey says her biggest concern is this problem, which extends into a variety of realms for Oregonians.
“This has created a significant strain on the state budget in relation to law enforcement, prisons, schools and social services,” she said. “There is a lot of money in this state being siphoned off from actual Oregon citizens and diverted to expenses and programs for illegals.
“How can we fund programs for our citizens when we’re funding schools, social services, prisons and law enforcement capabilities dealing with illegals? States are not the appropriate providers of Foreign Aid.”
She said that one of the areas that illegal aliens are affecting legal residents is that illegal immigrants are decreasing the wage base in Oregon.
“They’re coming in and working for fewer dollars per hour than an Oregon citizen would,” she said
State Spending: Lindsey says she will “fight to reduce government waste” and that it is critical for the state to get spending under control. She said that, “instead of trying to find ways to overthrow initiatives the voters passed, ” the Legislature needs to work for the will of the people “without being overly restrictive to business and the citizens.”
“I will never vote yes on a sales tax,” she said. “Increased revenue should be the result of an increased tax base.”
Sexual Predators: “As a mother, I will fight to pass a law to protect our children from sexual predators,” she said. “This is a real issue, and it is a sad state of affairs that this has not been a priority.”
Lindsey said she thinks it should be illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a sexual crime involving children to be a government employee or official.
“I think that would alleviate having people in trusted positions that we keep hearing about molesting children,” she said. “Government employees are mainly supposed to be trusted individuals, public servants. I think that a lot of citizens have lost faith in government because there haven’t been lot of protections put in place for the public. Governmental employees are placed in trusted positions, and placements in those job positions need to be made accordingly.”
Education: Lindsey believes that one of the biggest problems with education in Oregon is the role the state plays in the process.
“I do not believe that the educational system in this state can be fixed with more money,” Lindsey said. “This may not be popular, but I believe actual Department of Education in this state needs to be minimized and mandates to local districts need to be minimized.
“Teachers cannot teach when they are filling out paperwork. Mainly, what everybody talks about when they talk about education is the budget. Money is not the problem. State mandates are. School districts have to go through an astronomical amount of paperwork both on state and federal level. Every minute they spend filling out forms is a minute they’re not spending in classroom.
Health: Lindsey wants to get illegal immigrants off state health assistance and she believes tort reform could take care of some of the problems of high medical expenses.
She also advocates offering scholarships to state residents for college and medical school that would include contracts requiring that medical graduates spend a certain number of years working in rural areas where medical care is insufficient.
Lindsey says she differs from Morrisette in that “we both want good things for Oregon but we have different ideas how to do it. Of course, no one has all the answers.
“I’m not going to sit and talk bad about a man I don’t know,” she said. “We think differently about things – that’s all. I’ve got a thing about dirty politics.”