Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sarah Arcune of Stayton is running a write-in campaign for House District 17 against Democrat Dan Thackaberry and Republican Fred Girod.
She ran in the primary for the seat in 2004 against Jeff Kropf. After Kropf declined the primary nomination this year, she joined a slate of eight candidates to replace him. The precincts in the district selected Girod to run in the general election.
“I would give voters another opportunity for a primary since Jeff won the primary,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned, since Jeff declined, I’m not running against Jeff any more. I figured a write-in is an uphill battle, but I was just going to enjoy myself, have fun, meet people, and then I’ll be ready for the next race in 2008.
Arcune works in traffic control as a flagger. She graduated from Charles A. Sprague High School in Salem. She has attended Chemeketa Community College; Merritt Davis College of Business, medical assisting and business; Linn-Benton Community College, where she earned a phlebotomy certificate; Oregon State University; and Mojave Community College, where she studied computers and nutrition.
She has served as a legislative aide to Kropf, Gary George and Charles Starr.
Top issues
The top three issues for Arcune are Measure 43, the “protect our teen daughters” measure. As a legislator she would support pro-life issues.
“I was adopted myself,” she said. “I had a chance in life.”
She also wants to make sure public safety services, like police and fire, are funded, she said. “I do think we need more protection with drug problems and crime, that the legislature would meet its budgets for those and not cut funding, education too.”
With education, the Lottery was supposed to help meet the needs, and she would like to know where the money has gone and why it’s not meeting the needs of schools.
She would like to create tax credits for people who start businesses, she said. “That’s going to help the economy because it’s going to create more jobs. It’s hard to start businesses. It’s hard to have the faith to go out there and start putting your first dollar out.”
Education
One person has told her that he has had success with a charter school, but “I’ve never had the opportunity to find out the particulars about what charter schools do” as opposed to the traditional public school, she said. Parents “know the best where their child will do best and thrive.”
She supports testing students like the state does, she said, but it needs followup into issues where it’s not working.
“We need to keep our stats straight to see what kind of things are working in each school and each school district,” she said.
Funding is an issue that needs attention, she said. “That’s why I mentioned the Lottery. It was supposed to take care of school funding, but apparently there’s school in districts that fall through the cracks. I don’t think there should be any cuts in education. Where are we going if we can’t train up our children in the way they should go?”
Taxation and budgets
Arcune thinks the state needs a rainy day fund, “so that on surplus years we have something to fall back on if it becomes short,” she said. “That’s like your own savings account for your state.”
At the same time, “we’re all taxed out,” she said. “We have enough taxes, and it needs to have more accountability on how it’s spent.”
To create more accountability, “I think it’s time for a change, that the caucuses be more open to the people, not just what you see on the (legislature) floor,” she said. “It would be really nice if you really knew who said what in caucus meetings.”
Illegal immigration
“We need to secure our borders,” Arcune said. “We do need their workforce, but we need to track their work.
“We do need housing and everything available for them and then send them back after the harvest. If we were better organized on our workforce, we would know who to send back.
“I’m Hispanic, and it just burns me up when a Hispanic person takes my job, because I’m American.”
Arcune said she had a co-worker talk to her in Spanish.
“I was let go because I told her, ‘You’re in America. You need to speak English,” Arcune said. Signs in the community should be in English. “We need English voter registration forms (not Spanish), and they need to learn English so they can register.”
Bringing Mexicans to Oregon to work is fine, perhaps with a compact with Mexico, but if they want to stay, they need to apply for citizenship, she said.
Increasing speed limits
“I think 65 would be better than 55 (on Highway 22, for example,” she said. She agrees with raising speed limits.
Field burning
“I’d like to learn more about it because I didn’t know it was a problem,” she said. “I live in Stayton, and I didn’t experience any (problems with) field burning. I don’t live in Sweet Home, but if Sweet Home is having problems like that,” she is interested in learning more about it.
Other issues
She also is interested in providing tax credits to encourage more elderly foster care homes, she said. “In the winter of their lives, they’d have a family.”
She would like to set up a program to provide emergency child care when parents are in between child care providers. If a child care provider becomes unavailable, they will have help while they look for another.
She would like to set up a “Healthy You” program that helps people with disabilities and those who are not able to work to get into weight loss programs.
For people who pay taxes, she would like a tax credit incentive to encourage them into losing weight.
Likewise, a program for diabetics, like the WIC program for women and children, could give them a better idea what foods they should eat to control their disease better.
Arcune is an active volunteer with several programs, including the American Red Cross Disaster Action Team, Willamette Chapter; Marion County Homes for Good; Incarcerated Parents Initiative, a faith-based approach to helping people transition from incarceration; and the Optimists Interantional in Salem.
“I feel like I have a passion for public service,” she said. “It would be awesome to have a title where I know I could help people more.”