Sean C. Morgan
Jeff Goodwin of Sweet Home praised Sherrie Sprenger’s work as representative for House District 17 Thursday, Oct. 27, during a debate with the incumbent.
Goodwin has said he is running against Sprenger primarily to give voters options.
The job is about relationships, according to Sprenger. She has built the needed relationships to do her job.
A half dozen people were in the audience. Mayor Jim Gourley moderated the forum.
The two are running for representative of state House District 17. Sprenger is a Republican. She won the Democrat nomination via write-in. Goodwin is running under the flag of the Independent Party and the Libertarian Party.
Sprenger has run for the office several times, Goodwin said.
“The challenges haven’t always been very serious. I’m not running against her in any way, shape or form, but I think the people of this district have the right to have options, that they should have two good candidates to choose from that represent maybe two different approaches to situations, two different priorities. I think that’s a very good thing for our district and protects our democracy.”
“Below our names (on the ballot), you’ll find a whole lot of candidates running unopposed. Do you like to have choices in that situation? That’s very frustrating.”
Sprenger said she learned “early on, I think second or third day in the legislature, that the job was about relationships.
“If I didn’t have relationships and I didn’t have people’s trust and I didn’t have integrity, I couldn’t have a conversation, let alone represent my district while I’ve been a minority member.”
“Those relationships now, eight years later, they’re paying off. I had a bill that was heard by the Speaker of the House, a very liberal Portland person. She had a very liberal Portland group against my bill. She heard my bill. I walked into a group of my colleagues and they said, ‘What did you have to trade to get that bill moved through?’ I said, ‘I didn’t trade a thing.’”
She has built relationships, she said.
“You have to do that across the aisle. I think that might speak to why Democrats wrote me in on the ballot. That’s what I bring. Nothing new. Nothing flashy. Just home-grown taking our needs to Salem. It’s important for Salem and the rest of the state to hear what goes on in Sweet Home and Waterloo and Gates and all our small towns, because there is an urban-rural divide. I’d like to say that I’ve bridged it, but I’ve certainly educated folks.
“It is a privilege to get to do this.”
Economic Development
At the top of the forum was economic development.
“I was asked just a few days ago, ‘So what’s your plan for economic development?’ and I, not flippantly but it sure felt like it at the time, I said, ‘The best method of economic development is for the government to get out of the way and let businesses do what business ought to do,’” Sprenger said.
In the legislature, economic development seems to be something that the state can do for or with businesses, she said. “Sometimes there’s an avenue for that, but more times than not, businesses are struggling because of things they’ve been required to do.”
Relating to Sweet Home, she recently held a forum with some of the very experts in Salem who connect businesses with state resources, she said. That’s tax dollars at work and people should take advantage of it. She sees her role as focusing on providing those opportunities.
“Oftentimes, we think of making a law to do what we want – and sometimes that’s necessary – but I prefer to allow folks in a more organic way to do and to affect and make the impact they want to make without laws,” Sprenger said.
“One of the strongest ways I feel I can work on economic development in my district is to be your voice and take those needs and effect the change that needs to occur or at least try awful darn hard. The first step to do that is to equip you with what you need to do it.
“It’s my job to partner with those that have the ideas to break down the barriers, to cut the red tape.”
Goodwin said talk about economic development needs to be about the next generation. He recalled his first visit to Sweet Home, during which he visited Sankey Park.
“I was walking around. I was talking to teenagers that were there, and I asked them, ‘Why aren’t you in school?’ They said, ‘What’s the point? What is the point in going to school? There is no future for us.’
“We’ve got to change that. That’s the start of economic development. We’ve got to make sure our kids have options, and that’s about our schools. That’s about our community colleges. That’s about making sure education is effective, and the kids are supported so that they can succeed.
“We’ve got to utilize our resources. We have the forests here. We have the rivers. We have lakes. We have tourism opportunities. We have farm opportunities. To boot, we’ve got the fact we’re so close to colleges. We have highly educated workforce and an educable workforce. We have the resources in manpower. We have the natural resources. We can do a lot with that.
“I think you’re right,” he told Sprenger. “The government’s got to get out of the way. The government can be a big part of the problem. On the flip side, government can be part of the solution and part of helping. The problem is the laws we’re making right now are in the way.”
Specifically, he said that includes things like Measure 97 and mandatory minimum wage increases that are hurting workers in the poorest areas of the state.
Being a representative is not just about making law, Goodwin said. It includes leadership. As a city councilor in Sweet Home, he likes to talk to business owners about what they need.
“It’s not just about how can I make a law that’s favorable to business but how can I actually go out and get businesses to come here,” Goodwin said.
Enterprise zones, a tax incentive, and urban renewal districts, which use taxes to pay for infrastructure improvements, are both tools that can help, he said.
National Monument
Both candidates oppose the proposed Douglas Fir National Monument as it stands.
Sprenger said it would lock up private lands by removing roadways, effectively negating private land rights.
Goodwin suggested negotiating with proponents and offering a smaller monument, with a visitor’s center and a way to bring dollars to the area.
“The scale of what is being proposed is outrageous,” he said, adding he believes it may be a perception issue where proponents fear loggers will cut everything down.
Environmentalist Andy Kerr is behind the proposal, Sprenger said. Kerr was involved in the spotted owl controversy 25 years ago.
“He wasn’t interested in negotiating then,” she said. “He’s not interested in negotiating now. We’re not talking about honor Douglas firs. We’re talking about closing roads and removing people from the woods.”
Goodwin said it takes more than one person, and others might be willing to negotiate and make something better “instead of slamming into each other.”
Education
Gourley asked whether the candidates believe education is adequately funded.
“Our schools are good here,” Goodwin responded, but that’s “relative.”
“How do we get the resources there?” he asked. “A lot of it is tied to the economy. Grow the economy. Reform the tax code.”
Goodwin also supports alternative forms of education, he said, and “it’s about families. It’s not that we don’t have resources. It’s not that we don’t how to teach. It’s broken homes.”
Reading with children just 15 minutes a day can improve their performance in school, he said. “I attribute all my educational success to reading. I learned by reading.”
Quality of life begins with jobs, Sprenger said. “You have to talk about the economy.”
A lot of the problems Goodwin mentioned are attributable to unemployment, she said.
Sprenger said she has consistently worked toward school choice, allowing parents to decide where to send their children. She noted that the fifth-year program that districts like Sweet Home were using to send students to college remains on the books but has been neutered.
Sweet Home had 70 students in the program a year ago. It has one this year.
She favors empowering community colleges and technical programs to integrate into high schools, she said.
She noted that Sweet Home went to a four-day school week for budget reasons.
“That’s not something this board jumped into,” Sprenger said. “That was hard. I hate the fact we’ve positioned school boards to make hard choices like that.”
Sprenger said the state adds more and more layers on the classroom, and Goodwin said the state needs to let teachers do their jobs and that teaching to the test has to stop.
Goodwin said, if the state gets out of the way a little more, schools will find more success.