News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Bill Smith is seeking the the District 53 seat in the Oregon House of Representatives, the seat currently held by Republican Gene Whisnant.
Smith faces an uphill battle; Democrats have not made much impression in Central Oregon legislative races.
But Smith is not a typical Democrat.
In fact, on many issues he sounds a lot like the former Republican who used to hold the seat — Ben Westlund. Like the maverick senator who is making an independent bid for governor, Smith rails against the kind of partisanship he believes is paralyzing the state.
“It’s time to bring people to Salem who are willing to look beyond a rigid partisan position regarding state issues and who work toward acceptable compromises,” he writes in a Voters’ Pamphlet statement.
The career wildland firefighter and six-year member of the Bend School Board told The Nugget that his school board experience led him to throw his hat into the ring for a state position.
“Everybody has complained about our school funding situation,” Smith said.
He doesn’t have ready answers as to how the state can achieve stable funding for education and his outlook may be hard to swallow for some of the political warriors who traditionally work the Democrat side of the partisan divide.
Smith says he is opposed to any higher state appropriation for K-12 education.
“The state increases the funding but it doesn’t get to the kids per se,” he said.
He also favors some kind of statewide universal contract negotiation for teachers instead of leaving negotiations to outgunned local school boards.
“If the state is going to determine the funding, isn’t it logical that they negotiate the contracts for the state?” he said.
Smith considers himself “a big advocate of alternative education” and he wants to see the state become more receptive to allowing for a variety of alternatives.
“If we don’t take some steps now to allow some private and alternative education, we’re going to force people to vote for vouchers,” Smith said.
The candidate believes that a similar dynamic was in play with the land use changes made under Measure 37, which he supported.
“If somebody has property rights when they bought the land, they should stay with it,” he said.
However, he believes the legislature’s failure to act on land use reform pushed the issue to voters in a measure that may have unintended consequences.
Smith is a straightforward advocate of civil rights for all Oregonians and considers issues such as stopping gay marriage or civil unions a distraction from the vital issues confronting the legislature.
“You can’t legislate morality and you can’t legislate behavior,” he said. “It doesn’t work.”
He continually returns to education as the cornerstone of prosperity and livability in Oregon.
“The foundation is education,” he said. “You start there.”
Smith acknowledges that it is ultimately up to the voters to decide if they want to change the current culture of the state government.
“I think they’re going to have to vote the people (not the party),” he said.
Smith is comfortable being difficult to pin down on the basis of a party line and doesn’t mind being considered a maverick or an independent.
“I don’t care what title they put on me,” he said. “I’m an Oregonian.”
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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