There are certain things that current Clackamas County Commissioner Sonya Fischer doesn’t want voters to hear. One of the most important has to do with her stance on law and order. This has become one of the biggest issues in the 2022 election, because law-abiding citizens are becoming increasingly weary of politicians whose policies are causing crime to skyrocket all …
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There are certain signs that a campaign isn’t going well. One of the biggest is when you feel like you have to pay an attorney to contact your opponent and make threats of legal action. While this kind of thing may be more common at the federal level, with the highest public offices in the nation, I never expected to …
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Now that the November 2022 general election is just around the corner, voter pamphlet statements are becoming available to the public. Many voters base their candidate selection on the contents of those pamphlets. Ideally, the statements put together by candidates and their campaigns should be accurate representations of where they stand on the most important issues we face. But that’s …
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An analogy that comes up quite often in public policy is that of a pendulum. The explanation goes something like this: The same approach is used for a while until it stops being effective and develops its own unique set of consequences. Voters then start to demand that something different be done, and the metaphoric pendulum then swings in the …
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Because the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners is a five-member body, each election can change its overall direction. Recent history has also shown that ours is a swing county, meaning that its voters go back and forth in their preferences every couple of years. With that being the case, I think there are two different ways that this county can …
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Labor Day marks a turning point in every election year. That’s when races really start heating up and campaign season kicks into high gear. The upcoming November 2022 general election will follow the same pattern as most every cycle. Candidates who have spent months fundraising and building a base of support are going to start bombarding voters with advertisements through …
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Challenging a sitting incumbent is no easy task. But that’s exactly what I’m doing in this November general election as I campaign for Clackamas County Commissioner, Position 5. On one hand, a current officeholder has several advantages. They get the automatic photo ops. Local media outlets are eager to use their press releases and request interviews. The power of the …
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There are a lot of nuances involved when it comes to public policy. Candidates will often stick to the most generic, reliable, poll-tested catch phrases to seem as inoffensive as possible and appeal to the broadest cross section of voters. The same phrases, if applied properly, can also mean different things to different people. That’s why it’s important to read …
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Often times, candidates running for office make their pitches to voters based on partisan inclinations and considerations. So how’s that working out for all of us? I think that campaigns should be based on issues, candidates’ visions and practical considerations. The most important of those is whether or not they support policies that are working as they were intended. It’s …
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One of my core philosophies is that the government should work on doing a handful of things and try to do them as well as possible. Where government agencies frequently run into problems is when they try to do too much and lose focus on those things they’re supposed to be doing in the first place. The State of Oregon …
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