Candidates to face off for state representative seatThe race for District 32 representative pits “incumbent” Democrat Deborah Boone against Republican Doug Olson of Pacific City in a closely watched legislative race.

Boone, a longtime legislative aide for various local lawmakers, was sworn in last August after the commissioners from Clatsop, Tillamook, Washington and Columbia counties unanimously picked her to replace outgoing representative Elaine Hopson, D-Tillamook.

Republicans are targeting the race in the normally solidly Democratic district and providing considerable funds in an effort to

bolster their edge in the Oregon House of Representatives.

A third candidate, Ben Snodgrass of North Plains, representing the Constitution Party, is also on the ballot.

Deborah BooneDeborah BooneAge: 53

Address: 37564 Highway 26, Seaside

Occupation: State representative

Education: B.S. Psychology, B.S. Art, Portland State University, 1977

Affiliations: Volunteer fire-fighter, Hamlet Fire District; Children’s Trust Fund of Oregon

Prior public service: Clatsop County Planning Commission; Clatsop County commissioner 1987-89; Clatsop Soil and Water District; Union Health District Board; Necanicum Watershed Council coordinator; Oregon Chapter, National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse; Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Board.

Issues/Goals: Regain trust of voters, promote family-wage jobs, support social services.When she was inaugurated as the new representative from District 32 last summer, Boone joked that “I just get to move over one chair, the one with the arms on it.”

While she’s only held the office for two months, Boone is no stranger to Salem, having served as a legislative aide for 16 years. When former representative Hopson stepped down last June, six months before the end of her term, she endorsed Boone, her assistant for six years, to be her successor.

Boone touts her experience in Salem, but she said while her years in the capitol have familiarized her with the legislative process, they have also provided constant contact with citizens in District 32. Much of her work as a legislative aide involved dealing one-on-one with constituents to answer questions and iron out problems, contact that often included taking phone calls at home, she said.

“I’ve kept that close contact,” she said.

With state revenues still flat – forecasts put next year’s budget shortfall at about $1 billion – and voters resistant to new taxes, Boone said the Legislature needs to start from scratch with a “priority-based budgeting” process that requires lawmakers to first calculate the amount of available money, then ask basic questions about which services the state should provide. The current process, she said, merely pits agency versus agency in a bid to head off cuts to their own individual budgets.

“We need to start over and re-engineer the budget, and decide what to spend money on,” she said.

Boone also wants to end the “use-it-or-lose-it” spending philosophy that discourages state agencies from saving money. Departments should be allowed to keep a portion of any unspent money left over at the end of the budget year – the rest would go to a Savings Account for Schools to help fund education, she said. It offers a better solution beyond state Republicans’ plan, which calls for making education the No. 1 budget priority but doesn’t offer many specifics and leaves other critical service vulnerable to cuts, Boone said.

Boosting support for schools would make the state better able to implement the recommendations of the legislature’s Quality Education Commission, which in 2000 sent benchmarks for class size, curriculum and other areas the state has yet to meet, she said.

Boone said she would like to see the struggling Oregon Health Plan, which has reduced coverage for thousands of residents because of budget cuts, expanded to cover more people, but she wants the program to institute some cost-saving measures such as a sliding-scale payments from clients and bulk prescription drug purchases.

The program also should place more emphasis on preventative care so fewer people wait until their conditions are critical and require expensive emergency treatment, Boone said. Last year’s well-publicized case of a man who ended up in a coma because his state-funded medication ran out is one example of how trimming costs in one area can mean much bigger expenses down the road, she said. People with mental illnesses are also losing coverage for medications that often allow them to hold down jobs, maintain homes and stay out of trouble with the law.

“If we cut off people’s medication, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” she said.

Boone opposes ballot Measure 34, the “Tillamook 50/50 Plan” that would prohibit logging on half of the lands in the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests. The initiative would cut revenue by $70 million and cause the likely closure of one or two local sawmills, she said.

The existing forest management plan implemented in 2001 by the Oregon Department of Forestry was formulated over a seven-year period with the input of people on all sides of the debate, something not true of the 50/50 plan, Boone said. “I don’t like public policy being made without public input,” she said.

If elected, Boone said she hopes to get seats on both the Natural Resources Committee and Health and Human Services Committee, although new members in the minority party typically get only one assignment. She is also interested in joining a task force focused on the state’s methamphetamine problem.

Doug OlsonDoug OlsonAge: 58

Address: 35225 4th St., Pacific City

Occupation: Owner, Inn at Pacific City

Education: Pacific University, Portland State University, B.S. Business Administration, 1970

Affiliations: Pacific City Chamber of Commerce

Prior public service: Tillamook County Budget Committee; Pacific City Joint Water and Sanitary Authority Board; Nestucca Rural Fire Protection District Budget Committee; Tillamook County Small Business Development Center Advisory Board

Issues/Goals: Make education top funding priority, put limits on spending, strengthen key coastal industries and create jobsOlson points to his experience in the public and private sectors among his qualifications. He worked as a contracting officer and facilities manager for a school district in Vancouver, Wash., and for Washington County. Since 1993, he and his wife have owned and operated the Inn at Pacific City.

A newcomer to the political scene, Olson said he contemplated seeking the District 32 seat after Hopson announced her decision not to run again. Some other people also suggested it, he said, and he filed for the position on the last day. He defeated Andrew Schwend of Tillamook for the Republican nomination in the May primary.

The race has drawn considerable attention, and money, with Olson receiving contributions from Weyerhaeuser Corp. and Safeway, among others.

“If people give you money, they expect you to work hard, and go out and win the race,” Olson said. “But they go not put words in my mouth – no one has told me what to think or say, or suggested how to say it.”

Olson calls for making education Oregon’s No. 1 funding priority while pursuing more fiscal restraint in the entire state budget. The ever-changing fiscal picture that’s hampered budget-making efforts over the past few years of declining revenues has been especially tough on school districts trying to plan out their operations, he said.

“The schools are dealing with a tremendous amount of uncertainty,” he said.

While schools should receive first priority in funding, Olson also supports alternatives like charter schools and vouchers, partly as a way to stimulate competition in a public school system he said has grown stale.

“School districts are by definition a monopoly – when that happens, they get complacent, and controlled by the education establishment, and lose some innovation,” he said. “Competition brings out the best in people.”

Olson said he supports the creation of a “Rainy Day Fund” to ease the state’s financial burden during periods of reduced revenue, noting that Washington County had such a fund during his tenure. But he thinks the state must make do with the revenue sources it has now.

“We’re stuck with what we have,” adding he would “certainly not support new taxes.”

Without new taxes, lawmakers need to introduce some fiscal restraint into the budgeting process, Olson said, beginning with a spending limit that caps the budget’s annual increase at 4 percent.

“Oregon has more of a spending problem than a revenue problem,” he said. “Oregon’s budget has increased by just under 8 percent a year for the past 10 years – that’s quite a lot. That exceeds the rate of inflation, the growth of the economy and the growth of personal income.”

Olson supports “zero-based budgeting” for setting spending levels on non-mandatory programs – making departments justify their budgets each year.

“There are some marginal programs that should probably go away,” he said.

He also would like to see more programs subject to sunset clauses – provisions that make them automatically end unless they are specifically extended by the legislature.

“Once a program starts, it tends to take on a life of its own,” he said.

The state does have a moral obligation to care for those who cannot care for themselves, particularly seniors, said Olson, who noted he was raised by his grandparents. He would like to see the Oregon Health Plan continued, but worries about its long-term cost, and supports an in-depth financial analysis of the program.

Olson noted that while he and Boone share views on some issues, including their opposition to ballot Measure 34, the “Tillamook 50/50 Plan,” he said his opponent is “less apt to support small businesses” than him, a business owner. He said he would defend the interests of the largely rural 32nd District against the often conflicting goals of the Portland area, Measure 34 being an example of this urban-rural divide.

Rural areas also get shortchanged in sharing of state transportation dollars, which are based on car registration and don’t take into account the many second-home owners on the coast, Olson said. “Tillamook County gets enough money to pave three and a half miles of roads a year,” he said.

Olson supported the statewide 1-percent transient room tax approved by the Legislature last year to boost Oregon’s tourism economy.