The 2014 election is upon us. Ballots are in the mail.
Your vote is essential. Rest assured the anti-gunners are well funded and working overtime to get out the vote and promote freedom haters. The loss of one Oregon Senate seat could spell the difference between keeping or losing your gun rights. Make no mistake, in many, many districts the race will be decided by a tiny number of votes.
Our candidate ratings for Oregon House, Senate and Governor are posted here. There you will find an explanation of how we rate candidates whenever a rating is possible. To see our take on Federal races, you can go directly here. The direct link for local races is here.
The Governor’s race has come down to a contest between two candidates who could not be more different. Dennis Richardson believes that the best way to respond to calls for more gun control is to encourage more firearms education. By that he means actually teaching young people how to safely use firearms and to respect them.
Governor Kitzhaber would prefer to see more restrictions on gun owners. Remember, he personally accompanied anti-gun zealot Mark Kelly to a hearing in Salem to stump for an expansion of Oregon’s horribly failed background check/registration system.
While Kitzhaber supports more restrictions on law abiding Oregonians he also actively supports expanding rights for law breakers. Ballot Measure 88 would give driver’s licenses to people who are here in violation of the law.
Kitzhaber and other supporters make the absurd claim that giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens will somehow guarantee that these same lawbreakers will run out and get auto insurance. In his debate with Richardson on Oct 13th he defended his position describing illegals as “taxpayers,” an idea quickly dispelled by Richardson who pointed out they were not “taxpayers” unless they were using someone else’s Social Security number.
Gun owners should be very concerned about Measure 88. If illegals are given driver’s licenses the next step will be voting privileges, which are already absurdly easy to get in Oregon. The supporters of 88 claimed that the driver’s “cards” could never be used for anything but driving. That’s already been proven false. Rest assured, the vast majority of illegals will not be voting for candidates who support gun rights.
The revelations of the criminal past of the Governor’s girlfriend are also troubling, not because of her fraudulent marriage or her illegal growing operation but because of the obvious ethical problems created by her misuse of her relationship with the Governor for her personal gain.
After three terms of Kitzhaber Oregon ranks near the bottom of everything. Our unemployment rates, graduation rates and economic health are getting close to third world status. Kitzhaber’s only response to this seems to be that he supports same sex marriage and abortion. And while that might be enough for some people, even the most committed leftists should demand a chief executive who is marginally competent and is not flushing millions of our dollars down the toilet with pathetic schemes like “Cover Oregon.”
Add to this Kitzhaber’s outrageous misuse of the Oregon State Police to push his anti-gun agenda and the decision on who to vote for becomes fairly easy.
Voters could be forgiven if they are scratching their heads over Ballot Measure 90. This measure would limit elections to only two candidates, the “top two” from whatever field started in what we now call a “primary.”
The voters pamphlet is filled with arguments for and against this measure. The proponents are claiming that this measure would open up the process to more voters and better candidates. Both rural Democrats and urban Republicans have published statements implying that this system would give them a voice they don’t have now.since they would be able to vote irrespective of the party they are in.
It is true that in Oregon an awful lot of voters are locked out of the process because they are independents and don’t have a vote in the primary elections, but it’s hard to imagine how this would be an improvement. In Portland, which is totally controlled by anti-gun Democrats, two anti-gun Democrats will be the “top two” in the final election. That gives a pro-gun independent or Republican (or third party member) the choice of voting for an anti-gun Democrat, or…an anti-gun Democrat. And while one could make the case that only an anti-gun Democrat can win in Portland anyway, you should not be forced to choose between casting your ballot for someone you disagree with or nobody.
Whether your candidate wins or loses, you should still have a right to make a statement with your vote and your conscience. A similar argument could be made if you are an anti-gun Democrat in eastern Oregon.
Almost certainly third party candidates will disappear. Currently, minor party candidates have almost no chance of winning, but they are still allowed to run, they are still allowed to make their positions known to the best of their ability despite being shut out by the mainstream media.
If neither of the “top two” candidates reflects your principles, shouldn’t you at least have the right to make a statement with your vote regardless of your candidate’s chances of winning? Toss into this mix this interesting factoid; Michael Bloomberg, who is spending millions to impose universal gun registration of the type used in New York for mass confiscations has put well over a million bucks into promoting this measure. Bloomberg does not exactly have a reputation of wanting to expand the voice of the people.
Oregon’s independent voters clearly need more access to the process. Some kind of “open primary” may be the way to achieve that. But Measure 90 seems to be nothing more than a way to limit choices. All too often we feel like we are stuck with the “lesser of two evils.” Measure 90 almost guarantees it.
You can find your current legislators and district here. Use the box in the lower right corner that says “Find My Legislators.”