Editor's note: Oregon Abigail Adams Voter Education Project equips voters with information on how candidates stand on issues through a questionnaire process featured in comparison guides.

Valerie Draper Woldeit is challenging the veteran legislator Sara Gelser Blouin for Senate District 8, which covers northwestern Linn County and northeastern Benton County, centered around Albany and Corvallis.

Draper Woldeit has been a school teacher since 1980 and seen firsthand the short comings of Oregon’s education system. She says, “politicians continually lower standards and then make excuses for the failing government school system. Government keeps pushing extreme agendas in the classroom, pushing mandates and closures.” She wants to get schools back to the basics to prepare students for the real world.

Gelser Blouin’s idea for improving the high school graduation rate is to “empower youth to direct their own services and protecting their right to speak publicly about their own experiences.” Her voting record supports lowering the high school diploma standards due to inequities and disparities. Gelser Blouin carried HB 2023 for a floor vote in 2019 that required all curriculum content include instruction on history, contributions and perspective of minorities including refugees, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.

In 2018, Gelser Blouin also proposed an amendment to SB 1540 that would have lowered the sexual consent age to 12 allowing 13-year-olds to engage in legal sexual activity with adults. Her education focus seems to be on minorities, eliminating discriminatory barriers particularly for Black, Indigenous and students of color, immigrants and gender identity students.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Gelser Blouin wants to expand access to life-saving mental health treatment. She has trouble walking the talk. She was accused in 2020 for treating her chief of staff harshly for taking leave for mental health reasons. That occurred after she led the charge against the Republican Senators walking-out, and she refused to show up for floor votes, claiming she felt in danger, until another Senator was removed for saying threats against the State Police if they had been deployed during the walk out. Gelser Blouin said, “the situation shows that the Legislature had learned little from a sexual harassment suit she had brought the prior year.”

Gelser Blouin has a narrow focus platform discussing every issue from the point of tackling longstanding disparities for BIPOC communities in health care and stopping any efforts to roll back equal rights for the LGBTQIA+ community. She opposes any effort to restrict women’s access to abortion.

Draper Woldeit believes Oregon has failed at nearly every level at honoring the dignity of life. “Every life has value, regardless of age. I will be a strong advocate for our most vulnerable, from the unborn, to foster youth, and the elderly.” She wants to go to Salem to be a check and balance on government power and overreach so shut downs and mandates never happen again.

Gelser Blouin’s stance on the economy is to continue to pass legislation to reduce carbon emissions, invest in communities impacted by the effects of climate change, and make transportation investments and policies that reduce reliance on fossil fuels. She voted to allow tolling, and supports the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain.

Draper Woldeit pledges to be a strong supporter of law enforcement and thinks Oregon can do better to provide a safe and prosperous place to live, curb inflation and stop government from constantly raising taxes with nothing to show for it. She believes in reviving our culture of constitutional rights and liberties. She says, “it’s time to change course by reforming taxes and cutting red tape to make our beautiful state more affordable and unleash Oregon jobs...so every Oregonian has the opportunity to realize their full potential.”


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-10-05 09:16:15

Last Update: 2022-10-05 16:20:17