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.

During a virtual forum with the Marion County Democratic Party, Richard Walsh, running for Senate District 11, declared his support for a $22 billion tax hike on Oregonians to create a universal health care system. This is just $6 billion less that the State of Oregon’s entire general fund for the entire 2021-2023 biennium. This is an unprecedented expansion of state government.

Senate District 11 covers parts of Marion County, including Woodburn and much of Salem. Richard Walsh is competing against Senator Kim Thatcher for Speaker Peter Courtney’s district upon his retirement.

Kim Thatcher voted against single payer government run universal health care in 2019, HB 2447, and introduced a Vaccine Passport ban and advocated against forced vaccinations and for vaccine safety while legislators were trying to exempt themselves from what they were trying to force on the public. Thatcher repeatedly sponsors various forms on protecting the unborn from inception to 20-weeks to ‘care of life’ if a child is born alive after attempted abortion. She also passed legislation that cracks down on sex offenders.

Walsh says, “I will protect and defend a woman's fundamental right to control her own body. We must protect access to the full scope of reproductive health care, including access to abortion. I will fight to preserve accessible, affordable care in Oregon.”

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

Walsh says, “housing affordability must be addressed. To do this we need to address the core issues of income inequality, financing, and affordable housing inventory.” Thatcher takes another approach, “The government has layered costly regulations and permitting making it more expensive to build new homes… Oregon’s population is outpacing her supply of homes. We can loosen the crippling regulations contributing to the housing and homeless crisis. I will defend against any changes to raising caps on property taxes that drive up housing costs.”

Walsh wants to address rising costs by cracking down on price gouging in areas where Oregonians are struggling to keep up with rising costs. He says, “We all deserve housing, health care, and transportation that’s affordable, and I am ready to tackle this problem by prioritizing the needs of our working families.”

Thatcher has consistently voted and advocated against reducing greenhouse emissions 100% below baseline, the electric vehicle agenda and the $5.3 billion transportation infrastructure raising gas taxes and allowing tolling in HB 3055 and HB 2021. She also did not support SB 390, requiring 100% of electricity to be generated utilizing renewable and carbon-free energy.

Walsh supports SB 554 as common-sense gun safety measures to prevent gun violence like safe storage and capacity limits. He says it “allows us to protect our children and keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of those who don’t need them, while still preserving core constitutional rights for responsible gun owners.”

Thatcher was vocal against SB 554 calling it a trap. “SB 554 will set up numerous potential “felony traps” all over the state for those with Concealed Handgun Licenses (CHL).” Thatcher’s survey responses: https://bit.ly/OAA2022-KimThatcher


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-10-08 06:17:48

Last Update: 2022-10-05 11:08:55