Oregon Needs Green Leadership
It is time for radical change in Oregon. Our current leadership has ensured a standard of living for Oregonians that is good, but it isn’t enough.
Oregonians are seeing the game being played. The two corporate-controlled parties have divided the state in half, with a strong libertarian and conservative Republican base in the East and a socially progressive Democratic monopoly through the Willamette Valley and I-5 corridor. Greens seek common ground as a starting point to broker peace and unity to protect our ecosystems.
We need better oversight for environmental protection. Salem is experiencing a water contamination crisis. Portland has seen controversy related to hazardous spills, air quality in North Portland, and commercial release of toxic gas. Our state has a broken education system (48th in the nation for graduation rates), a housing crisis, an inhumane prison-industrial complex, “access” to unaffordable health care, a rise in political violence including hate crimes, and the possible construction of a natural gas pipeline on the horizon.
The Trump agenda has led to ICE harassment of immigrant communities, and I fully support the #OccupyICEPDX direct action taking place in my community. It is time to resist.
I’m running for Governor because I love Oregon and want to help it flourish. I am also running because I am committed to serving the Pacific Green Party. I have been a registered Green since 2012, and I value the Four Pillars of the Green Party: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice. This campaign is an opportunity to expand the Pacific Green’s base to encompass a truly statewide platform, while also revolutionizing how Greens engage in the political process through decentralization. In every town where we can rally at least five people to register as Pacific Greens, we can give them the tools to start their own local Party chapter. This process will grow the Party into a structure that will remain in place after this campaign.
A question we should be asking ourselves every day is, “What can I do to make the world a Greener place?” One solution we need is a ban on single-use plastics: tableware, straws, to-go containers, etc. Plastic is a petroleum product, there are biodegradable and renewable solutions, and we can engineer them here in Oregon.
Caring for the environment shouldn’t be a divisive issue of left versus right. I believe in building community based on the principles of mutual aid, respect, and solidarity. If elected, I will bring to Salem the Green Party’s commitment to grassroots democracy (campaign finance reform, direct action, citizen assemblies, ranked-choice and other alternative voting measures), nonviolence (protecting our immigrant communities through stronger Sanctuary legislation, anti-racist community watch, negotiating for peace first in all dealings), ecological wisdom (fighting the LNG pipeline, introducing Green New Deal legislation), and social justice (ending the school-to-prison pipeline, ensuring quality universal education from Pre-K through college, criminal justice reform, and making Oregon the first state to institute single-payer healthcare for all).
KEY ISSUES
Education reform: Universal Pre-K, free college, better Arts and STEM programming
Supporting efforts of mutual aid, solidarity, and direct action in communities facing oppression
Ecological stewardship: water protection, honor sacred land, no pipelines, honor Native tribes and continue to foster good relations
Criminal Justice reform: Restorative Justice in our schools, prisons, and courtrooms, end grand juries, guarantee trial by peers, transform our police forces by demilitarization into an organization focused on community building and peace, decriminalize sex work.
Green New Deal: jobs for the environment, infrastructure, transportation, energy, introduce a Peace Economy that will push towards divestment from the military-industrial complex, for-profit prisons, and the extraction industries.
Establish an Oregon State Bank, which among other things will help with the current freeze on our cannabis tax cashflow ($60 million in revenue)
Supporting small businesses in the cannabis industry; majority shareholders must reside in Oregon.
Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and calculate living wages proportionate to cost of living in urban areas.
Strengthen our Sanctuary legislation, resisting ICE with a diversity of tactics, including support for the peaceful occupation of an ICE facility currently taking place in Portland. (#OccupyICEPDX)
Refusing to normalize the neofascism of the Trump Agenda.
OHA: Investigate the misuse and overpayment of over $100 million within the Oregon Health Authority. Any misspent funds is a serious issue, and given our housing crisis and the needs of our schools, this is completely unacceptable.
Campaign finance reform: publicly financed elections, donor limits, end lobbying, no more political action committees.
Mass transit across the state that is eco-friendly, connect Eastern Oregon to West, publicly run.
Incentivize green energy transitions for businesses and homeowners
Sustainable agriculture: pesticide restrictions, protect pollinators, animal rights
