The Tillamook County Pioneer provides our communities with our expanded election coverage – Questions for the Candidates – provides our communities an introduction to the candidates and an unbiased view to compare the candidates side-by-side on important issues. All candidates were provided with the same questions; the questions were provided by a wide variety of Tillamook County residents. If you have other “questions for the candidates” – please forward them to editor@tillamookcountypioneer.net.
NOTE: The AAUW, with sponsors the Tillamook County Pioneer and Tillamook Headlight Herald, will provide a virtual candidates forum on Wednesday October 9th with the State Representative candidates. Here is the link for more information: https://www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/virtual-state-representative-district-32-candidates-forum-oct-9th/
Here are the candidates for State Representative District 32 – Andrew Davis and Cyrus Javadi (incumbent)
ANDREW DAVIS
1. Give your 2 minute elevator speech – 100 words or less – Why should voters vote for you?
I’m an experienced community leader who has devoted much of my adult life to trying to make a positive difference in the world. My values are progressive in the sense of trying to move government forward in step with society, and liberal in the sense of believing that we should allow individuals the most freedom possible to do what they choose in life while minimizing any harm they would do to others. I’m pro-choice, supportive of organized labor, and want to make sure our government balances our needs for growth with care for the least among us.
2. What do you think are the 3 most important issues to voters in our communities today? And what solutions would you offer to address these issues.
Rising cost of living is the biggest challenge I see in the district, including housing, healthcare, education, and groceries. The first three especially the government can play a critical role in by reducing barriers to new housing creation, working toward efficiency and curbing profit-seeking in healthcare, and providing foundational funding for education from early childhood to post-secondary public schools.
House District 32 faces significant challenges in county and special district budgeting because of the impacts of the Habitat Conservation Plan. I believe the State needs to play a role in making up for those shortfalls: readjustment of education funding formularies for rural school districts is foremost in my mind to ensure that forest policy changes do not harm the students in the district.
Finally, the district as a whole faces significant challenges with homelessness. While this is connected to overall issues with housing supply, not everyone who is now homeless would be able to take on a mortgage payment if there were just a few hundred extra houses built in the district. There are a variety of intermediate steps that need to be taken to support some of our residents who are living in their cars or on the street to help them get back on their feet, including continued expansion of shelter spaces, continued provision of mental health and substance use disorder treatment, and improved vocational education opportunities for those whose job skills are no longer competitive in our economy.
3. What is your view of Short-Term Rentals? Do you support caps?
In my role as a city council member for Astoria, I’ve been explicitly supportive of a cap on vacation rentals in the city. I believe short-term rentals can play a useful role in situations where there is surplus long-term housing stock that can be converted to make supplemental income for owners. In most of the communities in HD 32, there is not surplus housing stock, and communities should take action to limit the impacts of STRs before they take away the reasonable options for housing from lower and middle-income homebuyers and renters.
4. What is your stance on book bans? Would you support legislation to prevent book bans? What was the last book you read?
I am not in favor of book bans. I believe that we should make knowledge and perspectives available broadly to people and allow for public discussion and debate about what the right path forward for us as a society is. I do not believe in censoring materials except for very limited public health and safety reasons (like books about how to build bombs, etc.).
I’ve got a bit of an addiction to buying books, and one of the impacts is that I’m constantly rotating between 3-4 different titles: the one in my bag, in my car, by my bedside, and usually another floater. The last book I finished was “Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor” by Kim Kelly, but other recent favorites have been “The Power Broker”, “The Dawn of Everything”, and I’m currently enjoying “Mythos” by Stephen Fry.
5. Do you think our elections are safe and secure? Why? Or, why not?
I’ve volunteered during several elections over the past 8 years as an election observer in Clatsop County, and I volunteered as a poll worker in Indiana before coming to Oregon. I’ve never observed anything that made me doubt the integrity of our elections. If nothing else, the fact that citizens can take part in observing the election process, ballot counting, and sorting in Oregon is significant reassurance to me that our process is safe and secure. Most counties even have live video feeds of the sorting and counting processes as they are ongoing, so I have no concerns about Oregon’s election process.
I do believe that citizens should continue to be vigilant about our election processes, pay attention to changes and challenges to them, and make sure that the level of transparency that is present now is retained in Oregon’s communities. I do have concerns that not everyone in society believes in the core values of democracy, and that those of us that do have to consistently work toward defending our right to participate in and decide the future of our country and communities.
6. Who are your top five campaign donors? What percentage of your donors are local (Oregon)?
My top five donors are:
Laity for Community (21927)
Citizen Action for Political Education (33)
Clatsop Citizens for Good Government (14420)
Future PAC, House Builders (1524)
Friends of Debbie Boothe-Schmidt (20556)
It looks like our current percentage of donors being local to Oregon is 92%, with 95% of our total donation amount. Several of those donors from outside the state are friends and family, since I was born in the Midwest and have some support from there. I don’t suspect they have any agenda beyond helping a loved one.
CYRUS JAVADI (Incumbent)
1. Give your 2 minute elevator speech – 100 words or less – Why should voters vote for you?
Voters should support me because I prioritize the needs of our district over party politics. In my first
term, I sponsored numerous bills that directly benefited our community. I introduced legislation to
make housing development easier for cities and counties, worked to recriminalize dangerous drug
possession, and secured millions in funding for district projects to improve infrastructure and expand
healthcare access. I also fought hard against a version of the habitat conservation plan that would have
severely impacted public services and cost hundreds of forest industry jobs.
2. What do you think are the 3 most important issues to voters in our communities today? And what solutions would you offer to address these issues.
Three major issues are: first, the shortage of affordable housing and essential infrastructure,
particularly for lower- and middle-income families; second, the impact of high inflation driving up costs
for essentials like food, clothing, and utilities; third, the growing challenges of homelessness, drug
addiction, and the lack of adequate mental health treatment services and resources.
To address the housing crisis, I will introduce legislation allowing counties to reduce the minimum lot size within one mile of an urban growth boundary from two acres to ½ acre, and within five miles to a minimum of one acre.
To tackle rising prices, I will sponsor legislation to reduce fees and state income taxes, while also advocating to raise the corporate activity tax exemption limit for small businesses from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 in revenue.
For the mental health and drug addiction crisis, I will work to secure funding for non-profits and coastal municipalities to build mental health facilities, train employees, and strengthen law enforcement through hiring and proper training.
3. What is your view of Short-Term Rentals? Do you support caps?
Short-term rentals play a key role in our coastal tourism economy, especially since we don’t have enough hotel options to accommodate all the visitors. This shortage results in more “daytrippers” than “overnight visitors,” but data shows that overnight guests spend more money at local businesses like restaurants and shops. I believe the best approach is to let local communities determine the right number of short-term rentals. At the same time, we should create incentives for property owners to offer long-term rentals, such as tax credits, reduced system development charges for new homes, and expanding buildable lots away from the beaches to increase housing options that aren’t short-term rentals.
4. What is your stance on book bans? Would you support legislation to prevent book bans? What was the last book you read?
I do not support book bans and would back legislation to prevent them. Parents should collaborate with schools to express concerns about materials they find objectionable. The last book I read was On the Shortness of Life by Seneca, and I’m currently reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
5. Do you think our elections are safe and secure? Why? Or, why not?
Yes, I believe our elections are safe and secure. Local officials work diligently to ensure election rules are followed and that ballots are valid. However, despite their hard work, there are issues that local and state leaders need to address. Recently, the Secretary of State audited voter registration and
found over 1,200 people incorrectly registered through the DMV, and some of them were able to vote. Every vote counts, and it’s crucial that election officials work relentlessly to protect the integrity of the voting process so Oregonians can trust in the legitimacy of those elected.
6. Who are your top five campaign donors? What percentage of your donors are local (Oregon)?
Bring Balance to Salem PAC, Jobs PAC, Hampton Lumber, PAPE Machinery, and Oregon Realtors PAC And, 99.54% of donors are from people, businesses, unions, and political action committees who live and/or do business in Oregon. The majority of the few people who have donated to my campaign from out-of-state are friends and family.