Tina in Beaverton
Here in Oregon, we will be voting for our next Governor this Tuesday. It is a race among three women; Tina Kotek, a Democrat and longtime Speaker of our State Legislature, Christine Drazan, a MAGA Republican, and Betsy Johnson, running as an Independent to throw a spanner in the works as far as I can see (my own opinion).
How can I say that? Well, one billionaire has donated $2,000,000 to Betsy Johnson just last month — for a total of $3,750,000 overall. He also has been donating heavily to the Republican. Folks, I don’t feel good about this because it’s a tight race between Tina Kotek and the Republican — the MAGA Republican— and so much is at stake. This man wants to skew the race — and that’s not democratic.
Amen to that.
Tina has been meeting with small businesses across the State
Unfortunately, some poll numbers are favoring the Republican — and that scares me. This in spite of the fact that Oregon newspapers have endorsed Kotek — all of them, really.
It’s a tight race. Oregon could go Red. Tina needs your help to GOTV in these final days of the election. Click below for her campaign website:
We have a pile of heavy issues in Oregon. In addition to the things I want to see Oregon stay on the proper side of (the environment (we pride ourselves on that), health care and continued access to abortion, our wonderful ease of voter registration and the system of voting by mail). Jobs and the economy! The abortion issue is absolutely critical nationally. But two things have become especially dire here in the last few years; the need to house the homeless and the need to get guns off our streets in order to curb violence. I’ll go through these things one at a time.
Homelessness
Here in Portland but also elsewhere in the State, we have a terrible problem of homelessness that needs immediate attention from Salem. I think Tina is the right person to pull elements together in order to get services to people effectively. Just sweeping people away is cruel and ineffective. Homelessness in Oregon has become so serious, my friends. I about cried when I saw this — misery compounded by mismanaged resources and crossed wires.
As Governor, I trust Tina to make sure offices don’t trip over each other when delivering services. We want the person who can actually help people in the Governor’s office!
As I said, another big issue we have is guns. I live in Portland with my sister, we are two older, disabled women. We hear gunfire every night. Every. Single. Night. We used to feel very safe in this city and we don’t anymore. Both Drazan and Johnson are endorsed by the NRA. Of the three candidates, only Tina Kotek proposes common sense gun control.
Elephant in the room — Abortion
Of course abortion is a hot issue (it is for me) — and abortion is legal here. For now. It might not remain so if Drazan is elected. I hope that Oregon won’t ever be among the places where women and their doctors are limited by draconian laws such as we are now seeing in some Red States so, as with the gun issue, this is a heartfelt reason I do not want Drazan to become Governor. I may be past child-bearing age, but I want all women to have the reproductive rights that I had. It seems weird to have to say this in 2022 but women are not just wombs and yet an entire political party seems determined to take away our agency over our own bodies.
Heck, it’s not just women’s issues with reproductive care, all people of whatever gender need access to a full range of healthcare. We certainly don’t want to to lose any bit of what we have but more healthcare services and resources can only help Oregonians. I trust Tina to make sure that each of us get what we need.
She will protect the rights of all. To me, Tina Kotek projects respect, compassion, the willingness to listen to people from all walks, and the desire to make things work. She strikes me as being very service oriented toward the people of Oregon and I can’t wait until she is Governor.
I’ll leave you with an interview with Tina that covers these things and more.
From my heart, I beg you. And if you have the time tomorrow, there’s this:
