The 4th Congressional District debate is coming to Eugene

Every seat in Eugene’s WOW Hall was filled Friday afternoon for a lively forum between four candidates vying to represent the 4th Congressional District.

Many of the more than 100 attendees at the event hosted by the Eugene City Club appeared to have made up their minds about the candidates. Many wore campaign T-shirts, hats and pins and carried signs supporting the front-runners: Democratic US Representative Val Hoyle and her opponent Monique DeSpain, a Republican. Two other candidates, Justin Filip of the Pacific Green Party and Dan Bahlen, a Libertarian, also attended the forum.

All are vying to represent Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, which spans seven counties primarily along the southwest coast from the Oregon-California border to Lincoln City. Republicans hope to flip the seat to maintain their slim majority in the House. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 32 percent to 25 percent in the district, but the largest share of registered voters — 35 percent — are unaffiliated, and Republicans see Hoyle as a weak member of Congress in the first term for questions about his previous leadership as labor commissioner.

The front-runners – and the minority candidates – discussed a series of questions during the 80-minute debate. Moderator Rebecca Hansen-White, a reporter for local public radio station KLCC, asked the candidates about how to fight homelessness, address climate change and address the fentanyl crisis and drug addiction. They also talked about education, health care and the war in the Middle East while the audience shouted and jeered, prompting Hansen-White to stop and ask for silence several times.

Spar of frontrunners

Hoyle, who seemed to have the most support in the crowd judging by the cheers and jeers, was often on the defensive, responding to attacks on his voting record and major issues affecting Oregon.

“Voters are frustrated and disheartened by what they see in our communities and the fact that nothing is true, and nothing is being done, and in the Congress that represents our district we now have a career politician under federal investigation,” he said. DeSpain said.

Hoyle responded by touting his record of passing a handful of bills in his first term, calling the current Congress “one of the least productive.”

He blamed Republicans for that, saying they wasted three weeks picking a speaker.

“I have managed to pass five bills, each and every bipartisan. I’ve been able to return $86 million to this district in important things, in infrastructure and communications,” Hoyle said.

DeSpain, a retired military colonel who has not held elected office but has worked as a lawyer for Salem state Rep. Kevin Mannix, a prominent state Republican, criticized Hoyle on the addiction crisis, linking with the issues of border security and homelessness.

“The drug addiction problem is a big part of homelessness and mental health problems,” DeSpain said. “You don’t build a house and give the keys to a fentanyl addict courtesy of our tax dollars. That’s ridiculous.”

He said the fentanyl crisis is a border security issue.

“Fentanyl is not bubbling up on the sides of I-5,” DeSpain said. “It’s coming across our unsecured borders, and it’s causing addiction, despair, depression and death, and those things are costing money.”

They also discussed climate change, with Hoyle saying he expects natural disasters to get worse and proposing making the Federal Emergency Management Agency a cabinet-level office so it has strong full-time staffing and funding.

Hansen-White also asked the candidates about abortion, an issue Democrats are focusing on this year after Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court. DeSpain said it should be left up to the states. She also said she supports protecting access to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, saying she used it to have her two children.

Heated reactions

Questions related to Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon – with more than 44,000 civilians killed – prompted a heated response. Hoyle said the war is worrisome, but said Israel has a right to defend itself and Palestine has a right to an independent state, safety and security.

Filip, the Green Party candidate, who has repeatedly mentioned war, said he would vote for a permanent ceasefire and vote to ban further arms exports to Israel.

Last year, the US sent Israel nearly $18 billion in military aid.

DeSpain said he would support Israel as a US ally, adding: “I don’t believe in blank checks.”

The audience screamed and booed during that part of the debate and later expressed frustrations with the candidates. Some in the audience chanted “genocide is not a defense”.

Sydney Tucker-Vivian, 68, said she is frustrated with television ads that say DeSpain is against abortion and believes Hoyle is lying about her relationship with the co-founder of a cannabis company that is under federal investigation. Hoyle has denied reports of his cozy relationship with the co-founder of the company La Mota. While Hoyle was labor commissioner, the agency awarded La Mota millions of dollars for an apprenticeship program.

“I think politicians are very foolish to think they can get away with lying,” Tucker-Vivian said.

A retired cook at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, Tucker-Vivian doesn’t vote for parties, but for candidates, and previously voted for Hoyle’s predecessor, Peter DeFazio, a Democrat who served in Congress for 36 years . years

Others accused DeSpain of lying, expressing their displeasure with politicians.

“I’m from the Netherlands. I don’t lie This blatant lie is abhorrent to me,” said Monique Nickelson, a retired business owner and former real estate agent.

He said he was concerned about the TV attack ads against Hoyle, calling them false. Nickelson recently became a naturalized citizen after 40 years in the US and will vote for the first time in the Nov. 5 election. He said he will vote for Hoyle, hoping Democrats can take back the House of Representatives. He fears that if Republicans hold the House and Trump wins, his right to vote could be compromised.

“I can’t let this idiot Trump take over the country and let this be my first and last choice,” he said.