Hoyle, DeSpain, Filip, Bahlen on the subjects

The four candidates running to represent southwest Oregon in Congress made their cases Friday at a lively forum hosted by the City Club of Eugene.

Val Hoyle, the incumbent Democrat, touted the accomplishments of her first two years in Congress to a crowd of dozens of her supporters and worked to sell herself as someone who understood Washington, D.C., and could bring more investment to Oregon if given they gave two more years.

Republican candidate Monique DeSpain worked to tie Hoyle to unpopular aspects of Democratic leadership and promote herself as an outsider capable of breaking with her party.

Green Party candidate Justin Filip positioned himself as a progressive alternative to Hoyle, particularly on the Palestinians and Israel. Libertarian candidate Dan Bahlen promoted a “market-driven civilian conservation corps” as a tool to address many regional problems.

Introductions

As they introduced themselves, the candidates highlighted the experiences they said qualified them for Congress.

Hoyle said he moved to Eugene in 1999, had children who graduated from Churchill High School and worked in the public sector while scouting for pro-labor candidates before serving as a state representative, commissioner of business and labor and , finally, to Congress, where he described it. first year term as “highly effective”.

DeSpain highlighted his career as a US Air Force colonel and JAG officer. He touted his military and legal background as crime-fighting experience and criticized the experience Hoyle highlighted, pointing to his relationship with La Mota’s founder and criticizing votes he said were against the borders and law enforcement.

Bahlen cited experiences working for the Apache tribal government, as a federal whistleblower and homeless. Filip highlighted his experience with the Pacific Green Party and promoted the party as well as himself.

education

When asked how they could improve education, Hoyle and Filip expressed a desire to send more federal funding to public schools, which Hoyle said House Republicans had been working against. Hoyle emphasized the need for vocational and technical education, while Philip emphasized reducing class sizes and improving the social safety net.

DeSpain criticized Oregon’s low education ratings and said education would not be improved with more money. Instead, he advocated for elected officials to take a closer look at education funding and tie money to education policies.

Bahlen promoted curriculum reform. He advocated for schools to teach critical thinking, commit to race and sexuality education, and streamline higher education to be shorter.

Health care

When asked how they would promote access to health care, Hoyle and Filip said they support Medicare for all. Hoyle added that he would work to bring more funding for workforce housing to the congressional district, saying the housing shortage made it difficult to recruit medical providers. Filip added that the United States should not support Israel, saying the country was withdrawing health care from those in Palestine.

DeSpain disagreed with Republicans who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but said “monopolies don’t work” and that a government-run single-payer health care system would run into the same problems as a monopoly for profit. He said deregulation would make it easier for providers to offer health care and criticized Hoyle’s response to what he saw as a lack of housing development during Hoyle’s time in office.

Bahlen said a market-driven civilian conservation corps could provide health care and criticized current government programs as “efficient to be ineffective.”

the abortion

DeSpain said he believes abortion laws should be left up to the states and would keep Oregon’s abortion laws. She criticized Hoyle’s ads, saying they mischaracterized her on abortion and IVF, which she said she used to have her children.

The other three candidates said they wanted to restore access to abortion nationwide and argued that DeSpain accepting the Constitution Party’s endorsement meant she could not be trusted on the issue. Hoyle added that he supports the House bill that seeks to restore abortion laws as they were before the Dobbs decision.

Homeless

When asked how they would address homelessness, Filip said he would appeal to the House Appropriations Committee for funding and criticized Hoyle for not doing so.

Hoyle said he had brought $86 million to the congressional district during his tenure. That didn’t include money for the homeless because the appropriations committee set specific criteria, but it worked to get money for work housing and Section 8 vouchers, which would reduce homelessness.

DeSpain said he would reduce homelessness by policing the US-Mexico border, which he said would reduce the supply of drugs and get more people in a healthy state of mind to seek housing.

Bahlen said he is homeless and that a market-driven civilian conservation corps would provide jobs to get people out of the situation.

Israel/Palestine

When asked about the war in Gaza, DeSpain and Bahlen expressed their support for Israel. DeSpain said that supporting Israel was a matter of national and international security, while Dahlen compared Israel to Ukraine and Taiwan and claimed that not supporting Israel would empower Russia and China.

Philip expressed his support for Palestine. He described the war in Gaza as genocide and said the US should stop funding it, push for a permanent ceasefire and restore UN relief work in Palestine.

Hoyle said a middle approach. He said “Israel has the right to defend itself” but that war crimes should be punished and endorsed a long-term two-state solution.

Climate Change

Filip said he would fight climate change through demilitarization. He said that in addition to the pollutants caused by fighting, the money currently being spent on the military should be spent domestically, including on the fight against climate change.

Hoyle said he would work to pass more bills, such as the infrastructure bill passed early in the Biden administration, which included money for green energy. He also said he wants to increase funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and make it a cabinet-level agency so the federal government can better respond to natural disasters made more frequent by climate change.

DeSpain said the U.S. should address climate change by pushing other countries, especially China, to decarbonize. He added that efforts to reduce emissions must be weighed against their costs to taxpayers and criticized Hoyle for opposing the Fix Our Forest Act.

Bahlen said a market-driven civilian conservation corps would be a tool to address climate change.

Addiction, fentanyl and the US-Mexico border

When asked how to combat fentanyl addiction, the candidates turned to the border.

Hoyle said border agents could combat fentanyl addiction with more resources and said he supported the border bill being considered in Congress before it was not resolved. He blamed Donald Trump for the bill’s failure, saying he killed to continue campaigning on the issue.

DeSpain also said he wanted to control the US-Mexico border and criticized Hoyle for not supporting another border bill.

Bahlen said the US should return the border to the Apache people, who would control it enough.

Filip criticized Hoyle for supporting this border bill and said that the best way to fight addiction was with investments in society.

Cost of living

DeSpain and Dahlin blamed the high cost of living on high government spending, while Hoyle and Filip blamed it on corporations.

DeSpain argued that he could reduce the cost of living by reducing government spending and regulating the border.

Bahlen said a market-driven civilian conservation corps would provide jobs to those struggling financially.

Philip passed Measure 118 as a way to help people make ends meet.

Hoyle endorsed unions and said supporting unions and encouraging schools to offer certifications would allow more people to enter higher-paying jobs.

polarization

When asked how they would fight polarization, DeSpain said she has experienced conflict resolution in her professional and personal life and would be more willing to break with the Republican Party than Hoyle with the Democrat.

Bahlen and Filip said that, as third-party candidates, they were well positioned to avoid such polarization.

Hoyle said his record in his two years in Congress was bipartisan, including the five bills he passed.

Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. He can be contacted by email at [email protected] or X @alanfryetorres.