The incident
Some conservatives expressed outrage recently over Willamette Week's action to kick Mark Callahan from the editorial board's interview with Republican candidates, over his refusal to play by WW's rules. The national media has taken to calling WW a liberal rag, but funny thing is, WW has frequently endorsed Republican candidates and gone against liberal ballot measures. Notably, last election cycle they were against the Portland Arts Tax -- something I supported.In the video the dust up came at 1:06, but at 0:53 he first raised his voice and complained about the "Monica and Jason show", then popped off again at 1:04, saying, "You're not being fair".
When given a chance to talk (jump to 0:57), he spoke like a right-wing nut, calling the Obama Administration the gestapo, saying that the department of energy should be turned over to the private sector (hey, Enron anyone???), and referring to Common Core as socialism.
When pushed, he admitted that he would have to perform additional research on the issue of what the energy department does. Sad, no?
You can understand why WW was dismissive of his presence.
But you know, this isn't some liberal thing. Lars Larson also dug into him, exposing Callahan's inconsistencies and opportunism.
No time?
Okay, so maybe you don't have all the time in the world to watch the entire 100 minutes. Let me surmise it for you:
Monica Wehby's the big shot in the primary, not because she's a big shot name, but because she's the one attracting all the money into her campaign such that she's backed out of the only televised debate. She believes that she can defeat her main opponent -- state Rep. Jason Conger -- in the primary without having to defend herself in front of voters.
So who is Monica Wehby?
Monica Wehby is a moderate running on a one-trick pony: repeal (and replace) ACA. She generally accepted Senator Ron Wyden's plan -- which was never brought to a vote -- though her own plan is nothing like Wyden's plan and in her interview she cannot establish how she'd lower medical costs other than to help provide indirect tax credits through pre-tax HSAs and nebulous promises of tax credits.
She supports gay marriage but is opposed to marijuana legalization (apparently her support for state's rights goes only so far). She believes in global warming, but obfuscates on the role humans have played in it.
The rest of what she has to say on the issues is all a bunch of towing the national conservative line, of course, without getting into the details: Too much gov't waste, but doesn't know where the waste is; thinks we should be tougher in foreign policy but won't use red lines or force, and can't delineate what she would have done differently to make other countries take us seriously.
The rest
Jason Conger is a politician running as a conservative. He's against gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana. Elsewhere (from the Oregonian) he's stated that he's against abortions. He pragmatically voted to establish Cover Oregon, but said that he was against the ACA. Like Wehby, Conger knows that there is waste in the government but can't point to where it is.Tim Crawley wasn't prepared, but at least he was very courteous.
Jo Rae Perkins was generally inaudible, but measured everything against the US Constitution, so she's probably in the wrong party.
None of the above
If Wehby had stated that she wanted to modify the ACA to look more like Ron Wyden's HHA plan, she'd have a very strong shot at beating Merkley, even if she faced tough odds of winning the GOP primary. Instead, she's pinned her proposal to the national GOP talking points plan of repeal and replace. Everything else about her screams independent moderate, which is the necessary starting point to be competitive in statewide elections in Oregon.
Jason Conger was at some point the top candidate, but he doesn't have the money to keep up with Wehby and he has zero name recognition outside of Bend, Oregon. Without name recognition and money to spread his name, I can't see how he's supposed to win.
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