Independent Party candidate Cliff Thomason answers a question during an Oregon gubernatorial debate at Winston Churchill High School in Eugene on Oct. 6, 2016.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
Attempts to categorize Cliff Thomason's politics as leaning Republican or Democratic are pointless.
Some of his views, such as his support for a single-payer health-care system and the development of a state bank, indicate a more liberal outlook. Other stances, such as his opposition to increasing the minimum wage and the new clean fuels standard, reflect a more conservative stance. So it's fitting that he would represent the Independent Party of Oregon during their first year as a "major party" on the ballot.
Thomason, a real estate agent-turned-hemp farmer, enters the race from outside the public sector. However, he says he has a unique perspective on what what is and isn't working in Oregon from his experience working for the hemp industry in the Oregon Legislature and petitioning for the Oregon Lottery Local Control Act.
In terms of what is going right, Thomason points to Oregon's efforts to address climate change and modernize voter registration through the Motor Voter Law. As for what is going wrong, he says he's concerned with the Democratic Party's control of state politics and the Republican Party's inability to pose an effective challenge.
He believes that this political homogeneity has a particularly negative impact on public education.
"I think that we throw a broad blanket over decisions in public education, and we have such diverse school districts," Thomason says. "I think our educators are better equipped to educate and graduate our students than the legislative body."
[series: election-2016,left,56f47da999429c0031c62036] Thomason believes that federal Common Core standards are an example of such broad blanket governance and that more local control is needed. He has also proposed setting up a system in which high school students are given two diplomas: a GED after their sophomore year and a high school diploma after their senior year.
One area in which Thomason differs starkly from the two other major party candidates, Bud Pierce and Governor Kate Brown, is environmental management. He says the state has done a terrible job managing its natural resources and believes the best solution would be to give state-controlled natural lands back to Oregon's tribal nations.
"You have Bud wanting to rekindle the timber industry, and Kate Brown wants to save the Woodland critters. Myself, I'd just as soon give it back to the people we took it from," Thomason says. "Maybe we could see a transition from a casino-based economy to a natural resource one, creating tens of thousands of family-wage jobs and seeing the rise and rebirth of sovereign nations within Oregon."
Thomason says the tribes would be able to conserve Oregon's forests better than the state, while managing logging and mining industries in a way that would create jobs.
Over the last few years, many urban areas such as Portland and Bend have been thriving in terms of population and job growth, while many rural counties have struggled. Thomason says making the cannabis industry more accessible would help the economy of rural Oregon.
"We still can't do banking in the cannabis industry until we have federal lifting or easing of restrictions," he says.
Part of the reason he supports the creation of a state bank is to protect those working in the cannabis industry. He says a state bank could be a pathway toward legal banking and would help the cannabis industry transition away from a cash-only model.
At a recent gubernatorial debate between the three candidates, Thomason said he did not support Measure 97, the ballot measure to increase taxes on companies with more than $25 million in annual sales in Oregon. He does support a sales tax.
Oregon voters have rejected a sales tax nine times in the last 90 years, but Thomason notes that they haven't been asked to consider one in two decades. He says Oregonians could get behind a sales tax, given the need for consistent funding.
"We have one of the highest income taxes in the nation," he says. "A sales tax isn't going to be what people think of in Washington and California, in that high 8 to 9 percent range. I think that it's going to be something coming under 4 percent."
Thomason has not had previous experience in government. He says experience does not always make a candidate a better option.
"(Gov. Brown) does have experience in the legislature and she's had a year and a half of direct experience in there. But ... that year and half she has been in there has not been a positive one for Oregon," he says. "I think someone coming in fresh is a good thing for Oregon."