Candidates for Governor: Stan Pulliam

This month, we invited nine of the candidates vying to be Oregon’s next governor for interviews. The seat is open for the first time since 2015. Stan Pulliam is seeking the Republican nomination. He’s currently the mayor of Sandy, where he grew up. He has also worked as a legislative staffer. In 2020, Pulliam pushed back against statewide COVID-19 restrictions as a prominent voice in the Main Street Mayors coalition.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB, I’m Dave Miller. Stan Pulliam joins us now. He is in the Republican primary for Oregon Governor. He works in the insurance industry and was elected Mayor of Sandy in 2018. Stan Pulliam, welcome to Think Out Loud.

Stan Pulliam: Thanks for having me. Great to be on.

Miller: What issue is most important to you in this race for Oregon Governor?

Pulliam: There’s several, but to go down to one, I’d have to start with we have to address the culture of criminality happening in Portland, and large communities like Portland, Eugene, throughout this state. And the fact that our State Police, our police, we used to have 30 officers per 100,000 people. That number today is eight. And then we wonder why we have all the problems that we have. We wonder why we have the homeless problems that are growing out of the city of Portland, infesting every corner of the state. We wonder why more people were murdered in the city of Portland last year than any other point in the state’s history, and we’re already on track to beat that number. That’s not to talk about all the crime and petty crime and everything else out there. So, I’d say the first thing we have to address here in this state is addressing the culture of criminality and really supporting our police.

Miller: What is a culture of criminality?

Pulliam: What I’m talking about there is, you think about Portland, right? You think about the homeless problem. You think about the fact that in 2017, over 50% of the people arrested in the city of Portland were experiencing homelessness. You think about these [catalytic] converters being stolen out of these vehicles. You think about the fact that my office is in the Lloyd area and the other day, I’m getting ready to drive home from work and I see this young man, he’s crossing the street and he’s got all these clothes strung over his arm, right? The tags are still on, he’s got women’s clothes, kids’ clothes. But you know what Dave, there’s not a worry on this kid’s face. Why? Because he knows if I call 911, it’s going to be at least 15 minutes until I get an operator on the phone. I get a hold of somebody, it’s gonna be hours until the police show up and they finally get there. They may be writing a citation at best. And so when I talk ‘culture of criminality’, I’m talking about just allowing the festering of the homeless and stuff growing and some of the riots on the nightly news. I’m talking about a Multnomah County DA that’s essentially legalized violent crime, by catching and release policies in the city of Portland.

Miller: But you’re running for Oregon Governor not to be Multnomah County DA, or Mayor of Portland. So what is the Governor’s role with respect to the issues you’re talking about here?

Pulliam: Well, hold on. Portland is the brand of the state. I talk to people all the time. You travel around the country, you play the ‘where are you’re from’ game and people are embarrassed to say Oregon because of all the nonsense going on in Portland. And so as Governor, you absolutely are the Governor of the entire state, of the City of Portland, the largest metropolitan area. You know, the issues are growing outside of Portland. Cancer spreads. You think about the fact that 40% of the homeless issue was concentrated in the city of Portland just 10 years ago. That number today is 20%. What’s that mean? We’ve seen the issue grow, but the percentage impact has gone down. Why? Because it’s growing out of the City of Portland. And so when I talk about tripling the size of the State Police, that’s because we’re going to step in and we’re definitely gonna look to take leadership on what’s going on in Portland. You talk about the Multnomah County DA, you’re right, but you know what I do have power over? I can swear in a small portion of our State Police as US Marshals. That way when they make an arrest, those folks, those criminals go into federal court and outside of that Multnomah County DA’s jurisdiction. So, Dave to really answer your question. You’re right, we’re used to these politicians who run for office, they say they’re going to fix the world’s problems. They get in there and then they point the finger and say they don’t have control over it. Well, we refuse to lead that way. And so if the elected officials in the City of Portland are not going to stand up and fight for that community, for that city, you better believe as our next Governor that I will.

Miller: So just so we’re clear, and one example would be more Oregon State Police policing in the City of Portland and cracking down in various ways on homelessness?

Pulliam: We have a full plan we’ve actually put out. So the Ninth Circuit Court decision has come out and said, if you’re going to move a homeless camp, you’ve got to provide an alternative location. Look at the Port of Portland property, for example. In the plan that we’ve laid out, you can do an alternative location on Port of Portland property, they have their own law enforcement security there, the Governor appoints the commissioners and the Director of the Port of Portland. There’s no reason that we can’t house folks in an alternative location instead of our downtown course. And here’s the deal. When folks break the rules, when they break the law, we put them in jail, there’s got to be consequences to people’s actions. And we’re going to set the tone from the top. We’re going to back the police, whether they’re a Portland Police Officer or a State of Oregon Police Officer. You know, they’re talking about trying to hire more officers in the City of Portland right now, but they can’t recruit any because these officers know that they don’t have leaders that have their back. So if there’s an incident, instead of doing a press conference the next day like Joanne Hardesty or Ted Wheeler, where you have the back of the criminal, the Governor of the State of Oregon under a Pulliam Administration is going to have a press conference the next day backing our police, backing those folks that keep our community safe. It’s a position of leadership, statewide leadership and that’s what we’re going to demonstrate as our next Governor.

Miller: How would you approach K - 12 education in Oregon?

Pulliam: Well, I think we’ve got to return power back to parents and strengthen local school boards. We have seen more and more power being concentrated in state government at the state level and taken out of the hands of parents. We saw that during the COVID-19 pandemic. We saw where parents didn’t have the control of getting their kids back in the classroom, forced mask wearing, forced vaccines on the kids. I want to lead us into a position of school choice where money follows the student, where we get to personalize individualized learning for our children and where in the privacy of our own lives, parents with their kids can pick the educational futures for our kids. And this isn’t school choice, like we used to talk about, where you basically had a choice between the public education system or private schools. You think about the fact that Portland Public Schools just had 30% of parents un-enroll their kids from Portland Public Schools. These are the folks that had the means and the ability to do so. Well, there are too many middle class, dual-working household parents out there to really be able to meet that. So let’s go to school choice, let’s give variety. Let’s go to Charter Schools. So let’s go to learning pods. Let’s go to some online schooling. If that were down the street from where I live, there’s an old equestrian center that now has a learning center there for kids where they learn through equestrian and farm to table and there’s some personality types that’s just going to foster and inspire like you wouldn’t believe. And so that’s how we would lead. You asked me about education despite the fact that we’re in the top half of what we spend nationally. Our kids go to some of the worst ranked schools in this country – 46 out of 50 in overall education; 47th out of 50 in graduation rates. What we’re doing isn’t working. Let’s turn the power in the hands of parents and local school boards.

Miller: There’s a lot there, but early on you talked about forcing kids to wear masks. Obviously there was a mask mandate in K-12 schools which is no longer there. You also talk about forced vaccines. There was no COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students. For a long time, for decades, there have been (vaccine mandates), for plenty of other diseases. Are you saying you want to get rid of say, the measles mumps, rubella vaccine?

Pulliam: No, we want to keep it exactly how it was. But you have candidates for Governor on the Democrat side like Tobias Read, who has stood up and said that they want to make these COVID-19 vaccines mandatory.

Miller: Oh, you were talking there about what an opponent wants to do as opposed to what you wish had not happened.

Pulliam: Absolutely. And what leadership in the direction that they’re looking to take.

Miller: Okay, it was a little bit confusing. But I get that. Now yesterday you criticized the Salem-Keiser School District for its inclusion policy for transgender students. What motivated that policy is the concern that if students’ identities and lives are not affirmed, if they don’t feel like they belong, they were less likely to thrive in school and are more likely to take their own lives. That’s the concern. What’s your concern?

Pulliam: Well, first, let me just say this. We absolutely need to create and foster an environment where our children who decide that they are trans or they are going through gender-identity issues, feel comfortable and have the ability to express that. But listen, here’s my concern, as the father of two girls. You know, you talk about what these policies do and we had an Oregonian article that was totally critical, pushing a ‘left wing woke agenda’ that was released this morning. But here’s what it confirmed. At the end of the day, it confirmed that starting in age kindergarten, that boys could decide what gender they are, and to play in girls sports. It also confirmed that in our schools right now, boys can go into the girls’ locker room or in the girls’ bathroom whenever they would like. That is fostering education around the roles of parents. We talked about a week ago, in North Clackamas, they talked about a gingerbread cookies, and had students pointing to their gender identity and they had the principal and they’re talking about their sexual orientation and those things. My point is that this is supposed to be the role of parents. These are supposed to be the role of the decisions that are going on in the privacy of our own homes. And here’s the deal at the minimum. There should be transparency around this. Parents should not be finding out about this after the fact. And here’s the thing, there are state laws that protect parents and children and give them the ability to opt out of comprehensive sex education curriculums. And what they’re essentially doing now is rebranding this curriculum as gender sexual identity training and not informing parents. Well, this is completely out of line. The decision-making should be in the hands of parents. That’s my concern beyond the fact that we’ve had two years of learning loss for many of our students, have talked about the fact that our kids go to some of the worst academic schools in this country. We need to be teaching the A, B, Cs, not the birds and the bees. Let’s get back to actually teaching our children what they’re supposed to be learning in our schools.

Miller: Are you saying that kids in Oregon are graduating at lower rates than students in other states, because they are being taught too much about, say, the fact that there is such a thing as gender identity that in totality, that too much class time is being devoted to these issues, and that’s the reason why kids in Oregon aren’t doing as well as in other states?

Pulliam: Well, I mean, sure, I love the fact that you’re trying to get me down to one specific issue, you know, on why our students aren’t doing good compared to…

Miller: Well, you wrote a fundraising letter today …

Pulliam: Absolutely…

Miller: specifically about this…

Pulliam: The answer is yes, it absolutely is part of an overall problem, that is leading our kids to be in classrooms that are ranked among some of the worst in this country. When you can’t meet standard proficiencies in math and reading and writing and spelling, and yet we’re spending classroom time talking about issues that should be talked about in the privacy of peoples’ homes in conjunction with parents raising our own children, and absolutely 100% positively is part of the overall problem and why Oregon schools continue to rank far last among, the other schools in this country.

Miller: I want to turn to elections, you’re among the majority of Republicans who called the 2020 Presidential election fraudulent, despite the fact that there is no evidence to support that. But I want to focus on Oregon.

Pulliam: Where was the evidence on the Russian collusion? I’m curious.

Miller: I want to focus on Oregon elections. Do you trust Oregon’s ‘vote by mail’ system?

Pulliam: Well, I think it’s interesting that we haven’t had a Republican Governor in the state of Oregon, ever since it was implemented, we’ve only had one Republican success statewide.

Miller: But there, but there weren’t,

Pulliam: …vote by mail system…

Miller: there weren’t Republican governors, 14 years in the preceding times before.

Pulliam: We’ve had other states in this country that actually outweigh the voter registration disadvantages of Republicans that have had victories. But here’s the deal. If you’re going to lead the rest of the country and they vote by mail, why not also lead it in integrity, why not lead it also in transparency? Why not update the voter rolls? Why do we have conservative activists that are having to collect signatures just to update the voter rolls for our ballots? Why don’t we tighten the reins on the DMV? We talk about the fact that we have ‘Nonaffiliated’ growing, just this last week, larger than both Democrat and Republican registrations, as if there’s some sort of huge trend. Well, sure there’s a little bit of a trend, but what’s really happening, is when anyone goes into the DMV, to get a driver’s license, they’re not even asked if they want to be registered to vote or not, they’re automatically registered to vote as a non-affiliated. And then we wonder why we have voter participation and turnout numbers decreasing year after year. We wonder why we have all these ballots out there that are in the ether that people don’t understand where they are. And there’s concerns from people like myself, and quite honestly, the majority of Americans in recent polls, that there’s problems with the integrity of our election systems. And so at the end of the day, we’re supposed to be the beacon of light of Democracy for the rest of the world in this country. If we want to lead the way in ‘vote by mail,’ for the rest of the country here in the state of Oregon, let’s lead it in integrity.

Miller: We just have just 40 seconds left. I just want to make sure that our listeners totally understand that the main point you were making there, you’re saying unequivocally, that the reason Republicans haven’t won the Governor’s race in decades now is because of ‘vote by mail’ and…

Pulliam: Come on… because…it’s not one thing, it’s part of an overall problem in the state and there’s absolutely issues with voting. There’s vote by mail transparency issues in here. There’s a left wing media bias in this state. There’s a tremendous amount working against Republicans in the State of Oregon. But we have an unbelievable opportunity because the extreme left, woke left has overstepped their bounds with COVID-19 restrictions, overstepping the control of parents of our kids’ lives. That’s the opportunity. That’s why we’re going to have a Republican Governor in November.

Miller: Stan Pulliam. Thanks very much.

Pulliam: Thank you, appreciate it.

Miller: Stan Pulliam is a Republican candidate for Governor, the Mayor of Sandy. We’re going to continue our series of Republican Gubernatorial primary conversations tomorrow with Bob Tiernan. Thanks very much for tuning in to Think Out Loud on OPB and KLCC. I’m Dave Miller, we’ll be back tomorrow. Think Out Loud is supported by Steve and Jan Oliver, the Rose E.Tucker Charitable Trust and Michael and Kristin Kern.

Contact “Think Out Loud®”

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show, or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983. The call-in phone number during the noon hour is 888-665-5865.