OPB asked all 34 candidates seeking the Republican or Democratic nomination for governor to answer some basic questions about the issues. Below are answers from Stan Pulliam, a Republican and the mayor of Sandy. These answers have not been edited.
Stan Pulliam, Oregon Republican candidate for governor.
Courtesy of Friends of Stan Pulliam
To start, please give us your name and basic biographical details, including your current position or job, any elected offices you have held and any key facts you would like voters to know about you.
• Stan Pulliam, 40 years old
• Married to MacKensey with two daughters, Lucy & Olivia, who attend public charter schools
• I’m the two term Mayor of my hometown of Sandy.
• I was the first to stand up against Governor Brown’s draconian mandates on Main Street businesses and schools, and that propelled me to get in the race for Governor.
• What differentiates our run for governor is I’m not afraid to speak out boldly on issues that matter to voters, such as against election fraud and abortion. As an elected Mayor, I have a proven track record of doing just that.
Why should you be Oregon’s next governor?
A mayor is uniquely suited to the office of governor as they are both executive positions that require leadership. I’ve led Sandy for two terms and kept every promise I made. We focus on public safety, transportation, and infrastructure projects – getting buy-in from across the aisle. Sandy now has more police officers, a better transportation system including new roads, and we stand up for our local small business owners. Politicians in Salem live in a bubble and don’t understand the priorities of real Oregonians. It’s time to get back to serving the greatest need for the most people. I think most of us would rather have a third lane on a highway than a third public bathroom.
What do you think is the most pressing challenge facing Oregon today?
The top issue absolutely is the festering culture of criminality and mass homelessness decaying every corner of our state. There has been a massive uptick in crime and riots that we’ve watched on the nightly news, all the while politicians have slowly defunded our police with their words and actions. We used to have 30 state troopers per hundred thousand people. That number today is 8. Meanwhile, in Sandy, we’ve fully funded our police.
What is your proposed solution to that problem? Please be specific.
As Governor, I would triple the size of state police, restoring their former strength. I will also deploy the Oregon National Guard to the front lines to stop riots and clean up our streets. Finally, I will take a page out of President Trump’s playbook and deputize a small portion of the state police as U.S. marshals, to ensure that rioters go into the federal court system, outside the jurisdiction of the soft-on-crime Multnomah County District Attorney.
Do you believe human beings are playing a part in rising temperatures?
Yes.
Do you think Oregon should take additional steps to address climate change? If so, what are some specific efforts you’d undertake or push for as governor?
This is a global climate issue that Oregon plays an extremely small role in. Unfortunately, Oregon’s politicians think they should fix the global issue here on the backs of hard-working Oregonians. Policies like the Clean Fuels Program have been expensive and grand gestures with no demonstrable effect on our carbon footprint. Working families are paying 20-30 cents more per gallon for little to nothing. We need to abolish this program and stop passing useless and even expensive laws and regulations like banning fracking and use of coal on our power grid without cheap alternatives. All we are doing is making it easier for bad actors like Russia to sell more fossil fuels and prop up dictators. We must follow France’s model where they adopted small scale nuclear facilities across the entire country and now have clean, carbon-free energy with measurable results to the environment.
Oregon has experienced a high number of severe wildfires in recent years. What role should state government play in wildfire response?
Good forest management is no longer a theory that will pay off eventually, it’s an emergency. Wildfires are a statewide crisis. We face a choice: wisely thin our forests or stand by as our communities, recreation areas, and natural resources are devastated. It should not be Oregon policy to let our forests burn. Even though much of Oregon is federal land, the State of Oregon is capable of doing much more to manage both state and federal lands. Under federal Good Neighbor Authority policy, Oregon can take proactive steps to thin forests before wildfires destroy our communities. The best part is that proper forest management funds itself with revenue off of timber sales, which supports good paying jobs and economic activity in rural Oregon.
Parts of Oregon now routinely face drought conditions. What role should state government play in preventing and responding to droughts?
The water crisis is not just affecting folks in the Klamath. Our farmers throughout Oregon are struggling. Southern and Eastern Oregon face their own unique water challenges that have, in some cases, been going on for decades. I won’t pretend that these are easy problems to solve. However, we need a Governor who places a much higher priority on property owner’s rights. We cannot control the weather, but we can work to expand water transportation to alleviate the supply side of the problem during a crisis. We also need to take more water from the Columbia River. If you drive along the gorge and look across the river, you’ll see lush greenery and farms. That’s because Washington takes a much higher amount of water from the Columbia River than Oregon does. I would like to consider matching Washington’s pull from the river.
Do you support the use of body cameras by police officers to record their interactions with the public? Please explain why or why not.
While Portland is still testing out their cameras, we managed to both fully staff our Sandy Police Department and implement body and vehicle cameras. It’s not mutually exclusive: we can back the blue while also working to continue to improve our policing. Police want this transparency more than anyone because it shows just how many kind, compassionate, and patient police officers we have out there.
President Joe Biden signaled in his State of the Union address that he wants to increase funding for police. Do you agree or disagree?
Agree
In surveys, Oregonians on both the right and the left described political extremism as one of the biggest challenges facing the state. Do you agree with them? If yes, please describe the type of extremism that concerns you and what you would do as governor to address it.
Yes. The extremism comes from our elected leaders running over the rights of citizens and not being able to work with anyone who doesn’t agree with them. The number one lesson from the pandemic is to see just how easy it is for our individual rights and liberties to be taken from us, and the fact that we cannot trust our elected officials and judges in the court system to fight for those for us.
As Mayor, I’m used to working with Republicans and Democrats, parents, grandparents, and people of all walks of life on the City Council. At the end of the day we’ve been able to come together to make a difference for our community. That’s the kind of culture I’d look to instill in Salem.
In surveys, Oregonians consistently rate homelessness and high housing costs as a major problem facing the state. What role do you believe state government should play in addressing these interconnected problems?
This is a misconception. People don’t go from not being able to afford rent to stealing catalytic converters and living in a tent on Marine Drive. Housing costs are a huge problem – but if you want to solve the homeless problem you need to start with repealing the measure that decriminalized hard drugs, and follow-up with enforcement of existing laws. We have a homeless problem because city governments are allowing it to be a problem. I have issued a plan to address mass homelessness.
We currently have a ton of resources being directed at transitional housing and social services for those who want help. I’d like to focus on the most visible aspect of the homeless problem, which is people camping in public right of ways and committing crimes. There are laws on the books to address this, but cities like Portland refuse. I want to use state resources of the DEQ and ODOT to decide when to sweep camps for public safety concerns and locate those camps to a Port of Portland property where they would be monitored by Port Police. When they commit crimes, they will be taken to jail. If it’s a big enough hassle for people to commit crimes in Portland, they’ll go somewhere else.
Would you support requiring people experiencing homelessness to stay in shelters if adequate shelter space exists?
Yes
Oregon’s high school graduation rate continues to lag behind other states. What are specific actions you would take as governor to improve student performance?
We need a culture shift in focusing education on preparing students for the real world. If I were a 16-year-old aspiring carpenter who spent more time being taught that the color of my skin makes me a victimizer than how to use fractions to measure and cut a piece of crown molding – I’d be less than enthusiastic about school. Curriculum has become overwhelmed with indoctrination – at the expense of education and training – and that needs to stop. Above all, we need leaders who promote school choice and personalized learning options that parents and students can choose based on their needs. Every student deserves their own IEP to ensure continued learning.
Oregon, like much of the rest of the nation, has a child care crisis. What role should the governor play in this situation, and what are specific steps you would take as governor?
As parents in a middle-class, duel-working household, MacKensey and I can relate. When we make it to the Governor’s office, we’ll be the first in nearly 4 decades with school-aged children. The government never creates jobs. It can only create the environment for the marketplace to flourish and create jobs on its own.
It’s this same philosophy that has been a guiding principle for me as mayor when dealing with the childcare crisis and will continue to be as Oregon’s next governor. As mayor of Sandy, I lead our community to provide incentives through our urban renewal fund that have incentivized local entrepreneurs to create more childcare opportunities for our community. As Governor, I’ll look to provide similar incentives at the state level.
Do public employee unions have too much influence in Oregon? If you answer yes, please tell us which unions in particular concern you?
Yes, government teachers unions. Our kids could have been back to school so much sooner if the unions didn’t fight so hard against re-opening. They and Governor Brown are responsible for forcing our children into two years of depression, isolation, and regression. This is why my wife MacKensey started the Oregon Moms Union, because no one has been advocating for our kids in our political system.
As governor, would you support the creation of campaign finance limits in Oregon? If no, please explain why not. If yes, please can us specifics on what limits you would endorse.
Transparency is critical to protecting our elections, and I fully support our campaign finance reporting laws. But the moment you start setting rules as far as who can give money and how much you start to game the system. Those with more resources will find a way to back their candidates and causes, and the Supreme Court has guaranteed that right. That said, I’m proud that our campaign has more donors than any other candidate in this primary, most of them very small. There are over 2,000 across the state with an average donation amount of $304. It’s affirming to know that so many Oregonians have taken notice that I was the one standing up to Governor Brown’s illegal lockdowns well over a year ago as Mayor of Sandy and have been keeping up the pressure ever since.
Do you believe Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election?
Did not include an answer
Would you support creation of a sales tax in Oregon?
No
Do you support the use of tolls to help pay for infrastructure constructions in the Portland region, including a replacement for the Interstate 5 bridge?
No
If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, would you as governor push for new abortion restrictions in Oregon? If yes, please specify what type of restriction you would propose.
If you describe an abortion procedure and the stages at which they happen in Oregon (up to the moment of birth), most Oregonians support more restrictions than what we have now, which is absolutely nothing. Oregon is a taxpayer funded abortion tourist destination. Politicians are more concerned with propping up the abortion industry than actually helping women and children. It’s time we recognize the value of the unborn by protecting their right to life in our laws. I would propose and support any common sense limits on abortion that are allowed by current Supreme Court decisions.
How would you describe the relationship between rural and urban Oregon today?
Completely disconnected.
What’s one thing you would do as governor to bring rural and urban Oregon together?
I don’t know about you, but I get most frustrated when someone tries to force their values and beliefs onto me. Unfortunately, here in Oregon, that’s exactly what we have. We have politicians elected from the big cities like Portland and Eugene who get in there and force big city values onto the rest of the state. As Mayor of Sandy, I’ve led in a manner that allows for individual liberty and decision making. As Oregon’s next Governor, I will continue that leadership and ensure that communities are allowed to make the important decisions for themselves.
What’s the best thing Kate Brown has done as Oregon governor?
She has shown Oregonians what a woke liberal agenda truly looks like and they’re going to reject it on the ballot this November.
What’s the worst thing Kate Brown has done as Oregon governor?
She’s hurt Oregonians through the abuse of her executive powers. From our Main Street businesses and their employees who were put out of work, to the kids who go to some of the worst schools in the country and were some of the last in the nation to return to the classroom, to allowing hardened criminals back onto the street: Governor Brown has continued to put her political cronies in front of Oregonians.
Name another Oregon leader, either current or in the past, whose approach to public policy you admire and why.
Past Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson. From Portland Public Schools to Oregon’s Foster Care System, Dennis exposed the corruption and underperformance of our state’s entrenched left wing bureaucracy and the harmful effects it has had on our children and our state’s future.