The Courage to Be Specific

Hasso Hering, Mid-Valley Sunday (original source )

There’s no avoiding the fact that the general election is bearing down on us. Most of us will get ballots in a week or so. So this is a good occasion to recognize four mid-valley candidates and office holders for their courage and their willingness to take specific stands and risk turning off those voters who disagree.

The office holders deserving of this recognition are state Sen. Frank Morse of Albany; state Reps. Sara Gelser of Corvallis and Brian Boquist of Dallas, and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio of Springfield, representing the 4th District.

All four are running for election, and they are the only mid-valley candidates for state or federal office who completed a candidate questionnaire posted online by Project Vote Smart. This is the Montana-based nonprofit organization, formerly of Benton County, that works hard to encourage informed voting across the country. It does so by asking office holders and candidates what they think on a great variety of issues. It gives them multiple choices, and it affords them an opportunity to add additional points or to elaborate on the choices given. Then it posts the results online. (Googling “Project Vote Smart” will get you to the right place.)

From the answers given by the courageous four we learn, for example and among many, many other points, that Rep. Gelser favors a license requirement for gun ownership while Morse, Boquist and Congressman DeFazio do not.

Project Vote Smart says it gave each candidate for state and federal office several opportunities to respond. Still, the vast majority of candidates in the general election did not participate. They may have their reasons, but without asking each one and listening to their explanations, one gets the impression they are too shy to share their views. Either that, or they think that telling voters what they think about issues will just confuse them. Or maybe they have been advised by their parties or their campaign managers that filling out the form just gives their opponents ammunition for possible attacks. Just possibly they missed the invitation, but Project Vote Smart says it tried repeatedly to get cooperation from every state and federal candidate in the election.

Regardless of what the excuses or explanations might be, we know that Sen. Morse, Reps Gelser Boquist and Congressman DeFazio did not need them. They evidently felt there was nothing wrong with this format of sharing their political stands with voters. Good for them, and may their candor and courage receive their proper reward.