To the Editor,
On Wednesday afternoon I attended a local Betsy Johnson event. Following a quick autobiographical summary she responded to several questions from the audience, including a prompt about her stance on guns. She mentioned she’s a collector but not that she has voted against every single gun safety bill in Oregon for more than a decade, earning her an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association. She related that she’s nudged her strong “2A” views (a reference to the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution) in two areas, sounding exactly like a candidate hoping to be considered moderate when, in fact, her views are extreme in a state where a majority of voters support gun safety legislation. She claimed to be the right person to broker the conversation on gun safety and stated Tina Kotek would “take away all your guns”, an obvious lie. The right person to broker any conversation on gun safety is not going to be a machine gun-owning millionaire who votes the NRA line 100% of the time and lies about the stances of other candidates.
In response to a question about homelessness in Oregon, she stated a lack of knowledge of the rate or actions taken in our county, public-facing information she might have sought before sitting in front of us. She says she wants to reduce ‘visible’ homelessness while repeatedly making dehumanizing statements like calling Portland the “city of roaches” and claiming the homeless rate is highest there. This is categorically untrue and she should know it: Clatsop County, which she represented in Oregon’s House and Senate for decades, has the highest homeless rate in Oregon, more than 3 times the rate in Multnomah County. Another important issue and another disappointing response.
Betsy Johnson bills herself as a moderate despite her history of extremist views and use of far-right rhetoric. She bills herself as independent while taking money from big business and rich Republican donors like the Koch brothers.
Betsy Johnson is not moderate and not what Oregon needs.
-Stacey Holeman