Role of Government Key Issue in Senate Race
District 14 - Mark Hass and his challenger, Lisa Michaels, disagree on nearly everything
Thursday, October 02, 2008
DAVID R. ANDERSON
The Oregonian Staff
Republican Lisa Michaels is challenging Democrat Mark Hass, a former legislator appointed to the seat in November 2007. The winner will represent a district that includes parts of Beaverton, Aloha and Raleigh Hills.
The race is a rerun -- Hass and Michaels both have backgrounds in TV and faced off before. In 2000, both ran for House District 8. Hass defeated Michaels by a nearly 2-1 ratio.
Hass has collected $85,584 in total contributions this year, according to the Oregon Elections Division. Michaels has collected $2,775.
On nearly every issue, the two are opposites. Hass said the minimum corporate income tax of $10 should be raised; Michaels said it should be eliminated. Hass said the government should have a role in creating a "portable" health care plan not dependent on employers; Michaels said that would be an "onerous mandate." Hass said the state needs to find more money for road improvements; Michaels said cutting inefficient programs would result in savings that could pay for road projects.
Hass, who served three terms as a state representative, decided not to run for re-election in 2006. He said he had a number of family issues and thought he had served his role as a citizen-legislator. He cited among his accomplishments increasing the penalties for elder abuse, requiring schools and health clubs to have portable defibrillators, creating a tax incentive for businesses to offer scholarships to children of employees and creating a statewide prescription-drug formulary, intended to lower the Oregon Health Plan's drug costs.
Hass' hiatus from public service ended a year ago, when state Sen. Ryan Deckert resigned. The two House representatives in that district -- Tobias Read and Jeff Barker -- encouraged Hass to return.
Hass, 51, lives in Raleigh Hills with his wife and two children. A former TV news reporter, he has worked for three years as a brand manager for Capelli Miles (spring), an advertising agency. It's perhaps no surprise that he has produced a polished campaign TV ad that urges Oregon voters to put aside differences and work together for the common good.
"You can't inspire people who harbor resentment," Hass said. "We all succeed when others succeed."
Hass said his top three priorities are cleaning the Willamette River, transportation and revenue. He wants to shake up the state's Department of Environmental Quality and make it more of a watchdog over polluters. He supports an increase in the gas tax. He said fundamental change is needed in how the state raises money. The current system, which relies heavily on income taxes, is too unreliable.
He supports a sales tax as long as it comes with a corresponding decrease in income and property taxes. That would create revenue from out-of-state visitors and would capture taxes now avoided in the black market economy, where cash transactions aren't taxed.
Michaels, 48, lives in the Murrayhill neighborhood of Beaverton. She is a videographer and divorced mother of three children. She refused an interview unless she could videotape it for broadcast. The Oregonian declined but left her the option of participating in its online voters guide (www.oregonlive.com/politics).
In her responses to the survey, Michaels said her campaign message was that voters must elect leaders who put the interests of ordinary people ahead of special interests.
"We must trim the fat by introducing private sector solutions to this massive inefficient system," she wrote.
The biggest issue facing Oregon today, she wrote, is the potential for fraud with the state's vote-by-mail elections.
David R. Anderson: 503-294-5199; davidanderson @news.oregonian.com
