By Patrick Lair, For the Lebanon Express | Posted: Wednesday, October 1, 2008 12:00 am
Candidates for House District 17 appeared at Linn-Benton Community College Monday night to answer questions from a three-person panel.
The debate was sponsored by the college's Democracy In Action club. About 40 people attended.
House District 17 encompasses East Linn County and part of Marion County, including Sublimity, Lyons and Mill City.
The Democratic candidate, Dan Thackaberry, a Lebanon farmer with more than 20 years of public service in Linn County, introduced himself as a reformer.
"We've had 20 years in a row of poor leadership in this district," he said. "I want to break the cycle of partisan politics in Salem."
Sherrie Sprenger, a Republican and the incumbent representative, hails from Lacomb and also has a long history of local public service.
She said her years of service have taught her to assess each issue individually, which can mean reaching across the aisle. "One thing I learned at the Lebanon School Board is we've got to play well together," she said. "We've got to be willing to have these tough conversations and that's leadership."
The candidates fielded questions from Albany city councilor Sharon Konopa, Democrat-Herald online editor Graham Kislingbury and Wayne Rieskamp, the government affairs chairperson for the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce.
On the issue of Measure 49, Sprenger said she supports a case-by-case approach.
"I do support private property rights but I also support the land-use process," she said.
Thackaberry said he's an avid supporter of Measure 49.
"I'm going to support land-use laws every chance I get," he said. "We can't just pave it over."
Both candidates support economic development, though with a different approach.
Thackaberry is enthusiastic about the creation of "green jobs." One way to do that could be thinning timberlands to make cellulosic ethanol from biomass, he said.
Sprenger's approach is to seek tax credits for small businesses that provide their own health insurance. She also guards against legislation that imposes too many regulations on small business owners, she said.
The candidates agreed that a representative needs to work to make sure local tax dollars are being spent on local roads and bridges, instead of going to projects in Portland.
In closing, Thackaberry emphasized his belief in the need to fight property crime and child abuse by fighting meth addiction.
"We've got to fight it with treatment not incarceration," he said.
Sprenger closed by reiterating that she gathers all the facts and weighs them with the desires of the community when making her decisions.
"I hear first before I vote and I take our shared values to Salem," she said.