| Trio of Senate candidates find lots to agree on |
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By Bob Albrecht
April 3, 2008
The tone was mostly cordial Wednesday night when three candidates for the U.S. Senate debated before about 100 students at the University of Oregon School of Law.
Democrats Steve Novick and Candy Neville and Independent John Frohnmayer answered questions from Oregon law students and professors, as well as community members, on a universal health care system, bi-partisanship and the importance of protecting civil liberties.
The candidates each delivered a two-minute introduction before taking turns offering a two-minute answer to each of eight different questions during the 90-minute debate.
The first question concerned the candidates’ beliefs regarding the implementation of a universal health care system.
Novick, who is considered one of the front-runners for the Democratic nomination along with Jeff Merkley, answered first and said he supports alternative health care plans such as the recent proposal put forth by Sen. Ron Wyden, which prohibits insurance companies from refusing to take a patient because of a pre-existing condition.
“I would support a single-payer system if we can get that before the Senate,” Novick said. “I think that they have decent health care in Canada and everybody has access to health care and they spend a lot less on it than we do.”
Frohnmayer, a former appointee of the first President Bush to head the National Endowment for the Arts, said the health care issue ties into the porous state of the U.S. economy, adding that America spends $2.4 trillion a year on health. Of that money he said, “a third of it goes to advertising salaries and administration of insurance companies.”
Neville, the only Senate candidate local to Eugene, said she views the need for universal health care as one of the most important issues facing the United States.
“I rank health care right there with schools,” Neville said. “When people are standing on the shoulders of good health care they are able to work, they are able to buy things, they are able to spend money and they are able to pay taxes.”
Later in the debate, as tears welled in her eyes, Neville also addressed the importance of bringing troops back to safety as soon as possible, an issue that prompted her to enter this race.
“I’m a mother,” Neville said, her voice quivering. “I’m running because more than anything in the world, I want those soldiers that are over in Iraq, that are so far from home, that are believing every day that we’re working hard to actually bring them home, that we’re going to be true to that. If I could only have one thing, that would be it.”
The most contentious issue of the night arose following a question about the Democratic and Republican parties working in unison.
During Frohnmayer’s opening remarks he explained that he, a former Republican and later a Democrat, is running under the newly founded Independent Party because he said he believes the two-party system is beyond repair.
“Our political system is so badly broken that it can’t be fixed by a Republican or a Democrat,” Frohnmayer said. “We need a procedural change and that change is a third voice in American politics.”
Novick said bipartisanship is not as important as forming a government that refuses to be driven by fear.
“We need to have a party of truth,” he said. “We do not need to destroy our civil liberties in order to fight terrorism.”
One idea all three candidates agreed on was that they believed President Bush should be impeached, and immediately.
“I would impeach the president and I would do it on the very last day of his term,” Frohnmayer said.
In addition to Novick, Neville and Merkley, David Loera of Salem and Pavel Goberman of Beaverton are seeking the Democratic nomination in the May 20 primary to run against incumbent Republican Sen. Gordon Smith in the November election. Frohnmayer is the only candidate currently seeking Independent party’s nomination.
Copyright © 2007 — The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA
