Friday night friction: Walden, McLeod-Skinner spar over issues

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Democratic challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner clashed on a variety of issues, from the strength of the Second Congressional District’s economy to health care, trade tariffs, tax cuts and veterans health care during a wide-ranging one-hour debate at the NewsChannel 21 studios Friday evening.

What was scheduled to be a three-way debate – the only one agreed to so far in the campaign — became a two-person face-off less than two hours before the broadcast, also livestreamed on KTVZ.COM, when Independent Party candidate Mark Roberts informed the station he was unable to take part due to an illness.

Walden, a Hood River resident and former radio station group owner first elected to the House 20 years ago, is seeking his 11 th two-year term. He staunchly defended his record and said his accomplishments show that despite the sharp divisiveness on Capitol Hill, he has worked with Democrats and all sides of issues back home in the sprawling Southern, Central and Eastern Oregon district to get things done.

When Walden talked about the nation’s robust economy and low jobless rates, including those for minorities, McLeod-Skinner, who calls Terrebonne home after time in California, kept pounding away at another statistic – that despite what Walden called “a rip-roaring economy,” nearly half of the people in the district are living at or below the poverty line, which she said “has only gotten worse over the last 20 years.”

The candidate with degrees in civil engineering and regional planning also noted that she – not Roberts – has been endorsed by the state’s Independent Party leaders, as well as the Working Families Party.

McLeod-Skinner said she wants to “make sure everyone has access to a full range of medical and mental health care,” and that it could be paid for if the president and lawmakers didn’t give big corporations huge tax breaks.

She also said Walden’s top campaign contributors include big drug companies that flooded the nation with opioids, leading to the epidemic of overdoses that Walden has touted tackling with a large package of legislation that has cleared the House and Senate and is now headed to the president’s desk.

She also repeatedly claimed Walden voted against funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHiP) for a decade and “held it hostage” for four months, forcing the state to provide emergency funds while “it was being used as a political chip to make further cuts to ACA and Medicare.”

“As you might imagine, I have a different view of all that,” Walden said, noting that they were the same charges that the Washington Post looked into and “gave four Pinnochios.” He said pre-existing conditions, for example, are still protected and that Congress has approved “billions” for community health centers, such as Mosaic Medical in Central Oregon – “they know how committed I am.”

“As for CHiP funding, I don’t know what she’s talking about,” the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman said, adding that his legislation made sure the program has a full 10 years of funding for the first time.

Asked about the tribalism and sharp split in D.C., Walden said, “Actually, you have to lead by example,” and noted how dozens of bills he was behind passed the House on a bipartisan basis, many of them unanimously. “I could list a whole host of legislation out of the committee I chair where we bring people together.”

Instead, he pointed a finger at “the whole Resist movement that wants to shut things down, protest in my office” as a major source of such a national divide.

As one would expect, one of the sharper conflicts was when McLeod-Skinner said Walden has been having far too many private meetings and fundraisers when he travels home to his district and far too few town halls where anyone can ask questions.

“In the past 50 months, I’ve traveled 40,000 miles across the district, and one of the things you haven’t done, sir, is essentially show up,” she said. “You shouldn’t be afraid of people who are frustrated.” And she went further: “In your campaign, you’ve taken some really cheap shots at me.”

“Not true,” Walden interjected softly.

“You’ve engaged your campaign in targeting me and my family,” McLeod-Skinner continued, though specifics weren’t given.

Also as one might expect, Republican Walden said the other party is the source of the divisiveness: “There’s not a single Democrat in Congress that voted for the tax bill,” which he said will mean for a family of four in the district earning its $70,000 median income, “they get to take $1,900 more than they would have.”

There are more jobs in the Second District, McLeod-Skinner said, “but these are low-paying jobs. People aren’t able to get ahead. That is under your leadership. The recession has been over for eight years.”

Walden countered, “I voted to make the individual tax cuts permanent – would you do that?” but got no reply. He told of a lady he met at a Home Depot who said now that her taxes have been reduced, “she can now afford to get dental work done.”

“The proof’s in the pudding, with the strongest economic indicators in 40 years,” Walden said.

But yet again, McLeod-Skinner said the tax bill was a $1.4 trillion “corporate giveaway that is now being used to target Social Security and Medicare.”

Each also got to ask a question of one another, and when Walden asked his challenger about her opposition to larger forest treatment projects, McLeod-Skinner praised the lawmaker for moving to make sure funds for such projects aren’t diverted to fighting wildfires and said she, too, sees a need for more thinning in forests to reduce the fuel load. But she added, “Your bill is promoting more clear-cutting and less public involvement. You’re not listening to folks on the ground, community solutions.”

“Congress has failed to recognize we have increasing temperatures and a changing climate,” she said. “You’re actually championing things in the other direction, with corporate PAC money from the fossil fuel industries, promoting it at the expensive of the renewable energy industry.” Both candidates said they support a biofuels project in Lakeview and Walden said he’s backed measures such as a change in the wild and scenic boundaries at Bowman Dam so hydropower can be utilized.

But McLeod-Skinner said forest fires have been getting worse in recent years, hurting communities and the economy.

When it was McLeod-Skinner’s turn to ask a question, it was fairly predictable: Why has Walden agreed to only one debate? “We didn’t hear anything from you until after the debate was scheduled,” she said, asking if he’s willing to commit to two more debates, in Southern and Eastern Oregon.

Walden pointed to the uncertain schedule of Congress and said the KTVZ debate was being livestreamed and would be available on the website.

“One of your suggestions was to have Resist and Indivisible leaders host a debate,” he said.

“That’s not true,” she said.

“It is true,” he responded.

“I think what people want is not a debate about a debate,” Walden said, “but to hear what we’ve accomplished and not tear each other down.” He acknowledged that he agreed with Sen. Ron Wyden to “slight alterations” in the House-passed bill to shift a wilderness study area boundary and allow more thinning near Crooked River Ranch, which got it through a Senate committee.

“I think what people really want to hear is our stands on the issues,” Walden said. “I’m for tax cuts, you’re not. I’m for less regulation. No one is talking big clear-cuts. The techniques are left up to forest managers.”

McLeod-Skinner said current limits to rural broadband means “not everyone has access to this debate” and again pressed for a commitment to two more debates.

“I don’t think we’re going to do any more debates,” he replied, going on to defend that he’s had 147 town halls and talked to thousands more on telephone town halls.

“I love Eastern Oregon – it’s in my blood,” he said. “The people who have lived here, work here” – a likely jab at McLeod-Skinner’s time in California — “understand the work that I’ve done.”

McLeod-Skinner finished the debate debate segment with a quick: “It’s a yes or no question.”

The next question was about challenges facing rural communities, and Walden said he’s backed legislation that “clears the way to get broadband rolled out through the country, as well as bringing the FCC chairman to Eastern Oregon to meet with telehealth providers and others. He also said 5G advanced Internet will “light up in the next five years or so. This will help close the digital divide.”

At one point, Walden referred to “Nancy Pelosi Democrats,” which McLeod-Skinner called “an easy cheap shot” by a lawmaker “trying to throw a blanket over all Democrats.”

“Investing in infrastructure, government needs to know when to step up or get out of the way,” she said. “If you’re not going to support net neutrality, people are not going to have level playing fields.”

Many other issues came to light, often without sharp conflict – the need for better training for students to narrow the “skills gap” and provide well-paying jobs. But McLeod-Skinner said Walden has been “silent” on tariffs that are “decimating our ag economy. We’re losing our markets as we speak.”

Another controversy, gun control was raised, as moderator Lee Anderson noted a Washington gun safety initiative that would hold gun owners accountable if a child or a legally prohibited person uses an unsafely stored firearm to harm themselves or others, and asked if they’d back such a move in Congress.

McLeod-Skinner said she “greatly respects” the Second Amendment and that while government should help school districts improve safety and help people provide gun locks, “it has to be a community conversation,” and she wants to “make sure we’re not turning lawful gun owners into criminals because of legislation that doesn’t recognize their rights.”

Walden said he’s worked on several initiatives but that “we have a broken background check system” that has holes and gaps that need filling, some of which already has been done. On a broader scope, he spoke of helping rewrite the nation’s mental health laws for the first time in decades and providing more funding for schools to get youth access to mental health services.

In closing statements, Walden noted that the questions and discussions had not focused on veterans: “We owe everything to them.” And while ticking off a list of accomplishments to improve their health care, he acknowledged, “There’s still a backlog of 450,000” veterans waiting for help.

“Hundreds and hundreds of veterans turn to me for help, and we deliver. But you shouldn’t have to go to your congressman for help. We still have a broken system,” he said.

McLeod-Skinner said she appreciated that issue being raised and noted that the Second District has three of the lowest-rated clinics in the country and claimed Walden has introduced just four bills for veterans in 20 years, “one to name a clinic.” She also ticked off a list of measures related to veterans, such as funding suicide prevention, that Walden opposed.

“Folks in our district want us to move beyond divisiveness and get things done,” she said. “Things are not getting done, and that’s the frustration, and that’s why so many people in our district are struggling.”

But Walden said, “I get things done in Washington. I hope I can earn your vote.”