A Better Choice Than Schrader
Regarding Alex Hardison’s Nov. 28 letter “Schrader must serve Central Oregon,” a lot of us out here think Oregon would be far better off with Jamie McLeod-Skinner as U.S. representative than Kurt Schrader, who has become difficult to work with, likes to play power games to keep us guessing where he stands on issues, and uses his potential positions to press for political support before he commits.
Skinner is open and direct about her positions, especially on fighting climate change and steps we must take if we have any chance to save the planet. She doesn’t play games with us; she knows the issues and lets us know where she stands.
Jane Cease
Portland, Oregon
Let’s Choose Jamie
Like many others, I was interested to see where Deschutes County would land in the re-districting process. Now that that’s over, I am very excited that voters here will have the opportunity to choose a great candidate to represent us in new Congressional District 5.
Jamie McLeod-Skinner is well known to us; she won Deschutes County when she ran against Greg Walden in 2018. We know her to be the candidate who has never taken corporate PAC money, including fossil fuel and Big Pharma contributions. This means that the voices she listens to will be ours, not corporate donors.
In contrast, her opponent in the primary, Kurt Schrader, whose family made a fortune with Pfizer, has taken over $600,000 from Big Pharma. Is it any surprise that he voted against allowing Medicare to freely negotiate drug prices, which would dramatically lower how much we pay for drugs?
While Jamie was leading the wildfire disaster recovery effort in Talent, Oregon, securing housing and obtaining millions of dollars in aid, Schrader was voting against stimulus checks, voting against raising the minimum wage, and voting against extending housing assistance during the pandemic.
The choice is clear—Jamie will ably represent us while Schrader will stick up for the interests of his wealthy donors.
Let’s elect Jamie McLeod-Skinner to represent us in Congress in District 5!
Mary Chaffin
Bend, Oregon