Movatterモバイル変換

PORTLAND, Ore. —The three women who want to be the next governor of Oregon clashed over the hottest issues the state is facing, including guns, crime, abortion, homelessness, and education during a debate at KATU studios Tuesday night.

The race this year is historic, as for the first time in state history three women are running for the governor’s office.

Republican Christine Drazan, Democrat Tina Kotek, and nonaffiliated Betsy Johnson all have extensive government experience and served together in the state Legislature until resigning to run for governor.

Watch the debate:

The candidates intensely tangled over the issues of crime and homelessness during Tuesday night’s debate hosted by KATU anchor Steve Dunn.

Kotek, who served as House speaker in the Oregon Legislature for nearly a decade, said the No. 1 job of government is keeping people safe. She said she wanted to go after drug cartels, illegal firearms, get drugs off the street, and fund the Oregon State Police.

Drazan, who served as House Republican leader for two years, said the state needs more state troopers and police to handle the crime. She took aim at Kotek, tying her to Gov. Kate Brown, accusing both of them for allowing the continuing riots during the racial justice protests in Portland in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Johnson, a longtime state senator who left the Democratic Party when she resigned from the Legislature to run as a nonaffiliated candidate for governor, said she’s been pro-police and said she had the endorsement of more than 90 law enforcement professionals. She accused Drazan and Kotek of tying the hands of law enforcement.

On guns, Drazan and Johnson said they would vote no on Measure 114 this November, a measure that would establish a permitting process to purchase a gun as well as limit gun magazines to 10 rounds. Kotek said she would support the measure.

Drazan said the measure infringes of constitutionally protected gun rights and said more focus needs to be on mental health, more law enforcement, and laws need to be evenly enforced.

Johnson also argued the measure will infringe on the Second Amendment rights of Oregonians and said it was a problematic measure because it will end up in court, has no funding mechanism, and will put an undue burden on local law enforcement.

Kotek called for what she called common sense gun control laws and said she was the only candidate on the stage who would stand up to the gun lobby. She said Measure 114 was a grassroots measure that grew from the faith community who was fed up with the gun violence in the state and country.

On the issue of homelessness, Kotek said almost three years ago she called for a state of emergency to fund more shelters and other things to alleviate homelessness. But she said the money that’s out there is not being managed well.

“I’m the only one here who has a plan, talking about going tent by tent, working with individuals sleeping outside, get them into shelters like converted motels, which my opponents oppose, and making sure we get them into long-term permanent housing, because that is the ultimate answer,” she said.

Drazan said she’ll declare a homelessness emergency on the first day in office if elected governor “to ensure that we marshal all resources at a state level and provide additional supports to local governments as they respond to the crisis on their streets. We can respond to this issue with both compassion and accountability.”

She added that it is a humanitarian crisis, and that people are struggling with mental health and drug addiction. She said a holistic approach was needed, not just “approach it like all they need is a key to a tiny house, and the problem is solved.”

In her response to the question, Johnson said she was the only one of the three candidates who has actually done something to solve the problem, especially her work with the organization Helping Hands to turn the former unused Wapato Jail into the Bybee Lakes Hope Center.

“It is a comfortable, warm, safe place for people on the streets to go and sleep and recover,” she said. “So, I would submit planning and declaring emergencies is one thing, actually doing something with urgency and purpose and success is an entirely different outcome.”

Another hotly debated topic was abortion. It moved up in importance as a campaign issue when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year.

Kotek and Johnson are both for abortion rights, while Drazan is against abortion.

"I will always stand up for Oregonians to control their bodies and have access to health care," said Kotek, who has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood.

"I would submit it's not Oregon that's out of step with the national mainstream, I would assert that it's Christine Drazan, who's out of step with Oregon," said Johnson. "I am pro-choice, I have been pro-choice right straight along."

"The reality where we're at right now, is basically this is the only issue my opponents in this race want to be on the ballot this election," said Drazan. "They would like you to believe that choice is on the ballot. It's not. ... I have been very clear that I will in fact enforce existing [abortion] laws."

Among the other issues the candidates tackled included education, wildfires, and Measure 110, a voter-approved measure that decriminalized hard drugs and was supposed to focus on treatment; however, few people have requested treatment, and the state has been slow to get funding to where it's supposed to go. (Watch them by segment below)

It’s been nearly four decades since Republicans have held the governor’s office and pundits say they have a good chance of wrenching the state’s top political job from the Democrats this year.

Polling indicates the race is close between Drazan and Kotek and getting closer.FiveThirtyEight currently lists the race as a “toss-up.” Johnson, while third in polls, has raised enough money to be competitive, large contributions notably coming from Nike co-founder Phil Knight.

It will still be a challenge for Drazan to topple the Democrats' hold on the governor's office. Pacific University political science professor Jim Moore said she did nothing during Tuesday's debate to try to convince Democrats to come to her side.

"She was classic Republican all the way through this," he said. "She's got to get a big chunk of [unaffiliated voters] to come over. Now, if that unaffiliated does have a significant number of Republican voters in it, then that message she had is going to work."

Drazan has worked to link Kotek and Johnson with Gov. Kate Brown, and then calling the governor’s policies a failure.

Johnson has cast herself as the “true independent” in the race not loyal to either party but only to Oregonians. She did so again Tuesday night.

Kotek has touted her accomplishments in the Legislature, framing herself as a champion of working people.

Tuesday night’s debate was aired around the state with the help of KATU’s sister stations in Eugene and Medford. It also aired on KUNP with Spanish translation.

Before Tuesday night’s debate got underway, supporters of the candidates gathered outside the KATU studios.

Gov. Kate Brown could not run again this year because of term limits.

Watch the candidates respond to debate questions

Pick video selection by topic: