Perkins

ENTERPRISE — National politics came to Enterprise, last week, when Jo Rae Perkins, the Republican candidate who hopes to oust Democrat Sen. Jeff Merkley in his bid for a third term held a campaign meet-and-greet at the Wallowa County Courthouse gazebo.

“I want to replace him because we need a constitutionalist in the U.S. Senate, someone who believes in the Constitution, who’s going to stand by the Constitution and who’s going to do their job according to what the Constitution says,” Perkins said.

The Albany woman is in her first run for public office, although she’s been active in Republican politics as a precinct committeewoman, as elected chairwoman of the Linn County Republican Central Committee almost four years and has served on other committees at the state level.

“For me, it’s pretty simple. From a lot of the people I’ve talked to, they want their senator to do the job according to the job description,” she said, referring to the Constitution.

She also echoed what many conservative Republicans have been known to espouse.

“We need a smaller federal government; it’s too big,” she said. “The Constitution’s clear that … acts not specifically listed are left to the states. There are things being done at the federal level that should be done at the state level.”

Among these, Perkins said, are the Department of Education, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. While she doesn’t recommend abolishing them, she said they should be reduced in size.

“That would stop much of the waste, fraud and abuse that’s going on out there,” she said. “Much of it’s going on because there are so many moving parts.”

She attributed some of the destructive wildfires of late to mismanagement of forests on the federal level. She said declaring an area a wilderness is not in the Constitution and restricts the ability of states to use heavy equipment to fight fires.

“We need the trees but we don’t need all the pollutants (fires) are putting in the air,” she said. “Trees are phenomenal at sequestering pollutants. If you log it, those pollutants are captured unless that wood burns. … Leave them out there on the mountainside and if they burn up, they’re no good. So, let’s properly manage them, such as with the replanting we do.”

Perkins said this is her second visit to northeastern Oregon, the first being in March.

Merkley hasn’t been here since a town hall he held in Lostine in February — before the pandemic.

Sara Hottman, one of his congressional aides, said Senate ethics prevent her from addressing campaign issues but she said that in order to avoid spreading the coronavirus, Merkley has only been holding virtual events since mid-March. The exception has been to wildfire-related sites given the magnitude of the emergency. Hottman said he has no plans of in-person travel anywhere for the near future, but instead he has had regular virtual meetings with local governments, chambers of commerce, agriculture industry folks and others.

Annette Lathrop, chairwoman of the Wallowa County Republican Committee who helped organize Perkins visit, said she only got the word out the previous day. As a result, only 17 people were present.

Perkins emphasized that she hopes to be a senator for the entire state, not just the populous west side.

“I’m being hired by all the people,” she said. “Not just those on the west side of the mountains.”

However, she said, she’ll do her best to represent voters all across the state.

“Next week, we start hitting the west side,” she said. “It’s been a bit harder because of the COVID. It’s been more of a challenge.”

Perkins also said she is largely in support of President Donald Trump and his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

She said Merkley opposes Barrett’s nomination, “because he wants judges and justices who are going to legislate. But that’s not their job.”

Merkley’s website states his opinion on Barrett’s nomination: “For years, the Supreme Court has been essentially a third legislative body deciding women’s rights, workers’ rights, health care, climate action, and more. The goal today is to lock in advantage for the privileged and powerful for an entire generation to come.”

Perkins also emphasized she’s strongly pro-life, both for the unborn and for those at the end of life.

“Let God be in charge of when our last days are,” she said of Oregon’s legal euthanasia. “That’s always a tough one … my mother’s an example. She was very near the end of her life and struggling to breathe. My brother called the doctor and asked him to give her a little morphine and that’s all it took. … With a little personal experience, it’s a little different for me, right?”

One of her strongest stands is on term limits. She believes U.S. senators and representatives should be limited to 12 years. Merkley is about to conclude his second six-year term as a senator.

“It so often happens when people are elected to office for too often, they get corrupted,” Perkins said.