Audio Trancript
Yasemin Cobanoglu 0:18
This is KBOO reporter Yasmin Cobanoglu speaking today with Jennifer Williamson, former Oregon House Majority Leader who is now running in the 2020, Democratic Secretary of State primary. Thank you so much for being here today.
Jennifer Williamson 0:30
Thank you, Yasemin for having me.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 0:31
Of course. So, my first question is just what inspired you to run for Secretary of State?
Jennifer Williamson 0:36
Sure. I'm running for Secretary of State for one simple reason. And that's because I love this state. I'm running not only to protect what we love about this state, but to challenge each of us to make it a better place, a place where every voice is heard and every vote is counted. I'm a fourth generation Oregonian. I grew up on a farm out in Washington County, and my dad's a farmer, my mom's a nurse and like so many Oregonians my family struggled when we were growing up. And whether it was free lunch or food stamps or being a first generation college student at the University of Oregon, relying on the Oregon Opportunity Grant and Pell Grants, I am so grateful for the investment that the people of Oregon made in me, and I think I was a pretty good investment. So I am in this race because I know Oregon is not a place of opportunity for everyone. And in fact, it was specifically created as a place to intentionally leave people out, a place designed specifically to make sure that every voice was not heard and every vote not counted. And I know this because my great-great-great, four greats, grandfather signed the Oregon Constitution, a constitution that created this state that I love and I'm very proud of but also a constitution that excluded black people by design. People like my husband, Paul. So I'm in this race, to make Oregon better, to fight for fairness, to fight for equity and justice, and make this state better, and you can count on me as someone who has a long record of fighting for equity and fairness. And I will continue to do that as your Secretary of State.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 2:19
And for our listeners who might not know what exactly does the Oregon Secretary of State do? I know they have some different roles from other states.
Jennifer Williamson 2:26
Sure. There's the- the big, the big roles of the Secretary of State are overseeing the elections. The Audit division, which is unique to Oregon, no other Secretary of State has that, actually the Archives division, which not everyone realizes either and a seat on the Land Board to help manage state lands
Yasemin Cobanoglu 2:45
And then, so you have served as a member of the House of Representatives. What has that experience been like for you?
Jennifer Williamson 2:51
It's been fantastic. I encourage everyone to think about running for office. We need every voice in the Capitol and in local office, and there's nothing better than serving your community and serving the people in the place that you live in the place that you love. And for me, it was an exciting time because we had historic wins when I was Majority Leader. Last election cycle, we elected the biggest, largest, most diverse caucus in Oregon history. And we went on to pass things like paid family medical leave, which I've been working on for years, the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which is the most comprehensive Reproductive Health Care Act in the country, and things like raising the minimum wage and the Oregon Voting Rights Act. So we've had a great last several years in the Oregon legislature. And I was really proud to be there, to be a fighter for Oregonians and to get things done to make this state better. And it was just- it's been an exciting time in the Oregon Legislature.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 3:55
So you mentioned some legislation, but what would you say is your proudest achievement being in the House?
Jennifer Williamson 4:01
So this last session, we took kids out of Measure 11. So we passed a bill that said, if you are a juvenile offender or accused of a crime under the age of 18, that a judge will determine whether or not you go into the juvenile court system or the adult court system, that you won't automatically go into the adult system. And I think that that is a law that will impact thousands of kids in this state, and it will change the course of their lives. It will give them the ability to grow and learn and become the responsible adults we know they can be, and not have this state give up on young people who may have made bad decisions, made a mistake and have it changed the course of their life.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 4:46
So you're talking about some of these youth services. What do you think is the biggest issue facing Oregonians today?
Jennifer Williamson 4:51
I think there are several big issues facing Oregonians, but I think that we need to address our climate. I was sorely disappointed when last session, we out of the House passed House Bill 2020, which was the cap and invest bill to cap our our carbon emissions and invest in our struggling communities all over this state. And it failed in the Senate. And it was a breakdown of the process. And when people think about Oregon, they don't often think about voter suppression and the kind of gridlock that you see in DC. But you definitely saw that this last- last session in the Senate. And it's disappointing. We have to address climate, we have to do our part. And we can do it in a way that grows the economy in Oregon. And I'm really excited about that opportunity.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 5:39
So what would your plan be for addressing the climate emergency in Oregon?
Jennifer Williamson 5:43
As Secretary of State I would have the unique role of auditing those programs. And one of the things that I think we should be doing with audits is not just doing a fiscal audit, a financial audit, the kinds of audits we think about when we're thinking about businesses or agencies, but to also have what I like to call community based audits, where we go out into the community and ask Oregonians-- did we spend the money in the right way? So Yasemin, I give you $100. And I say, here's a problem that you're going to solve with this money in this community. And then I go to community members, and I say -- Was giving $100 to Yasemin the right way to solve that problem? Or should we have split it up and given 50 to Tom and 50 to Jane, and those are the kinds of things the feedback loop that we need to take into account with our communities. And as part of that work, I am proposing an Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Secretary of State's office that will both work on voting rights and inclusion and voting rights and in getting out the ballots and making sure that everybody who can vote can vote and working on audits to make sure that they're both more equitable and more inclusive.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 6:53
So do you have a plan with elections to ensure the security of voters and our election data systems?
Jennifer Williamson 6:59
Absolutely. People are concerned about the security of our elections. Full stop. Oregonians, voters, we know that- we know that Russians tried to hack into the Oregon system we are lucky they weren't able to because we have paper ballots. I am proposing an election cyber security office in the Secretary of State's office, we need experts on cyber security for our elections, specifically, and we need to have that function called out and staffed up specifically for that. I want to expand automatic voter registration beyond the DMV to other trusted state agencies that people use. We know not everybody uses the DMV. In order to do that we need to make sure that our information is secure and that people trust the system.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 7:47
And so along the lines of secure and fair election, what's your view on Oregon's lack of campaign finance laws?
Jennifer Williamson 7:54
So I'm excited about the fact that I'm the only person in this race who has a self-imposed limit on corporate contributions. I think it's incredibly important that we tackle this. And I'm proud of the fact too that I voted to send to the voters a constitutional amendment that makes it very clear that we can have comprehensive campaign finance reform in this state. When we pass that in November, the job of the legislature will be to create that system. And I think it's important that we all participate in it because it will be complicated. And we don't want unintended consequences of money- dark money being spent in other places where we lose transparency, and we- we actually make it a worse system than the one we have. So we all need to be involved. We all need to pay attention. We all need to understand the ramifications of the kind of system we build. And I'm ready to tackle it head on with the legislature.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 8:50
Now what do you think about current Secretary of State Bev Clarno-- her opinion that we should wait until after such an important election year to even discuss campaign finance laws?
Jennifer Williamson 8:59
We've been discussing campaign finance laws for as long as I've been around Salem, which now is almost 30 years. So we've been talking about them. I chaired the House Rules Committee, which is the committee that looks at election issues and campaign finance issues. And we've had hearing after hearing, bill after bill, on systems that work in different places like the public finance system in New York City, which is a fantastic system and a model I think we should take very seriously in this state. The issue we've had is, this court case that says, you know, the Constitution we don't think they really- it really allows this because of the implication for free speech. I'm, I'm ready for that to be cleared up. The voters will clear it up. I'm- I'm sure of it in November, and then there's no question about what the legislature is looking at. So I- we haven't been waiting. We've we've passed bills, we've moved bills. We've discussed bills, we've had hearings on bills, we're ready to go I know that the Oregon House has taken this on and we're ready to- we're ready to do it in Oregon and we need to clear that hurdle. So there's no question
Yasemin Cobanoglu 10:07
Oregon's kind of an interesting state in that we have a really big Metro urban environment with a large, large population. But then we also have a lot of people that are more rural. So how would you involve those communities in the political process?
Jennifer Williamson 10:21
Well, Yasemin, I grew up on a farm. My family is very rural, my family still farms. So I know very well what it's like to be a rural Oregonian and- and have family in rural Oregon. One of the things I'm doing in this campaign actually is traveling across the state. I was in Pendleton last week. I go to Medford next week, Bend, the coast, spending almost six weeks traveling. And I think it's so important for policymakers to get outside of the I-5 corridor, and to talk to folks about especially in this election, what are the real and perceived barriers to voting what, back to the audit function, what- what's happening on the ground with the dollars we're spending in our communities from the state? And how can we make that better? I think it doesn't matter if you're in a rural community or an urban community, for elected officials to be out in your community asking questions, and going to you as, as opposed to expecting you to show up to their quote unquote table to have a discussion, is what needs to happen. So needs are different in every community. It doesn't matter if what we're talking about is the east side of Portland, or the east side of the- of the state. So it's more about the process by which you bring voices in than about how you how you divide the state up. I think that that's a false division.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 11:46
So in talking to community members, what have you been hearing what are people saying about Oregon's political process right now?
Jennifer Williamson 11:52
I think everybody is happy with vote by mail. That it the- the idea that we here in the south and in other places, these horrific voter suppression tactics and we have the answer to it, right? We have vote by mail. You don't have to have a voting holiday. You don't have to- people don't have to take time off of work to vote. And that's really important for, for making sure that everyone has access. We need to expand, as I said earlier, how people get registered, where they automatically register to vote and how we keep them registered to vote, how we get ballots in their hands, how we work with communities going out to communities to say what are your real and perceived barriers? I'll tell you a quick story, a woman named CM Hall who was on the city council of Newport. She is a Deaf and Hard of Hearing advocate in Salem. She also teaches sign language at Western. And she said to me, hey, Jen, there is no video anywhere of someone signing directions on how to vote. And I never would have thought of that, quite frankly. And she said, You know, people don't all- don't read closed captioning as fluently, sometimes, when sign is their first language. And I said, CM, that is brilliant. We could do that with a smartphone. And, you know, pop it up online. And there it is, hardly any cost, if, if any, but I never would have known that had I not gone out to her and talk to her about the needs of the community that she works with. And I think that's the important conversations to have. And we can make we can make this process even better. And we can provide an example to the rest of the country on how to protect our democracy./?
Yasemin Cobanoglu 13:33
So with obviously, voter laws and things like that, what would your other priorities be Secretary of State?
Jennifer Williamson 13:39
As I said, the audit function is incredibly important. The other thing that is happening this year is redistricting. And I think it's incredibly important to focus on making sure that communities of color are not left behind in redistricting, and that we are recognizing how we give communities power in redistricting, because it's very important that we don't dilute communities, so that their voices aren't heard. And that's one of the reasons I sponsored and we passed the Oregon Voting Rights Act, that- that does that work in school districts to make sure that communities of color in school districts have their voices heard and have the ability to elect school board members that reflect their community. So redistricting sets the table every 10 years for what our congressional delegation, their districts look like, and our legislative districts and it makes a world of difference in policies that can be passed in Salem.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 14:34
How would you ensure that all corporations in Oregon are following laws for doing business in our state?
Jennifer Williamson 14:40
Through aggressive enforcement through our Corporations division, and ensuring that folks are following the rules and making sure that that portion of the office is resourced well enough to do that. I think one of the things that we see and I know this, as being a legislator and know this as being a legislator who- who was on the budget committee, is that we often under-resource enforcement agencies, and that becomes a real issue for whether or not those agencies can protect Oregonians. And I think the same is true for the Corporate division. I think the people that work in the Secretary of State's office are- are hard working people and they, they do a great job, but we can always use more resources into enforcement, whether its environmental issues, or making sure that corporations are held accountable. We need to support the work that they all do, and have a robust system for ensuring that the rules are followed, whether it's elections, whether it's ballot measures, whether it's corporations, we need an aggressive Secretary of State, who will ensure that no matter who you are, you are following the rules and make sure that the process is fair.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 15:51
So for the Democratic primary, what do you think sets you apart from the other candidates?
Jennifer Williamson 15:56
I am a proven progressive leader who has fought for Oregonians, I have a record of the things that I've delivered for Oregonians, and I will never back down from fighting for what's best for my community, for my state, my- my fellow Oregonians, and regardless of where the- where the issues come up, whether it's in enforcing voting laws or making sure that our dollars are being spent wisely. I will never back down from from protecting Oregonians, and making sure that things are equitable in this state.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 16:29
And how can our listeners find out more about you and your campaign?
Jennifer Williamson 16:32
JenniferforOregon.com is my website. I'm also traveling, as I said, around the state. So there is a schedule of where we will be. And so please come out to one of our democracy discussions. And let's talk about the kinds of things that we can be doing to make sure that we include more people in our democracy, and we do everything we can to protect our right to vote and get people engaged.
Yasemin Cobanoglu 16:56
Well, thank you so much for being here. This was KBOO reporter Yasemin Cobanoglu, speaking with Jennifer Williamson, a candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary for Oregon Secretary of State
Transcribed by https://otter.ai