Sean Cruz for Oregon State Senate District 23 Nov 1 update

Portland: Sean Cruz for Oregon State Senate District 23
November 1, 2007 campaign update

1. Our campaign kickoff event will take place after the November 6 election.

I am asking my supporters to focus their political energy on passing Measure 49 and Measure 50 as a first priority.

There is plenty of time to campaign for the May Democratic primary. I will file for the Senate District 23 seat after November 6.

Let’s provide some access to health care for our children with Measure 50, and take a stab at cleaning up the Measure 37 mess with Measure 49.

Kickoff event details TBA

2. Campaign website to launch in November

The Sean Cruz for Senate District 23 campaign website is in development and will be up soon after the November 6 election.


3. My recent BlogoliticalSean post on Measure 49:


Oregon—Measure 49—DEQ advisory

The future of the Williamette Valley (and other parts of Oregon) can be read in the pollution advisory issued today by the Department of Environmental Quality.

The advisory urges older adults and younger children throughout the entire Williamette Valley to limit their outdoor activities for a period that may last into next week (Happy Halloween).

Measure 37 would launch the state down the path of ever-diminishing air quality as wide-open development vastly expands particulate sources in Oregon’s vital agricultural areas.

The key point I want to make here is that farmers (and future farmers) have to be outdoors regardless of pollution advisories in order to work their land.


The DEQ advisory reads:

“According to the National Weather Service in Portland, the area is experiencing light winds and dry, cold air in combination with low overnight temperatures. These weather conditions create inversions that keep fine particles* from wood smoke and vehicle exhaust trapped at ground level, particularly during the evening and early morning hours. These microscopic particles can be inhaled deeply into lungs and damage delicate lung tissues.

“Higher than usual pollution levels may cause health problems for sensitive individuals. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), people with heart or lung disease, older adults and children are at greatest risk from particulate pollution and should consider restricting their outdoor activities beginning early in the evening and through mid-morning until the weather changes. People with asthma or other breathing problems or heart conditions should follow their health care provider’s advice for taking care of themselves.

“DEQ expects to see highest levels of pollution in the evening when people are using wood stoves. These higher levels typically persist into the early morning hours.

“This type of wintertime air pollution comes mainly from wood smoke. Diesel engines, cars and trucks are also sources. To protect the health of those who are more sensitive to air pollution, DEQ is asking citizens in the affected areas to avoid using fireplaces and woodstoves unless absolutely necessary, refrain from outdoor burning, and limit driving and vehicle idling. The advisory will be in effect until stagnant weather conditions change.

“If burning wood is your only source of heat, burn hot fires using dry wood to lessen pollution.”
*Fine particulate air pollution consists of solid particles or liquid droplets that are less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10) or less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5). Particles in these size ranges are of great concern because they can be inhaled deeply into the lungs where they can remain for years. The health effects of particulate matter vary with the size, concentration, and chemical composition of the particles.

For more information about smoke pollution, visit the DEQ Web site at: http://www.deq.state.or.us/aq/burning/woodstoves/index.htm.

To see current pollution levels in Oregon, visit the DEQ Web site at http://www.deq.state.or.us/aqi/index.aspx.


3. My recent BlogoliticalSean posting on Measure 50:

Oregon’s Measure 50, President Bush, and the moral test of government

“The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadows of life—the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
–Hubert Humphrey’s last speech, November 1, 1977


President George W. Bush’s veto of the SCHIP bill underscores the importance of the 2007 Oregon Legislature’s move to put Measure 50 on the November 6 ballot as a constitutional amendment.

Few legislators wanted to amend the Oregon Constitution to get to health insurance, but—faced with a moral choice—both chambers acted correctly in resolving to put the needs of Oregon’s citizens ahead of partisanship, ideology and plain mean-spiritedness.

Without Measure 50 on the near horizon, many thousands of uninsured and underinsured Oregonians with much to hope for but little to expect would face continued involuntary enrollment in President Bush’s Emergency-Room Late-Stage National Health Plan.

Meanwhile, President Bush’s monument for posterity, emblem of his failed presidency, the new United States Embassy in Iraq, largest and most expensive embassy in the world, is well behind schedule and over budget.

News broke today that the complex, originally budgeted for $ 592 million, will cost US taxpayers another $144 million to complete.

Those figures do not include the missile defense system it’s going to need, and it is important to keep in mind that no one is even guessing at what the embassy’s ongoing operating costs are going to be.

Think of the Wapato Jail, super-sized, visible from space, where everyone sprints when on foot, zigging and zagging, trying not to spill the coffee, and you have an image of what this project really is…an artifact already, a blueprint drawn up in those heady days after Shock and Awe, when Coalition troops entered the flower-strewn streets of Baghdad, and the Bush Administration and its neo-con hardliners fantasized a thousand-year legacy.

Oregon lawmakers and Oregon’s voters could never hope to cut a budget fine enough to put a dent in the massive outflow of national resources that President Bush pours down the toilet every minute of the day.

The silver-spoon President stated that he vetoed the SCHIP bill because he opposes “government-run health care.”

Uninsured Oregonians don’t care what it is called or who runs it as much as they care that they have access to it.

According to President Abraham Lincoln, the government Bush is referring to is “of the People, by the People, and for the People….”

Since he serves in the Party of Lincoln, that phrase ought to have some significance in the discussion.

If the government is “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” then government-run health care is actually run by the People.

Having never known a moment in life when his health insurance was not provided by either the oil industry, the State of Texas, the federal government or by his government-run Secret Service detail, President Bush is faced with a moral dilemma: To SCHIP or not.

He fails the moral test…but we already knew that was coming.

And the People of Oregon will make their moral choice known on November 6.