Huffman makes bid for Senate
From our weekly issue dated June 02, 2010
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Huffman made his pitch to Josephine County voters during the Wednesday, May 26 KAJO Radio talk show based in Grants Pass.
Huffman, who won his party“s nomination in the May 18 primary election, will face incumbent U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in the Nov. 2 general election.
After growing up in Bozeman, Mont., Huffman attended Montana State University, then attended graduate school in Boston, Mass., where he earned a master“s degree in international affairs. He attended law school in Chicago before moving to Portland in 1973 and working as a professor at Lewis & Clark College.
During the past few decades, Huffman has taught classes on subjects including constitutional law, personal injury law and natural resource issues.
“I“ve spent a lot time thinking about the kinds of public land and resource issues that affect the rural parts of Oregon,“ Huffman said.
He observed that current policies regarding the management of federal lands are “ineffective“ and “detrimental“ to rural areas. He said that the fundamental laws under which the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management operate need to be reformed.
Although he said he would like to see a reduction in federal ownership of land, Huffman said that specific, unique areas like Crater Lake should be protected.
“Taking a lot of timber land and turning it into a monument or a national park, to me, just doesn“t make any sense. It further ties up these resources and makes them unavailable for economic use,“ Huffman said. “I“m generally a believer that we should defer to state and local governments where we can and not have these things managed from Washington D.C., in particular when we“re talking about local resources that impact on the local population.“
The candidate said that the 1872 mining law could use some revision and updating, but added that the best way to develop resources is through private enterprise.
Mining should be regulated to prevent damage to the environment, Huffman said, but prohibiting it on large, extended areas won“t help the state recover from its current economic malaise.
“We don“t know what the resources are that might be there; we don“t know what their values are, and we have a desperately struggling economy in this state,“ he stated. “To the extent that mining can contribute something to that revival economically, I think we ought to be looking at it. I just think it“s a mistake to take economic opportunity off the table.“
The mounting federal deficit is a “huge challenge,“ Huffman said. He added that the new health-care reform bill further burdens the government by giving it more financial obligations.
Huffman said that discretionary spending must be curbed, but the nation must examine the overall costs of its entitlement programs.
“We need some people in Washington willing to take these problems on and admit to the severe measures that are going to have to be taken to solve them,“ he said.
For weeks, his challenger, Wyden, has been running advertisements on the Internet stating that he voted against federal bail-outs twice, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program. But Huffman said that Wyden“s voting record “is one that he has really contributed in a significant way to the debt problem we now face in this country.“
“He voted for the stimulus bill, he voted for the 2010 appropriation bill, he voted for the auto bail-outs and Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac bailouts,“ Huffman said.
Huffman has challenged Wyden to debates in all 36 of Oregon“s counties. He said that he would be willing to participate in forums being organized by Illinois Valley News for this summer.
“I“d love to come to Cave Junction,“ he said.
We want to hear from you!
Add your thoughts with the link below.
Comments returning soon!
Advertisement:
