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NATHAN GILLES
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| Barbara Smith Warner was appointed by the Multnomah County Commission in December to represent District 45 in the Oregon House of Representatives. She replaces Michael Dembrow, who ascended from the House to the Oregon Senate, filling Jackie Dingfelder's seat when she resigned to take a position in Portland Mayor Charlie Hales' office. COURTESY BARBARA SMITH WARNER |
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| Former House District 45 Representative and new Oregon Senator Michael Dembrow talks with Barbara Smith Warner at the Multnomah County Commission meeting held to appoint a new HD 45 representative. Smith Warner was appointed unanimously to replace Dembrow over Jamie Woods and Tom Sincic. Mid-county Memo photo/Nathan Gilles |
In a unanimous vote on Thursday, Dec. 19, the five members of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners chose Smith Warner over two other Democratic Party candidates, Tom Sincic and Jamie Woods.
Smith Warner is a field representative for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, and a long-time labor and grassroots organizer in Portland.
Dembrow vacated his seat in the Oregon House after he was appointed to the state District 23 Senate seat in November. District 23 includes portions of southeast and northeast Portland.
Sen. Jackie Dingfelder had previously held the Senate seat. In October, she resigned from her position after Portland Mayor Charlie Hales offered her a position on his staff.
Sen. Dembrow told the Memo he was pleased with the Multnomah County commissioners' choice of a replacement.
“Barbara [Smith Warner], I think, is ready to step right in and make a difference,” said Dembrow.
Sen. Dembrow is an English instructor and film studies teacher at Portland Community College's Cascade Campus in North Portland. He was first elected to the Oregon House in 2008.
“I'm thrilled,” Smith Warner told the Memo following her selection. “I am so excited for the opportunity…this is the difference between knowing about something in the abstract and seeing it everyday, and Salem is one of the places where things get done.” Smith Warner was selected for the interim position, which expires at the end of next year, from a pool of three candidates that included Sincic and Woods. Oregon law dictates the selection pool and its size be determined by the political party that holds the vacated seat. In Oregon House District 45 that honor belongs to Democrats.
At the Dec. 19 meeting, commissioners asked Smith Warner, Woods, and Sincic a series of questions, taking about an hour. Topics included school reform and health care, and each of the candidates was asked why he or she decided to run. In response, Smith Warner said, “My most important job, and the one that really brought me here today, is as a mom,” Smith Warner told the commissioners.
Smith Warner went on to describe her long-standing support for public schools. She also described how motherhood and volunteering at Beverly Cleary School, where her two children go to school and she has been an active PTA member, have made it clear to her how decisions made in Salem affect what happens in the classroom.
“My kids are in the third and fifth grade, and even though we're lucky enough to go to a great neighborhood school with a very involved community, the last six years have really shown me that even the most involved and supportive parents-even we can't make up for 20 years of cuts to education funding and bad policy that's prioritized teaching to the test over real learning.”
Smith Warner also told the commission her other priority is health care, and talked about how both her brother and sister were “crippled;” one by an accident, and the other by disease. She said both are financially crippled by America's patchwork health care system. “I want to make the Affordable Care Act work for all Oregonians, because I firmly believe every person in our state should have access to quality affordable health care,” she said.
Smith Warner was careful to frame her responses with a personal touch. Jamie Woods, on the other hand, pushed his economics background and made his responses more issue-oriented. Woods is an assistant professor of economics at Portland State University.
“I often tell my students, I'm an economics professor, that what the legislature does is economics,” he said. “The case I am going to make is…I make a good mix on a whole bunch of issues.”
Woods went on to describe how House District 45 is a “curious district.” He made the argument that I-84 does more than divide the district geographically; it also divides the district sociologically, with a wealthier population on the north side of the highway and more low-income and working-class people on the south side of the freeway. “It's two sides, and the two have never really come together,” said Woods.
Woods also described his background. He served as both chair and vice chair of the Parkrose School Board, and was a member of the Oregon State Board of Education's Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
The third candidate, Tom Sincic, is a semi-retired nurse practitioner who has worked extensively with low-income communities and prison populations. “My goals are to listen and to engage the voices of the public,” Sincic told the commissioners. “Being semi-retired, I have time and plenty of energy to take up this task.”
Sincic said health care would be at the centerpiece of the types of reforms he would seek in Salem.
“I would just like to say that this was such a tough decision,” Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith told the candidates after the questioning period was over and Smith Warner was chosen. “I was so impressed and inspired by you-all's understanding of what goes on down in Salem.”
The three candidates were first selected at a Nov. 8 meeting of Multnomah County Democrats.
The Democratic Party's precinct committee people-or PCPs-took the vote. Forty-nine PCPs voted. PCPs first set the size of their selection pool at three candidates and then nominated the individual candidates. Along with Smith Warner, Woods and Sincic, the Democratic PCPs also nominated Enrique Arias, who is the owner of Common Good Films, which makes films for nonprofits with progressive causes, and Mathew Holland, a northeast Portland lawyer. Arias also sought the District 23 Senate seat when Dingfelder resigned in the fall.
At a Nov. 8 meeting, the PCPs voted in three rounds to determine the candidates who would end up in front of county commissioners. Smith Warner was the clear favorite. In the first round, she received 41 of 49 votes, the most of any candidate in a single round.
Woods and Sincic had a close race with each other and against Arias and Holland before coming out the winners of their respective elections.
Smith Warner's position as the state Representative for District 45 is only an interim appointment and could be contested as early as May in the Democratic Party primary.
Smith Warner told the Memo she plans to run for the seat and will declare her candidacy shortly after she is sworn in this January.
In an earlier interview with the Memo, Woods said he probably would not run for the District 45 seat if he was not first selected by county commissioners to fill the interim position. “Being the interim means you're the incumbent and there are both the voting and fundraising advantages,” said Woods. “It's one of those family decisions I will need to make with more information,” Woods added. He also hinted there might be others who were not part of the selection process that may run in the primary.
Sincic did not say whether or not he planned to run in the Democratic primary. “Let me tell you this, I think there should be a real primary,” Sincic told the Memo. “I believe in democracy. I believe in House District 45, the democratic vote of people, because we are so Democratic, should occur in the Democratic primary…And that doesn't mean I will be running, but I feel there should be a vote of the people.”
Arias and Holland could not be reached for comment.
Candidates need to file by the second Tuesday in March to qualify for the primary.
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