BY SARAH ROSS
PORTLAND- State Senator Chris Telfer, R-Bend, made numerous remarks about her opponent in the race for State Treasurer Wednesday night, implying he isn’t qualified to hold the position.
To a room filled of people “dedicated to the principles of limited government,” the Republican candidate for Oregon State Treasurer presented her thoughts on why the group should elect her to the state’s top financial office.
Telfer told the crowd the reason they should vote for her and not for her opponent, current Treasurer Ted Wheeler, is because “I am the only qualified candidate running for State Treasurer.”
Speaking about her experience as a Certified Public Accountant, Telfer told the crowd that she will be prepared to handle the state’s budget crisis and serve in the position which she said equates with a Chief Financial Officer.
“The state of Oregon is in total financial crisis, and it’s time we actually have somebody with the skills and qualifications to be the true CFO of this state,” she said.
Telfer went on to tell the crowd about the debt Wheeler’s political action committee has accumulated in his race and stated that her campaign “won’t go in debt.”
“I’m not in debt in my PAC, I know how to manage money, I can look at the warning signs on bonding and borrowing,” stated Telfer, summarizing her experience to be State Treasurer.
She said that having two Republicans on the State Land Board is necessary to have a say in what happens with lands owned by the state. The State Land Board is a committee made up of the Governor, the Secretary of State, and the State Treasurer and votes on decisions affecting the use and maintenance of state-owned lands.
Telfer also touched on job creation, kicker reform, PERS, and the debates in which the two candidates have participated so far, saying that the pair will debate a total of ten times before the election.
“I am very proud that every time we meet, he’s mimicking what I said a month prior,” she said. “If I lose, I’ve done one good thing. I’ve got our new Treasurer at least on board with some of my thoughts.”
In an e-mail to the Oregon Politico, Wheeler’s campaign manager Laura Taylor stated, “The ‘debt’ to which the Senator is referring is a loan that Treasurer Wheeler himself made to his own campaign. He does not have outstanding debt to any third parties.”
Funny that Telfer claims Wheeler mimicks her; I’ve yet to hear him say he’s a CPA. That seems to be the one thing she’s campaigning on and if you listen to forums online, it’s clear that she’s copying his ideas.
is Telfer planning to go thru all the state’s books or something? balance every dept’s budget? enter all the expenditures, file receipts, collate etc? understanding how budgets work is a good idea, but i’m guessing someone with econ, biz & public policy degrees from Harvard, Stanford & Columbia might have an inkling on these.
plus, as the Reg-Guard noted, the state does have a few accountants already on the job. is Telfer suggesting they need her to help them do their jobs?
it’s a ridiculous claim. but we see here what the real goal is: the hope that she & Duds will be able to run the State Land Board, etc. this isn’t about a CPA at Treasury; it’s about the Rs finding a way to get back into positions of power again. that’s a fair enough goal, of course; too bad she can’t be honest about it.
I’ve heard 3 debates between Wheeler and Telfer - somewhere between 5 and 6 hours! Telfer repeatedly makes completely false accusations in an attempt to make herself sound important. Some are so painfully stupid as to make one question her intelligence - such as “He didn’t put out the information that the state was in financial trouble and that PERS was a problem until too late. If we’d known it early we could have made changes in the budget.” The senate gets the same financial date from the State Economist the same day the Treasurer gets it of course, but more to the point, where has she been the past 3 years that she didn’t know the state had fiscal problems. I guess at least we now know why she’s done nothing about the most pressing problem we face, and the one she claims to be so expert in, our critical fiscal condition.
My take after listening to 5-6 hours of debate - she’s a morally corrupt intellectual lightweight.
In examining the budget, Chris Telfer found interest payments coming in that indicated accounts that contain funds that could be used to close budget gaps, some of these from accounts that accumulate fines.
This would be an interesting topic for the candidates to discuss in coming debates, especially as fines are another way, in addition to tax increases, to increase revenue from certain classes of people.
In some states, persons are being imprisoned for inability to pay fines. Some audiences in some locations may be interested in what is going on in Oregon with fines, and line-item examination of the budget is one place to look.
The reality of a one-party state is sobering, no matter which of the current major parties would prevail. Patterns of monopoly do not bode well for ordinary people, over the long term, unless they are wealthy and connected. I overheard a conversation about that recently at work. Wealthy people receive far fewer consequences for violations of law than ordinary people. Fine print can allow an escape for the wealthy, but bars for the less so. Both major parties have participated in this. I am distressed by Monsanto’s increasing influence on food issues in the federal government, for example, this by way of appointment by the current administration.
For Treasurer, we need someone who will go through the budget line-item by line-item, and who will work to get citizens involved in making decisions that need to be made about priorities and about equity.
The enormity of the shortfalls make this wise, as further bonding, if possible, is not responsible.
Bonding frequently involves arrangements from international corporations who have written some bond terms that other localities are having trouble with. Bonding also tends to take dollar resources out of the state and toward the headquarters of out-of-state bonding authorities.
What candidates promise and what they do once elected can be pretty divergent, but holding candidates to their pre-election goals can be better done if they are detailed about what steps they intend to take toward goals.
I found Chris Telfer’s attention to line items to be the kind of due diligence that I would want to see. The put-downs of her are not helpful, even as I wish she would just talk about what she sees as necessary to do. Talking about the opposition wastes time. The different sides clearly have different constituencies and priorities. Let’s hear the programs. Citizens can make better judgments that way. Name-calling on either side is irritating and distracting.
Also discussed at the Wednesday meeting were some post-retirement costs that were not previously revealed.
I don’t know how hard it is to get line-item detail at the state level. I hope it is easier than getting it at the local level where I have been researching.