“CEOs and lobbyists for Big Pharma, corporate insurers, and private hospitals have formed a front group called Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future that wants to exploit our healthcare system to make money off of keeping us sick.

I pledge to put patients over profits and not take contributions over $200 from the executives, lobbyists, and PACs affiliated with the corporate health care industry, including private insurers, pharma corporations, and private hospitals who are organizing to take over our health care system.”

I believe we need to fight back against the illegal executive order that is banning mail in voting.  Our voting in Oregon has a less than .001% chance of any fraud, which has been caught.  Even when looking at various studies, there is nothing wrong with the way we vote.  Mail in voting is the best we can do and get high voter turnout, so we should continue to do it.

We have data centers in Oregon asking for more and more water.  One Data Center will use up to 5 million gallons of water a day which is equivalent to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people.  Amazon has also been accused of nitrate poisoning in our groundwaters and has settled for just $20.5Million.  This is causing rural residents to have contaminated well water.  We also have the data centers in The Dalles demanding access to water from Hood River County in order to cool the servers.  With Climate change happening, we don’t know how long a drought will last and this last winter was a very dry one.  Mt. Hood has barely any snow accumulation and we don’t have the water to spare for frivolous ventures.

https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption

I believe we need to start having data centers held responsible for the increased utility bills Oregonians have been receiving.  One data center can use as much electricity as a small town.  We have 120 data centers here in Oregon, which has been straining our electrical networks.  Instead of holding the data centers responsible, the utility companies have been pushing the cost on the people.  Now we have another rate hike of 5% coming in April to handle the expansion of the network.  The companies want to point the finger at updating and green energy requirements, but that doesn’t explain the massive expansions they have been doing.  Data centers are also receiving tax cuts that need to be permanently removed and have them tax appropriately.

What we know about energy use at U.S. data centers amid the AI boom

Oregon needs to place limits on Airbnb and other short-term rentals.  Rural mountain communities and places with a lot of tourism will suffer when investors buy the homes that are for the residents.  We can’t have our rural communities thrive when they are being priced out of their homes so that someone can stay for a couple days.  This will lead to dying towns that won’t be able to run local businesses because they can’t find people to work for them.

Rural communities struggle to have affordable, reliable, and high-speed internet.  We already have two cities here in Oregon that have it as a city utility.  SandyNet in Sandy and HiLight in Hillsboro.  These cities offer high speed internet for reasonable prices and as long as you are a resident it is available.  I believe that we need to have Oregon step up and offer grants and loans to smaller cities that can then generate more local funds for better infrastructure.

Right now our BLM and old growth forests are being targeted.  We need to fight back and stop an unnecessary act on our forests.  Our forests house a variety of animals and plant life which need to be protected.  We can still carefully log responsibly without a blank check on our forests.  Replanting also needs to be done with a variety of tree types to avoid any issues caused by single species.

Right now our rural communities could face healthcare shortages.  With Medicaid cuts and the Affordable Health Care act repealed costs have risen significantly.  I am in favor of expanding Oregon’s healthcare for all.