Q&A: RACE FOR OREGON SENATE DISTRICT 25

The longtime incumbent senator for Oregon Senate District 25, Laurie Monnes Anderson (D) is retiring this year. District 25 is an important district for Oregon as it contains parts of Multnomah County, which includes most cities east of Portland including Fairview, Troutdale, Gresham, and Wood Village. It is also important for Mt. Hood Community College, as the campus is located within District 25.

Two candidates have since risen to take up Anderson’s office, with both members being related to the MHCC – one being a veteran instructor and the other as a board member of the Mt. Hood Community College Foundation.

Who are the candidates?

Chris Gorsek, a Democrat, has served in the Oregon House of Representatives for District 49, since 2013. The district includes the cities of Fairview, Troutdale, Wood Village and northern Gresham. He served as a police officer for seven years before attending the University of Oregon for his undergraduate degree and his doctorate at Portland State University. He currently serves as a full-time MHCC instructor in criminal justice and geography.

Justin Hwang, who is running as a Republican, was born in South Korea and earned his U.S. citizenship in 2006 where he was 18 years old. He graduated with a degree in culinary arts and hospitality management from the Art Institute and Le Cordon Bleu, respectively. He opened his first restaurant, Joy Teriyaki, in 2006 and eventually expanded with another business, called Joy Poké. Today he owns 27 restaurants and manages every one, on his own.

On your campaign website, you emphasized your background as an Oregonian and a longtime East County resident. Why is more local representation in the Legislature is important?
Gorsek– “East County often gets left behind in the funding conversation at the state level. We’ve had situations where the Western part of the metro region was able to access more incentive dollars from the state for the Oregon Strategic Investment Program. I was able to change that because I knew about the problem, I realized that there was existing legislation that could be reintroduced, and I understood what needed to change to make that possible. By coordinating with legislators on the West side that were interested in equity we were able to pass legislation that had been introduced and failed in two previous sessions.”

On your campaign website, you emphasized your background as a Korean-American and as a young candidate. Why is more diversity in the Legislature is important?
Hwang– “More diversity in the Legislature is important, because it ensures people from all walks of life get representation. One of the biggest problems we face in our community is lack of representation, especially when it comes to our Asian American, African American, and Latino communities. I don’t see a single sitting legislator who comes from an Asian Pacific Islander background. How can that group be represented in the Legislature if there is no one advocating for them?

Secondly, a diverse age group is important because it ensures we can mobilize a younger crowd to care about the importance of voting and elections as much as the older crowd. Young folks also crave representation and when they look at a TV screen and see a 70-year-old male attempting to advocate for them, sometimes they don’t feel like that person can possibly understand what the issues they care about are. There is a disconnect due to the age gap.” [Ed. Note: Gorsek is 62.]

What motivates you to run for Senate District 25 this election?
Gorsek– “We need more legislators that are environmentalists and friendly to working people in the Senate. I also look forward to working on reviewing the governor’s appointments to boards and commissions. Entities like TriMet have board members that must be approved by the Senate and I believe the importance of that process is sometimes overshadowed by other aspects of the work.”

Hwang– “My parents and I worked a lot to open 30 restaurants and we didn’t start with a loan of a million dollars. Throughout the management of my businesses the community has supported me and my businesses and that’s why I want to give back to the community. The community’s support of me and my business is the reason why I am board member of the Mt. Hood Community College Foundation, Mount Hood Medical Center Foundation, Korean Society of Oregon, and the Korean War Memorial Association, a chair of the Korean Day Association and a member of the Gresham Chamber of Commerce and the Gresham Rotary Club. I want to continue giving back by running for District 25 as a Senator.”

If you win the seat, what would be your biggest priority as senator?
Gorsek– “Right now I think our biggest priority is protecting vulnerable people, whether it is from the worldwide pandemic or reforming our justice system. I’ve spent my tenure in the House doing that and I look forward to bringing that to the senate. Especially given the unique nature of East County. If you split the county in half the Eastern portion, if it were a state, would be the second poorest in the nation, the Western portion would be the second richest.”

Hwang– “Our biggest priority relates to school funding for higher education. I myself benefited from a higher education and I want others to have the same benefit I did. In addition, we face problems with the homeless because it is a complex issue where throwing money aimlessly is not a sustainable solution. Last, the Coronavirus pandemic has wounded many small businesses that were already struggling and it is time to help rebuild the economy.”

Assuming you were Senator, what direction would you encourage Gov. Kate Brown to do in her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Gorsek– “I’m not sure the direction is at issue so much as ensuring that we have agencies that can weather the storm. We need to look at the issues that have stymied the Employment Dept. among others to do the outreach they need to serve Oregonians. As for the way she has handled closing down and reopening I think she has done a good job keeping us safe relative to other states and countries. The communication though has been wanting. Halting the reopening of the county the night before [on June 12] without any broader discussions leading up to that decision is really unacceptable. We saw the numbers growing over the [Memorial Day] weekend, I believe that’s when we should have started a conversation about what was going on.”

Hwang– “I first want to state that I believe the health and safety of our community is extremely important! We were not sure what we were dealing with at first, but we knew it was going to be a danger to public health. Unfortunately, we heard of a COVID-19 outbreak in the United States weeks before Gov. Brown enforced Executive Order 20-12. There was at least a little bit of time to scramble and find a plan to address the economic impacts caused by the closure. This should have been our first priority while we were in the waiting stages.

Once closed, there was a one-size-fits-all method to shutting things down in Oregon, which was an improper way to handle the situation. There are a handful of counties in Southern Oregon that haven’t seen a single case of Coronavirus whose businesses could have been allowed to stay open at the time. Secondly, I was extremely concerned that small businesses and retail were forced to shut down while others like Target and Walmart were deemed essential and were allowed to stay open.

Stores like that are a petri dish for disease, especially in the beginning stages of the outbreak when wearing masks wasn’t mandated to the extent it is now. When I saw this, I couldn’t quite understand the rationale behind closing down small businesses who have a better chance of preventing the spread of disease due to their small size, rather than gigantic businesses such as Walmart and Target where it’s much harder to adhere to cleanliness standards due to their massive size. Most of our local small businesses will get maybe a few customers at a time and therefore could adhere to the cleanliness standards much better than stores such as Walmart and Target.

Long story short, our elected leaders are held to a standard. We trust them to handle an emergency with a plan. I think COVID19, the closure, and the re-opening has taught all of us that our state leaders, along with Oregon Health Authority, [We] need to be much more prepared for a pandemic outbreak. If elected, I will work with other legislators to ensure our state and our communities are better prepared for an emergency such as COVID-19.

As the Democratic/Republican candidate for District 25, how do you plan on obtaining the moderate vote?
Gorsek– “I don’t think most voters are ideological. They want to be safe from the different challenges we face and they want to ensure their kids have greater opportunity than their parents. When I work on legislation these are things that I focus on and I believe people in my House District have responded to that. I’m also open to discussing different points of view. People in the district know that I’ll listen and change my mind with new information.”

Hwang– “I approach all people as a member of the community and an advocate of bipartisan politics. We are all tired of partisan politics. I started from nothing, I didn’t have a loan of a million dollars, and I believe that hard work can overcome many challenges. Just as my employees are my biggest asset, I care about the people in my district. You don’t win the support of the unions if you don’t care about your employees.”

What is the biggest issue you see that Oregon faces – both before, and during the pandemic?
Gorsek– “I think we need to acknowledge that we have a big challenge ahead of us. Almost two weeks to the day after people let down their guard on Memorial Day, cases doubled. We need to keep our eye on that and also work toward opening up a safe and productive economy. I think you can have both but we can’t lose our patience.”

Hwang– “During the pandemic one of the biggest issues I see is the ability of individuals and small businesses being able to recover from state closure. Many of us have grown accustomed to social distancing and there is now an inherent fear for some to stay away from others. This is not the way humans function. We experience a portion of our life through touch, such as being able to hug someone to show our affection, shaking someone’s hand to show respect, etc. I don’t think many people will be comfortable with such things now.”

What is the biggest issue in District 25? How do you plan on addressing these issues?
Gorsek– “Equity and economics – we started out the pandemic one of the least affected areas in the region and now we’re one of the most. As big business has made record profits and has made the metro area rich, East County has lagged behind. We need to work on these inequities from criminal justice reform to improving the fairness of state investment. I’ve had meaningful and impacting legislation in these areas that have had deep impacts on juvenile justice and state incentives to large employers.”

Hwang– “The economic impact is absolutely devastating! Many businesses in our community closed their doors for good. For those who managed to stay open, businesses like mine, we had to make some painful decisions such as lay off our staff, apply for SBA loans (which many did not receive), etc. Additionally, the Employment Department has failed to process unemployment applications due to lack of staff, and a very outdated, riddled-with-problems processing system which received $85 million in federal funding in 2009 to be upgraded, but now the upgrade won’t be completed till 2025. Those with questions are not, and were not, able to call the department at all. Some either waited on hold for hours or were not able to connect at all.

On Wednesday the employment department disclosed that out of 440,000 claims they received, there were 220,000 unpaid claims, which included 25,000 self-employed workers who had applied for regular benefits. I could go on and on about the issues facing us during and after the pandemic, but the bottom line is we have a lot to do once this whole thing is over. If elected, I will be working to improve emergency preparedness for businesses and collaborating with the other legislators on making sure our workers in the state don’t experience what they have been experiencing with the employment department ever again. Families in East Multnomah County and in Oregon as a whole deserve better.”

As an MHCC instructor/board member for the MHCC Foundation, do you have intentions on advocating for education needs? In particular, any ideas on how to raise funding for community colleges, in general?
Gorsek– “We have some major structural issues that need to change in the way we fund higher education and we also need commitments locally to pass a funding (levy). There are a number of people that have a great deal of expertise in winning elections in East County, including myself, Rep. Piluso and Sen. Monnes Anderson, that haven’t been tapped by the Foundation board in the efforts to pass funding. There is also a constitutional requirement that local funding can only be matched by state funds, instead of having that money come in directly. It’s a Catch-22 and we have to ensure that when new money comes into the college we’re leveraging it to get the state match and despite my best efforts that hasn’t happened yet.”

Hwang– “As a member of MHCC Foundation, I fully plan on advocating for education needs. Last legislative session we saw a huge focus on K-12 funding, but it seems like community colleges got left behind in the process. We talked about the corporate activities tax, why not make a carve-out in the tax specifically for college funding and language to make sure the money is fairly allocated to all the schools in Oregon, including MHCC? Not just K-12. My plan is to make sure I specifically chief sponsor bills that lead to more funding for our community colleges statewide and speak with the right people to make sure that statewide funding also gets allocated to MHCC. There is a process to doing things to ensure funding is allocated to your district; it just takes a little bit of hard work, communication with other legislators and committee chairs, and a willingness to roll your sleeves up. I will be rolling my sleeves up for East Multnomah County and MHCC (the backbone of our community).”

As a state representative, you and Kate Brown had a focus on providing more funding to K-12. Some students and faculty at the MHCC campus wonder if your decision has come at the cost of the college funding. Do you think that you and the Democrats have made an appropriate allocation of funding, prioritizing K-12 over college funding? Do you think the money could have been allocated better or used more efficiently?
Gorsek– “The important thing about the money that has been brought in for K-12 is that it takes pressure off of the general fund regarding community college or indeed any higher ed funding. It’s wrong to pit one group of students against the other since if more money hadn’t come in for K-12 we would have just had less money. Having said that, I believe in general that we should look at community colleges in the context of a K-14 budget and fund universities separately.”

Gorsek and Kate Brown have had a focus on providing more funding to K-12.  Some students and faculty at the MHCC campus wonder if Gorsek’s decision has come at the cost of the college funding.   Do you think that Gorsek and the Democrat’s have made a wrongful allocation of funding prioritizing K-12 over college funding?  Do you think the money could have been allocated better or used more efficiently?
Hwang– “Gorsek and the Democrats have been advocating for K-12 funding for a long time now. The problem with his solution of funding K-12 is that the solution was not at all transparent. Kids haven’t been given supplies necessary for school. When I was in school, I had access to free crayons and pencils but the kids these days either get it from their parents or out of their teacher’s pockets. Where’s the money going? School funding needs to be transparent, first and foremost.”

Do you have any out-of-the-box solutions that can be used to fix any of Oregon’s issues?
Gorsek– “Most people that promise out-of-the-box solutions do so because they don’t realize that there is a reason why the idea hasn’t been successful in the past. I can say though that justice reform is an area where we waste a lot of money on things that don’t solve problems. When we passed the Safety and Savings Act to reduce the amount of women we have incarcerated, that saved the state $17.2 million in the first biennium after it was passed and, through the use of community corrections, shifted that group of women into programs proven to reduce recidivism. There are more reforms that we can do just like that and I look forward to working with people like our new DAs in Multnomah and Wasco counties whom I supported in their races in the May election.”

Hwang– “One of the things I think is out of the box is to, after COVID-19, pressure members of HECC (Higher Education Coordinating Commission) to cut costs in their administrative pot of money and re-allocate those funds to the colleges, specifically to trades programs and community colleges. Many trades programs are only two-year programs and now more than ever we need an educated workforce to kick start our economy and promote innovation. We know the Legislature is going to have a special session and is going to address a $5 billion budget deficit; I think now more than ever it’s important to ask both members of HECC and the Legislature to not only leave education money alone, but also re-allocate funds from HECC admin costs to actual education programs to all community colleges, including MHCC.”

[Author Note: I interviewed Justin Hwang, in person, with his friend, Lorne, on May 29 in his campaign office. The questions regarding the death of George Floyd were not part of the original interview, so I sent an email asking for Hwang’s response on June 8, which he answered shortly after.
I interviewed Chris Gorsek, with his friend Jason, via Zoom on June 10 and included the question regarding Floyd’s death to match the questions I asked Hwang. In a further inquiry, I asked Gorsek how common it is for a law enforcement officer to receive at least one complaint during their career. He responded by saying that it is pretty hard not to have at least one upset person in their career, and that he himself received three complaints over his seven-year career, all of which were all cleared.]

As a former police officer and following the death of George Floyd, what should the Legislature do about policing, especially with regard to police brutality?
Gorsek– “The People of Color Caucus put out an outline of changes that we need to follow. I think we also need to make sure that our law enforcement officers are in better touch with their communities. We also need to provide better mental health support both for the community and the officers that serve it. PTSD is real and many of our officers suffer from it and it contributes to the challenges we’re facing right now. We put too much on our teachers and our police officers because we haven’t invested in the kind of services that help people both mentally and emotionally on their path to success.”

As a person of color and following the death of George Floyd, what should the Legislature do about policing, especially with regard to police brutality?
Hwang– “After recent events, it has become more and more apparent that the Legislature needs to pass laws requiring mandated training classes regarding racist practices in the police force. Just like mandatory training regarding sexual harassment practices is required in the public sector (even though not every person attending a mandatory sexual harassment course is an abuser) there should be mandatory training regarding racism in our police force (even though not every person attending a mandatory racist practices course is a racist).

The plain and simple truth is, WE HAVE AN ISSUE and it NEEDS to be addressed. In addition, we should also address some of the tactics police officers are using to restrain individuals. Pinning an individual down to the ground by his throat is inhumane and there are other restraining tactics that can be used to subdue an individual. Finally, there needs to be a mandatory evaluation of an officer’s performance if that officer has had even a single complaint against them. We need to take this seriously and be accountable to the public.”

(Candidate response to opponent’s answer)
Gorsek– “I have long taught my criminal justice students at MHCC that the racist and violent behavior by the police that we have seen, as of late, across the country is absolutely wrong and must be stopped. I fully support the improved training of police officers in these areas and call for the police to return to the practices of community policing. Proposals are under way in the Legislature to deal with these problems and I completely support those efforts.”

Hwang– “Chris Gorsek is a former police officer and has had an opportunity over the last eight years to pass serious police accountability reform, since 2013. Additionally, his party has been in the majority in both chambers over the last ten years. If the representative knows our police officers struggle with PTSD, which according to him could then lead to police misconduct, then why hasn’t he passed legislation addressing these issues?
He is correct in saying we need to provide better mental and emotional support services for our police officers who go through trauma while on the job. As a member of the Public Safety subcommittee on Ways and Means, he has had many opportunities to make sure more funding goes to these services for our officers. However, the last time I checked our police department is not a therapy office. Our police officers are sworn to serve and protect our communities, meaning they are held at a very high standard of performance. Making sure we are hiring mentally healthy officers to the task should be one of our top priorities in addressing police brutality from the get-go.

The People of Color Caucus pushed out a press release on June 2 outlining their legislative priorities for the upcoming special session. One of their priorities is to reintroduce two bills: SB 383 and 1567 – both of which passed with bipartisan support through the Senate but died in the House. I think it’s important to mention that Rep. Gorsek did not sponsor nor co-sponsor these very important bills, nor did he fight for them to live long enough to see daylight on the House floor.

This goes back to what I mentioned previously, paying lip service to the cause is simply not enough. As a person of color, I can tell you that the conversation we are currently having regarding racial injustice is a conversation we have been having for decades. Our communities of color are desperate for serious criminal justice reform and we must accomplish this, but in order to do so we must first create a more balanced legislative body. Our state legislature has become too monolithic, making it difficult to pass any meaningful reform. The Democrat party itself is fighting over what legislation they prioritize, leaving many important bills to die in committee (such as SB 383 and 1567). As with anything in life, when there is no balance there is inefficiency. We must have balance and we can accomplish this together in November.”

Is there anything else you’d like to say to your potential constituents?
Gorsek– “Call me – we need your input in order to be as effective as possible. The main job of a legislator is to listen and work on solving problems. Most of the solutions that come about are because people in the community point out the problem. When I hear from more people that provides me with the capacity and the information I need to solve more problems.”

Hwang– “My name is Justin Hwang and I am running for Oregon State Senate to represent Senate District 25, which encompasses Gresham, Wood Village, Troutdale, Fairview, and parts of Southeast Portland. As a small business owner, I see now more than ever that we need a change in leadership in our community, especially in the aftermath of COVID-19. We need leaders who know how to problem-solve and get our economy back on its feet. As a restaurant owner, my workers and I have personally been impacted by this pandemic and we know the economic challenges ahead facing our community. As a board member of the Mt. Hood Community College Foundation, I have fought for better funding for our schools. As a board member of Mt. Hood Medical Center Foundation, I have fought for better healthcare for our community. As a member of the Gresham Area Chamber of Commerce, I have fought for our local businesses and advocated for policy initiatives that are critical to economic growth, job creation, and job security. Finally, as a first-generation Korean immigrant I understand the complex problems our minority groups are facing in our community, especially in the midst of this pandemic and in light of current events.

If elected, I will continue to fight for citizens of Senate District 25 in the Oregon State Legislature just as I have been in my current roles as a community member. I am confident we will overcome the challenges facing us in the near future, especially with the right elected leadership representing our district at the state level!
Please vote for me in the upcoming November election and feel free to reach out to me with any questions regarding my platforms at [email protected] or at 503-489-7569.”