Drazan Offers a Plan for Oregon. Now It’s Kotek’s Turn.

Christine Drazan’s “plan” for Oregon has some good ideas, but more importantly it is coherent, practical and achievable

Governor candidate Christine Drazan (R) at an event unveiling her plan for fixing what ails Oregon (Photo courtesy Drazan Facebook page).

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan last week unveiled her plan to rescue Oregon from the abyss it has sunk to under Democratic leadership.

The plan is notable for a number of reasons, and I’ll delve into details momentarily. But first I want to talk more broadly about its importance as a tone-setter for the race between Drazan and Democratic incumbent Tina Kotek.

So far, Kotek’s campaign has rested on two planks: (1) attacks on President Donald Trump, who belongs to the same party as Drazan but probably wouldn’t know who she is unless a staffer told him; and (2) criticism of cherry-picked votes Drazan made in the Legislature that upset key Democratic interest groups.

Notably absent from Kotek’s campaign is a proactive agenda of any type, probably because releasing one would beg the question, “What happened to the agenda you ran on four years ago?”

Similarly, until last week Drazan’s political ads had been mostly negative assessments of Kotek’s performance. Kotek’s record certainly merits criticism, but voters also deserve a vision for how to solve Oregon’s myriad problems. That’s why “The Drazan Plan” is important.

Drazan’s “plan” is both detailed and focused, a combination rarely seen in politics. One mainstream news outlet described it as sprawling. I think that’s the wrong adjective. Sprawling implies something that not only is big but also is unorganized. All the pieces of Drazan’s plan fit together, which brings us to the details.

Drazan breaks her plan into six sections:

· Lower the cost of living

· Break the cycle of homelessness and addiction

· Restore graduation requirements

· Reignite Oregon’s economy

· Unlock the door to home ownership

· Audit spending and deliver results

Most Oregonians, whether Republican, Democrat or something else, probably agree that those campaign planks address six of Oregon’s most pressing problems. Even those who prioritize other issues (perhaps environmental or cultural in nature) should be willing to acknowledge that if Drazan could accomplish the goals set out in her plan, it would be a net positive for the state.

But can the goals be achieved? That is the question raised by any set of campaign promises, whether detailed and practical like this batch or of the more aspirational type that have dominated Oregon politics under Democratic leadership.

Here are three reasons this plan gives me hope that Drazan could at least put Oregon on the right path, if not achieve many of the goals:

Each section includes specific, achievable actions (creating a task force doesn’t count as action).

For example: Vetoing new taxes and fees, suspending discretionary rules that exceed state and federal requirements, prioritizing addiction recovery and mental health treatment in homelessness strategies, fully auditing homeless services and other state programs to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, reinstating meaningful graduation requirements and other academic standards, increasing required classroom time, expanding apprenticeships and career and technical education, establishing a site readiness and infrastructure fund, and expanding first-time homebuyer programs.

Those are just a few examples that probably could be achieved without legislative resistance, which is key since Drazan probably would face partisan opposition from the Democrat-controlled Legislature. That’s why I didn’t mention any of her suggested tax cuts, even though I agree with most. They would require legislative cooperation.

The ideas complement each other.

Often campaign documents like this are disjointed, because they are a collection of proposals designed to appease specific interest groups, which often don’t have the same goals. You could eliminate the section titles and every proposal in The Drazan Plan would fit under the broader heading of “How to Fix Oregon’s Economy.” The plan is remarkably focused for a political document. None of the goals are contradictory. And she doesn’t have to achieve every goal to make progress.

The goals are practical and mostly achievable.

There are many reasons Oregon has fallen short of most of its goals for more than a decade, but perhaps the biggest is that many of the goals never were achievable. Democrats discovered the beauty of “aspirational goals”: They sound good to voters and no one really expects you to achieve them. But that ignores their downside: You feel no pressure to accomplish anything.

Some of Drazan’s goals, notably in regard to tax policy, face very real political obstacles. But, ignoring politics, none are as unachievable as Democratic goals of the past such Vision Zero (no traffic fatalities) or building 36,000 new housing units a year (especially when you are unwilling to removing regulatory barriers).

Also notable: None of the goals are related to cultural issues. The culture wars have been at the center of politics for too long (and not only in Oregon). Having a governor who unapologetically promised to focus almost exclusively on the economy, education and making government more effective would be a huge step in the right direction.

Obviously, those with political leanings to the left or mine will be less fond of The Drazan Plan. That’s OK. But, at the least they should lean on Kotek and Democrats to produce an achievable, practical plan for solving Oregon’s problems. Absent that, voters should assume Kotek has no plan and consider the likelihood that someone with a plan has a better chance of succeeding than someone without a plan.