A Liberal’s View of Bill Sizemore – 1:1

Interviewed by Courtney Brooks
April 16, 2010
Portland, Oregon

Bill Sizemore is one of the Republican candidates for Governor in the Oregon primary election which takes place May 18. He has been blasted in the press for his continued opposition to powerful teachers' unions in the state, who have taken it so far that only one week ago was he freed to be able to spend money on his own campaign. He still is under court order to submit all personal expenditures (such grocery receipts for buying food for his family). He has also sponsored more state ballot initiatives than any other individual, and Oregon has one of the oldest initiative systems in the country, having started in 1902.

In the interest of fairness I wanted people to see him with more humanity, and I was lucky to get a one-on-one interview with him, which follows. For the record, I am a registered Democrat in Oregon, and to the "dark blue" side of the spectrum.

(1) PERS funding and sustainability – why is this a problem?
Bill – 85% of the education budget is for salary and benefits. Money spent on PERS as a share of the state budget is getting larger, and could be spent on education expenses, including teachers, textbooks, school maintenance, etc.

Yes I would address PERS in a way that impacts Tier 1 employees too – ratchet back their PERS. The fix in 1994 that voters approved is not enough. Courts have said workers have an implied contract – but it’s not a contract. It can be changed by the employees voluntarily. My goal would be to create a total compensation package approach and let the employees decide if they really want that much of their money to go into PERS, because if they do it is going to impact their salary, which is the biggest part of the compensation package and is always negotiable.

I would leave the 110,000 retirees collecting PERS benefits alone.

(2) What has been your source of income?
Bill - Oregon Taxpayers Union is one organization – I have historically received a salary as part of their overhead. Some income I receive from political action committees who back me on certain initiatives, some foundations likewise have provided funding in the past. And I receive some income from political organizations for my activities. Note that the IRS has had no issues with my organizations. My foundation had an audit from the IRS right before the unions sued my organization and we received a clean bill of health.

(3) What drives you regarding initiatives?
Bill - When I ask donors to get behind a particular measure, they are usually motivated about issues that will make the state a better place for everyone – not about saving themselves money.

(3a) Where do the initiative concepts come from?
Bill – I think them up.. and I have dozens more rolling around in my head.

(3b) Why don’t you get credit for them?
Bill – unions get people – in the press, on blogs, etc. – to discredit me. They attempt to demonize me and it becomes a personal attack. When their complaints are dismissed by facts, this happens silently – no headlines here.

(3c) Do you think that some issues – like PERS liability, or violation of private property rights, get so far out of control – that your initiatives seek to restore some kind of balance?
Bill – sure. If JFK were around today he would be viewed as a conservative. In his era, he was seen as progressive.

(4) How do you reconcile your – what seems to be – hatred – of public employee unions with your religious principles. Shouldn’t you “turn the other cheek” or something?
Bill – Personally, I don’t hate public employees at all. I think their unions are destroying the state and must be stopped, but there are lots of good people working for government.

(4a) So, hatred is a political stance?
Bill – It’s not hatred. What I do is political, not personal. But I do feel strongly about it

(5) A positive vision please?
Bill – people react to “tax cuts” as a negative. A positive way to see it is putting money in the pockets of people. That’s a negative for my opponents but a positive for the working folks who get to keep more of the money they make.


In closing – this is open for you readers to make up your own mind. While at the national level the world seems dissolving into polarized camps, this is Oregon. I sincerely think both right and left want to improve the world, and dialog is a great place to start.