11.10.06
Cowan edges Brown to help give Dems House control
Democratic challenger Jean Cowan ousted Republican incumbent Alan Brown in another nip-and-tuck campaign for the District 10 State Representative seat.
Cowan received 12,546 votes - 9,812 in Lincoln County - to Brown’s 11,809 and 9,317, respectively. Elsewhere in the district, Cowan received 2,407 votes in Lane County, 173 in Polk County, and 154 in Yamhill County to Brown’s 2,062, 171, and 258, respectively. He also reeled in Tillamook County’s lone vote in District 10.
With the victory, Cowan captured a seat she narrowly lost in 2004.
Brown’s campaign focused on his state government experience under the slogan “Trusted, Respected, Builds Consensus, and Delivers.” The News-Times could not reach him for post-election comments.
Cowan’s priorities were education, health care, and public safety. She pointed to her experience in county and city government, and focused her campaign on the need for change, saying she would take “a proven record of local leadership” to Salem. Declaring her “independence from special interests,” she said she would eliminate waste by giving agencies incentives to find efficiencies, stop tax giveaways to out-of-state corporations, and stop “playing politics” with education budgets, and “stop closing local schools.”
“This race was what we expected it to be,” Cowan told the News-Times Wednesday. “I have been on both sides of a close election, and, frankly, this time around is much better. I’ve had some pretty enjoyable conversations. It’s been very, very pleasant.”
Cowan is eager to begin her new role and excited about going to Salem, especially since her victory helped the Democrats gain a majority in the House.
“This was critical to the overall picture in the state of Oregon,” she noted. “We knew going in that a few races would determine the majority in the House, but it’s hard to picture District 10 as so critical a piece in the overall outcome.”
Much work lies ahead for Cowan and her colleagues.
“We need to figure the best way to provide a reasonable balance of services,” she said, noting the need to also look at ways to achieve balance throughout the system in terms of revenue. To get there means finding a fair and equitable way to balance the tax burden between small businesses and individuals on one side of the scale and large corporations on the other side.
Despite what she referred to as conservative talk radio’s “doomsday predictions” about imminent tax hikes, Cowan said she and others in the state legislature simply want to “make sure we fairly share the burden, and provide an adequate level of service.”
During her campaign, she focused on the need to create new jobs while protecting those already here, and promised to stand up for local businesses, even if it meant standing up to her own political party. She wants to stop giving state contracts to corporations who ship jobs overseas, and would like to protect industries on the Oregon coast, and “help them adapt to the future.” To make that future brighter, Cowan said Oregon must provide proper education funding, focus on public safety, including the addition of 125 state troopers to fight methamphetamine trafficking and take repeat drunk drivers off the roads, and improve access to health care, especially for children.
Cowan ended by thanking the voters for their support, and expressing her “sincere appreciation” to the more than 100 volunteers and more than 500 individual contributors for “all their hard work.”
Terry Dillman is a reporter for the News-Times. He can be reached at 265-8571 ext. 225, or terrydillman@newportnewstimes.com.
