The two major party candidates for the key battleground House District 53 seat in Deschutes County showed similarities and marked differences between in a forum Tuesday.

Democrat Emerson Levy and Republican Michael Sipe, both Bend residents, won their party primaries in May and are on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. The candidates squared off over the usual thorny issues facing Oregon voters at the event hosted by the Greater Bend Rotary Club, attended by about 60 people (Note: Sipe is a club member).

Topics included affordable housing, taxes, abortion rights, gun control, voting rights, health care, and drug enforcement.

Sipe, 67, is a former U.S. Army captain who served with the elite Ranger units. He now works as a consultant to top corporate executives involved in business mergers and acquisitions. He said he was motivated to run for the legislature so he can work to curb taxes on small business, strengthen law and order, and restore a balance of power in Salem.

Too many decisions were made by a tight knot of Democratic leaders, Sipe said. He singled out Gov. Kate Brown, House Speaker Tina Kotek of Portland, and Senate President Peter Courtney of Salem. He included former Sen. Betsy Johnson, who served as co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Committee on Ways & Means.

“We have three women and one guy” running the state,” Sipe said. 

Kotek resigned from the House to run for governor, winning the Democratic nomination. Johnson resigned from the Senate to pursue a bid for governor as a non-affiliated candidate. Courtney did not seek re-election in 2022 and will retire when the new Senate is sworn in next January. Brown could not run for governor again because of term limits. She has not announced her personal or political plans when he current term ends with the swearing in of the new governor in January.

Levy, 37, is an attorney specializing in renewable energy. She’s vice-chair of the Deschutes Democratic Party, and a volunteer on Oregon’s Task Force for School Safety.

“School safety is my number one priority. Keeping our children safe from harm is important to me,” she said.

Levy worked with Rep. Courtney Neron, D-Wilsonville, on a school safety bill modeled on Alyssa’s Law, which was developed by a family of a Parkland, Florida shooting victim. It is designed to improve response times in school emergencies, including active shooter incidents.

Levy said she believes that government does work for the better good. 

“As someone whose mother suffered from mental illness when I was young, I was able to use a federal Pell grant to go to college and then graduate law school.”

Levy said she remains optimistic that American democracy can still work for all people.

“The best days are ahead of us,” she said.

The race between Sipe and Levy is among the most competitive in the state, being among a handful of the 60 House seats that could determine the level of political power each party wields. Democrats currently hold a 37-23 majority in the House. Democrats hold an 18-12 majority in the Senate, with the minority including Republicans and one Independent.

With three-fifths of the votes in each chamber, Democrats can pass financial legislation, including taxes without Republican votes.

But Democrats are shy of a two-thirds majority, which would allow them to form a quorum to do legislative business even if Republicans walked out. In 2020, House and Senate Repubilcans walked out to deny Democrats a quorum to vote on a carbon cap plan. Only Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, and Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, did not walk out. Knopp had taken part in a walkout in 2019. The walkout means the 35-days session hit the constitutional deadline to adjourn with hundreds of bills still under consideration

A Democrat has been elected governor in every election since 1986. If the streak is broken in 2022 by either Johnson or the Republican nominee, former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, a two-thirds majority is needed to override a governor’s veto.

House District 53 is a key objective of Democrats seeking to expand their presence in Central Oregon. Democrats flipped nearby House District 54 in 2020, with Democrat Jason Kropf defeating Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend. The rapid growth of Deschutes County and the legally required redistricting to reflect the 2020 U.S. Census led to new boundaries approved by the Democratic-majority legislature.

Under maps used through the 2020 election, House District 53 – nicknamed the “doughnut district” encircled House District 54 in Bend. The district stretched from Redmond to Sisters and south to Sunriver. Rep. Gene Whisnant, R-Sunriver, a retired Air Force colonel, was elected in 2002 and held the seat until retiring prior to the 2018 election. Rep. Jack Zika, R-Redmond, won a two-vote victory in the 2018 Republican primary, then won the general election. He was re-elected in 2020, defeating Levy, who was the Democratic nominee.

Beginning with the 2022 election, the new, compacted district covers northern Bend, southern Redmond Tumalo and Sisters. Sunriver and other southern areas are now part of House District 55The former southern areas of the district, Now it has moved further north and includes portions of Bend, Sisters, Tumalo and half of Redmond.  The newly drawn district has also gone from a Republican tilt to leaning Democratic. Zika announced last year that he would not seek a third term. 

If Levy wins the November election, it will give Democrats a second seat east of the Cascades. Sipe is seeking to replicate a decade of Republicans who held onto House District 54 despite growing an ever-growing Democratic voter registration edge.

The Rotary Club forum is the first of what is expected to be several chances for Levy and Sipe to offer their vision of the future for House District 53 and the state.

On Tuesday, both agreed that climate change is real, but with varying degrees. Levy emphasized the need to move toward renewable energy while Sipe said, “We need to be deliberate about how we proceed. There are always unintended consequences when it comes to climate change. I don’t believe that in Central Oregon, the diesel farm tractors in the field are causing climate change.”

On abortion rights, Sipe said that the issue is pretty well settled in Oregon.

The right to access abortions has been codified in Oregon law since 2017. 

“I’m pro-life, pro-woman, pro-child,” Sipe said. He suggested more should be done to help the foster care and child adoption systems. “I don’t think abortions should be taxpayer funded.”

Levy responded simply with, “I trust women to make their own choices.”

A question was asked about a charter proposal in Multnomah County that would allow non-citizen residents to vote in some elections. There is no similar action under consideration elsewhere in the state, including Deschutes County.

Levy said she was ot well-versed on the debate over the issue, but coming from a family of Jewish immigrants, she hoped the country could move away from an “us versus them” attitude.

Sipe said that immigration is a federal issue. He said he preferred that immigrants receive the right to vote by becoming citizens.

When asked of a public figure they most admired, Levy responded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his fortitude in rallying his country to slow a Russian invasion that is now in its sixth month.

Sipe cited Ben Carson, a leading black conservative political figure and evangelical Christian who ran for President as a Republican in 2016. A renowned neurosurgeon, Carson served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under then-President Donald Trump. Sipe said he admired Carson for the way he articulates his faith and knowledge of science.

On a proposed sales tax for Oregon, Levy said that any such tax is regressive, hurting the lowest income earners the most. Sipe also opposes a sales tax and called for eliminating the Corporate Activities Tax, which mostly hurts small businesses with seven to 10 employees, he said.

Both Levy and Sipe said they do not believe that there should be a universal health care plan for Oregonians.

“There are too many self-insured plans in Oregon to be covered by a federal law,” Levy said.

Sipe said he preferred a private health system.

“I’m a capitalist, not a socialist, and I think a centralized health care plan by the state would be a disaster,” Sipe said.

Both also agreed that Measure 110 has failed in its intent. The law approved by voters was meant to decriminalize possession of small personal amounts of drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine, opioids, and PCP, LSD and oxycodone. It calls for better drug treatment instead of incarceration.

Gerry O’Brien is the editor of The Bulletin in Bend and attended the Rotary Club even on Tuesday.

Gary A. Warner is the state politics reporter for EO Media Group and is based in Salem.