Think Out Loud

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has served in the position since 2012. She is not running for re-election this year so for the first time since 2008, the race is wide open.  Republican Will Lathrop is a former prosecutor in Marion and Yamhill counties. Democrat Dan Rayfield is a former House speaker, attorney and state representative.   We’ll hear from both candidates on why they’re the best pick for the job.  

Coty Raven Morris is an assistant professor of choir, music education and social justice at Portland State. When the fall term began three weeks ago, Morris had exciting news she wanted to share with her students before choir rehearsal began. For a second year in a row, Morris had been nominated as a semifinalist for a GRAMMY Music Educator Award, chosen from a pool of more than 2,400 nominees. The winner will be announced during the GRAMMY Awards ceremony in January.  Morris is also the founder of Being Human Together which builds connections between youth, educators and people from marginalized communities, including those who are unhoused, through conversations and choir performances. She joins us to talk about the impact the organization is having, and how her experience in a high school choir carved a path of opportunity out of childhood adversity. 

With a chill in the air and Halloween around the corner, Oregon is getting ready for spooky season. But for some, Halloween is more than just a time for costumes and candy, it’s a time to test one’s courage and get scared. Oregon has a number of scare attractions across the state. Robin Downward is the production director of the Nightmare Chamber in Medford. Mike Milburn is the owner of Milburn’s Haunted Manor in Hubbard. They both join us to share more on their haunted houses and their approach to scaring. 

 It used to be that age was one of the biggest predictive factors in whether a person would actually vote in any given U.S. election. However, the participation of younger voters rose in 2020 by more than 10 percent compared with the 2016 election. It’s unclear if that trend will continue.  We’re joined by two members of Gen Z who say they have been looking forward to voting for years. GiGi Whisler is sophomore at Pacific University in Forest Grove, who describes herself as liberal.  Heidi Taylor is from Phoenix, Oregon and is a sophomore at Brigham Young University-Rexburg, in Idaho. They both join us to discuss how they’re feeling about voting for the first time and what issues are most important to them as they decide on candidates and measures.  PROMO: With the election just weeks away and many Oregonians now in possession of their ballots, we check in with two college sophomores of different political perspectives. They’ll be voting for president for the first time ever, and we’ll ask how they’re feeling about Democracy, voting integrity and how they’re weighing the issues. 

In 2022, Portland residents voted to drastically change their form of government. This included using ranked choice voting and a 12-person city council. With the change in government, the mayor will work closely with the new city administrator to oversee the everyday functions of the city and help craft the budget, but will no longer have a vote on the city council, unless it’s to break a tie. There are 19 people running to be the city’s new mayor. “Think Out Loud” invited the four candidates with the largest number of individual donations and funds raised. Rene Gonzalez, Mingus Mapps and Carmen Rubio are current city council commissioners and Keith Wilson is the president and CEO of TITAN Freight Systems. They all join us for a debate.

In 2022, Portland residents voted to drastically change the city’s form of government. That includes using ranked-choice voting to expand the city council from five seats to 12.  Another change is the creation of four geographic districts, with voters in each district electing three candidates to represent them on the new council. “Think Out Loud” is hosting a series of events throughout Portland to help voters meet the district candidates. They were invited based on the number of individual donors who contributed to their campaigns. On Oct. 9, we held a District 3 candidates forum at Gigantic Brewing Hawthorne Pub. We partnered with the Urban League of Portland for the event which they live streamed on Facebook.  District 3 covers most of Southeast Portland, west of I-205. It includes the neighborhoods of Mt. Tabor, Sunnyside, Montavilla and Woodstock. It also includes some neighborhoods in Northeast which cross Sandy Boulevard such as Rose City Park and Roseway. The D3 candidates we spoke to include: Rex Burkholder, Jesse Cornett, Daniel DeMelo, Chris Flanary, Theo Hathaway Saner, Harrison Kass, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo, Steve Novick, Jon Walker and Luke Zak.  

At the annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, boaters attempt to cross a watercourse in Tualatin using only a giant pumpkin as their vessel. The regatta will happen on Sunday.Jim Sherwood is an extreme gardener and one of the founders of the festival. He recently won the National Pumpkin Weigh Off in California by growing a nearly 2,500-pound pumpkin. Gourd grower Gary Kristensen has competed in the regatta since 2013. Earlier this month, he attempted to break a Guinness world record by paddling a pumpkin nearly 46 miles along the Columbia River. Sherwood and Kristensen join us to share more on the regatta, pumpkin paddling and what it’s like to grow these giants.

For more than a decade, Tigard has been working on revitalizing its downtown. City leaders, small business owners and the nonprofit Tigard Downtown Alliance have worked together to bring more foot traffic to the city’s core. We hear more about the effort and the work that’s still to come from Kevin Bates, an owner of Symposium Coffee and the president of the alliance.

Voters in Washington will soon get their ballots in the mail for the general election, with voting opening on Friday. About half of the statewide races in Washington are open contests this year. That includes the governor’s race where Democratic candidate and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson is facing Dave Reichert, a former U.S. Representative and sheriff of King County. Reichert is emphasizing his law enforcement credentials on the campaign trail, while trying to shore up support among voters who identify as moderates. During the second gubernatorial debate last month, the two candidates clashed over crime and public safety, the state’s abortion protections and education policies.   Four statewide initiatives are also on the Washington ballot this year. They include I-2117 which if passed, would repeal Washington’s landmark Climate Commitment Act. The law, which went into effect last January, establishes a cap-and-invest program that requires refineries and other polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions with a target of phasing them out by 95% by 2050. The CCA has raised $2 billion so far to fund statewide efforts to mitigate climate change, including making free bus rides for youth, issuing $200 utility credits for low and middle-income households, and expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Jeanie Lindsay is the Olympia correspondent for our partner station, KUOW. She joins us to talk about the Washington governor’s race, the initiatives on the ballot and the issues that are top of mind for the state’s voters.  

Measure 117 on the Oregon ballot  would implement a system of ranked choice voting for all federal and statewide races in Oregon by 2028. The Yes campaign says it’s an idea whose time has come. Portland voters passed a new system of government which includes electing the mayor and city council members using RCV. And Multnomah county will soon be choosing elected officials this way as well.Opponents of the measure raise a range of concerns, from county clerks who say there’s no infrastructure or funding to support this major voting change, to those who don’t agree that ranking candidates leads to a more democratic result compared to the traditional winner-take-all method.Sara Wolk is the executive director of the Equal Vote Coalition that opposes Measure 117, and Isabela Villarreal with the Next Up Action Fund, formerly known as The Bus Project, who is campaigning for the measure. They both join us to discuss Measure 117.