Ashland, Ore. – Democrat Jeff Golden and Republican Jessica Gomez shared their thoughts and platforms with the public tonight at a forum on SOU’s campus.
Golden’s a former Jackson County Commissioner, and radio personality. Gomez is running for her first public office and is the founder and CEO of Rogue Valley Microdevices.
Each candidate spoke out about topics like climate change and Oregon as a sanctuary state, the law that prohibits enforcing federal immigration laws against a person if their only crime is being an illegal citizen. Gomez says she’s against keeping the sanctuary law in place.
“The real problem is what we put in place in 2017 that we don’t have to and we maybe even shouldn’t even coordinate with immigration officials when we find out that person is here illegally,” she said. “That puts the extra stress on our system that we don’t need we have enough problems trying to deal with what we have here today.”
On the other side, Jeff Golden is in favor of the sanctuary state law saying getting rid of it would allow racial profiling in the state.
“It would make Oregon the national model for profiling and it fixes a problem that doesn’t exist, it reverses a 30 year old law that nobody says has been problematic including law enforcement,” Golden said.
The two candidates gathered with the concerned citizens after the event to talk more about the topics they weren’t able to fully address during their time on stage.
SOU students were also set up at the event to register southern Oregonians to vote. The last day to register to vote in Oregon is Tuesday October 16th.
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