Oregon Legislature House District 24

 
October 21, 2014
 
The major party candidates in House District 24 are Jim Weidner (R), incumbent, of Yamhill, and Ken Moore (D) of Yamhill.
 
JIM WEIDNER, incumbent, has served as Representative from District 24 from 2009 to date.  His campaign website at http://www.jimfororegon.com/ gives a moving account of his personal principles and how he became involved politically.  In his time at the Legislature, he has voted consistently for respecting and enforcing immigration laws.
 
When first running for office, in 2008, Weidner was quoted in the McMinnville News-Register of May 3 thus:  “When a guy is arrested and booked, we need to find out his immigration status, and at that point, he needs to be deported.”  The newspaper said that state law currently prohibits that, and that Weidner supports its repeal. 
 
During his first term in the Legislature, in 2009, he introduced HB 3364 for OFIR, a bill that would have had Oregon participate in the federal Rapid REPAT program, which allowed states to transfer certain illegal alien prisoners (those not convicted of violent crimes) to the federal government for early release and deportation.
 
In February 2013, Rep. Weidner voted no on HB 2787, the bill giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens.  In April 2013, he voted no on SB 833, the bill giving official state driver cards and i.d. to illegal aliens.  In Feb. 2014, he voted no on HB 4054, the bill that would have changed the ballot title of our referendum on SB 833 to a wording more favorable to supporters of driver cards for illegal aliens.
 
KEN MOORE has a campaign website at http://moorefororegon.com/ containing an Issues section, but there is no reference to immigration.
  
On his candidate filing paper with the Secretary of State, he lists his occupation as Self-employed Handyman.
 
In the About section of his website, there is a long list of community organizations and institutions with which he has done volunteer work. 
 
He lists 10 organizations endorsing his candidacy, using acronyms for each.  One is SEIU, (Service Employees International Union), which through its locals 49 and 503 in Oregon, has contributed $120,000 to the YES on Oregon Safe Roads campaign, the main group working to get official driver cards and i.d. for illegal aliens.
 
Absent any indication of Mr. Moore’s views on immigration issues, it’s reasonable to expect he would follow Democratic Party leadership and support benefits for illegal aliens, amnesties, and lax to no enforcement of the immigration laws.