Oregon Senate District 1

 

 

There are only 2 candidates in this election, one Republican and one Democrat.

 

1.  The Republican candidate is incumbent Senator Jeff Kruse, of Roseburg, who was also nominated by the Independent Party.  Senator Kruse has served in the Oregon Legislature continuously since 1997 when he was elected to the Oregon House, continuing as a Representative there through 2004.  He was then elected to the Senate where he has served since 2005.

 

He has a long record of opposing privileges and benefits for illegal aliens.  In 2001 as a Representative, he introduced HB 2507, requiring that Oregon Health Plan participants be Oregon (legal) resident.  The bill had a Committee hearing and was referred to Ways and Means, where it remained upon adjournment. In 2005, as a Senator, he was the only Education and Workforce Committee member to vote Nay on SB 769, a bill granting instate tuition to illegal aliens.  OFIR also opposed the bill and it died in the Ways and Means Committee.  In 2008, Sen. Kruse voted in favor of SB 1080, the bill supported by OFIR that passed and requires proof of legal presence to obtain a driver license.  In 2011, he voted against SB 742, which would have granted instate tuition to illegal aliens. In 2013 he voted against HB 2787, a bill which did pass, granting instate tuition to illegal aliens.  He also voted against SB 833, driver cards for illegal aliens.  SB 833 passed, but OFIR succeeded in overturning it through a Referendum in the general election of 2014.

 

In the current session of the Legislature, Sen. Kruse voted against HB 2177, the universal voter registration bill that makes voting by illegal aliens more likely, and also against SB 932, the Opportunity Grants bill giving public funds to illegal aliens for their college education.

 

Sen. Kruse replied to the 2016 Oregon Abigail Adams Voter Education Project questionnaire, and here are his answers to the immigration-related questions for State Senate candidates:

 

19. Do you support restricting the "emergency clause" in legislation as true emergencies?  Yes.  22.  Do you support a constitutional amendment to require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in Oregon?   Yes.   36. Do you support requiring all Oregon employers to use the federal E-Verify system to determine the employee's work eligibility status?   Yes.

 

2. The Democratic Party candidate in Senate District 1 is Tim Rolek, of Brookings.  He has a website at http://www.rolekforsenate.com/.  It contains a brief section, Where I Stand, that gives his general outlook but there are few details and no mention of immigration.  He apparently does not consider the subject pertinent.  He did not reply to the OAAVEP survey.  His views on immigration are unknown.

 

According to his filing paper with the Secretary of State, he is a self-employed musician, writer, and composer, and the Music Director of the Lake Tahoe Music Festival.  He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in Music.