BAKER CITY — Peter Hall is a Democrat running for Oregon governor who wants to distinguish himself not only from Republicans in the race, but also from candidates in his own party.

Hall, 69, has lived in Haines since 2004 and is a member of the Haines City Council.

A retired chef, Hall is also chairman of the Baker County Democratic Party and a recent member of the board for the League of Oregon Cities.

His bid for the Democratic nomination in the May 22 primary is not Hall’s first foray into politics. He ran unsuccessfully to represent Baker County in the Oregon Legislature in 2006 and in 2014.

Hall said that he was motivated to enter the governor’s race in part because he wants voters to understand that not all Democratic candidates are urban residents from the Willamette Valley who might tend to be more liberal than he is.

Hall said he disdains what he terms “magic wand thinking” among some Democratic politicians. He describes this approach as the belief, and one he considers misguided, that government regulations can fix any societal problem.

“I want to break through the idea that they can fix everything with a regulation or by spending money,” Hall said.

He said he favors what he considers more pragmatic and flexible approaches to issues than what he calls “one size fits all.”

As an example, Hall said he was a proponent of Oregon’s multi-tiered minimum wage law, which reflects the range in living costs from, say, Eastern Oregon to the Portland area.

Hall, who was born in Seattle and earned a bachelor’s degree in German and political science from the University of Washington, believes the state should use the same approach to determining poverty levels, using as criteria cost of living as well as income.

Climate change

Hall said he wants to see Oregon look at new options for dealing with water shortages for farms and ranches due to drought.

He points out that although much of Oregon’s surface water, especially in arid Eastern Oregon, is claimed by property owners with water rights, in many years there isn’t nearly enough water to satisfy all those owners, which harms agriculture.

Hall advocates for the government potentially buying, from willing sellers, properties with water rights and converting the land to other uses. That, combined with an emphasis on more efficient use of water, would make more water available to the existing farmers and ranchers, he said.

“We can’t make water magically appear,” he said. “We need to focus on the reality of our water crisis.”

Hall emphasizes that such a program would depend on farmers and ranchers working together to get the most out of the limited water supply.

He believes drought is only one of the effects of climate change.

Another that has affected all of Oregon is wildfire. Hall said in some places, and in particular east of the Cascades, some forests are overcrowded and need to have some of the fuel removed.

Hall said commercial logging “could be a component” of that effort.

“There are areas where it’s perfectly appropriate,” he said, although he cautions that logging needs to be done carefully to avoid leading to even worse environmental problems.

Supporting ‘responsible Republicans’

Although Hall is a member of the party that has dominated Oregon politics for the past four decades — seven of the state’s members of Congress are Democrats — he said he would have no objection to Republicans filling more of those seats.

But not what he considers extremist Republicans who support Donald Trump.

“I want responsible Republicans, centrist, pragmatist, old-school Republicans,” Hall said, citing as examples two of Oregon’s former U.S. senators, Mark Hatfield (who also served as governor) and Bob Packwood.

Hall said another factor that motivated him to file as a candidate was Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten’s announcement in late June 2021 that she was seeking the Republican nomination in the governor’s race.

Hall said he wants to show voters that Republicans, and specifically McQuisten, don’t represent the beliefs of all of rural Oregonians. He contends that he would be more effective at bridging what he called the “east-west divide” in Oregon than McQuisten would be.

Masks and mandates

Hall said he has been upset by people who decry Gov. Kate Brown’s executive orders regarding face masks as “tyranny and dictatorial.”

“I find that absolutely insulting to the people around the world who actually suffer under real oppression, tyranny and dictatorships,” Hall said. “There’s a difference.”

Hall said the governor’s mask mandate was “probably overreach,” and he’s more concerned about the lack of enforcement and compliance than about the basic idea of encouraging residents to wear face masks, in indoor situations where social distancing isn’t possible, to curb the spread of COVID-19.

He also believes the governor and other state officials have done a poor job of explaining the mask mandate.

Hall said that were the decision his to make, he would have made it explicit that the state would support any business or venue that chose to strictly enforce a mask requirement, but that businesses could also choose whether, or how, to enforce it.

He admits that’s essentially the situation that has prevailed for many months in parts of Oregon, including Baker County.

Too much big — government and business

Hall said he finds onerous the common complaint among Republicans that government regulation is stifling businesses, including agriculture.

“The real regulations you’ve got to worry about, especially from a farmer’s standpoint, is big corporations, which basically act like a government,” Hall said.

He said corporations have too much control over the marketplace, including prices paid to the people who produce our food.

“The problem isn’t big government or big business — it’s just big,” Hall said. “Big business is controlling big government. But (Republicans) don’t talk about that part.”

Hall’s website — www.peterhallgovforall.com — has more of his policy positions.