I received a questionnaire from KATU News yesterday. I do not answer all questionnaires I get since many are biased or deceptive, but I liked this one. It had some good questions that I think people should know about my campaign. Below are the questions as well as my responses.
1) What’s it like for you running as a republican in this election? This is my first time running a political campaign. Its has been educational to say the least.
2) Do you feel Donald is helping your candidacy, hurting your candidacy, or having little to no effect? Why? I think the presidential election in general has been a distraction for all other candidates on the ballot. We have two less than stellar Presidential candidates fighting it out for the highest position in the land making great headlines, but taking attention from the local candidates and issues.
3) What’s happening now in the Republican party is called a “civil war” by several media outlets. Is that how you would describe it? Why or why not? I have been focused on my campaign and really have not been involved directly in party politics let alone inter-party politics.
4) How much support are you getting from your national party? None. I am self funding my entire campaign. I have been solicited several times by the party to donate to them as a registered Republican, but never has the party called me to congratulate me as the nominee let alone offer any financial support.
5) How much support are you getting from your state party? Financially, None. I chose to self fund my own campaign and that is what I am doing. I did not request any money nor has any been offered.
6) Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have claimed that our election system is a rigged system. Do you agree? Why or why not? There is a lot of truth to that statement. Not only the corruption that was made known by Wikileaks with the Democratic National Committee emails, but also with the system itself. Special interests heavily fund incumbents making it difficult for challengers to raise the funds necessary to be able to secure a win. Also, campaign finance laws passed by the establishment have been created to restrict the amount of money individuals and groups can donate to candidates. This hurts challengers the most as they do not have an established funding network. These regulations favor the establishment, and without term limits, we will continue to see very little change in Congress.
7) You’re running against an incumbent Democrat whose seat is considered safe, during an election where your party is in turmoil. What’s the biggest hurdle standing between you and winning the election? The only hurdle I have is getting the 165,000 votes I need to win. If I am able to succeed by self funding, my votes will cost me 3 cents each. My competitor Suzanne Bonamici, an incumbent who has taken a size-able amount of money from special interests that mostly reside out of this state will spend approximately 200 times that amount per vote.
8) What would be your number one priority, if elected? My first goal is to shrink the size of government. Large government is expensive, promotes corruption, and limits freedom. I think a smaller federal government is something almost all Americans agree on.
9) Why should Oregonians vote for you? People should vote for me because I am not beholding to any group or special interest. My job is and will be to Represent the people of District one.
Brian Heinrich for U.S. Congress 