"My campaign for Congress wasn't doomed. It was merely improbable.
The District is filled with wonderful people who share common values and interest and may be persuadable on policies and politics, and who must never be written off. We must never, ever write ourselves off."
Joe Yetter, Democratic candidate for congress in 2022.
Retired army physician Joe Yetter wrote me a two-part description of his run for Congress in a bright red Congressional District. Yesterday he described the experience. Today he describes his motivation. He did not want a Trump-supporting, election-overthrowing GOP Representative to run for re-election without a vigorous opponent. No district should be conceded as beyond hope. Besides, he had issues to raise and policies to advocate. He did it earnestly and respectfully. He got himself on TV. Local newspapers interviewed him. He got to tell his story.
Guest Post by Joe Yetter
Let me state it baldly: the Republican agenda represents a mortal threat to democracy, the climate, and individual freedom, along with a flourishing, prosperous society.
Cliff Bentz, the current incumbent in CD2, is the poster-child of that threat. But he is merely emblematic of the Republican Party.
Bentz:***Voted to overturn American democracy. Trump’s fake-electors plot relied on nullifying free and fair elections; just hours after the January 6th insurrection, Cliff Bentz voted to nullify the election in Pennsylvania.
***Opposes efforts to mitigate climate change. He opposed such efforts when he was in the Oregon State Senate, and he does so now, in Congress. Bentz voted for HR 1, an anti-climate bill that would further subsidize the fossil fuel industry and roll back the progress made by the Biden Administration.
***Supports extreme censorship of educational content. Bentz voted for HR 5, misnamed the "Parents Bill of Rights.” He cheered the overturning of Roe, and would support a national abortion ban. (I asked him at a town hall why he thought any government ought to be able to tell a woman what to do with her body. His answer was to the effect of, I don’t like to talk about my religion much, but it tells me that from the moment of conception…etc.)
***Voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
***Voted against lowering the price of prescription drugs.
***Voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill.***Voted against the CHIPS Act.
***Betrayed veterans by voting against the PACT Act that enables the VA to care for uniformed service members injured by toxic burn pits, dumping of toxic chemicals, radiation injuries, and other hazards.The list goes on.
The arguments for why Bentz should be defeated is long. And the argument is extended to other races, from the White House, to Congress, to every state legislature: look at what Republicans do when they are in control. They gerrymander, they remove judges and prosecutors, they ban books and personal bodily autonomy, they expel legislators and strip governors and attorneys general of their authority, and so on.
I ran in 2022 because of those reasons. I hope that every person here will consider running for office, encourage others to, and will engage actively now and every election.
Cliff Bentz was sworn into office on January 3, 2021. Four days later he voted to nullify the Pennsylvania election. I wrote him an email in which I said that I didn't realize that a newly sworn in representative from Oregon could know enough about Pennsylvania elections and policies to have been a knowledgable voter and why didn't he recuse himself for having little understanding of what occurred. The only response I got was to say they had signed me up for his regular email on what a fine job he was doing for us. He is clueless.
I worked on Yetter's campaign in Josephine County. Such an interesting man with far more depth and understanding than our current Rep. who has done nothing for his district but echo whatever the right-wing outrage of the day is. Bentz, on a local right-wing talk show, said he is all in on impeaching Biden and told listeners there will be big "revelations" any day now. This was at least a month ago.