Attorney general candidates, Democrat Dan Rayfield (left) and Republican Will Lathrop, spar in a debate aired on KOIN TV on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Screengrab courtesy of KOIN)
The two candidates running for Oregon attorney sparred in their final debate Wednesday evening over abortion, gun violence and election safety, giving voters one last chance to weigh their differences before the November election.
Democrat Dan Rayfield, former House speaker and an attorney, and Republican Will Lathrop, a former Oregon prosecutor in Marion and Yamhill counties, are vying to replace Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat who is not running for reelection.
This is the first time in 16 years that the race is open, and it’s attracted big money: Rayfield raised more than $1.8 million this year while Lathrop brought in more than $1.3 million.
The 55-minute debate, televised on KOIN, was recorded on Tuesday and organized by the City Club of Portland.
Lathrop touted his experience as a prosecutor and work in Africa, where he focused on human rights issues like trafficking and child labor, emphasizing that he’s not a career politician. He cast himself as a law and order champion who would target drug cartels and the fentanyl flooding across the state.
Rayfield, who’s served in the House for nearly a decade, including two years as speaker, said he has the right combination of public and private experience, with his years of experience as a personal injury trial attorney. He said he would combat the drug addiction crisis as well as work to protect seniors and consumers while standing up to national attacks on reproductive health rights.
The attorney general is in charge of the Oregon Department of Justice, which has nearly 1,500 employees and a yearly budget of about $406 million. The office is also responsible for consumer advocacy, with the authority to sue dishonest businesses, protect senior citizens and collect child support.
The attorney general is the state’s lead lawyer but they can take on cases with a national profile. Rosenblum has often joined her peers in other states in cases, including a recent suit against TikTok. She also sued DuPont, 3M and other companies over firefighting foam that contains PFAS, also called forever chemicals, that caused health problems.
Public safety focus
Lathrop repeatedly hammered Rayfield on failing to solve Oregon’s problems as speaker, pointing to Oregon’s failure to protect children in foster care and the state’s high rate of fentanyl overdoses.
“The drug cartel people are making millions of dollars off of exploiting addiction and crushing communities, and we need to make it exceedingly difficult to bring fentanyl and meth into our state,” Lathrop said.
Lathrop said Oregon is also grappling with crime, addiction rates and a lack of affordable housing.
“If you point a stick at it in Oregon right now, we’re bad at it,” Lathrop said.
During the debate, Lathrop alluded to incidents from Rayfield’s youth, saying he’d been arrested for shooting at women in cars. Rayfield said Lathrop was lying but failed to elaborate. At 18, Rayfield was cited by Tigard police for reckless endangering in an incident in which he and friends were caught shooting BB guns at cars. The charges were dismissed, and Rayfield later said he learned valuable life lessons.
As attorney general, Rayfield said he’d target drugs and organized crime and pointed to his work on House Bill 4002, which passed this session. It recriminalized drug possession while laying the foundation for deflection programs to help people access treatment and recovery services.
Rayfield stressed it’s important to address the root causes of the problem, including substance abuse issues.
Reproductive health
The two differed on what role, if any, the attorney general should play in protecting abortion rights.
Lathrop said the attorney general’s role is to enforce laws and said he would do that. Oregon has no restrictions on abortion access, unlike many other states since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022.
Rayfield said he would defend Oregon women against a national abortion ban if the federal government ever passed one.
“This is a wonderful, clear difference between the two of us,” Rayfield said. “Things are well settled law until they’re not well settled law. And that’s what you’re seeing here.”
The two had different approaches to combating gun violence as well. Rayfield said he’s worked to pass laws that support universal background checks and bans of “ghost guns,” which are untraceable and lack serial numbers. He said he would defend the constitutionality of those laws.
Lathrop said the passage of gun laws has not curbed violence. The problem is the lack of enforcing existing laws, he said.
“We don’t have a law creation problem, we have a law enforcement problem,” he said.
Both candidates have proposals for the 2025 legislative session.
Rayfield said he would work to create a “working families” unit to investigate issues like wage theft and child labor violations.
Lathrop said he would look for ways to improve the state’s mental health system, drawing from his experience working in Marion County’s mental health court system.
There were points of agreement.
The two, when asked about how they would handle lawsuits against industries, both agreed that social media companies need to be held accountable for the harm they do to children, an issue that Rosenblum has taken up with the TikTok suit and a lawsuit against Apple.
Clash over election security
The two disagreed when asked about how to ensure election security and combat fraudulent voters following the recent discovery that more than 1,500 people who had not provided proof of U.S. citizenship were registered to vote through the Driver and Motor Vehicles Services Division. Elections officials say that 10 voted but five were actually citizens who had not given DMV their passport or birth certificate.
Rayfield said he was frustrated by the problem and supported Gov. Tina Kotek’s decision to pause the automatic registrations at the Oregon DMV.
Lathrop criticized Rayfield, saying he voted on legislation that automatically registered people without fully understanding how they work.
Rayfield fired back.
“My opponent here is again trying to score political points with misrepresenting facts,” Rayfield said, adding that Republican states have passed similar laws. “This was a screwup within the Department of Motor Vehicles, and nothing more than that.”
Lathrop countered that it’s “sloppy leadership” and Oregonians want to hear solutions, not excuses.
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