James Crary on running for secretary of state, top issues, what’s going right

KOIN 6 News contacted candidates who are running for Oregon secretary of state in 2024, asking them to respond to these four questions:

• Why are you running for secretary of state? If elected, what would be your top priorities?

• What is your prior government/civic experience?

• Sometimes, the secretary of state has to decide whether to remove candidates from the ballot. How would you have handled the decision whether to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot and the decision to remove 2022 gubernatorial candidate Nick Kristoff?

• In 2023, Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade joined the nationwide #TrustedInfo2024 campaign to increase trust in election officials amid the spread of misinformation surrounding elections and voter information. If elected, how would you build trust in Oregon elections?

• A Reed College study, published in 2023, found county election offices in Oregon are struggling to retain and recruit workers amid a “toxic” political landscape, inadequate funding, and a rapidly changing workload. How will you support Oregon election workers?

• What do you think is going right in the secretary of state’s office? How would you build on it?

• What changes do you want to bring to the Oregon Secretary of State’s office?

James Crary is running as a Democrat. Here are his responses.

Why are you running for secretary of state? If elected, what would be your top priorities?

I am running for Secretary of State because:

1. I really dislike the way most political campaigns are run; and

2. I think it is very important to personally question those who seek to represent us in elected positions.

I dislike most political campaigns because too many candidates:

• Just throw mud at their opponents rather than offering solutions for problems. By throwing mud the thrower is trying to persuade the voter to vote against their opponent rather than to vote for them. It is a very negative way to campaign, but it has obviously worked because it is widely used.

• When asked a direct question do not answer the question asked but instead pivot to some unrelated, canned talking point.

• Love to talk in broad platitudes (e.g. “I want to cut waste”) which sound great but mean absolutely nothing.

• Spend more time “Dialing for dollars” and seeking name recognition than talking about how they want to solve problems.

Most voters have applied for a job and gone through an interview to be hired. People running for office are, in effect, applying for a job. What I am proposing as my top priority is:

That, just like every other job applicant, candidates running for public office should be interviewed by their prospective employers (i.e., the voters).

To conduct such an interview, I would add a new tab, on the SOS’s website, that would allow any registered voter to easily ask questions of any or all of the candidates that the voter can vote for. I call this new tab an electronic candidate forum (ECF.)

An overview of how an ECF would work:

1. The ECF website, while open to viewing by anyone, would allow only registered voters who reside in the district where the candidate is running to ask candidates questions (because only they will be represented by the person elected).

2. All the donors and the amounts they gave to a candidate would be listed under each candidate.

3. Registered voters could ask as many questions (including follow-up questions) as they like.

4. Questions could be directed to all or just some of the candidates.

5. Candidates would be under no obligation to answer a question but, if a candidate either does not answer a question or gives a non-responsive answer to the question it is for each voter to decide how that non-response or unresponsive answer will affect his/her vote.

6. When a candidate answers a question, an email would be sent to the questioner/voter, letting him/her know that his/her question has been answered.

7. When a candidate files for an office (s)he would be contacted and told about ECF. Whether a candidate chooses to participate is up to him/her, but regardless, all questions received will be emailed to them and then it is up to the candidate to decide whether to submit an answer.

8. If the same question were asked of multiple candidates, you could easily compare and contrast the different answers side-by-side.

9. After the election, all questions and answers would be archived and kept for future review and accountability.

With ECF, candidates will be able to reach voters not through costly flyers or radio/television ads but directly from the convenience of their own home/office.

Right now, too many voters see politics as a rigged game that favors the rich, special interests and their lobbyists but leaves them, the common citizen, out. Consequently, many voters (especially young voters) feel their vote means nothing and consequently they do not vote. ECF directly addresses voter apathy and cynicism by making candidates run campaigns that are:

· Responsive; informative/educational; substantive; interactive; something that voters feel empowered about and will use/want to actively participate in.

Question power, and those who seek it! If candidates can ask for our money and our votes; voters should be able to ask candidates for their plans if elected.

If voters voted for people who had the best answers to their questions, we would finally get elected officials who would actually address the problems we face!

What is your prior government/civic experience?

I was an attorney for the Municipality of Anchorage for 14 years, I was a director for the Greensprings Rural Fire District, and I am currently serving on the Pinehurst School Board.

Sometimes, the secretary of state has to decide whether to remove candidates from the ballot. How would you have handled the decision whether to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot and the decision to remove 2022 gubernatorial candidate Nick Kristoff?

The Colorado Supreme Court narrowly ruled that Trump was disqualified from appearing on the state’s ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars anyone engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office. I agree with that ruling (but the U.S. Supreme Court did not so I would have been overruled).

Regarding Mr. Kristof, I think that Secretary of State Fagan’s decision that he was not eligible to run for governor because he did not meet the state’s three-year residency requirement for the job was correct and I would have ruled the same way.

In 2023, Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade joined the nationwide #TrustedInfo2024 campaign to increase trust in election officials amid the spread of misinformation surrounding elections and voter information. If elected, how would you build trust in Oregon elections?

I would build trust in Oregon’s elections by:

1. Working closely and collaboratively with the Oregon Association of County Clerks (Please see my next answer).

2. Building the Electronic Candidate Forum (“ECF”) (Please see my first answer above). I will personally promote the ECF by speaking at as many Oregon high schools as I can (because if you can get a young person to ask a question they are going to vote [and vote informed.])

3. Under the “Voting & Elections” tab on the Secretary of State’s website I would add a new tab titled, “Alleged Voting Irregularities”. By clicking on this tab any Oregonian who thinks that there was something wrong with the most recent election could state exactly what they feel went wrong and provide any proof that they have to substantiate their claim. No anonymous claims would be allowed. Once the person’s identity was confirmed, my office would, in collaboration with the county clerk(s) where the alleged wrongdoing occurred, promptly, and fully, investigate the claim and post the results of the investigation on the new tab. By fostering such an open, transparent, evidence-based dialogue and conclusion between the Secretary of State’s office and the public, any mistrust in the integrity of our vote-by-mail system would hopefully be dispelled.

If there was substance to any claim my office would post, on the website, what steps we were taking to address and correct the problem.

By encouraging such direct and transparent civic participation and engagement in the electoral process review and by addressing any allegations in a prompt and open manner hopefully false allegations will be effectively and quickly quashed, substantive allegations acted upon, and trust in our electoral process will be maintained (or restored).

4. Too often, after someone gets elected, it becomes very difficult to talk to them directly. So, I pledge that I will, daily, when I am in the office, personally answer at least one phone call to the Secretary of State’s office. Imagine what a caller is going to think when instead of an interactive voice response system that uses pre-recorded voice prompts and touch-tone keypad selections to interact with callers the caller is instead going to hear, “Hi, this is Secretary of State, Jim Crary, how may I help you?”

A Reed College study, published in 2023, found county election offices in Oregon are struggling to retain and recruit workers amid a “toxic” political landscape, inadequate funding, and a rapidly changing workload. How will you support Oregon election workers?

I will request to meet directly with all 36 county clerks at one of the two Oregon Association of County Clerks (“OACC”) annual meetings. The purpose of such a meeting would be for me to listen to the clerks regarding what kind of issues their election workers are facing and then to discuss, with them, what I, as secretary of state, can do to support both them and their election workers.

The reason for meeting with the OACC is twofold:

1. County clerks are “where the rubber meets the road” in the election process; and

2. If I were to do something that the clerks either did not want or were opposed to it would be ineffective at best or counterproductive at worst.

What do you think is going right in the secretary of state’s office? How would you build on it?

It appears that Secretary of State’s office is:

• Efficiently managing administrative tasks such as voter registration, election organization, and campaign finance oversight.

• Actively working to ensure transparent and secure elections,

• Providing accessible government services to Oregon residents, such as business registration, notary services, and access to public records

• Making efforts to embrace innovation and modernization in areas such as technology, data management, and service delivery.

How I would build on these things would be to:

• Add the two new tabs to the Secretary of State’s website for an electronic candidate forum and to report and deal with “Alleged Voting Irregularities”.

• Work with cybersecurity specialists to ensure that measures to protect against cybersecurity threats, maintain accurate voter rolls, and provide accessible voting options are in place.

• Stress adherence to ethical standards, transparency in decision-making, and accountability mechanisms to address any instances of misconduct or impropriety quickly and fairly.

• Personally reach out to build strong collaborative working relationships with other State agencies and especially with all 36 county clerks (Please see my previous answer).

What changes do you want to bring to the Oregon Secretary of State’s office?

The Electronic Candidate Forum (“ECF”) and, “Alleged Voting Irregularities” tabs.

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