PORTLAND, Ore. — One of the most competitive races in the upcoming November election is the open seat for Oregon’s top lawyer — the state attorney general.
Current Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, decided not to run for a fourth term. Now, Democrat Dan Rayfield, former Oregon House Speaker, and Republican William Lathrop, a former deputy district attorney in Marion and Yamhill Counties, are in a head-to-head to be Oregon’s top legal officer.
The Oregon attorney general runs the state’s largest law firm, the Oregon Department of Justice, with about 1,400 employees and a two-year budget of nearly $800 million. The Department of Justice has 10 divisions, including child support, charitable activities, district attorney assistance, crime victim compensation and consumer protection.
In this episode of Straight Talk, Rayfield and Lathrop talk about why they want to be Oregon’s next attorney general.
Meet the candidates
Will Lathrop
Lathrop, 46, grew up in rural Wallowa County on a cattle ranch and now resides in Newberg. He earned a law degree from Willamette University and has said that he's not just a prosecutor, but also a victim's advocate. He spent nine years as a child sex abuse prosecutor in Marion and Yamhill Counties.
Recently, Lathrop worked for eight years at a human rights organization in Africa before returning to Oregon to run for office. If elected, he would be the first Republican to lead a statewide office in Oregon since 2016.
"The role of the attorney general is really important for taking on organized crime ... that's drug trafficking, human trafficking and organized retail theft — all things that are astronomically high in the state of Oregon right now," Lathrop said.
"So, one of my first priorities would be to make it exceedingly difficult to sell fentanyl and methamphetamines in the state of Oregon," he added. "Because we know that there are people making millions of dollars out of crushing families and communities, off of exploiting addiction."
Lathrop says the biggest difference between him and Rayfield is his experience in prosecuting, which he has devoted most of career to, particularly in child protection.
The state of Oregon has been under a sweeping class-action lawsuit in the last five years for spending upwards of $18 million in taxpayers dollars in defending a child welfare system well-documented to have caused abuse and neglect.
"As the attorney general you play a really important role in child protection and one of those ways is to hold DHS (the Oregon Department of Human Services) accountable and make sure that they are following the law and we're doing what's in the best interest of children," Lathrop said.
Dan Rayfield
Rayfield, 45, grew up in Oregon and attended Tigard High School. He now resides in Corvallis. He went to Western Oregon University and earned his law degree from Willamette University, going on to become a personal injury lawyer.
Since 2015, Rayfield has served as a state representative for House District 16, which includes Corvallis and Philomath. Two years ago, he was elected to be speaker of the Oregon House, where he has helped overturn parts of Measure 110 and recriminalize drug possession.
"I really believe that our elected officials can solve our communities' greatest challenges ... and during the last two years as the speaker of the Oregon House, we really did that," Rayfield said.
"I want to take that same style of leadership into the attorney general's office, where the things that I really want to focus on is keeping communities safe and building off of the work that I did in the Legislature," he added. "Where we brought Republicans, Democrats, and law enforcement together to really give the tools to law enforcement to get the hard drugs off the street."
Recently, hundreds of students in Oregon signed a petition demanding action against gun violence in and around schools. Attorneys for the state of Oregon are in an appeals process in the higher courts, seeking a reversal of a lower court's ruling against Measure 114, a voter-approved gun law. It would require a criminal background check and completion of a gun safety training course to obtain a permit to buy a firearm. It also bans high-capacity magazines.
"It is incredibly important that the attorney general defend what voters passed, and right now you have people challenging the laws in courts that we have passed as voters," Rayfield said. "The attorney general's responsibility is to defend the constitutionality of what the voters passed. My opponent, on the other hand, is endorsed by a conservative gun group in those dynamics."
Watch the full episode on KGW+ and YouTube to hear the candidates speak more on protections for children in Oregon, crime, mental health, misuse of public funds, abortion rights and gun violence.
Straight Talk airs Saturday and Sunday at 6:30 p.m., and Monday at 7 p.m. Straight Talk is also available as a podcast.