SEQUIM — Lower taxes, individual liberty and the need to tackle the national debt were themes shared at a forum by four Republican candidates vying to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks.
But during the Monday night forum that drew about 130 people, Republicans Doug Cloud, Bill Driscoll, David “Ike” Eichner and Jesse Young differed on education, abortion, tort reform, a taxpayer protection pledge and the United Nations.
“It’s bloated bureaucracy,” Driscoll, 49, of Tacoma said of the U.N., “but I don’t advocate us unilaterally leaving.
“It is important to have an engagement on an international basis.”
Young, a business consultant from Gig Harbor, said he would “sponsor a bill to get us out of the U.N. right now.
“The Security Council will not exist if the United States leaves the United Nations because the United States funds the United Nations,” said Young, 35.
Eichner, a software company owner from Tacoma, said the U.S. should defund the U.N. and cut foreign aid.
“We don’t have the money,” said Eichner, 47.
“The United Nations is essentially co-opted by Communists,” he added.
“They’ve used an extreme agenda in order to gain power control and power over you.
“And I am not going to tolerate Communists existing in my country telling me how to live in my country.”
Mistake to leave now
Cloud, a Gig Harbor attorney and small-business owner who ran against Dicks in 2008 and 2010, said it would be a mistake to give up the Security Council at this point.
“I think ultimately we need to leave,” added Cloud, 55.
“When that is remains to be seen. It could be next year; it could be 10 years.”
The forum was hosted by the Clallam County Republican Party at the Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula.
Republican candidate Stephan Brodhead, 52, was unable to attend.
Democratic candidate Derek Kilmer, a 38-year-old Port Angeles native, and independent Eric Arentz were not invited.
Clallam County Republican Party Chairman Dick Pilling said the purpose of the forum was to introduce the Republican candidates to the community.
Dicks, 69, represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula. He has served in Congress for 18 terms.
Each candidate had five minutes for opening remarks and two minutes to respond to another candidate.
They each had one minute to answer questions from audience members.
‘Emotional deficit’
Cloud opened the forum by describing an “emotional deficit” in America resulting from a culture of dependency and corruption.
“We live to some extent in a lawless, rudderless, emotionally deprived society, and that’s why we are here; that’s why I’m here,” Cloud said.
Driscoll, a Marine Corps veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and great-great-grandson of lumber baron Frederick Weyerhaeuser, said he understands the importance of military service and advocated for a “more cautious foreign policy.”
“Democracy does not come from a muzzle of an M-16,” he said.
Driscoll touted his business experience.
“I understand the linkage between forest products in this region and jobs — jobs in this community and the communities of this Olympic Peninsula,” he said.
Driscoll said he would work to increase the timber harvest on the Peninsula to promote jobs.
Eichner served as an engineer in the Navy aboard a ballistic-missile submarine.
After his service, he went to work for an engineering and construction company, started a family and earned an accounting degree at night.
“The debt is going to kill this nation if we don’t do something about it,” Eichner said.
“We cannot afford to fight wars all over this world that are not in our strategic interest.”
Young said he has a vision and a plan to leverage the ports of the 6th Congressional District for Pacific Rim trade.
“This district can and should be the pre-eminent leader of job growth in the nation,” said Young, who grew up impoverished and sometimes homeless in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood.
“This district is bordered on three geographic sides by deep-water ports, and those ports are the closest to our Pacific Rim trade routes.
“We should strategically position ourselves now.”
Young became a top scholar and earned a degree in management and informations systems from Notre Dame.
“This district is ripe for small-business growth,” Young said.
“The seeds for small-business growth are already in the ground, and we don’t need a tax-and-spend policy to make it happen.”
Asked to comment on abortion and traditional marriage, Eichner said he is pro-life and opposes gay marriage.
He added that states should have the right to set their own policies on social issues.
“I am against federal funding for abortions simply because I think that’s a violation of your religious rights to have to pay for something like that — that you consider to be a sin,” Eichner said.
Likewise, Driscoll said he believes gay marriage and abortion are states-rights issues.
“I will do everything I can to ensure that the number of abortions are kept as low as possible, but at the very end of the day, I believe that it is a woman’s right to choose,” Driscoll said.
“Let me be very clear: Life begins at conception and ends at natural death,” Young said.
“And I also believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman.
Constitutional amendments
Young said he would be willing to put forward Constitutional amendments to define life as beginning at conception and marriage as between one man and one woman.
“Just because I can say that doesn’t mean that I won’t protect your Constitutional right to live the life behind your closed doors the way that you want to,” Young said.
Asked whether they have signed — or plan to sign — the Americans for Tax Reform taxpayer-protection pledge, Young, Eichner and Cloud said they have signed it.
Conversely, Driscoll said he would not sign the pledge.
“I believe it’s critical that we have to address the budget deficit, and unfortunately, as much as I wish Republicans could do it by themselves, I think it’s going to require a bipartisan, pragmatic approach,” Driscoll said.
“I think taking anything off the table to achieve that is going to prolong the gridlock in Washington and keep us from addressing the budget deficit.”
On education, Young said he would move to block grant funding from the federal government and transition away from the Department of Education.
Eichner took it one step further:
“I would immediately dismantle the Department of Education, and I wouldn’t take a halfway step,” he said.
Cloud advocated competition through school vouchers.
Driscoll said teachers should be given more authority and accountability in student performance.
Health care
When asked to comment on tort reform in health care, Young said frivolous lawsuits have driven up the cost of health care by 25 percent.
Cloud took Young to task over his statistics.
“The idea that 25 percent of the health care bill is related to tort claims is ridiculous,” Cloud said, adding that at least 100,000 people die annually from medical errors.
“You would essentially be closing the courthouse doors to those people,” Cloud said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
