Unaffiliated candidate for governor, Betsy Johnson favors deregulation as a tool to create more affordable housing, but doesn't get into specifics
A dystopian society of lawlessness, decay and wokeness beset by ineffective leadership needs a tough-talking leader to step from the crowd of clowns to the left and jokers to the right to take the reins. It’s not the plot of the latest “Mad Max” film, it’s essentially Betsy Johnson’s campaign messaging.
Johnson, a former Republican and former Democrat turned unaffiliated candidate for governor, was first elected to represent Oregon House District 1 in the Oregon House of Representatives in 2000. Johnson served in the Oregon House until 2005, following a successful run for Oregon State Senate, where she remained until last December when she resigned to run for governor.
Johnson served in multiple high-profile roles in the state legislature, including co-chairing the Joint Ways and Means Committee. Although Johnson, a timber heir, often features derisive use of the word “politician” as though it were profanity, she’s been an elected official at the state level longer than either of her opponents.
Johnson did not respond to Street Roots’ multiple requests for an interview for this article.
Johnson, who spent the entirety of her career as an elected official caucusing as a Democrat, was a Republican before deciding the GOP was too extreme on gay rights and abortion, according to her campaign website. Despite Johnson’s marketing as the common-sense moderate, her policies align closely with Republican candidate Christine Drazan. Likewise, the platform section of her campaign website contains many jabs at Democratic nominee Tina Kotek and outgoing Democratic Gov. Kate Brown. Drazan is not mentioned by name a single time.
Johnson diverges from Drazan on things like abortion and, to a lesser extent, forest management and climate change — they both support the right-wing timber industry group, Timber Unity, and oppose keystone climate change legislation. Johnson and Drazan both have an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association for their respective histories of opposing legislation reforming gun laws. They both want to repeal voter-approved Measure 110, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs like heroin and methamphetamine, while promising to fund expanded addiction treatment.
Johnson’s anecdotal support for members of the LGBTQ+ community apparently has its limits, as well. In April, she told Willamette Week she supports excluding transgender girls from girls' sports, referring to the kids as “biological men” and their desire to play sports with their friends as “social engineering.”
Drazan agreed with Johnson, while Kotek differed, saying she “believe(s) in supporting all children to be their authentic selves.”
The broad strokes of what’s currently available regarding Johnson and Drazan’s housing and homelessness policies are virtually indistinguishable, save for a few of the finer points. They both argue deregulation and lowering costs for developers and landlords as the main component of lowering housing costs and are willing to entertain limited housing subsidies and state investment in housing. But, in large part, they believe market forces would create plenty of affordable housing if the government would just get out of the way.
“This is a market phenomenon that can be met by market forces if the liberal extremes would get out of the way,” Johnson told Oregon Public Broadcasting in August. “My plan, as governor, would be to be a partner with the housing industry to help meet their needs for accessible land, transportation, and infrastructure options while keeping those who want to dictate market behavior out of the way. The state has a role to play in where and how communities expand but not in arrogantly determining what pencils out for those who build houses for a living.”
Johnson favors deregulation as a tool to create more affordable housing so much, she wants to eliminate state mandates that could force developers to create affordable housing.
“The most important thing Salem needs to realize is that politicians don’t build affordable housing, and every time they pass legislation to mandate it, all they do is add costs that make housing more difficult to build and more likely not to be built at all,” Johnson told OPB.
Johnson and Drazan share in the belief that homeless Oregonians, who police arrest at an extremely disproportionate rate in places like Portland, have been coddled by weak liberal leadership.
“Compassion without expectations, the current approach, is only creating more chaos, not durable solutions,” Johnson says on her campaign website.
Though, beyond support for deregulating development and heavier policing for homeless Oregonians and people struggling with addiction, the normally outspoken Johnson notably shies away from offering specific plans.
Johnson’s available housing and homelessness policies are the least detailed of the three candidates. Her plans often discuss what she sees as the problems and what she says would be the outcomes if she’s elected, but they rarely describe the steps in between.
Johnson seems to rely on saying she wants to convene broad subsections of stakeholders to figure out the best way forward, whereas the other candidates seem to have policies to pitch to voters even when including the boilerplate ‘voices to the table’ rhetoric.
“As governor, I will lead with compassion – while also expecting personal responsibility,” Johnson’s campaign website says. “I will be honest about how the problem has been driven by our state’s mental health crisis, drug and alcohol addiction, access to recently legalized hard drugs, a sorely inadequate housing supply, poverty, and a tolerance for lawlessness.
“My goal is to end unsheltered homelessness in Oregon, not enable it by turning a blind eye to the tragedy of tent camps. Even before I am sworn-in, I will convene state and local officials and non-profit organizations responsible for ending homelessness to set a path forward. I want to hear from everyone impacted by the homeless crisis, from the people living on the streets to the small business owners who deal with people sleeping in their doorways.”
Johnson, as with Kotek, said she supports expanded state-sanctioned encampment areas as a means of emergency shelter to mitigate the impacts of unsheltered homelessness.
Though Johnson is clear about the belief that urgent action is required to “end tent cities,” she’s less committal regarding the state’s role in funding shelter for homeless Oregonians.
“I am absolutely willing, as governor, to talk about a state role in paying for shelter beds, but that money will come with strings attached: there has to be an end to the unsanitary, unsafe, and inhumane tent camping along our highways, in our parks and on our sidewalks,” Johnson told a collaborative of media organizations, including Street Roots, during the primaries earlier this year.
It remains unclear what “strings” Johnson would attach to such funding for municipalities, though her clear law and order philosophy may offer some insights.
“First, we must understand that camping on the streets is illegal,” Johnson told OPB. “The law is the law … We need to use the law as a tool to drive people to shelters. The idea is not to punish people living on the streets, it’s to use the opportunity to get them the help they need. If we’re not willing to enforce the law, we’re not going to clean up our streets and help everyone we seek to help, including both the homeless and the broader community. We need to approach homelessness not just as an individual problem, but as a threat to our community as a whole.”
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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