District 13: Ackerman.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Both candidates in the contest for House District 13 have impressive private-sector resumes, but only one has extensive experience in elective politics. That candidate is Democratic incumbent Bob Ackerman, and voters should elect him to a third term.

Ackerman's opponent is Republican Gary Pierpoint, who has more than four decades of experience in the banking industry and is currently senior vice president of Umpqua Bank. Pierpoint says that background equips him to deal with the state's budget woes and to make state bureaucracy more accessible, responsive and productive.

Ackerman is a longtime attorney who played a lead role in the DeFazio vs. Washington Public Power Supply System case, which resulted in the largest bond default in U.S. history and termination of four nuclear power plants in Washington state. He also participated in successful lawsuits by the Oregon Citizens Utility Board against telephone and power rate increases.

While Pierpoint is making his first attempt at elective office, Ackerman has served two years on the Springfield City Council, four years on the Citizens Utility Board and seven years on the Lane Community College Board. He was elected to the Legislature in 2000, and in the last session served as vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee and as a member of the Land Use and Environment Committee.

As a member of the minority party, Ackerman doesn't have a lengthy list of successful bills bearing his name. But he has had a significant impact: During his first term, Ackerman led a successful effort to modify legislation deregulating Oregon's power industry. During his second, he was a key player in modifying the Public Employee Retirement System.

As moderates in their respective parties, Ackerman and Pierpoint generally agree on critical budget issues. Both agree the next Legislature must deal with revenue shortfalls without raising taxes in light of voters' rejections of revenue measures in each of the last two years.

Ackerman has the more aggressive, practical plan for limiting those budget cuts. He favors reducing the state's abundant inventory of corporate tax loopholes to help close the revenue gap, while Pierpoint says he would rely on a combination of budget reductions and fee increases.

Both candidates are generally supportive of the "bucket plan," a spending-limit proposal that emerged during tax-reform talks in the last session. Both also have jumped on the "zero-based budgeting" bandwagon, which emerges every election cycle only to do a fast exit in the face of the state's daunting and complex budgetary realities.

Pierpoint and Ackerman sound similar themes on land-use, agreeing that many cities need to expand urban growth boundaries to replenish rapidly shrinking inventories of commercial, industrial and residential lands. Ackerman goes one step further by saying he supports statutory changes that would make it less difficult and time-consuming for cities to do so.

Ackerman is a moderate Democrat who is a solid fit for House District 13, which includes Eugene's Whiteaker and Ferry Street Bridge areas, and the River Road area in unincorporated Lane County. Voters should elect him to a third two-year term.