A definition of insanity is repeating the same mistake and expecting a different result. For over 20 years we have elected Democrats as governor, secretary of state and treasurer, and the Democrats have total control of the Legislature. Oregon is for all intents and purposes a one-party state. The liberals in the major metropolitan areas of Portland and Salem determine what happens to the rest of the state.

What has the Democrat lock on the statehouse and Legislature done for Oregon? By what measures has our state improved? The incompetent rollout of Cover Oregon in the wake of Obamacare resulted in the loss of over $250 million in taxpayer funds and not a single enrollee. Despite per capita spending significantly higher than our neighboring states California, Washington and Idaho, our high school graduation rate is the second worst in the country, we have the fifth-highest rate of food stamp dependency, and we are 10th worst in unemployment.

Perhaps the most damaging result of decades of Democrat rule is the uncontrolled growth in the Public Employees Retirement System. We face a burgeoning deficit in PERS funding, estimated at over $22 billion. How does Gov. Kate Brown propose to address the PERS crisis? Her plan is not to deal with the underlying causes of the PERS funding deficit but to support a Democratic Party/public employee union initiative to tax large corporations: Measure 97.

Is this stealth sales tax that will impact all Oregonians and cost thousands of jobs really the only way to deal with the problem? It is not that our taxes are insufficient; the state government simply spends too much, at a rate that has increased over 90 percent since 2002, far outpacing the growth of the population and inflation. Do not believe for a moment that the revenues generated by this tax on big businesses will not benefit the unions supporting its passage instead of its intended recipients, schools and health care. Nothing prevents the Democrat-controlled Legislature from redirecting those funds to other purposes.

Clearly the Democrat answer to every problem is to create a new agency or a new tax to deal with it. History has demonstrated the moral bankruptcy of this approach to governance.

The Republican candidates up and down the ticket have a better approach. From Dr. Bud Pierce, running for governor, to Dr. Knute Buehler, Bend’s two-term representative in the state House, they recognize the fallacy of continuing to tax and spend and the need to limit government intrusion into our daily lives.

Republican state Sen. Tim Knopp has made it his personal mission to address the PERS problem. Even though the state Supreme Court, its judges beneficiaries of PERS, declared earlier legislative reform passed under the leadership of Knopp unconstitutional, he has, nevertheless, in partnership with Democratic state Sen. Betsy Johnson, renewed efforts to control the growth of the PERS deficit with common sense measures that will pass the legal test. Knopp will continue to work toward a solution to this vexing problem in spite of opposition from Brown and her cronies in the public employee labor unions.

Dennis Richardson, who hopes to be our next secretary of state, wants to restore transparency to state government. Richardson’s Democrat opponent wants to greatly expand the power of the secretary of state. Daniel Crowe, running for attorney general, is also concerned about lack of transparency and accountability.

The mess left behind by former Gov. John Kitzhaber, who was forced to resign in the wake of the disastrous rollout of Cover Oregon and revelations of influence peddling by his paramour Cylvia Hayes, requires a clean sweep of the attorney general’s office, which has been loath to investigate wrongdoing of the party that has been in power for so many years.

Over 20 years of one-party rule are enough. It’s time to restore balance to state government and allow Republicans to have a say in the affairs of Oregon.

— Paul deWitt lives in Bend.