In the First Congressional District, Choose Avakian to Replace Wu

Portland Mercury:

Here's what Avakian comes right out and says: Repeal the Bush-era tax cuts, immediately pull our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, end corporate tax loopholes—and then use all that extra revenue to fund a Works Progress Administration-level jobs-and-education project that makes President Obama's recent jobs plan look just like the drop in the bucket it is.

We also think it's key that Avakian wants to restore manufacturing in the district, creating jobs for the middle class, while also focusing on high-tech white-collar jobs.

"If you focus just on high tech, we're creating a lot of folks with low-paying jobs and a lot of folks with high-paying jobs and we're losing the middle," he says.

He's also harped on federal trade deals. Bonamici has been quieter on the subject. As Avakian notes, for a race that each candidate says is about jobs, jobs, jobs, trade policy should be a major focus: The district has lost 20,000 jobs to pro-globalization trade deals, he says.

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