The Central Willamette Valley has some of the best working farmland in America. That didn't happen by accident. Roy will stand for Oregon's land the way Oregon's greatest leaders always have.

Fifty years ago, Republican Governor Tom McCall led the fight to protect Oregon's farmlands, forests, and wild natural lands from what he called the "wastrels of the land" — big developers, financial speculators, and anyone who would exploit Oregon's natural resources for short-term profit without regard for the public good. That fight has never really ended. The same arguments for chipping away at Oregon's land use protections have been made for fifty years. They haven't gotten better, smarter, or truer with age. 

But now we hear the same anti-planning arguments coming from some urban Democrats. And today the threat has a new face: Data centers swallowing up prime Willamette Valley farmland and guzzling millions of gallons of water to run soulless, bottomless pits of energy to enrich someone somewhere else. Development pressure on agricultural land keeps building. And a federal government that has decided environmental protections are obstacles to profit is making all of it easier.

Some will call this a property rights issue. It surely is — for all of us. Oregon's land use laws mean your neighbor can't put a warehouse next to your farm. A developer can't drain your water to run a data center. The farmland, forests, and wilderness that make Oregon so special stay intact for your kids and grandkids.