Oregon Attorney General candidate Will Lathrop leads a roundtable discussion on public safety with local law enforcement and elected leaders at The Chamber of Medford & Jackson County in March.

Oregon Attorney General candidate Will Lathrop held a roundtable discussion in Medford last Monday that focused on public safety.

The event, held at The Chamber of Medford & Jackson County, marked Lathrop’s third visit to the Rogue Valley since announcing his candidacy in November for the state’s highest elected law enforcement position.

“My name is Will Lathrop and I’m running for attorney general — you probably know that,” said Lathrop, a former deputy district attorney in Yamhill and Marion counties who specialized in child sex abuse cases.

Lathrop, a Republican, hopes to succeed Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, who announced last year she would not run for reelection. If elected, Lathrop would become Oregon’s first Republican attorney general since 1988.

Lathrop’s Republican opponent is Michael Cross, a chief executive officer and retired U.S. Air Force helicopter pilot. Meanwhile, Shaina Adia Maxey Pomerantz, executive director of an organization called RACE TALKS, and Daniel A. Rayfield, an attorney and state representative from Corvallis, are running as Democrats.

The candidates who win their party’s respective primary election on May 21 will face off against each other in the Nov. 5 general election.

Eli Matthews, president and CEO of The Chamber, told the Rogue Valley Times that Lathrop previously met with around 30 business owners who, in his words, are saying “enough is enough” to crime. The Chamber has traditionally made an effort to host candidates running for elected office each election cycle, Matthews said. Lathrop was the first Oregon attorney general candidate to stop by.

Matthews was one of a dozen roundtable participants, which included Jackson County Sheriff Nate Sickler, Medford Police Chief Justin Ivens, state representatives and members of the local business community.

The participants asked Lathrop questions, but he also had a few of his own. One was what has “led to success” in Jackson County if it is in the position to advise other counties on issues of law enforcement.

Sickler responded that the county hasn’t been “as impacted with the political strife that’s gone on in other parts of the state.”

The sheriff also credit Jackson County’s success to law enforcement partners working well together.

“I think that’s a huge part of why we’re successful,” Sickler said. “If I call the (Medford police) chief and say, ‘I need help,’ he’s going to send people, and if he needs help, I send people. We’re not stuck in our cities. It’s a tight-knit community.”

Ivens added: “In Southern Oregon, you have a lot of community support … We don’t take that for granted.”

Lathrop shifted the conversation by noting that one of the Oregon attorney general’s duties is to prosecute organized crime, including drug trafficking.

Ivens said “more teeth” in sentencing drug offenders would be helpful.

“In Oregon, unfortunately, the pendulum has gone so far one direction, with there being no accountability, it’s time to swing this back in the other direction,” the Medford police chief said.

Lathrop said that, while methamphetamine used to be the drug on prosecutors’ minds, fentanyl is “a mountain compared to that hill.”

“I don’t understand why it’s not all-hands-on-deck, that we’re not begging for resources and collaborating with anybody and everybody that can be helpful,” Lathrop said.

“There’s politics at play, and I am not a political player,” he said, which is why, if he becomes attorney general, he said he would focus resources on combating Oregon’s drug problems.

In an interview afterward, Lathrop said it was “good to be in a room with people” who have had success in law enforcement.

“That builds credibility with what they say,” Lathrop said.

Brad Bennington, executive officer of the nonprofit Builders Association of Southern Oregon, was one of the roundtable participants. He said in an interview that the discussion was an opportunity to listen to someone who might be the next attorney general in Oregon.

“I have an open mind,” Bennington said, adding that he did not come to the event as a partisan.

“I am more than willing (to support), and I have supported, any elected official based on their ability to support the community. I don’t really care what someone’s political party is,” he said.

Bennington, who runs a nonprofit that provides education, advocacy and policy support for affordable housing, said theft and destruction in the construction industry has “gone through the roof.” The Oregon he sees now is not the state he grew up in, he added.

Bennington said he was impressed with Lathrop.

“It seemed very clear to me that this is … someone who would be very concerned with public safety, very concerned with the ability of families to be safe in their homes and in their businesses,” Bennington said. “He said, ‘I’m not going to interpret the law; I’m going to enforce the law.’”

Bennington said he will take some time to study Lathrop and the other Oregon attorney general candidates before the primary election.

Lathrop’s other campaign stops last week included Grants Pass, Eugene, Portland, Philomath, Albany, Cannon Beach and Newport. Lathrop hopes to return to the Rogue Valley next month, his campaign said.