Jimmy Crumpacker is running for Congress, in the Fifth District of Oregon. This is a new district, or a newly shaped one. “Does it look like a salamander?” I ask him, in a new Q&A podcast. “It is very funky,” he says. Crumpacker is a young man but an old-school Republican: free markets, fiscal responsibility, the rule of law, local governance — all that jazz. He is a refreshing voice, to some ears.
Great name, right? “Jimmy Crumpacker.” He tells me that the Crumpackers came from Switzerland and were Grümbachers. They Americanized their name to “Crumpacker.” Why they didn’t go for “Smith” or “Johnson,” Jimmy doesn’t know.
He is from an old, old Oregon family — about as old as it gets. Jimmy is seventh generation. His ancestor John Miller — General John F. Miller — arrived in Oregon in 1850 (nine years before statehood). He traveled “across the plains by ox team,” as his obit says (1901). Jimmy Crumpacker tells me that General Miller had ten children. Five of them died in one month, victims of typhoid fever.
Crumpacker was born and raised in Portland. He and his family were always enmeshed in the community. With his grandmother, Jimmy delivered meals on wheels. The program was originally called “Loaves and Fishes.” Crumpacker’s involvement with Meals on Wheels has only grown.
“Is Portland now a hellscape?” I ask him. Pretty bad, he says. Before the pandemic, Portland was deemed the second most livable city in America. Now it is down to 65 or something. The murder rate has gone up 300 percent, says Crumpacker. The police force is hollowed out. Morale is in a pit. Homelessness, and all that goes with it, has run amok. There has been a general breakdown — of good government, of law and order.
Crumpacker is for a restoration of order — lawful, conscientious order. He is also for the rediscovery of something old, and out of style: personal responsibility.
Keenly interested in politics, Crumpacker went to Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., majoring in government. He interned with an Oregon senator, Gordon H. Smith. Gay Gaines, the Republican activist, gave young Crumpacker some good advice: Don’t jump into politics right away. Go into business. Get some private-sector experience. Then run for office.
Crumpacker worked on Wall Street, for 16 years. Most of those years, he concentrated on energy markets. Crumpacker has strong views on energy, and expertise. He believes in energy independence for the United States. For one thing, this is critical to our foreign policy, he says. Should we have to go hat in hand to Maduro in Venezuela?
As a Westerner, Crumpacker is also conservation-minded, outdoors-minded. “I grew up in the woods,” he says. Do his energy views and his environmental views clash or harmonize? He works them out.
We recorded this podcast on April 15, Tax Day. Crumpacker says that our tax system is needlessly complicated. He favors simplification. He puts in a word for Estonia, that sensible little country that offers lessons for bigger, less sensible countries.
A great many politicians today are afraid to mention entitlements — no one wants to hear about the need to reform. Crumpacker has read the Medicare trustees’ report. Studied it. He knows the gravity of the situation. The trustees say that the program is on track to go bankrupt in 2026. Will American politicians act? Our national debt is $30 trillion. Is this sustainable? Crumpacker says there will be a reckoning, and our political class will have to demonstrate some leadership and courage. (Uh-oh.)
On bad days, I fear that there are about four conservatives left in America. Everyone wants a big, paternalistic federal government, whether pink-hued or brown-hued, whether left-wing or right-wing. Jimmy Crumpacker is offering something new, and old. You may enjoy listening to him. Again, our conversation, our Q&A, is here.