U.S. ELECTIONS | Guide to the 2008 Election
18 December 2007
Decades of Stability and Waves of Change Shape Oregon District
Economic shifts drive political realignments
Portland, Oregon -- American congressional districts come in all sizes and shapes. While each of the 50 states gets two at-large senators, House of Representatives’ districts are apportioned by population. The geographically smallest district covers only a few square blocks of Harlem in New York City. The largest covers the entire state of Alaska, which, despite its enormous size (nearly as large as Iran), has so few inhabitants that it is entitled to only one representative.
But the boundaries of these districts can change. Since the number of districts -- and House members -- is fixed at 435, the size and shape of districts shift over time to accommodate changes in population.
Oregon’s 1st Congressional District was created in 1892, when the state’s population had grown large enough to entitle it to two House members. The new 1st District covered about 18,000 square kilometers, including most of the state’s populous Willamette Valley and a large section of its coastal communities. Since that time, Oregon has acquired three more districts, for a total of five, and the 1st District now covers only a little more than 9,000 square kilometers in the northwest corner of the state.
Yet, for all the change the district underwent over the decades, some things stayed the same. The local economy remained centered on small farms and small businesses, grouped around small towns.
Communities such as these were, and remain, the backbone of the Republican Party across the country. True to form, the valley counties helped ensure a Republican majority in the Oregon state Legislature in every election but one from 1915 to 1957.
The 1st District also consistently sent Republicans to Congress. In every election for 80 years -- from 1892 to 1972 -- the farmers, shop owners and teachers of the district elected a Republican congressional representative.
Then things changed. First, changes in the national political makeup were felt in the district. Beginning with the election of Franklin Roosevelt as president in 1932, the Democratic Party became much stronger nationwide. Though the 1st District remained essentially Republican, the margins were smaller than in the past.
The more important changes, however, occurred within the district itself.
The biggest change was in population. Washington County, the most populous part of the district, grew from 90,000 inhabitants in 1940 to its current level of about 500,000. Traditional small farms went under the bulldozer and become housing tracts. Many of the lumber mills in the hills between the valley and the coast shut down. Small towns began to grow, some of them doubling or tripling in size in just a few years. And the areas that grew the most were located in, or bordered on, Portland, the state’s largest city. These communities took on a more suburban, less conservative, political point of view as they grew.
By the late 1960s, every county in the 1st Congressional District held more registered Democrats than Republicans.
For a while, the district’s representation in Congress remained Republican. Republicans are generally more conscientious about turning out at the polls than Democrats, and Wendall Wyatt, the district’s moderate Republican congressman during the 1960s and 1970s, was popular and well-respected, attracting significant numbers of Democratic voters.
Steady trends, however, can be denied only so long. Before the 1974 elections, Wyatt decided to retire from Congress. In a recent interview with USINFO, Wyatt, now 90, said the increasing number of Democrats in his district “had a little” to do with his decision to retire, though he believes he would have won re-election if he had run. In addition, President Nixon’s Watergate scandals at the time had led to a national political tidal wave that in 1974 swept up even the 1st District. With the election that year of Les Au Coin, a moderate former member of the state Legislature, the 1st District had chosen its first Democrat.
Yet, the 1st District remained stable in one sense. After 80 years of electing only Republicans, the 1st District since 1974 has elected only Democrats.
Has this shift become the new force of nature? Perhaps not. The United States always has been defined by change. Just when it seems to be one thing, it shrugs its large shoulders and becomes something else.
Northwestern Oregon is no exception. The population continues to grow rapidly. Timber and traditional agricultural products have faded further, replaced by the sportswear giant Nike, by high-tech companies like Intel and by wine vineyards. On the coast, the timber and fishing industries have been greatly overtaken by tourism. Talk of fishing conditions and corn prices in local taverns has been replaced by discussion of the stock market, the work commute and the environment. Most of these trends favor Democrats.
Yet, just under the surface, contrary currents are gathering. After the Reagan presidency of the 1980s, voter registration in Washington and Yamhill counties has tipped to the Republicans. While the current congressional representative, David Wu, a Democrat, continues to be re-elected every two years, his fairly modest victory margins indicate he may be vulnerable.
For more information, see U.S. Elections.
