U.S. ELECTIONS | Guide to the 2008 Election
17 March 2008
Senate Race Is Heating Up in Oregon
Contest pits incumbent Republican against two Democratic hopefuls
Portland, Oregon -- It’s that time in the American political calendar when even the most powerful party leaders have to sit back and see what the voters will give them to work with in the November elections.
Over the last few months millions of voters around the country, voting in state primaries, have been choosing not only their party’s presidential candidate for the November election but the nominees for thousands of other elective offices.
In the Oregon 1st Congressional District, two Republican candidates are competing for the chance to challenge David Wu, the incumbent and presumed Democratic candidate.
Across the state, a battle is taking shape for one of Oregon’s two seat in the U.S. Senate, where Republican Gordon Smith is nearing the end of his second six-year term. His moderately conservative voting record and growing opposition to the war in Iraq generally have been well-received by the state’s voters, but Oregon has leaned increasingly toward the Democratic Party in recent years and Smith might be vulnerable to a Democratic challenge.
“If this were any other year, Gordon Smith would be invulnerable,” according to James Moore, a professor of political science at Pacific University. “Democrats are hoping that this is a year like 2006,” when Democrats made strong inroads against Republicans nationwide, he added.
“If it is,” says Moore, “Democrats could take Gordon Smith.”
THE DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGERS
On the Democratic side, two candidates are competing to challenge Smith in November. Both men are articulate, well-educated and highly accomplished. Their policy positions are similar; their styles hardly could be more different.
Taking on the role of the anti-establishment maverick is Steve Novick, a lawyer from Portland, the state’s largest city. A liberal activist little known to state voters, he formerly served as an attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency. He also has worked on numerous political campaigns and as a staff member in the Oregon State Senate.
This liberal candidate makes light of both his small stature (1.45 meters) and the stainless steel hook he has in place of a left hand, billing himself as “the candidate with a strong left hook.” His irreverent television ads have become YouTube favorites.
Opposing him is Jeff Merkley, speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, also from the Portland area. Merkley is soft-spoken and specializes in finding compromise between competing interests. A former presidential management fellow, Congressional staff member and executive director of the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity as well as the private World Affairs Council of Oregon, Merkley first won election to the state legislature in 1998.
Neither Democratic candidate is very well known to Oregon voters. Higher-profile state Democrats such as former Governor John Kitzhaber, current Governor Ted Kulongoski and Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation -- perhaps doubting Senator Smith’s vulnerability -- turned down the chance to challenge Smith, leaving the field open for candidates like Merkley and Novick.
The task before the two Democrats is daunting, Moore says. “Since people know very little about either of them, the biggest issue they have is introducing themselves to the state.”
To that end, both candidates have been campaigning across the state and raising election money, though neither can yet challenge Smith’s name familiarity or funding. Despite a few barbs the two Democrats have thrown at each other, the race has remained relatively polite. Each wishes to focus on Smith’s record, telling Oregon voters that he is not as moderate as he appears.
Current opinion polls show Smith with less than 50 percent of the potential vote and the Democrats sense opportunity. The polls also show Novick and Merkley running within a few percentage points of each other. As the final weeks before the May primary are counted down and the prize of the nomination looms closer, the contest between the two Democrats might get a little less polite.
