Oregon Showdown: Two Dems Battle Hard to Take On Weak GOP Incumbent

By ZP Heller, AlterNet. Posted January 31, 2008.

In left-leaning Oregon, a Senate seat is suddenly up for grabs. Two-term Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, who virtually voted lockstep with the Bush administration until December 2006 (when he broke from the White House on Iraq after his party lost control of Congress), now faces a stiff challenge from two local progressives, Portland-area activist Steve Novick and Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley.

A SurveyUSA poll from last November pitted each Democratic candidate individually against Smith and showed Smith defeating Novick 45-39 percent and defeating Merkley 48-39 percent. And though the state primary is four months away, there has already been enough political infighting and endorsements to underscore the fact that Oregon represents a major opportunity for Democrats to boost their congressional majority. Late last year, the Novick campaign released an action alert calling attention to the fact that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) spent close to $100,000 to promote Merkley's campaign.

Novick, who was concerned that the DSCC's unusually early endorsement had created an unfair playing field for the primary, attempted to paint Merkley as a "Washington insider" and establish himself as a netroots candidate. He called on constituents to "tell the D.C. establishment that Oregon's primary election isn't for sale." Meanwhile, Novick has been raising a substantial amount of money online, with over $300,000 from ActBlue alone as compared to Merkley's $119,000 from that site. (ActBlue is the internet fund-raising force that has raised $36 million for Democratic candidates in the past three and a half years.

Novick is currently the one of the "hottest" candidates on the site; Dennis Kucinich is first, and John Edwards is fifth.) And yet Merkley is still the frontrunner in this primary race, largely due to the DSCC's support and a slew of labor endorsements. When I questioned Novick about his mudslinging, he explained, "There's nothing wrong with accepting [the DSCC's] help, but having those ties inhibits Merkley from tackling issues like fiscal responsibility." In other words, it could be tougher for Merkley to be a credible critic of our Democratic senatorial leadership on issues like capital gains taxes when the DSCC is promoting his campaign. The larger issue, though, is that the DSCC's endorsement of Merkley effectively undermined Novick's campaign before the primary could really get under way.

Hooked on Novick

In considering his Senate run, Novick told the Willamette Weekly, "Someone needs to take the fight to Gordon Smith. And a fighter needs to have a hard left hook." Novick was referring, as he often does, to the metal prosthesis he wears; he was born without a left hand and fibula bones in his legs, resulting in his 4-foot-9-inch height. Yet Novick quickly overcame these physical disabilities, attending college at age 14, Harvard Law School at 18, and joining the Department of Justice at 24, where he spent eight and a half years successfully prosecuting polluters for violating the Clean Air and Water Acts.

Novick ultimately served as lead counsel in the DOJ's landmark Love Canal case, an early Superfund trial that resulted in a $129 million settlement paid by Occidental Chemical. Back in Oregon, he fought against plans to cut the state budget for schools and healthcare, and then went after the Oregon Lottery for overpaying video poker retailers with money that should have gone to schools. Novick compared his 20-year progressive track record with Gordon Smith's congressional tenure, saying, "And just think, Smith couldn't even vote to investigate Halliburton in Iraq."

Education, global warming, ending the Iraq occupation and universal healthcare are all priorities for Novick, who firmly believes that many of these issues can be dealt with by cutting spending and raising revenue through fairer taxes. Novick claims Gordon Smith has helped the Bush administration tack on $3 trillion to our national debt and create tax holidays for multinational corporations for overseas investments. He also feels Merkley is not talking about fiscal responsibility enough, even though Merkley told me the hemorrhaging in our national treasury must stop.

Merkley stands strong

It's surprising that Novick has tried to depict Merkley as the "D.C. establishment" candidate, since Merkley has been battling the establishment in Oregon since he became House speaker four and a half years ago. Merkley is the son of a sawmill worker and grew up in the small mill town of Myrtle Creek, Ore. Although he later attended Stanford and Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, it is his rural, working-class background that Merkley has employed to offer solidarity with victims of the Bush economy. (Gordon Smith, by contrast, hails from a prep school past.) To that end, Merkley has fought hard as a state representative to protect public education, and create job growth and affordable healthcare.

When it comes to the environment, more pro-environment bills went into effect under Merkley's leadership in 2007 than in the years between 1991 and 2005 combined, which earned the state legislature high praise from the Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV). According to Jonathan Poisner, executive director of OLCV, "The Legislature showed that with strong, responsible leadership, the state can take steps to promote a better environmental legacy for our kids." Not only does Merkley act on the environment, he also utilizes environmental legislation to foster jobs, economic growth and fiscal savings. He has proposed setting a 25 percent renewable energy standard nationwide by 2025 (similar to the one set in Oregon under his leadership), which would invest billions of dollars in clean energy sources and create jobs, while effectively closing tax loopholes for big oil companies.

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Zack Pelta-Heller is a regular contributor to AlterNet.

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