Sources Say • GOP has a real candidate now

The Portland Tribune, Oct 8, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

SCHRADER (left) AND BRUUN

U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, a Democrat, probably won’t have another general election cakewalk next year. Schrader easily won the 5th Congressional District seat in the 2008 general election after his pro-life Republican opponent, Mike Erickson, was accused of paying for an abortion for a former girlfriend. Although Erickson denied the allegation, his campaign stumbled and he lost to Shrader by more than 55,000 votes.

But now a pillar of the Republican Party, State Rep. Scott Bruun, has announced he will challenge Schrader in 2010. Bruun, a successful contractor and West Linn resident, was easily defeated by Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer when the two ran for the 3rd District seat in 1996. But since then, Bruun has been elected three times to state House District 37, which includes the cities of West Linn, Tualatin, Lake Oswego, Rivergrove, Stafford and Durham. He raised more than $311,000 in cash and in-kind contributions in 2008 and has nearly $9,000 on hand that can be transferred to his congressional race.

One seat down, one to go

It may be a week or more before Oregon election officials verify whether enough voter signatures were collected to refer the tax increases approved by the 2009 Oregon Legislature to a January special election. If voters defeat the $733 million in new taxes, the Legislature will have to rewrite the state budget when it meets in an-already scheduled February special session.

That helps explain why Multnomah County commissioners did not appoint a mere seat warmer when they replaced former state Sen. Margaret Carter, D-District. 22, with state Rep. Chip Shields, D-District. 34, last month. After Carter announced she would resign to take a state job, Shields said he would run for the seat even if commissioners did not choose him to replace her.

The same considerations apply now that the commissioners have to pick Shield’s replacement. Democratic precinct committee people from Shield’s former district are scheduled to meet Oct. 14 to nominate between three and five potential replacements for the commissioners to consider. Potential nominees include communication consultant Lew Frederick, Portland Community College union leader Eddie Lincoln and Karol Collymore, an aide to Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen. The commissioners have not yet scheduled its vote.

Ron Wyden – troublemaker?

During his nearly 30 years in Congress, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has not been particularly controversial. But in recent weeks, Wyden has emerged as one of only two Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee who opposes the compromise health care bill put together by Chairman Max Baucus. Political commentators note that Wyden and Sen. Jay Rockefeller do not believe the current version goes far enough to provide affordable health insurance to all Americans, throwing its future – and the entire reform effort – up in the air.

Writing in the New Republic, Jonathan Cohn goes so far as to call Wyden “the biggest wild card of all.” Such characterizations are in contrast to Wyden’s reputation as peacemaker – a liberal who even got along well with Oregon’s former U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, a conservative Republican.

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