Iraq issue percolating in Oregon Senate race
By BRAD CAIN - Associated Press
Sunday, August 26, 2007 2:13 AM PDT
SALEM — Ever since Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley announced plans to challenge U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith in 2008, Republicans have been trying to make campaign fodder of Merkley’s 2003 vote for a state House resolution expressing support for U.S. troops in Iraq.
Now the resolution is percolating in the Democratic Senate race between Merkley and his opponent, political activist Steve Novick.
Novick hasn’t yet raised the issue of Merkley’s Iraq resolution vote in his campaign appearances. But with Democrats at the national level backing Merkley instead of Novick, the lesser-known candidate sees the resolution as something that can win Democratic voters to his side.
‘‘It is coming up as an issue,’’ Novick said in an interview with The Associated Press in which he made it clear he plans to talk about the House resolution in the campaign’s coming months.
‘‘I think there will be a lot of Democrats who will want to vote for someone who loudly, proudly and at every opportunity expressed his opposition to the war,’’ said Novick.
Merkley’s campaign said it would have no direct comment on Novick’s assertions about Merkley’s vote on the House resolution.
‘‘Jeff Merkley knows that the best way to help Gordon Smith get re-elected is for Democrats to attack each other,’’ Merkley spokesman Jon Isaacs said. The increasingly unpopular war in Iraq figures to be a key issue in Oregon’s 2008 Senate contest, as it will be in other congressional races contests around the country.
When Merkley announced several weeks ago he would take on Smith next year, he took note of the Republican senator’s election-eve conversion on the Iraq war. Smith voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq and supported President Bush’s Iraq policy until last December, when he spoke against it. Republicans were quick to dredge up Merkley’s vote for the 2003 resolution, which voiced support for U.S. troops, ‘‘acknowledged the courage of President George W. Bush’’ and ‘‘expressed support for the victorious removal of Saddam Hussein.’’
‘‘Merkley can’t have it both ways,’’ said Oregon GOP spokesman Shawn Cleave. ‘‘If he is going to build his campaign against Gordon Smith on this one issue, then he is going to have to explain his own vote on the Iraq war.’’
Merkley, for his part, has said he was only expressing his support for U.S. troops in voting for the nonbinding state resolution.
Further, the Portland Democrat gave a floor speech the day the resolution was considered in which he said he was ‘‘not today persuaded that Iraq was a significant threat to the United States or that the war we fight today is the best strategy to fight terrorism or the wisest application of our superpower resources.’’
In March of this year, Merkley also voted for a nonbinding House resolution urging Bush and Congress to withdraw troops from Iraq as soon as possible. Still, Novick argued that he himself never would have voted for the 2003 resolution acknowledging Bush’s ‘‘courage’’ in pursuing the Iraq war. He also noted that five Oregon House Democrats voted against the resolution that day, despite the pro-war sentiment in the country at the time.
‘‘I think voters respect people who are willing to stand up for their principles, even when doing that is politically difficult,’’ said Novick, who strongly opposed the war from the outset and marched in several anti-war demonstrations.
Portland pollster Tim Hibbitts said he’s not surprised that Novick is starting to raise the House resolution issue, given that the Iraq war is the top issue for Democrats.
Hibbitts also noted that Novick is waging an uphill battle against Merkley, who was recruited by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C., to run against Smith.
‘‘Steve Novick will not win by playing it safe. This is a tool in his toolbox, and he’s going to have to use it if he thinks it could make a difference in the Democratic primary,’’ Hibbitts said.
Novick thinks it will.
‘‘A lot of Democratic voters have been demoralized for years because they feel their leaders have missed opportunities along the way to take a strong stand against the war,’’ he said.
