After election drubbing, Ore. GOP ponders future
By BRAD CAIN
Associated Press
Saturday, March 7, 2009 11:57 PM PST
SEASIDE — After the shellacking Republicans suffered last fall, Congressman Greg Walden isn’t exactly jumping at the chance to run for Oregon governor next year. Walden says the seniority he’s built up in Congress and the lopsided voter registration edge Democrats hold over Republicans give him pause as he looks at a run for governor. He says he won’t decide right away. The popular congressman made the comments Saturday before addressing the annual Dorchester Conference. Several hundred party members have gathered at the Oregon Coast this weekend to try to chart a future course for the GOP after last fall’s drubbing at the polls.
Missing from this year’s Dorchester gathering is former U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, who was the only Republican to hold statewide office until he was defeated in his re-election bid in November election.
Smith, who’s attended the last 15 or so Dorchester meetings, says he’s going to work for a Washington, D.C., law firm and would also retake the helm of Smith Frozen Foods, the frozen vegetables plant he owns in Eastern Oregon.
‘‘He’s focused on the future, but the future has more to do with pea picking and the law firm than it does with politics,’’ said Dan Lavey, a longtime friend and adviser to the former senator. Besides Smith’s defeat, Republicans lost ground at the statehouse, with Democrats picking up enough seats to gain supermajorities in both the House and Senate, allowing them to enact revenue measures without Republican help.
Walden is now the lone GOP member of Congress from Oregon and the most prominent Republican officeholder in the state.
He said his reservations about running for governor notwithstanding, he is committed to making the Republican Party a viable political force again.
In his remarks to the Dorchester gathering, the 2nd District congressman said Republicans have themselves to blame for not presenting a compelling message to voters in recent elections.
‘‘We need to connect on the basics with Oregonians,’’ he said. ‘‘An economy that gets off its back, jobs with a future, kids knowing there is an Oregon with opportunities as big as an Eastern Oregon sky — voters haven’t heard that from us in a long while, or it’s been lost in the noise.’’
Democrats almost quadrupled their 2004 voter registration edge over Republicans to some 237,000 in the 2008 election cycle, helping Democrats score victories in suburban areas that traditionally had been viewed as Republican-leaning or swing districts.
During his speech Saturday, Walden gave Oregon GOP Chairman Bob Tiernan a check for $10,000 from his campaign fund to help with efforts to register more Republican voters.
Walden said if Republicans hope to begin winning elections again, that gap must be narrowed.
