Samuel

There has been an historic degree of attention paid this year to the Presidential election. It is a year of firsts, and it’s by many accounts the most important election any of us have ever voted in. This election, I believe, will shape the political landscape and frame the policy discussions in this country for at least a decade. But I am not going to talk about it.

Oregon, where I live and vote, is not a swing state in the presidential contest. Real Clear Politics has Obama up by 15 points, and 538.com has him winning Oregon in 100% of their scenarios. So I’m not worried about the Presidential race in Oregon. What I’m worried about is that Obama’s enthusiastic young supporters (of which I am one) will forget that there is actually a whole ballot’s worth of candidates and measures on which to vote. So I’m dedicating myself between now and Election day to encouraging my friends and neighbors to vote their whole ballot. In the interest of this mission, here are my picks for the three most important down-ticket races in the State. This is not to say that other races are not important. Other posts will go into detail about other candidates and issues. But this post is about three races where, if you don’t vote for anything else, your support is needed.

1) US Senate. Jeff Merkley, Democrat. Democrats have a slim chance of getting a 2/3ds majority in the Senate this year. If this comes to pass, and we have a majority in the house as well as a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, as well as a Democratic president, we will have our first real chance in over a decade to make some of the real changes we’ve all been hoping for in Health Care, the Environment, Education, Foreign Policy, and other important issues. One of the key races to win, if we are to reach the magic number, is the race in Oregon between Jeff Merkley and Gordon Smith. Gordon has changed his stripes dramatically this year, and is a Republican running on the Democratic platform. He’s made national news by trying to tie himself to prominent Dems such as Barack Obama. Don’t be fooled; he’s as conservative as they come. I got a call tonight asking me to volunteer for Merkley’s campaign, and the worker told me that it’s the closest Senate race in the country right now. This is a lie; Real Clear Politics says that North Carolina, Minnesota, and Alaska are all closer. But not by much, and it is clear that in Oregon this race is the most important.

2) Secretary of State. Kate Brown, Democrat. This race is close to my heart because the Republican candidate, Rick Dancer, was the local news anchor when I was growing up. He’s a likable personality and he has a lot of credibility in my community just because of this recognition. To be honest, I don’t (nor does anyone else, for that matter – he has no political record to look to) know much about how he would approach the SoS job. He talks about governing in a bipartisan way. So did W. in 2000. The worst thing I can say about Dancer is that he’s a Pollyanna. He also belongs to a pretty conservative church, but that alone isn’t a strike against him. He hasn’t talked much about how his religion does or doesn’t impact his politics. Also, he’s a wimp and when redistricting rolls around in 2011 he’ll be easy for the Republican leadership to push around. Kate Brown, the Democrat in the race, has a long career of public service. She is currently a ranking Democrat in the Oregon State Senate. She is enormously qualified for the SoS job.

3) Treasurer. Ben Westlund, Democrat. Ben is the closest thing to a Republican that I’m endorsing in this election. He used to be one, but switched parties several years ago. He is that rare breed of Oregon politician, the East Side Democrat. He has made two fortunes in his life, the more recent one in bull semen. No joke. I’m told they use a cow blow up doll to collect the stuff. I met Ben at an SEIU event, and I’ll tell you; he’s a real character. I heard a story that day about him getting drunk and sitting around a campfire with a bunch of 20 somethings from the Bus Project until the wee hours of the morning, telling stories about the ranch. But he’s also brilliant, one of the smartest people in Oregon politics, and he has a record that shows a wide breadth of experience that will prepare him for the Oregon treasurer job. He has direct financial experience, but he also has legislative experience and he has a deep understanding of government. His challenger, Allen Alley, has enormous experience in business and finance, but I don’t think (and he hasn’t been able to show) that he has any insight into public policy or the policy making process.

As a side note, the Labor Commissioner race is an important one to vote in. There are bound to be a lot of under-votes (when people don’t vote at all) because no one really knows what the BOLI commissioner does. When there are a lot of under-votes, it makes it much easier for wing-nuts to get into office because of people voting based on whatever name sounds the best. The current commissioner, Brad Avakian, is a good egg. His opponent, Pavel Goberman, is a joke, so much so that the best argument I can make against voting for him is to recommend that you go read his campaign website..