Much of the focus on Oregon progressive political blogs (esp. Blue Oregon and Loaded Oregon) has been on the Senate Democratic primary race of Steve Novick and Jeff Merkley. Both of these candidates are 100 times (at least) better than Gordon Smith. I believe the energy and passion both sides have put forth in this contest will ultimately be good for the victor, leading us to an energized run against Smith.
While it is great to see real excitement and energy generated with this race, I worry that other issues important to the future of the party in Oregon are being ignored or overlooked. Here I am talking about the 50 state strategy, espoused by Howard Dean, chairman of the DNC and the second congressional district seat currently held by republican Greg Walden.
Walden has voted with Republicans 87.7% of the time in the most recent congress. The 2nd Oregon CD is a conservative rural district. However, his most recent opponent in 2006, Carol Voisin, was able to garner a significant percentage of voters (31%) despite being outspent 1.2 mil to 59K.
He voted in 9/07 against expanding health care to children (SCHIP). I wonder how many people in his district are middle to low income folks without health insurance for their children. He also voted for FISA, a bill that allows the US Government to spy on citizens without a warrant or court order. I wonder how the headline "Walden supports Big Brother" plays in libertarian rural Oregon?
In 3/07, he voted against limiting no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars for Bush’s friends like Halliburton, Blackwater and Kellogg, Brown and Root. How does Eastern Oregon feel about welfare for some of the biggest and best connected corporations?
This is just his recent stuff. This diary at Blue Oregon details Walden’s historical vulnerability and his anti-rural stance, working directly against those he purports to represent. It is also a better summary of 2nd District dynamics than I can hope to dissect in this diary. What I would like to add to the discussion is the ideas of 50 state strategy and values vs. demographics.
50 state strategy involves a bit of technical wonkery:
Democratic organizers return to the states and recruit and train leaders at the local level.
Those local leaders recruit more leaders and volunteers until every single precinct in their area has a trained, effective organization of Democrats dedicated to winning votes for Democrats.
Kos, in this diary, describes a strategy where we build movements in red states or districts instead of ignoring those and concentrating on ever-decreasing ‘swing states’. By building a stronger organization in red areas like 2nd CD we advance the cause of all democrats in Oregon and the country. We force Walden to spend his bucks and time on the race instead of for Gordon Smith or the repub Pres. Candidate.
The Values vs. Demographics issue is one raised by Kos and Jerome Armstrong in Crashing The Gate. In this book, the conventional wisdom about appealing to demographic groups is challenged:
You can like NASCAR, you can like hunting, you can like bluegrass music, and you still can vote for a Democrat.
Where we connect with rural voters are on issues that affect them, not just urban voters. If we are the party of the people like we say we are, we have to include rural people as well. If we do this successfully we can challenge Walden. Even if the 2CD democratic challenger doesn’t win, focusing the 50 state strategy in this region will divert republican resources, make Walden fight for his life and build a long term democratic presence in the area. If we succeed even in one of these objectives, we will have won.
Update: the Original posting of this diary evoked some good comments with good links exposing Walden's horrible record:
SCHIP
Against Endangered Species Act
Moose Farts and Global Warming Denier
Please help support the effort to defeat Walden and implement the 50 state strategy. The Send Greg Walden Packin site on ActBlue will take donations for the democratic candidate. I just sent them $20. Anyone with me?