crossposted
here
In my little corner of the globe, liberals are taking back their goverment.
When I moved here in 1995 an election was underway. Democrats lost that election locally in a lot of ways. The Oregon House and Senate came under Republican control. Gordon Smith (R) defeated Tom Bruggere (D) for Packwood's Senate seat and many of Oregon's local enviornmental iniatives went down to defeat. Oregon had also passed property tax iniatives, changing the structure of school funding to require a supermajority in order to pass a tax increase. In short, it sucked to be a liberal in Oregon at that time.
But times, they are a-changing. In 2000, Democrats and Republicans had a tie in the Senate. Last Tuesday, Democrats regained control of the Oregon Senate. In my county, Democrats won across the board:
In Tuesday's election, state Rep. Mark Hass, a Raleigh Hills Democrat in the House District 27 race, handily won re-election over Republican challenger Gabe Schomus, 66 percent to 30 percent. Libertarian Christi Feldewerth of Beaverton received 3 percent of the vote.
State Sen. Ryan Deckert, a Beaverton Democrat, also easily defeated Republican Jay Omdahl, 64 percent to 36 percent, in the Senate District 14 contest.
State Sen. Ginny Burdick, a Southwest Portland Democrat, also won re-election in the new Senate District 18 that for the first time included Tigard and King City. Burdick defeated Republican John Wight, 62 percent to 34 percent. Libertarian Roger F. Garcia received 3 percent of the vote.
With the addition of three Senate seats, Democrats now will have an 18-to-12 margin. It's the first time in nearly a decade that Democrats will control one of the Legislature's two chambers.
In House District 29, which includes Forest Grove and Cornelius, Democrat Chuck Riley defeated Republican Mary Gallegos, 48 percent to 41 percent. Libertarian Tom Cox received 9.5 percent of the vote.
Other Beaverton-area incumbents also won re-election. State Rep. Brad Avakian, a Democrat, had no opposition in the House District 34 seat. Rep. Jeff Barker, an Aloha Democrat, defeated his Pacific Green Party challenger, Steve Geiger, 80 percent to 16 percent, in the House District 28 race.
Rep. Mitch Greenlick, a Northwest Portland Democrat, defeated two challengers, Libertarian David E. Long and Constitution Party candidate Thomas E. Humphrey Jr. in the House District 33 contest. Greenlick received 75 percent of the total vote.
One of the key races of note is the Gallegos/Riley race from Forest Grove. This includes some of the most conservative pockets of the Oregon electorate. And these aren't necessarily the Wall Street conservatives. These are religious conservatives. This definitely bucks the national trend.
How are progressives winning elections in these very conservative regions? Part of it may be redistricting that took place after the 2000 census. But that doesn't explain the Gallegos/Riley race.
So what was the key? This area of Oregon was huge for Howard Dean. We love Howard. People in this area picked up on Dean's model of grasssroots activism at the local level. This morphed into "Carry Oregon", which worked successfully to carry Oregon for John Kerry and for Democrats.
Carry Oregon kept everything local. House party fundraisers for Kerry sent their money to Carry Oregon, which kept the funds in Oregon to help in this state. It went to Kerry's race AND to other races in Oregon to help progressives and Democrats win. It helped a region of Oregon that could go for Republicans go for progressives and Democrats instead.
As Kevin reminded me today, the old saying that "all politics is local" is so true. Carry Oregon implemented the Dean model and created a successful strategy. I'm hopeful that progressive campaigns around the country look toward it for their races as well.