I thought Kossacks might be interested in seeing just how out of touch some members of the Republican base have gotten. It seems that they have barred their own congressional nominee in Oregon's Congressional District 1 -- a top-tier pickup target for them just 4 years ago -- from participating in party events because he is "too liberal".
Joel Haugen is an interesting man. A lifelong Republican who learned the political ropes during the Hatfield/McCall/Paulus/Atiyeh era of Oregon politics, Haugen is a poster-child for progressive Republicanism.
Running as the Republican nominee in Oregon's first congressional district against incumbent, David Wu, Haugen is staunchly conservative on fiscal issues. However, he also supports universal health care, US energy independence by 2019, a timetable for the removal of US troops from Iraq, and is arguably more progressive on many issues than Democratic incumbent, David Wu.
And though Republican voters seem to agree with Haugen on the issues -- he was elected over social conservative, Claude William-Chappell, with more than 70 percent of the vote in the May Primary -- the party's apparatus has not been kind to its' nominee.
Haugen has been barred from speaking at, or attending, the GOP nominating convention for Congressional District 1 this weekend. He also claims that he has been barred from attending Republican booths at fairs and festivals in Columbia and Yamhill Counties.
"He's not a Republican", said Fred Yauney, Chair of the Columbia County Republicans. "He's a Republican in name only", in response to questions about why Haugen was excluded from the nominating convention and not permitted to sit in the county booths.
Brianne Hyder, a spokesman for the Oregon Republican Party, and pointed out that Yauney is a spokesman for the Columbia County Republican Party, not the Oregon GOP, but did not comment on specifics of Haugen's exclusion from GOP-sponsored events, including the nominating convention in the congressional district, in which he is the Republican nominee.
Crossposted from Oregon Independent