Democratic Candidates eye Congressional Race

The Sun King

A Test of Self Discipline:  Can we go a week without mentioning him.   HIM.  You know who.  The man who tweets.  The man who is the centerpiece of all news.  The man whose staff turmoil is news, whose gaffs are news, whose speeches are carried live, whose behavior is defended by Republicans and condemned by Democrats and reported with dismay by the mainstream media.   Him.

A whole week without mentioning him.  Let's try it.

Candidates test the Waters.

No. Stop. Resist.

I have begun to get phone calls expressing interest in running for Congress in Oregon's Second Congressional District--i.e. Greg Walden's.

Michael Byrne, Rachel Scdoris, and Jim Crary have announced they are running.   Other people are considering running but are not ready to go public yet.

They have Facebook pages devoted to their campaigns, which puts them in the arena. Michael Byrne is participating in political postings in social media.  Rachel has a story to tell: she is legally blind but competed in the Iditarod.  She has a precondition.   Jim Crary is having Town Hall meetings around Oregon and people are showing up.

Jim Crary

Rachel Scdoris

But I have gotten other calls, primarily from political novices.  They asked me not to share their names yet.  At least one man from Ashland.  Another person from Klamath Falls.  A third from Hood River.  They are looking, watching.

They aren't intimidated by the party registration, nor are they concerned about the fact that Walden won with 70% of the vote last year.  They perceive that the 2016 election result essentially pushed "reset" on politics in America.  Back then Walden was a critic and people liked critics.  Now he is a guy in charge and they don't like the direction of things.  Everything is different now.

Republicans are trying to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, i.e. Obamacare.  They thought they hated Obamacare but they like Trumpcare even less.  Walden had a reputation as a moderate, unassuming, bi-partisan Republican but his party is under the influence of its most conservative members.  Walden voted for the House bill to repeal the ACA and replace it with Trumpcare.  The candidates think Walden has gone to the dark side.

Michael Byrne

The theory is that this makes him vulnerable.  A narrative describing Walden is starting to congeal, and it makes sense given the body language and general vibe that Walden sends out.  It goes:  Walden used to be pretty good, reasonable and moderate and bi-partisan, but now he has gone crazy conservative.  He toes the right wing line and has abandoned what use to make him effective.  The old Walden is gone.  Time for him to go.

They all think the process is corrupted by money.  They want to change Citizens United.  They all want simpler, better health care:  Medicare for All.  

I give out free advice: just have two, maybe three, issues.  They are all bubbling with things to say and I tell them to edit down.  Keep it simple.  One has a plan for rural redevelopment with tax advantages given for rural areas.  Nike should build design centers in Bend and Klamath Falls and Ashland, not squeezed another one into Beaverton or Portland.  That has potential as an idea.  Everyone in rural Oregon resents Portland.  It gets all the money and has most of the votes.   He started to tell me about other issues and I told him to stop.  You are for rural development and you have a simple plan: tax breaks for corporations if they put factories and offices outside of urban centers.  It is like rural electrification under FDR, only updated for the 21st Century.  Good.  Stop with that.

Another has a plan for encouraging solar power in dry, high eastern Oregon.   We are the Saudi Arabia of sunshine, he said.  I thought Arizona and New Mexico and West Texas were probably better for sunshine than eastern Oregon but I certainly agreed there is a lot of open sagebrush land out there.

"Dreary"

A third had a plan for getting everyone to change their registration to Democrat so we could send a message to Walden that we are angry with him.  (I said this wasn't an issue, it was a tactic.)

The real story here is that candidates feel the ground has shifted politically and they are getting encouragement from others, something that is new in this congressional district.  People are showing up at Town Meetings.  People are marching and carrying signs.  There is hope in the air and this is entirely different..   Democrats are angry, they say, and motivated.  They believe the unaffiliated voters are up for grabs, and there are 150,000 of them, more than the margin of victory.  They believe Walden is wounded and that voters are ornery and ready for change.   

A reader of this blog just sent a comment about Walden:  "What a dreary little man."