Jessica Gomez: Middle ground.

There is no middle on a ballot issue. 

"Jessica tried to middle-ground her support of Ballot Measure 106 (ban of public funding of abortions), but it puts her on record restricting access. On Measures 103, 104, and 106 Jessica stayed with the Republican brand by supporting them. People voted in Jackson County against those ballot measures."

                    Kevin Stine, Medford City Council Member and close observer of politics.

Gomez Campaign photo

In hindsight, her election was a lost cause. "Democrats voted for Democrats," she noted.


Jeff Golden, her Democratic opponent, had established a progressive brand over a 40 year period. It was a Democratic-leaning District. It was a Democratic year. Golden avoided self-defeating errors. And the time honored strategy for a Republican in the District, an onslaught of negative attack ads, were not wanted nor available this year. The history in the District of the repetitional damage to previous candidates Jim Wright and David Dotterer were ghosts of elections past for a Republican. Nasty ads backfire. The Mail Tribune headline read "Beneath Contempt" on the campaign of Jim Wright--an ugly way to finish a campaign. 

Democrat Tonia Moro had the same experience two years before. People were on the lookout for another iteration.

Moreover, Golden had campaign manager Cathy Shaw and the tailwind of Trump's motivation of Democrats. Shaw had access to hundred of volunteers. People signed up willingly to talk with neighbors. Her campaign identified and targeted Get Out The Vote on the people who probably would vote Democratic, if they voted, but who frequently fail to vote. The main focus was motivating the occasional Democrat. Her system and effort worked.

Click: NY Times, Sept 2, 2018

Jessica Gomez's campaign was interesting because she attempted an independent path that, had it been successful, would sent a signal to the state and national party that there was room for a new kind of Republican. The New York Times had already done a story featuring Gomez, with photo and extensive quotations. They asked, Is there a moderate Republican party any more?

The ballot issues forced Gomez to choose sides. Her ads and her personal demeanor projected that "kinder, gentler" Republicanism of an earlier era, but the ballot issues, and the close call in the GOP primary, nudged her toward Republican orthodoxy. 


Orthodoxy ill-suits her apparent nuance on policy. Her position on minimum wage, for example, starts with a premise that corporate America is unjustly gaming the system for its own advantage. "I believe some corporations are taking advantage of a low wage workforce, people who can only survive thanks to public benefits like the Oregon Health Plan and SNAP. That seems wrong to me."  And yet, she said she was uncomfortable with talk of a $15 minimum wage. "A high minimum wage creates a barrier for every young worker, age 16 or 18." 

Too critical of business to be a good Republican, not supportive enough of minimum wage to be a Democrat. Middle ground.

In her "clean room"

By October of 2018 Gomez's public brand had been transformed. She was no longer persuasive in presenting herself as a non-partisan, community-minded, middle of the road person, acceptable to all people and ideally suited for the era in a Democratic district. Circumstances pushed her to declare a position. She was a Republican.

Money was one of the levers pushing that evolution.

Her campaign got money from very Republican sources, the Leadership Fund, the No Supermajorities PAC which had the express purpose of electing Republicans, and the local Chamber of Commerce, whose PAC had become unapologetic in support of Republicans as the default "pro-business" political party.  The issue got local visibility in this blog, in social media, and, eventually, in the local newspaper. 


In October the Jordan Cove LNG pipeline promoters began very publicly offering grants and making large political donations to the Medford-Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, which then promptly donated large amounts to Gomez. Social media quickly circulated screen shots of the Secretary of State reports showing Chamber money-in and money out. It looked like an obvious re-gift. Chamber spokesman said it was not a pass-through, that the Chamber independently decided to send that money to local candidates, including Gomez. The Chamber solicited the money, it was theirs to do with what they wanted, and they gave it promptly to Gomez. They need not explain anything.

Click: Secretary of State

Gomez has been consistent in saying she opposed the project and this blog devoted a pre-election post to letting her express that position firmly. "I told the Jordan Cove lobbyist I did not support the project. He said OK. The meeting lasted ten minutes," she said to me this week.

But the whole episode had an appearance. 

The Chamber supported the project, the Chamber supported Gomez, Gomez took the Chamber money that had just come from Jordan Cove. It could be read by voters as a matter of Gomez high principle ignoring the source of money. Or it could be seen as Gomez squishy insincere opposition to the pipeline. She says she opposes it, but she is on the board of the Chamber and they do support it. And she took the money.

Voters made their assumptions.

Had Gomez won election she might have represented a high visibility new direction for the GOP, an avenue of electoral success in swing districts. It would be a rejection of Trump-ism and of hard edged partisanship. I expect the New York Times would have returned to Medford to hear from her how she did it, a moderate in the Year of the Woman. 

Carpenter, on Facebook

Instead, she lost.

This empowers a different force within the GOP, one being voiced strongly by Sam Carpenter, who is running for State Party Chair. It says that the route to electoral success for Republicans is to embrace Trump's message, arguing that a great many Democrats secretly agree with Trump, and that a supposed moderate, middle of the road Republican is actually just a weak Democrat who pleases no one. Carpenter:  "The simple reason for our continued state-wide election losses is that too many of our nominees have not been openly, from-the-heart, conservative." The Carpenter version of the GOP is in the ascendancy.

Meanwhile, Gomez is not disappearing. She has applied to fill the vacancy on the Medford City Council caused by the election of Kim Wallan to the State House of Representatives.