Because light shows such as Loren Parks and the Grand Ronde tribe will continue to supply the fireworks that illuminate the 2006 gubernatorial race, it's crucial to approach the three primary candidates with the right flashlights and the proper questions:
What has Ted Kulongoski accomplished as
governor for which he should be rewarded another four-year term?
Does Ron Saxton have the intellectual honesty necessary to identify the
problems confronting this state, much less deal with them?
And is Ben Westlund's candidacy the odyssey of a maverick independent or a
political opportunist who has, once again, re-created himself? (And do we
care if he's asking all the right questions?)
Clearly attuned to metaphors, Westlund spent several days last week priming
a balky pump at his Tumalo ranch. He said he has generated 4,000 of the
18,364 signatures required to prime his gubernatorial campaign, adding that
"the political insiders all know I'm going to be on the ballot."
"I am a legitimate centrist choice for Oregonians; I am not a spoiler. Is
there a plausible path to victory? No question."
A Bend Republican who split with his party on taxes and gay rights before
abandoning the party altogether, Westlund is not yet a brand name in Oregon
politics. But his candidacy continues to unnerve party loyalists who fear
Westlund's run down the middle will sheer off Kulongoski's and Saxton's more
moderate supporters.
Partisan diehards are carefully rummaging through Westlund's legislative
record -- some 7,000 votes, he estimates -- looking for the votes and
attitudes to make him appear toxic.
Westlund has seen the e-mails and heard the screams. His support for Bush in
2004? "I was still wearing the uniform. We were at a time of war. You tend
to support presidents during times of crisis."
His statement in support of Measure 36, the ban on same-sex marriages, in
the 2004 Voters' Pamphlet? He was wrong when he agreed to sign a statement,
Westlund said, and appalled by the "disingenuous" information in the one
written for him: "I tried to retract it."
That lousy rating with the Oregon League of Conservation Voters? "Selective
grading. And the OLCV made me their consensus builder of the year last
session."
His vote to eliminate cost-of-living adjustments in Oregon's minimum wage?
"I am teachable, and I can learn."
Westlund is the rare candidate in the race who admits mistakes and concedes
to a difficult learning curve. Of his status as an independent, he said, "I
am where I'm most comfortable. I don't know if this is re-creation or
evolution. And evolving to a position of better understanding."
He would be stunned, he said, if the voters didn't expect politicians to
"gain a bigger and better understanding of Oregon and the complexity of its
problems and, yes, change their perspective on those problems."
Especially the train wreck of Oregon's tax policy.
Kulongoski and Saxton, Westlund said, have "political consultants and
pollsters who are saying, 'You can't go there. That's nuts. Tax reform?
That's code for sales tax. If you want to win, you can't go there.'
"We see it exactly the opposite. Oregon is hungry for a leader who sticks
big stakes in the ground on bold, controversial subjects. Health care for
all. Tax reform. Big energy independence. I don't have polling numbers, but
my gut feeling is that's what Oregon is looking for: Someone to stand up and
say, 'The emperor has no clothes.' "
A Westlund candidacy, like a Westlund victory in November, doesn't guarantee
tax reform. It simply guarantees that policymakers in this state will
finally have that essential discussion on tax reform rather than run from it
like so many skittish dogs.
