OR-SEN: Country Breakfast with Jeff

With none of the hoopla of his campaign's kickoff tour through Oregon's populous Willamette Valley, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley began a swing through rural Eastern Oregon this morning with an informal breakfast in The Dalles with local party leaders, activists and office holders this morning.  There were no banners, and no stump speech.  Instead, the candidate for Gordon Smith's vulnerable Senate seat had a frank and unscripted conversation with rural voters -- the very demographic which conventional wisdom views as Smith's remaining constituency.

Highlights of the give and take, which I think was informative for both the attendees and the candidate, follows after the fold.

Arriving dressed in blue jeans and shirt sleeves, accompanied by only two staffers, Jeff mingled with the small group which had gathered to meet him.  It had much more the feel of friends gathered for a common purpose getting to know each other than a politician "working a room."  After being introduced with a brief bio by Teresa Hepker, chair of the Wasco County Democrats  [who, of course, are not endorsing either of the two candidates in the primary], Merkley invited each of us to briefly introduce ourselves and comment on what had gotten us involved in Democratic party politics.  Despite the small size of the gathering, a surprising array of backgrounds were revealed... business and professions, farmers, workers... the common theme being enunciated early on that Republican domination of Congress had been a disaster, now continuing by ineffective Democratic Leadership.

Allowing his plate of country-style biscuits and gravy to get cold, Jeff explained how he had come to enter the race, despite having weighed the many reasons not to.  He related having been born in rural Oregon, the son of a millworker, whose family had been forced to move to the city for economic reasons after the mill closed.  He told of his experience as a foreign exchange student in the African nation of Ghana, leading to a capitol hill internship and staff positions relating to international policy.  But, making a difference in the lives of real people became a passion, so his career shifted to nonprofit work, first for Habitat for Humanity, and then in developing affordable housing.  "A miracle occurs," he said, "when people can realize their dream of home ownership."

A legislative career with a progressive agenda followed, frustrated by Republican control of the Oregon House and Senate.  This past legislative session saw the beginning of change, as Merkley led the Democratic caucus and its one seat majority in passing a wide array of bills, including landmark nondiscrimination and consumer protection legislation.  The logjam and partisan impasse broken, it would be understandable if he had decided to remain Speaker of the House, and with two school-age children at home, Salem is certainly more attractive than Washington.  But, he concluded, it's time to break a similar logjam in D.C., and the place to start is with Oregon's representation in the Senate.

In the discussion which followed, one might have expected the focus to be on the issues of that "other Oregon" on this side of the mountains... balancing property rights with landuse planning, increasing economic and educational opportunities outside of the metropolitan centers, and of course, middle class tax relief.  Instead, right off the bat, the principle concern was debunking the Republican myth that it is the party of small business and family farms instead of corporate interests and the wealthy, so that we can build a sustainable Democratic majority in rural Eastern Oregon.

The discussion continued on a similar point, when the candidate was asked what a Junior Senator from Oregon could do to counter the capitulation we have seen from the Democratic leadership in Congress.  Admitting that he needed to become better versed in the intricacies and history of cloture rules, he said that the obvious answer was building a larger Democratic majority in both houses.  In the meantime, he said that the powerful lobbies needed to be more effectively countered.  As an example, he cited the opposition of the banks and credit unions to his legislation curtailing predatory practices of payday lenders which had threatened to doom the measure given the Democrats' slim one-vote majority.  The bankers had to be convinced that it was not in their best interests to allow these storefront operations to continue bleeding their potential future customers dry.  In short, he was suggesting it is time for Congress to push back against the lobbyists, and to understand it is not political suicide to do so.

There was not time to deal in depth with every national and international issue.  And, by way of full disclosure, I must hasten to admit that I am not an entirely disinterested observer.  I already have a Merkley bumper sticker on my car.  But, I genuinely believe that most, if not all, of my neighbors who had breakfast with Jeff this morning came away from the experience disabused of the notion that this primary race is in any way a battle of progressives vs. establishment Democrats.  On Peace, Jeff unequivocally stated that the war and occupation of Iraq was "a disaster, the product of dramatic disinformation."  On Accountability and Oversight, "Impeachment should never be off the table."  On Equality, he shepherded the first statewide bill barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity to passage.  On the Environment, his record and leadership is second to none.  And, he has proved himself effective in legislative environments where Democrats were in the minority, and in the slimmest of majorities.

I look forward to Steve Novick's first meeting with Wasco County voters, and will enthusiastically support him should he gain our party's nomination to do battle with Gordon talk-moderate-but-vote-to-rubberstamp-the-whitehouse Smith.  But my money is on Jeff Merkley, and I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work for him as the candidate for this race at this time.

Links:

Jeff Merkley, Democrat for Senate

ActBlue: Jeff Merkley