Whither Oregon Democrats? (Jack Bog's Blog)

Oregonian columnist Steve Duin, who's right about half the time, nailed it yesterday when he noted that nowadays, Oregon's Democratic Party can be broken down into two subparties: the establishment and the rebels. The former group, headed by Hillary, features Merkley for U.S. Senate, Macpherson for attorney general, and Brown for secretary of state. The latter group, headed by Obama, is running Novick, Kroger, and Walker, respectively.

Of course, nothing's formally organized along those lines, but there are common themes in all those contests which have long suggested those sorts of associations. We've been thinking along such lines since October. Once you see the thematic connections, isn't it tempting to just follow the "subparty" line?

Now, all you Republicans who have re-registered yourself as Democrats so that you can vote for Hillary, listen up! What are you going to do in the other three races? Merkley vs. Novick doesn't really matter, because Peapicker Gordon is going to mop the floor with either of them. But the other two races are serious, because you GOP types have mustered no serious opposition at all. Nor are you going to.

If you really want to make trouble for the current gang in power in Salem, go with the rebels. The last thing the Network Formerly Known as Goldschmidt needs is to have people like Kroger and Walker sniffing around their many fetid pots of poorly monitored public money. To visualize it in a slightly different way, under every rock either one of those candidates turns over will be one or more Salem snakes that have lived there peacefully for many years.

Comments (11)

As Republican who's not playing the re-register game I'd like to add that Kroger and Walker are indeed preferable as Jack reasons.
Besides being the "rebel" it would apprear they have another distinct difference with the far left liberal Novick and Obama. So I'd say yes to Jack's suggestion to Republicans voting in these races that the less liberal Kroger and Walker deserve your votes.

Posted by Steve | April 28, 2008 8:01 AM

I suspect Gordon's downfall will be the same underestimation of Novick that plagues both Merkley and Jack Bog.

Posted by torridjoe | April 28, 2008 8:12 AM

All the action being in the Democratic primaries this year is all the more reason to get rid of party primaries and have an open election as proposed by Phil Keisling. That way, the winner of the Secretary of State primary couldn't walk into office with less than a majority of votes cast.

Posted by Gil Johnson | April 28, 2008 8:54 AM

Gordo recently voted to leave out Filipino vets from an expanded benefits package for all other vets. What's that about? A vet is a vet,they fought for us, but Gordo wants to discriminate. Hope Eastern Oregon Filipinos are paying attention.

Posted by genop | April 28, 2008 9:00 AM

In what spectrum is the candidate that is pro-gay marriage, promising to personally defend abortion rights, and want to put major polluters in jail the less liberal candidate? Macpherson is not exactly calling for a dictatorship of the proletariat. And I say this as a Kroger supporter. With the exception of a handful of issues, the liberal-conservative tag does not make a lot of spectrum difference; but, the establishment or non-establishment distinction makes a lot of sense.

Posted by Rab | April 28, 2008 9:03 AM

I meant, "...makes a lot of sense in terms of the spectrum you measure them on...

Posted by Rab | April 28, 2008 9:05 AM

What about those who grew up in small union towns with parents who worked family wage union jobs in the natural resource industry? Which "subparty" do they belong to? I suspect its the independent "subparty" as it seems to me that neither party gives a damn about this category of voters.

Posted by Columbia County Kid | April 28, 2008 9:21 AM

I think Republicans who cross over to vote for Hilliary are making a mistake. If Hillary miraculously comes out of the Democratic convention with the nomination, she is likely to win the general election. She will garner big momentum as the comeback "kid." Obuma is actually a less viable candidate in the general election than Clinton. Don't do it my fellow elphants.

Posted by Bob Clark | April 28, 2008 10:54 AM

I'm also a non-party-switching Republican. I'm planning on voting for Kroger and Walker for the same reasons.

Posted by Joey Link | April 28, 2008 11:35 AM

Huh. I'm an Obama and Novick woman from my head to my toes, but I also expect to vote MacPherson (if Josh Marquis digs him, experience would suggest I'm likely to disagree) and I like Kate Brown a lot. I'm a bit schizo on the establishment-rebel axis, apparently.

Posted by SP | April 28, 2008 9:29 PM

SP, check out the piece on the AG race in Sunday's O. Pretty fair article, I think. The lawyer's comment about Macpherspon gaming the Measure 49 debate and fouling up the appeals process for people he doesn't like says everything about why he shouldn't be AG. As for Josh Marquis, he's not my cup of tea either, but he does have a reflective intelligent side. Kroger will help move him along the learning curve.

Posted by Cynthia | April 29, 2008 9:20 AM

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Monday, April 28, 2008

Whither Oregon Democrats?

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