GOP Candidates Options Grow

Thanks, Oregon Democrats! GOP candidate options grow
Elizabeth Hovde
Columnist, The Oregonian
September 19, 2009

“If there was any good candidate-recruitment tool, it was this past legislative session,” Nick Smith says. He’s the spokesman for the state House Republicans’ campaign committee. He’s told me this several times since I started nagging him about whether Oregon Republicans are going to have it together when it comes to fielding dozens of candidates for the 2010 election.

When Barack Obama was elected president and Sarah Palin became more frequently referred to as Caribou Barbie as governor of Alaska, I was worried Republicans would have to offer up faux or no candidates in 2010 because no conservative in his or her right mind would be willing to go into battle in the Time of Obama. Whoever dared to would need a vat of charisma, as the president changed voters’ expectations for what a candidate should look and talk like. It’s a tall order. Obama is more charismatic than Santa Claus — and promises more goodies than the man in red, too.

Back in January, love of Obama in specific and any non-Republican in general left me feeling that it wouldn’t matter who a candidate was or what she stood for. If she carried an “R” next to her name she’d seal her fate as a political reject. Carry a “D” by your name on the ballot and you could coast to the office of your choosing, riding Obama’s magic Democratic sleigh, no matter your experience, ideology or ability to find your way to the bathroom in Salem or the halls of Congress.

But instead of scraping the bottom of the Willamette for sacrificial candidates, Republicans involved in candidate recruitment in Oregon say they are seeing one of the strongest recruiting classes they’ve had in several cycles — thanks to the 2009, Democrat-led state Legislature.

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