Oregonians Revel in Newfound Political Relevance
PENDLETON, Ore. _ Three thousand people filed slowly into the warm-winded eastern Oregon twilight on Sunday, left to wonder which was more improbable: that their rodeo town had just played host to a presidential candidate, or that their late-voting state still mattered in the Democratic primary.
“It’s amazing,” said Gloria Widener, 42, a fifth-grade teacher whose face still glowed from the heat of an hour watching Barack Obama in a glorified basketball gym with no air conditioning. “We don’t get a lot of recognition around here. We’re kind of isolated.” But now, she added, “We’re being noticed as voters.”
Oregonians agree. In towns and crowds large and small this month _ from a half-dozen folks around a table in Junction City to 75,000 jamming the Portland waterfront _ voters have basked in a rare burst of presidential attention and an even rarer opportunity to help select a party nominee.
Obama and rival Hillary Clinton have dueled for more than 15 months now, outlasting a crowded Democratic field and campaigning their way across the country. Some Democratic leaders worry that their fight is polarizing the party and hurting the eventual winner’s chances against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.
But in Oregon and other states that fall at the end of the primary calendar, the prolonged contest has also electrified Democrats, intrigued independents and Republicans, exposed new issues for debate and _ not to put too fine a point on it _ reinvigorated some voters’ faith in the democratic process.
Oregon counts the ballots from its vote-by-mail primary on Tuesday. Polls suggest an Obama victory. Other polls show Clinton leading in Kentucky, which also holds its primary Tuesday. Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico will complete the primary season early next month.
Other states raced to vote early this year, effectively ending the Republican race after a Feb. 5 mega-primary. But the closer Democratic contest rolled on, through March and April. When Oregon officials mailed ballots out in early May, the state buzzed over its most prominent role in the Democrats’ selection process since Sen. Eugene McCarthy defeated Sen. Robert Kennedy here in 1968.
Clinton and Obama flew in several times to campaign, and not just to the liberal population hubs of Portland and Eugene. Clinton talked housing in tiny Junction City and rallied supporters in rural Central Point.
Obama drew thousands in Albany, where his supporters shared a parking lot with a drive-up alpaca veterinary clinic; Roseburg, a conservative Southern Oregon town where his impending visit dominated the local newspaper front page on Friday; and Pendleton, home of the Pendleton Round-Up and the seat of a county that boasts just 10,000 Democrats. Each crowd included swaths of Republicans and unaffiliated voters.
Excitement bloomed away from the events, too. In early May a couple dozen women gathered in the clubhouse of a senior-citizen mobile home park in Woodburn, a half hour south of Portland, to celebrate Clinton and women’s suffrage. They ate from pink plastic plates and called Clinton supporters to remind them to vote.
“When I talk to people in the street,” said Betty Harry of Woodburn, one of the attendees, “there is incredible enthusiasm and people saying, `My vote is going to count.’”
State and campaign statistics show a surge of Democratic interest in the race. More than 100,000 Oregon voters registered or re-registered as Democrats before the primary. Obama and Clinton claim more than 50,000 volunteers in the state combined. Obama’s Portland rally on Sunday nearly doubled his previous record for a campaign crowd.
“This is the first time since I was a kid in school that the Oregon primary matters, the first time in 40 years,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Portland Democrat who backs Obama. “Now there’s a chance for people to be involved … I’ve never been in a campaign like this, where it’s `What do we do with all the volunteers?’”
Voters are taking the process very seriously. Perhaps it’s the unexpected activity, or the state’s history of rich policy debates. Whatever the reason, dozens of interviews across the state this month showed Democrats here cared little about the snipers and pastors who dominate national news and a lot about health care, Iraq and global warming.
They’ve also pushed the candidates to speak out on several Oregon-specific issues. Clinton and Obama expanded their stump speeches to include riffs on sustainable logging, salmon protection and federal payments to rural timber counties. In Pendleton, a questioner stumped Obama by asking his position on cleaning up the nearby Hanford nuclear site, which sits on the Columbia River in Washington state; he promised to find out more “on the ride back to the airport.”
“We’ve accomplished what we wanted,” Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat who supports Clinton, said in an interview this month: “to get candidates to focus on Oregon issues.”
The spotlight is fading as quickly as it came. Neither candidate will spend election night in the state. Clinton expects to cheer a big Kentucky win in Louisville. Obama will hit Iowa in a pivot toward a potential general election contest with McCain.
Obama’s campaign expects Oregon to deliver him enough pledged delegates to clinch a majority for the primary season, a likelihood several supporters noted last weekend as they waited in line outside Roseburg High School.
“We were bitter about Oregon being so late,” said Jim Lee, 46, of nearby Umpqua, “and it just so happens we might put Obama over the top.”
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