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3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2018 Merkley eyes White House, Starnes drops bid for visits early primary states governor, endorses Brown A decision after the midterms Independent candidate makes switch By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press PORTLAND — He’s a Democrat, a liberal senator who wants to make Medicare available for all Americans, has pushed bills to stem climate change and is a sharp critic of President Donald Trump. And he’s seriously considering a run for the White House. It’s not Vermont’s Bernie Sanders. It’s Jeff Merkley, the senator from Oregon whose national profile rose this year when he led opposition to the Trump administration’s immi- gration policy that saw parents forcibly separated from their children. Merkley, in trying to gauge voter interest in a run for the presidency, has already visited Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, states that have early primaries and caucuses in the presidential sweepstakes. He didn’t have much name recognition nationally until last June, when he tried to enter a federal facility in Texas where immigrant children were being held. An aide videotaped the scene as he was refused entry and police were called. The video quickly went viral with over 1 million views in a day, and was repeated in newscasts across the country. In October, Merkley intro- duced legislation to prevent the Trump administration from forcing asylum seekers into internment camps. “It’s just a simple question of human decency and justice,” Merkley said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’re a nation of immigrants. The vast bulk of us have, some- where in our ancestry, people who fled religious persecution, or famine, or war.” Merkley said immigrants fleeing persecution were being treated as criminals and are being traumatized. He described the forced separa- tion of children from their par- ents as “an obscenely dark and evil act.” The administration says the crackdown is necessary to stop illegal immigration. In his trips to other states, Merkley has spoken with peo- ple “in their living rooms, their porches their backyards, nearby parks.” “You get together with a bunch of people and you talk about the state of the world,” he explained. He discussed with them issues he has led on, including ending preda- tory home mortgages; battling “climate chaos” — as he calls climate change; fighting for equality for the LGBT commu- nity; and opposing trade agree- ments that ship Americans’ jobs overseas. “The feedback’s been very positive,” Merkley said, though a beat later he added that maybe the people were just being polite. Blue-collar background AP Photo/Andrew Selsky U.S. Sen Jeff Merkley poses for a photo in his office in Portland. that the blue-collar kid could keep up with the kids from prep schools, so I had to work a little harder,” he said. His first exposure to national politics began when he interned in Washington, D.C., for U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield, a moder- ate Republican. He was elected to the state Legislature and then won Hatfield’s former Senate seat, in 2008, narrowly defeat- ing the Republican incumbent. He handily won re-election six years later. Merkley is busy these days boosting, with appearances and donations, 18 Democratic candidates in key states via his Blue Wave political action committee. He’s also hiring field staff in states like Iowa and New Hampshire to back some of those candidates, workers who could assist in laying the groundwork for his presiden- tial run. If he decides to run, Merk- ley must find a niche in a poten- tially crowded field, said Tra- vis Ridout, a professor of government and public policy at Washington State Univer- sity. The key is finding appeal from at least one segment of the party, whether liberal progres- sives, racial and ethnic minori- ties, labor unions or others, Rid- out said. “Trying to distinguish your- self with so many potential can- didates is a difficult task,” Rid- out said. However, Democrats seem to be looking for some- one new who they feel can win, a potential plus for Merkley, Ridout said. Comparisons with Sanders Merkley has been compared to Sanders, who lost the Dem- ocratic nomination in 2016 to Hillary Clinton. Politico Maga- zine said Merkley, the only sen- ator to endorse Sanders in 2016, “could inherit Bernie Sanders’ progressive mantle in 2020.” Sanders’ supporters com- plained that the party machin- ery was skewed against his can- didacy, but Merkley believes the machinery isn’t going to be that important in 2018. “I think it’s going to be people in these states who get excited about one candidate or another,” Merkley said. “And you know, some kind of magic happens along the way, but you don’t really know how that’s going to unfold.” Merkley said he’ll decide whether to run after next week’s midterm elections. Patrick Starnes, the Inde- pendent Party of Oregon’s candidate for governor, dropped an interesting new campaign message a week from election day: Vote for Kate Brown. In a surprise move, Starnes announced Tuesday he was suspending his cam- paign, and asking support- ers to instead back Brown’s re-election. “I just proposed it this morning to (Brown’s cam- paign),” Starnes, a cabi- netmaker from Browns- ville, told Oregon Public Broadcasting. The decision came down to the central campaign plank of Starnes’ long-shot bid for governor: campaign finance reform. The candi- date said he’s grown con- vinced that Brown is com- mitted to pushing a state constitutional amendment that would pave the way for tight limits on campaign donations. Oregon currently co-chair Rob Harris about the move. Starnes announcement also comes, presumably, after some of his supporters have already voted. According to the secre- tary of state’s office, more than one-fifth of ballots have been returned. Polls suggested Starnes might attract 4 percent of the vote. Consult a PROFESSIONAL Q: Does Medicare cover chiropractic care? ASTORIA it does! 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Merkley, 62, attributed his success to “serendipity.” “If I lived a thousand life- times I would probably never have been in the U.S. Senate,” he said. As a kid, Merkley excelled in math and science. He applied for college at almost the last minute, being unfamiliar with the process, and was accepted at Stanford and Yale. He chose Stanford for the financial aid. He was shocked to learn that all the other students in his dorm had visited the campus before. It had never occurred to his family to do so, and they lacked the money anyway. “It was a stressful couple of years (but) I wanted to prove By DIRK VANDERHART Oregon Public Broadcasting has no such limits. Starnes also said the move was influenced by Republi- can candidate Knute Buehler’s decision to accept $2.5 mil- lion from Nike co-founder Phil Knight. The move to withdraw apparently came as a surprise to Starnes’ own party. 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