T he P ortland O bserver « O ctober 23, 1996
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Election '96
Portland Observer & Observador recommend:
President of the United States........................ Bill Clinton
Vice President of the United States............... Al Gore
United States Senator..................................... Tom Bruggere
Representative in Congress, 1st District....... Elizabeth Furse
Representative in Congress, 3rd District...... s' Earl Blumenauer
Secretary of State............................................ Phil Keisling
State Treasurer................................................ rfjim Hill
Attorney General............................................ Hardy Myers
State Senator, 6th District.............................. of Ginny Burdick
State Senator, 7th District..............................& Kate Brown
State Senator, 8th District..............................^M ichael Fitz
State Senator, 10th District............................Avel Gordly
State Senator, 11th District............................¡¿John Lim
State Senator, 28th District............................Kevin Campbell
City of Portland Commissioner, Position I .... Gail Shibley
City of Portland Commissioner, Position 2 ... Erik Sten
State Representative, 7th District.................. Bob Shook
State Representative, 10th District................ Susan Lester
State Representative, 11th District................ Anitra Rasmussen
State Representative, 12th District................ Chris Beck
State Representative, 13th District................ Dan Gardner
State Representative, 14th District................ George Eighmy
State Representative, 15th District................ Randall Edwards
State Representativ e, 16th District................ Frank Shields
State Representative, 17th District................ Mike Fahey
State Representative, 18th District............... Margaret Carter
State Representative, 19th District............... Jo Ann Bowman
State Representative, 20th District............... George Kelley
State Representativ e, 21st District...............Lonnie Roberts
State Representativ e, 22nd District...............Chuck Partington
Next Week: Ballot Measures
Washington state démocrates hope to hold back GOP tide
Democrats are hoping for sweet
revenge Nov. 5 in Washington state,
where Republicans scored one o f the
biggest victories o f their 1994 sweep
by ousting House Speaker Tom Foley
and four other incumbents.
Including one seat left vacant by a
retiring Democrat, six o f W ashing­
ton's nine congressional districts went
to freshman Republicans, more than
any other state.
Now several o f those freshmen
appear vulnerable to a backlash
a g a in st H ouse S p e a k e r N ew t
Gingrich and the Republican-led
Congress, and some analysts say the
vote could go either way in all six
districts.
“ I think we have a historic chance
to take back the majority o f the seats
we lost,” said Paul Berendt, chair­
man o f the state Democratic Party.
‘‘On the other hand they're all
extremely competitive,” he said. "We
could lose them all, we could win
them all or any combination there­
of.”
The opportunity for Democrats to
gain ground in their battle to regain
control o f the House has attracted
national interest with labor, environ­
mental and business groups pouring
millions o f dollars into targeted tele­
vision advertising.
In a campaign swing through the
Pacific Northwest, PresidentClinton
said W ashington offered "a bigger
opportunity than any other state to
say. We need change in C on­
gress.” '
O pinion polls suggest Clinton
should win the state easily, and Dem­
ocrat Gary Locke is favored to win
the open governor’s seat over Re­
publican Ellen Craswell. But ana­
lysts expect strong turnout from both
parties given the large number o f
contested races and issues on the
ballot.
Last m onth's open primary gave a
hint o f what may lie ahead as several
Republicans unopposed in their own
party barely got a majority including
Reps. Randy Tate, Rick White, Linda
Smith and George Nethercutt, the
giant-slayer who replaced Foley in
eastern W ashington’s vast Fifth Dis­
trict.
While Nethercutt is expected to
survive a challenge by wheat farmer
Judy Olson, the other three are par­
tic u la rly v u ln e ra b le , said Tim
Hibbitts, an independent pollster
based in Portland, Oregon.
But Hibbitts said even Rep. Doc
Hastings of central W ashington’s
Fourth District, considered the saf­
est o f the state's freshmen Republi­
cans, could be in trouble “ if there is
a Democratic landslide at all lev­
els.”
At the other end o f the spectrum is
Tate, who was outpolled in the pri­
mary by D em ocratic challenger
Adam Smith and is considered the
most vulnerable incumbent.
Running Black and Republican
Party finds more candidates, but
most face an uphill battle
bv
G ary Y ouimge _____________
In his plush suburban home, Jim
“ Dadio” Walker, owner o f the larg­
est black-owned, black-oriented ra­
dio station in Colorado, is fiddling
with the several gold chains around
his neck and offering his views on
politics and child-rearing as they re­
late to the black community.
“ What do we tell our kids they
have to do if they want to get on?” he
asks. “ We say, ‘Stay in school, keep
away from drugs and d o n ’t join
gangs.’ We never said,’Y ou’ve got
to be a Republican or a Democrat.
It's time we started looking after our
ow n.’” So Walker is voting for Pres­
ident Clinton and for Joe Rogers, the
black Republican candidate in Colo­
rado’s 1st Congressional District.
Rogers, a 32-year-old attorney, is
hoping many o f the black voters in
the Denver-area district will follow
W alker’s example. Only 12 percent
o f the district’s voters are black and
the vast majority vote Democratic.
But Rogers, who grew up in the area,
said with 40 percent o f their votes he
can clinch the election. “This might
be C linton country, but it s Joe
R ogers’s neighborhood.”
Rogers is one o f a record 37 Afri­
can Americans who ran in GOP con-
gressional primaries this year, and
one o f 15 who will face a Democrat
in November. A 16th is running to be
a delegate from the Virgin Islands.
“ More and more African Ameri­
cans are seeking office for the Re­
public Party because the Democrats
have failed them. They want to fix
the welfare system so they can end
the cycle o f dependency,” said Craig
Veith, National Republican Congres­
sional Committee spokesman.
Despite the increased number in
African American candidates and
V eith's claim, few o f these candi­
dates are likely to win. Only 2 per­
cent o f registered Republicans are
black, and a recent survey by the
Joint Center for Political and Eco­
nomic Studies found that even black
Republicans favor Clinton over Re­
publican presidential nominee Rob­
ert J. Dole, 46 percent to 42 percent.
Moreover, most o f the black GOP
challengers are running in strong
Democratic areas.
But a few like Rogers have a fight­
ing chance o f swelling the ranks o f
black Republicans in the House from
two—Reps. Gary A. Franks (Conn.)
and J.C. Watts, Jr. (O kla). There are
38 black Democrats in the House and
one black Democratic senator. Dem­
ocrats have seven black challengers
in this election.
Rogers says his cam paign's poll­
ing suggests he has a reasonable
chance o f winning and he notes that
Franks and Watts were elected in
white-majority districts. The Demo­
cratic candidate, Diana DeGette, who
is white, will not reveal her polling
but her campaign manager, Lisa Weil,
said, “We are taking this race very
seriously.”
The black GOP challenger with
the best chance o f winning a House
seat is Danny Covington, running in
V icksburg, M iss., against Rep.
Bennie Thompson (D), who is black,
Early on, Teresa Doggett in Austin,
Tex., appeared to be running well,
but support for her opponent, Rep.
Lloyd Doggett (D)(no relation) ap­
pears to be holding fast.
On paper, Rogers has a tough task
ahead o f him. Registered Democrats
in the district, which has been repre­
sented by retiring Rep Pat Schroeder
(D) since 1972, outnumber regis­
tered Republicans by 2 to I. But his
hopes were boosted recently when
he won the endorsement o f the Den­
ver ministerial allaince. a coalition
o f mostly black churches in the area,
which had supported Schroeder.
“ We endorsed Rogers because he
completely outrated everybody else.”
said Rev. Acen Phillips o f the Mount
Gillead Baptist Church and a member
o f the group's endorsement commit­
tee. “The choice had very little to do
with color If someone came to us and
they said we’re black and that's all,
that just wouldn’t do. We endorsed
Clinton and a whole host of other white
candidates. We are depending on him
to vote correctly and in our interests
w hether (H ouse Speaker) Newt
Gingrich (R-Ga.) does or n ot"
Rogers plays down that he is a
Republican, stressing instead his lo­
cal ties, that he was brought up on
welfare and has a “common sense,
pragmatic approach" to politics.
“You can vote for me if you’re a
Republican or a Democrat. I'm all
kinds of things. I'm an African Amer­
ican; I'm a Republican; I'm a man.
But most ofall I'm Joe Rogers, that's
the person I want people to vote for.
If they want to vote against Newt
Gingrich they should go to Georgia,"
he said
Rogers is a moderate Republican
who models himself on retired Gen.
Colin L. Powell. He is personally op­
posed to abortion but is an abortion
rights supporter. He favors affirmative
action but opposes quotas. His cam­
paign calls for an "economic develop­
ment and job creation" program that
will give incentives to businesses to
move into run-down areas o f Denver
where many black people live.
Send Linda Smith home for the holidays
R ep L inda S m ith, the R e p u b ­
lican co n g re ssw o m a n who won
S outhw est W a sh in g to n 's 3rd D is­
tric t seat in the H ouse in the N ew t
G in g ric h la n d slid e o f 1994, has
draw n c ritic ism for c h a ra c te riz ­
ing a g ro u p o f m in o rity b u sin ess
ow n ers as “ c o lo re d men
A f u n d a m e n ta lis t C h ris tia n
w ho has ea rn e d a re p u ta tio n as
p erh ap s the m ost c o n se rv a tiv e
m em ber in the H ouse o f R e p re ­
se n ta tiv e s, Sm ith holds dow n a
c h a ir on the H ouse Sm all B u si­
ness C om m ittee.
Smith has taken the position that
minority-owned businesses already
have equal opportunity to compete
with white-owned businesses and
that the country no longer needs
programs that help minority-owned
companies obtain contracts and oth­
er business.
D uring the tw o years that R ep­
re se n ta tiv e Sm ith has occupied
her seat in the H ouse, she has
c o n siste n tly proven h e rse lf to be
u n w illin g to re p re se n t the in ter­
ests or view s o f the peo p le o f the
S tate o f W ash in g to n , instead us-
ing the position to cham pion her
own extrem e p o sitio n s, p a rtic u ­
larly on social issues.
The Portland Observer and O b­
servador urge all o f our Washington
readers to turn Mrs. Smith out o f
office. A vote for Brian Baird will
bring a more realistic and represen­
tative view to W ashington’s con­
gressional delegation.
Remember to vole on November 5th.
Tate said he was confident he
would be retained by voters in the
Ninth District south o f Seattle.
“ I feel pretty darn good," said
Tate, w ho attributed his weak prima­
ry performance to labor union adver­
tisements attacking his record.
“ I think the biggest threat is out­
side groups coming in and ly ing about
my record,” he told Reuters. “Now
w e’re getting a chance to give the
other side o f the story .”
Smith said he thought his chances
to win were "terrific," due in part to
backlash against the Republican-led
Congress.
“They went too far," he said. “They
felt that they had their blueprint and
they didn't need to listen to anyone.”
Meanwhile Linda Smith, a rising
star o f the freshman class from the
party’s Christian conservative wing,
is in a surprisingly tough battle against
psychologist Brian Baird in south­
west Washington.
“She has never won by large mar­
gins,” Hibbitts said. “She has a tre­
mendous follow ing o f core commit­
ted followers, but a lot o f other peo­
ple don’t care for her preachy kind of
politics.”
And White, whose votes frequent­
ly broke with a more conservative
party leadership, faces a stiff chal­
lenge from former county prosecutor
Jeff Coopersmith in the First Dis­
trict, which includes part o f Seattle
and its suburbs.
2500 CEO’s, business
leaders endorse
President Clinton
At the Presidential debates Amer­
icans a good look at two decidedly
different views about how to best
get us to the 2 1 st century.
In Stamford, Connecticut, Pres­
ident Clinton received the endorse­
ment o f 2500 C E O ’s and business
leadership because o f his sure and
common sense handling o f the US
economy.
B u sin ess le a d e rs e n d o rse
Clinton, cite leadership on econo-
m y-A quick check o f the facts un­
d e rsc o re s P re sid e n t C lin to n ’s
steady, common sense economic
stewardship: Spending cut $255
billion over five years, the deficit
cut by over 60%, federal workforce
reduced by nearly 240,000, ten and
a half million new jobs, family in­
come up, poverty down, and record
numbers o f new business starts.
President Clinton calls on busi­
ness leaders to help move people
from welfare to w ork-A fter years
o f Reagan/Bush deficits and ne­
glect, America is back on track.
President Clinton today called on
business leaders to lend a hand in
the national effort to get people
from welfare to work—to do all they
can to make sure there are jobs for
Americans determined to replace
welfare checks with paychecks.
Bridge to the 21st century built
on education: If American business
is to remain competitive in the glo­
bal market place, and if Americans
are going to be able to compete for
high wage, high skill jobs, we must
do al I we can to make sure that every
American who is willing to work
hard has access to a quality educa­
tion President Clinton’s concrete
plan, built on ambitious investment
in education, will get us there.
Congresswoman
opposes C-17 decision
An Oregon congresswoman said
the Defense D epartment's decision
to buy 80 more McDonnell Dou­
glas C-17 cargo jets was based on
politics and she promised to fight it
in Congress next year
"I m going to continue fighting
to make sure Congress d o esn ’t
spend one more nickel on the C-
17,” Democratic Rep Elizabeth
Furse said at a news conference
Furse asked the General Ac­
counting Office to review the Pen­
tagon decision She said am ix o fC -
17s and a military version o f the
Boeing 747 would be much cheap­
er than the $18 billion for a full
order o f 120 C -I7s, including 40
already approved
“This astonishingly uncritical
recommendation had more to do
with politics than facts. Decision­
makers at the Pentagon behaved
like lemmings in their rush to 1996
election appeasement," she said.
The C -17 is made in Long Beach,
California. The state is considered
key to President Clinton’s re-elec­
tion chances next year and has lost
thousands o f jobs from defense bud­
get cutbacks and base closings.
Pentagon officials said they de­
cided to buy more C-17s because
the aircraft could perform more mis­
sions and operate out o f smaller
airfields than the 747 or the C-5A,
even though a mix o f aircraft would
be cheaper