Westlund hopes independent route wins governorship

EDITORIAL
February 16, 2006

State Sen. Ben Westlund of Bend stepped away from the Republican party and announced his candidacy for governor as an independent.

Last week, in a meeting with the East Oregonian's editorial board, Westlund refused to make his intention to run formal, saying he hadn't made the decision. But by all accounts, he'd already made the choice.

Westlund listed the criteria upon which he would make such a decision, then methodically ticked off each of those items as being in place.

As a state legislator, Westlund has befuddled party leadership on both sides of the aisle. Last week as a "non-candidate," Westlund practiced speaking about what will become his platform, and it became clear his history of finding common ground with members of differing factions is central to his candidacy.

As most Oregonians have noticed, there's a vitriol in partisan state politics that differs from historic disagreements between parties. From Westlund's perspective in Salem, the sessions are more about scoring re-election points than they are about doing what's best for Oregon and Oregonians.

That explains certain legislative decisions in recent years that defy any other understanding.

Westlund believes he can win a three-way race for governor because in the last 11 times a third-party candidate ran for the governor's mansion in the U.S., the five that were successful had certain key situations in common:

. The major party candidates were polarized to extreme ends of their party platforms.

. Neither of the major party candidates held a significant majority of public support.

. There was a great deal of citizen dissatisfaction with state government's performance.

Those criteria are reflected in spades in Oregon as its voters prepare to elect a governor.

Westlund is banking on something many observers have believed for the past 10 years: The Democratic and Republican parties are being run by fringe elements at the grass root level, forcing elected officials to abandon the clear majority of citizens whose philosophy is much less extreme just to get the endorsement.

Westlund will bank on the fact his history of finding compromise with both parties will make him effective in leading Oregon away from the continuous gamesmanship that has left recent sessions ineffective.

While Westlund's ideas sound like a recipe to solutions, he needs to explain how he'll pile up the war chest he'll need in order to make a successful run against the behemoths of the Democratic and Republican parties.

It's a sad reality that without money, and with less name recognition, Westlund faces, at best, an uphill battle.

Like any other candidate, Westlund needs to solicit campaign donations. Once he's gone down that road, he'll need to show Oregonians how his governorship will avoid the trap of being beholden to campaign contributors, which is an accusation he levies against his opponents.

In other words, he'll need to prove his governorship won't be about being re-elected, but in leading with Oregonian's best interests in heart.

In addition to the financing issues, Westlund has even more explaining to do on his platform.

When Jesse Ventura won the governorship of Minnesota as a third-party candidate, it was because both major party candidates and the media failed to give Ventura serious consideration.

As a result, Ventura got a pass from tough questions on how his glib and boisterous "solutions" would really help a state that was struggling.

That's not likely to happen here.

Before Westlund can make the shift from visionary to front-runner, he has to flesh out his trial balloons on sales tax, health care reform and an open primary.

Then, and only then, can he hope to learn if his independence will be rewarded by the voters.