Ben Westlund
Tasting a different flavor of Republican for governor.

By Alan Pittman
February 16, 2006

He's sold cat litter but also bull sperm. He's missing a chunk of lung but still blows hard. He's a gun, corporate-welfare and logging-loving Republican who also supports choice, gay rights, universal health care and tax increases.

He's Bend's state Senator Ben Westlund and he's running for governor as an independent.

Westlund says he's changing his party affiliation and running to win, but it may be more likely that his biggest impact will be to throw the election by splitting votes away from front runners Democrat Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Republican Kevin Mannix.

But throw it to whom? Westlund's positions — liberal on the bedroom issues but also in bed with big business — may have some cross-party appeal, pundits and pollsters say.

Jack Roberts, a local Republican who ran for governor in 2002, said it's a "really interesting question" whether Westlund will hurt Democrats or Republicans more. "I've heard people speculate both ways."

Tim Hibbitts, one of the state's leading pollsters, told the Coos Bay World last fall that Westlund is a "wild card" that has the potential to drain votes from both sides.

But Democratic Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson, who's also running for governor, said that for Democrats, Westlund's anti-environmental and anti-labor vote record overshadows his "laudable" stand for gay rights. "He pulls votes from the Republicans."

A few months ago, an Oregonian editorial praised Westlund as a "whole other flavor" of politician than the "vanilla" Mannix and Kulongoski. But what flavor is that? Here's a taste of where Westlund stands.



Liberal in the Bedroom

Westlund supported Measure 36's prohibition on same sex marriage, but then was a leading sponsor of a Senate measure to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination and allow civil unions for same sex couples.

Westlund said he took some heat from his conservative constituents for backing the bill, with some calling for a recall. But he said it was worth it.

"This is an incredibly important issue," Westlund said. "This is the civil rights struggle of this generation."

"This is America, and who are you to tell me who I can and can't love?" he asks. "Who is anyone to deny me the dignity of my humanity?"

Westlund also supports abortion rights, including access to morning-after pills.

His recent bout with lung cancer also reminded him of the importance of Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law.

But besides gay rights and assisted suicide, Westlund hasn't always voted with civil libertarians. The Oregon ACLU's ratings of Westlund's votes in the Legislature range from a 17 percent in 1999 to 57 percent in 2005.

Westlund said his lung cancer fight also re-enforced his passion for universal health care.

"Health care is the largest single issue facing not only this state but America," Westlund said.

He has proposed a 60-cent increase in the cigarette tax to fund coverage for one-third of the state's uninsured. Some of the coverage would come from expanding the Oregon Health Plan, but most of it through subsidizing small businesses to insure 100,000 working poor.



In Bed With Big Business

Out of the bedroom, Westlund appears to be more in bed with big business.

The Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV) ratings of Westlund's votes range from 0 percent in 2003 to 42 percent in 2005. In the recent scorecard, OLCV reported Westlund voted for polluter tax breaks, car pollution, hunting cougars and bears with hounds, increased logging in state forests, keeping pesticide use secret and allowing some regulatory waivers for developers.

In 2003, Westlund's environmental voting record was perfectly awful, according to OLCV. He voted for weaker endangered species, wetlands and beach protections, weaker logging rules, increased logging in state forests, McMansions on farm land, urban sprawl and gravel pits.

Westlund points out that he was the highest OLCV-rated Republican in the Senate in 2005. He said in his conservative, rural district a green vote may be "an act of political courage," whereas for a representative from downtown Portland it would be a "give-away vote."

Westlund said he supports solar energy and biofuels and voted against Measures 7 and 37. The two measures, requiring regulatory waivers or payments to developers, "went too far," he said.

Westlund said he does support allowing anyone to build a single house for themselves on their land, even if anti-sprawl regulations later forbade it. "Give them their home site back for Christ's sake. How patently unfair."



Reverse Robin Hood

Unlike most Republicans, Westlund has called for increasing taxes to fund education, health care and social services.

But the tax package he proposes appears likely to shift more taxes to the poor, while giving big business and the wealthy big breaks.

Westlund has proposed a 5 percent sales tax combined with cutting capital gains and income taxes in half along with some property tax relief for owner-occupied homes to generate $1.2 billion in extra revenue.

But sales taxes, even if they exempt food and medicine, fall most heavily on the poor, and capital gains and income tax cuts and home-owner tax breaks benefit mostly the wealthy, according to studies by the Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP), a state research group focused on helping the poor.

Westlund claims that the tax breaks for the wealthy will make the state more attractive for investors who create jobs. "The capital gains thing, that's the holy grail."

But OCPP and other fair tax advocates dispute that argument, pointing out that the states with the highest taxes often have the strongest economies.

Westlund argues that the sales tax would provide more stability for state revenues. But fair tax advocates say that could also be done with a state rainy day fund.

While advocating a sales tax that would hit the poor hardest, Westlund has been a consistent supporter of tax breaks and give-aways for polluters and corporations, a recent voting record review by the Oregon Service Employees International Union (SEIU) reports.

Westlund said such tax loopholes for big business and the wealthy aren't worth the trouble to try closing since they represent such a small part of the budget. You would spend a "ton of political capital" just to close $50 million in loopholes for the wealthy and big businesses, he said. "They have a political constituency."



Maverick Republican

The most valuable thing Westlund may sell to voters is his maverick image.

The Oregon media and voters like the idea of a politician who puts principal over party and spices up elections with quirky stands, Roberts said. "He's very much a maverick."

In Sen. Wayne Morse and Gov. Tom McCall, the state has a history of electing maverick Republicans who mix progressive and conservative stands.

Westlund plays up his maverick, above-politics image with fiery rhetoric. He said he's "appalled" with the political posturing in the Legislature. "They posture and preen and position themselves for the next election," Westlund said. "Once they get control of the chambers, they're so afraid of losing it that they don't exercise the responsibility of their authority by leading. It's a crime, and in the process Oregon loses."

But at root, Westlund's principals appear Republican. He's got a 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association for stands against gun regulation. He got a "C-" grade from SEIU for his voting record on labor issues, albeit the top grade given to any Republican that year. He voted for Bush in the last election and is "willing to give him the benefit of the doubt" on Iraq.



Independent Hurdles

Running for governor in Oregon as an independent isn't easy, the Republicans and Democrats have made sure of that. The big parties recently passed a bill with bipartisan support that requires independents to collect 18,000 signatures to get their names on the ballot. The catch is those signatures couldn't be from anyone who voted in the May primary for one of the major party candidates.

Westlund said the new law is an "abomination" to Democracy. "It was really a self-serving partisan act to feather the nest of the existing party structure."

Westlund said he can gather the signatures. About one-fourth of voters aren't registered Democrat or Republican. But he will also face the bigger hurdle of raising the perhaps millions of dollars it will take to pose a credible challenge.

"That's the biggest question," said Roberts of the money issue for Westlund.

"These campaigns cost money," Westlund admits. "I am confident we can raise it."

Westlund raised $170,000 for his Senate race in 2004, ranking him in the middle for Senate races that year. Westlund's biggest contributors were a nursing home association ($12,000) and timber baron John Hampton ($10,000).

Westlund said he supports campaign finance reforms calling for greater disclosure and public financing of campaigns, although it's too late for this election.

Working to Westlund's advantage may be popular dissatisfaction with Mannix and Kulongoski.

Mannix has to appeal to anti-abortion, anti-gay hard-liners to win the Republican nomination, but most Oregonians are turned off by such right-wing Christian stands. The Mannix campaign did not return a call requesting comment.

Meanwhile, Kulongoski's lack of leadership on education funding and health care, anti-environmental appointments, support of corporate welfare and support of cutting public worker benefits has angered many Democrats. Roll Call newspaper on Capitol Hill recently named him one of the most vulnerable incumbent governors now up for re-election.

Kulongoski's campaign appears out of touch. The day before Westlund announced, Kulongoski Campaign Manager Cameron Johnson said Westlund's possible candidacy "is not something that I'm thinking about right now," adding that the Kulongoski campaign is instead focused on the governor's "strong record."

But still there's little precedent for winning the governor's race as an independent — it's only happened once, in 1930. More likely may be a spoiler scenario. In 1990, conservative Al Mobley ran as an independent and, many pundits say, threw the race from more moderate Republican Dave Frohnmayer to Democrat Barbara Roberts.

Sorenson said Westlund will draw far more Republican votes than Democratic. Despite siding with Democrats on gay rights, "he's got a very strong Republican voting record — very anti-environmental, very anti-labor in particular," Sorenson said. He dismisses his appeal to Democrats as "a lot of smoke and mirrors."