Governor hopeful jettisons his party

By David Steves
February 15, 2006

SALEM - A Central Oregon lawmaker known for his ability to work across party lines announced Tuesday he was leaving the Republican Party to run for governor as an independent.

Sen. Ben Westlund of Bend said he was convinced that voters have grown weary of partisan gridlock and were hungry for leadership that could pull Oregon out of its slide toward mediocrity.

"My hope comes from a growing number of common-sense Oregonians who aren't satisfied with an Oregon going downhill," Westlund said at a news conference announcing his candidacy.

Earlier in the day, Westlund changed his voter-registration status from being a member of the Republican Party to being unaffiliated with any party.

That step must be taken by March 2 in order to run in the November general election as an independent candidate.

advertisement Westlund will next need to circulate an independent nominating petition. He must gather 18,368 valid signatures from voters by Aug. 29 to qualify for the general-election ballot.

The 2005 Legislature passed a law making that task more difficult: signatures from voters who cast ballots in the May Democratic or Republican primaries will be ruled invalid.

Westlund said he was confident he could overcome that hurdle, but acknowledged that it was a challenge and one more reason he wanted to break down the two-party system's partisanship. He said the system has deteriorated into dueling efforts by the Democrats and Republicans to seize and maintain political power, rather than to solve society's problems.

He said that new law illustrated how the two parties were behaving like "almost country clubs, set up to make their gates just a little bit higher, a little bit harder to get into."

Westlund, 56, was first elected to the Oregon House in 1996 and served four terms before being appointed to the state Senate in 2003. He was elected to the Senate without a Democratic opponent in 2004.

He is a businessman, married and has two teen-age children.

Westlund said he wants to work on critical issues that have been left unsolved by the two major parties.

Those issues include the establishment of a "rigorous and relevant" education system; ensuring a business climate that provides good-paying jobs and encourages innovation; the stewardship of lands to provide recreation, safe drinking water and clean air; affordable health care; and to ensure that Oregon "honors the human dignity and worth of all her citizens."

The last point echoed Westlund's decision last year to cross conservative leaders of his Republican Party by sponsoring legislation to protect gays from discrimination based on sexual orientation and allowing same-sex couples to enter marriage-like civil unions.

Another indication of Westlund's frustration with the Legislature has been his sponsorship for proposed initiatives this year that would open primaries to all voters, instead of limiting them to registered party members; make health care a constitutional right; raise tobacco taxes to expand health care to children and low-income workers' families; and expand Oregon's renewable energy resources.

Campaigns from both the Democratic and Republican sides were quick to portray Westlund as the other guy's problem.

Jack Kane, a Republican strategist and an adviser to GOP gubernatorial candidate Kevin Mannix, labeled Westlund a pro-tax liberal who wouldn't cut into the Republican nominee's base during the fall election.

"He's another liberal in the race. That's how we look at it, so it's good news for our campaign," Kane said.

Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski's re-election campaign manager portrayed Westlund as just the opposite: another Republican in the race who would draw GOP support.

advertisement "It looks like there are going to be two Republican candidates, if (Westlund) can get the signatures, challenging the governor," said manager Cameron Johnson, who cited the Oregon Education Association's identical rating for Westlund and Mannix when both served in the House, as well as Westlund's zero rating from the Oregon League of Conservation Voters in the 2003 session.

"Ben Westlund is a Republican state senator with a Republican voting record who appeals to Republican voters," Johnson said.

Westlund said he was counting not only on support from members of both parties who have grown disenchanted with their standardbearers' performances, but also from voters not affiliated with a party - a voting bloc that makes up 22 percent of the Oregon electorate.

"This truly is the beginning, not only of an independent movement in the state of Oregon, but the creation of a new center for Oregon politics," he said.

Political scientist Bill Lunch said he expected Westlund to appeal to voters from both parties, but more to Republicans than Democrats, as well as independents.

He said Westlund's bid to become Oregon's first independent governor since Julius Meier was elected in 1930 would require the political equivalent of "the sun and the moon and all the planets lining up in just the right constellation."

But Lunch said it would be a mistake to simply write Westlund off as a candidate with no chance of winning.

"This is not a will-o'-the-wisp, marginal candidacy," said Lunch, the chairman of the Oregon State University Political Science Department.

"It's not something we should dismiss."