Salem, OR June 26, 2008 10:38 p.m.
All eyes in the political world are on the Presidential election this year. But in Oregon, Democrats are hoping to turn some attention towards the state legislature.
They think they can turn a razor-thin advantage in the House into something much more comfortable. Salem correspondent Chris Lehman reports.
When Democrats unveiled their candidates for legislature this spring, House Majority Leader Dave Hunt was beaming.
He looked around the floor of the House chamber and predicted that many of the seats now held by Republicans would soon be under Democratic control.
Dave Hunt: “A pick-up of two seems almost assured. And I think there’s an opportunity to pick up three, four, five.”
Five is a significant number. That would give the Democrats a super-majority. That means they could pass more bills, including tax increases, without help from a single Republican.
Of course, that’s not exactly a campaign theme for Democrats like Nick Kahl.
Nick Kahl: “Good evening sir! My name’s Nick Kahl. I’m running for state representative. I’m just coming around here introducing myself to folks.”
Kahl is trying to win a suburban Portland seat long held by Republicans. The current office-holder, Karen Minnis, isn’t seeking re-election.
Democrats think they can bring the seat over into their column. But Kahl isn’t playing up his party affiliation.
Nick Kahl: “I think for too long we’ve been bogged down here in partisanness. We’ve been divided along partisan lines. And we end up being ill-served by that partisanness. And what I’m talking about is making this an issues-driven campaign.”
But Kahl says he does expect significant support from the Democratic Party. His potential future legislative colleagues have already funneled more than $4000 of their own cash in his direction.
Of course, Republicans aren’t going to give up any seats without a fight. Kahl’s opponent is John Nelsen. He’s in full campaign mode too.
John Nelsen: “Lots of walking and talking and meeting neighbors and going to community groups.”
Like his opponent, Nelsen isn’t waving his party’s flag very much either. Maybe that’s because Democrats now have a significant edge in voter registration in the district.
John Nelsen: “At this point in the game, I’m just saying look, I am a member of this community who’s just putting himself up to be a state representative and I want to be judged by my own values and my own credentials and not be judged harshly either because of my party affiliation or lack of the other party affiliation.”
Nelsen could be facing a full-fledged effort by state Democrats to win the seat for Nick Kahl.
The House Democrats’ Political Action Committee has a half-million dollar war chest that it can divvy up. The person in charge of that committee, Michele Rossolo, is more guarded than House Majority leader Dave Hunt when it comes to predicting how many seats Democrats will win. But she says it should be a good year for this party.
Michele Rossolo: “We have more contested races than we’ve had in years before. And there’s just a lot of opportunity in these districts.”
It’s a different story in the Oregon Senate. Democrats already have a solid majority there and only a handful of races are likely to be competitive.