Westlund leaves governor's race

The race for governor is over for State Senator Ben Westlund, but the former candidate isn't giving up his fight.

Westlund, who dropped out of the race he had entered as an independent last week, says he'll continue to push for fundamental tax reform, universal health care, renewable, sustainable energy and a reduction of partisan politics in Oregon.

Ironically, it may have been the partisan politics he so decries that brought Westlund's campaign down.

After an initial surge of interest in the independent bid for the governor's chair, Westlund ran into a serious snag in seeking the 18,326 petition signatures he needed to get on the November ballot.

House Bill 2614, passed with little fanfare in June 2005, made it illegal for a voter registered with either major party who signed a petition for an independent candidate to vote in the May 2006 primary election. A Democrat or Republican who signed Westlund's petition couldn't vote in the primary. If he did, his signature was invalidated.

That, Westlund said, "poked a big hole in the boat."

"I didn't realize we would effectively have to wait till after the primary to start collecting signatures," Westlund said.

The delay put Westlund behind the curve in collecting vital endorsements. Potential endorsers wondered whether he would make the ballot and were hesitant to commit to his candidacy.

Ultimately, Westlund got plenty of signatures, but he was now running to catch up.

"We absolutely would have qualified for the ballot - and that's what made this (dropping out) such a difficult, painful, but necessary decision," he said.

Necessary because Westlund no longer believed he had "a path to victory." He could only play the role of spoiler and he had vowed at the beginning of his bid that he would not play that role.

It's not just personal distaste for the spoiler role that pushed Westlund's decision. He also worried that the independent "movement" that he thinks his campaign represents could be tarred with that reputation, its principles politicized and diminished.

Now that he's out of the race, he thinks those principles can get a hearing on their public policy merits rather than on their political viability.

"I'm actually very encouraged by the opportunity that lies before us," he said.

Immediately, those opportunities lie in a fight over November 7 ballot initiatives. Westlund opposes the state spending limit imposed by Measure 48, which is estimated to curb spending by $2.2 billion in available revenue in 2007-09. He also opposes Measure 41, which would cut state tax revenues by allowing taxpayers to use the more generous federal personal tax exemption for a state tax credit that will be $165 per person in 2007. It would cut state revenues by more than $400 million a year beginning in 2008.

He will support Measure 44, which would greatly expand a state prescription drug discount program that is currently open only to uninsured Oregonians 55 and older with low incomes.

He believes the race raised his statewide profile to a degree that will allow him to be a more effective advocate of his positions.

"I'm going to keep the statewide (campaign) organization alive," he said. "I'm going to campaign vigorously, not only against the two anti-tax measures, but just as importantly campaign for the prescription drug pooling initiative as well as continuing to advocate on a statewide basis for fiscal reform, health care reform and sustainable, renewable energy."

Westlund will again take his seat in the Senate next January.

"I will remain an independent," he said, a stance which his Central Oregon constituency seems to have accepted.

In fact, Westlund thinks political independence is catching on.

"Somebody had to be the first guy over the wall," he said. "And I'm glad to say, others are following."

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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