Primaries pull politicians left and right

Published 5:00 pm Friday, April 1, 2022

Oregon’s political campaigns are closing in on the May 17 primary to choose which Democrats and Republicans advance to the November election.

Both parties have closed primaries – only registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary, and Republicans for Republicans. Less than half of registered voters return their primary ballot in years like 2022 when there’s no presidential election.

To win a primary, candidates lean toward the activists in their party, who are most likely to turn out to vote. Republicans lean to the right, while Democrats lean to the left.

Republican ranks to the right

Former President Donald Trump has become the sole center of the GOP, with the state party embracing his debunked claims that the election was “stolen” from him by backers of President Joe Biden.

Some of the most fervent activists are affiliated with QAnon, a loosely knit network of conspiracy theorists who believe the United States is controlled by a secret “deep state” led by Satan-worshiping pedophiles.

Joe Rae Perkins of Albany, a QAnon advocate, won the 2020 GOP primary for the U.S. Senate. She lost to incumbent Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, in November. She is running for the U.S. Senate again this year, hoping to win the party’s nomination to face U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, in November.

High-profile Republican candidates for governor, such as former House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby and 2016 GOP gubernatorial nominee Bud Pierce, have kept their distance from the controversial agenda. But other candidates have embraced all or parts of it. 

Right-wing rally near Salem

Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten, a Republican candidate for governor, appeared at the “Reawaken America” rally of radical conservatives on Friday near the Capitol in the Salem suburb of Keizer.

McQuisten has made an energetic bid to break through the unprecedented field of 19 Republicans running for governor.

McQuisten was recently endorsed by The Northwest Observer, a popular conservative political blog in Oregon.

Keizer is the latest stop on a national tour focusing on debunked claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from former Trump, and COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

The two-day event not far from the state capitol was sponsored by The River Church, which is active in conservative issues. The venue was Volcanoes Stadium, the ballpark next to Interstate 5 in the Salem suburb of Keizer.

The rally was originally scheduled for the Deschutes County fairgrounds, but was canceled due to disagreements involving the enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions at the event.

The Salem Statesman-Journal reported Friday that 4,000 people attended the rally on Thursday, hearing from a line-up headlined by Eric Trump, the former president’s son.

Managers at the Keizer Station mall next to the ballpark decided to close Friday and Saturday due to concerns over the rally and expected counter-protests.

Photos posted on Twitter Friday showed McQuisten at the rally with Morrow County Sheriff Ken Matlack. McQuisten tweeted a photo of her with former Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security advisor who twice pled guilty to federal charges of lying about contacts with Russian officials.

Flynn was pardoned by Trump after the 2020 election and has since been an outspoken advocate of the “stolen election” story. He was also videotaped taking “the QAnon Oath,” which ends with the group’s motto, “Where we go one, we go all.”

No left turns in GOP primary 

The Bend Bulletin reported Thursday that three Republican politicians had been “prayed over” by a pastor affiliated with QAnon. 

A video of the event was posted online by Right Wing Watch, a liberal activist group. It showed Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Thielman of Cottage Grove, GOP Senate candidate Darin Harbick of Blue River and Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair on stage at Eagle Mountain, an Apostolic Resource Center in Bend.

Blessing them was Johnny Enlow, a guest pastor from Daystar Church in Atlanta, who has praised the QAnon conspiracy ideas. A self-described “prophet,” Enlow says he believes it is “God’s Will” that Trump remain president.

At the end of the video, Eagle Mountain Pastor Bobby Haaby, says “Go take this state for Jesus” as Adair throws her hands in the air in celebration.

Thielman gained notice as superintendent of the Alsea School District, near Corvallis. In January, he refused to enforce state COVID-19 mandates and resigned in protest. He’s the subject of a $3.7 million lawsuit against the district by the principal of Alsea Elementary School, alleging a hostile work environment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and whistleblower retaliation.

Willamette Week reports Thielman is scheduled to speak April 15 at a fundraiser for Dan Tooze, a Republican candidate for House District 40 in the Oregon City area.

Tooze is a self-described member of the Proud Boys, a group involved in riots in downtown Portland, the Oregon Capitol and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tooze has not said he was at any of those incidents.

Reed Christensen, an electrical engineer from Hillsboro running for governor as a Republican, proudly says he was at the Capitol. He faces federal charges of assaulting law enforcement officers during the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Christensen has made his arrest the centerpiece of his campaign for governor, saying he was trying to oppose “tyranny” by taking part in the riot’s attempt to stop the count of electoral votes that Joe Biden won the presidential election.

Democratic insurgent runs to left of incumbent

While Republican primary election moves have been highlighted by controversial public appearances, the top Democratic effort has seen a challenger appeal to those inside the local party apparatus to back her bid to unseat a Democratic congressman.

Jamie McLeod-Skinner of Terrebonne is challenging U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, in a bid to win the 5th Congressional District primary. She’s running to Schrader’s left, as a progressive seeking to beat one of the Democratic moderates, called “Blue Dogs” on Capitol Hill.

Democratic activists have been unhappy with Schrader’s role as a speed bump for President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan – often voting in favor of the legislation only after working to narrow its scope and cost.

Schrader is the most moderate of Oregon’s four Democratic members of the U.S. House. He says he has supported the party’s position in most matters, but is not in lockstep with House leadership.

Schrader was one of the few Democrats to oppose the nomination of U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to return as House speaker when Democrats won a majority of U.S. House seats in 2018. He likened the first impeachment of Trump to a “lynching,” a comment he regretted and quickly withdrew. 

McLeod-Skinner has been able to get county parties that usually sit out primary races to come off the fence and support her.

Four of five county parties in the district – Deschutes, Linn, Clackamas and Marion – have publicly endorsed McLeod-Skinner. Multnomah has not. 

McLeod-Skinner also won the backing of former Gov. Barbara Roberts, who had campaigned for Schrader during his first bid for Congress in 2008.

The key to McLeod-Skinner’s challenge is a radical redistricting of the area Schrader represents. The new 5th district has less than half of his current constituents. The boundaries were shifted significantly east, including a portion that crosses the Cascades to take in the northern parts of Redmond and Bend- near the area where McLeod-Skinner lives.

Schrader has had primary challenges before and comes prepared with a large campaign bankroll. The Federal Elections Commission listed Schrader as having over $3.5 million on hand for his re-election bid. New reports are due no later than April 15.

The local endorsements have fueled national interest in the race. McLeod-Skinner was endorsed last week by Our Revolution, a nationwide network of activists that grew out of the presidential campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

“A proud progressive Democrat, Jamie has focused her career on rebuilding communities and protecting our natural resources,” the group said in its endorsement statement, released Monday. “Her mom, a schoolteacher, taught her to ‘always leave a place better than you found it.'”

Neither the group or McLeod-Skinner would comment on the amount of money or volunteers the group would provide the campaign.

Our Revolution says its mission is “organizing a down-ballot bench of progressive candidates from city halls to the halls of Congress.”

In Oregon, the group helped elect school board candidates in Portland, Corvallis, Salem-Keizer and Centennial.

In Deschutes County, it helped elect Marcus LeGrand and Janet Sarai Llerandi to the Bend-La Pine School Board.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face a Republican challenger from a primary slate that includes Bend entrepreneur Jimmy Crumpacker, former Happy Valley Mayor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and Wilsonville physician John Di Paola.

Hoyle tops poll – by opponent

Oregon is a small state and political polling is not as common as elsewhere. With a few exceptions, the polls that are made public are often skewed in favor of the candidate who releases them.

Not so with a poll commissioned by Doyle Canning, a candidate in the 4th Congressional District. Canning last week released the survey showing former Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle of Springfield with a double-digit lead over the Democratic primary pack seeking to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio D-Springfield.

Hoyle, Oregon’s labor commissioner, was the choice of 24% of those polled in the 4th Congressional District. Canning, a Eugene activist, was second with 8%, while AirBnB executive Andrew Kalloch of Eugene received 4%. No other candidates were listed by name in the poll.

A reason Canning went public with a poll: It showed 52% of respondents were unsure of who they would vote for. Another 10% said they would vote for another candidate than the three named.

The poll by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling queried 634 “likely Democratic” voters on March 17 and 18.

If more than half of the voters are uncommitted, Canning sees hope for an upset of Hoyle, who has DeFazio’s endorsement.

The winner of the primary will face Republican Alek Skarlatos of Roseburg. He ran in 2020, giving DeFazio one of the closest races of his long career. But the Democrat won by 5.3% of the vote, or 24,869 out of 467,705 votes cast. Under redistricting for 2022, the district has become more Democratic-leaning.