Some of Oregon's brightest Democrats went to the mountaintop
last weekend on a vision quest led by Secretary of State
Phil Keisling.
State party chairman Jim Edmundson thinks the thin
air got to them.
Edmundson was not impressed by Keisling's "Vision with
Action" conference at Timberline Lodge. The official
spokesman for the Democratic Party of Oregon said one
of the group's ideas was "baloney" and another would
only only help Republicans. He also criticized the group
of white Portland intellectuals for dwelling on ideas
that wouldn't fit on an entire bumper, never mind a
bumper sticker.
That seems a pretty harsh critique.
Officially, the conference was only a brainstorming
session for Keisling and 100 or so other Democrats who
want to enliven the donkey party with some new ideas.
Unofficially, the conference was about much more, which
explains the severity of Edmundson's critique. The Timberline
conference previewed the coming governor's race--possibly
between Keisling, a Clinton-style technocrat, and Congressman
Peter DeFazio, an old-school firebrand. It also highlighted
a division between Portland Democrats, who have dominated
the party in recent years, and downstate Dems, like
Eugene lawyer Edmundson, who count two of the party's
biggest guns (Gov. John Kitzhaber and DeFazio) in their
camp.
The idea behind Keisling's conference sounded harmless
enough. The secretary of state is an innovative thinker
and ambitious politician who makes no secret of his
desire to run for governor in 2002. So last December
Keisling gathered 50 friends and acquaintances at the
Kennedy School in North Portland to brainstorm new ideas.
Keisling's rationale was that the party needed new
ideas to attract new voters. "People in politics are
selling a product that has all the appeal of a Yugo,"
says Keisling. "That's why 53 percent of Oregonians
and 75 percent of people 18 to 34 didn't vote in the
last election."
Keisling's crowd decided to call a larger meeting at
Timberline Lodge--sort of a summit on the summit for
new ideas.
The group emerged with five key proposals for further
study: overhaul school finance with a sales tax and
implement "teacher accountability"; reform political
campaigns by having taxpayers pay for them; tax things
we don't like, such as pollution, instead of things
we do like, such as income; clean up the environment
with volunteer action rather than regulation; and provide
incentives for poor people to save money.
The conference got off to a rocky start; it was scheduled
for the same weekend as a state-party central-committee
meeting in Albany. That meant 150 or so of the party's
most loyal activists couldn't attend--an oversight that
showed Keisling's group had no solid links to the central
committee. That's a key difference between Democrats
like DeFazio and Keisling.
Keisling is co-chairman of the Oregon chapter of the
Democratic Leadership Council, an organization of moderate
Democrats led by Clinton and Al Gore.
In part, that's why Edmundson says the Timberline group
appeared to be "predominantly white intellectual Portlanders"
with a surprising shortage of union activists.
That's not good for the party, says DeFazio, who told
WW he would definitely be looking at running
for governor if Democrats don't win control of Congress
in elections next year.
"I disagree vehemently with the Clinton-Gore-DLC school
that says Democrats need to become more like Republicans,"
DeFazio says. "Gore today doesn't look like a winner.
He's pledging to do everything the same as Clinton,
yet he's polling 20 points behind. Becoming more like
Republicans is a disaster."
That observation suggests a larger problem for two
possible gubernatorial candidates at the conference--Keisling
and Multnomah County Chairwoman Bev Stein. Edmundson
thinks their ideas are too esoteric for most Democrats.
"My general reaction to the ideas I heard at the conference
was: 'Could I fit this on a bumper sticker?'" says Edmundson.
"Many of these ideas would take several stickers just
to summarize."
In particular, Edmundson said the call for more teacher
accountability was baloney, and he said Keisling's advocacy
of a statewide sales tax spelled doom for Democrats.
"I think Americans will walk on Mars before we have
a sales tax in Oregon," he says.
He maintains that Democrats don't need ideas as much
as the conviction to defend workers' rights and help
disadvantaged people. "We don't need a lot of intellect,"
Edmundson says. "What we need is a big heart and courage."
That's why the state party chairman believes DeFazio
would be the front-runner in a governor's race.
Keisling takes the criticism in stride. "I'll talk
about the governor's race if and when there's a race
if my future," he says. "It's 1999, not 2001. I don't
think people are interested in speculating about a campaign
three years from now.
"I've always appreciated Jim's candor," he continues.
"But Democrats have had lots of great bumper stickers
over the last 10 to 15 years, and we also have lost
a lot of elections. We've got to have ideas to synthesize
into messages that resonate with people."
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 14,
1999
