Talk Elections

i remember hearing somewhere (it might have been here) that Oregon has the most conservative GOP in the country. Has anyone else heard this? Most Oregon republicans I remember were somewhat moderate to maybe slightly conservative - the likes of Walden, Smith, Packwood, Hatfield etc. The only republicans I would say would be super right wing I can remember would be Denny Smith in the 80s and the notorious Wes Cooley.

You probably read that Oregon has the most polarized parties: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/road-to-270-oregon.html

Compared to the North Carolina Republicans, the Oregon Republicans look like mainstream  Democrats.

I just looked up this guy.  Wow, what a moron!

Oregon state Republican party elected officials being the most conservative of any state? I don't think so.

They were passing some conservative legislation in the 1990s/early 2000s when they controlled the state legislature and had lots of their bills vetoed by the then (and current) Democratic Governor who got nicknamed Dr. No as a result but it's been a downhill slide for them from there in terms of winning elections.

And while they were bad in killing some good bills in the current legislative session where the state house is split 30-30 (they are very likely to lose at least a few seats in the 2012 elections), it wasn't teabagger I'm gonna shut down the government bad like the Minnesota GOP and they did vote to pass some centrist-ish legislation (approved the state health insurance exchange for example).

They do still have Jim DeMints in their legislative caucuses and would arguable vote to pass legislation to the right of the state (much like the national GOP and the country) but I'd say there is more conservative (minority and majority control) Republican parties in other states and Republicans are going to have to move to the left (fiscally and socially) in the next few decades to stay electable. Not to say that they're not a right-wing party or have given up running more conservative members as the previous GOP House majority leader is trying to primary one of the current Republican state senators who did cast some centrist votes in the last few sessions (http://news.opb.org/article/bend-race-pits-former-house-majority-leader-against-incumbent/ We'll see how this plays out.), but I think they realize they can't be that conservative and win.

The Oregon Republican electorate being the most conservative in the country? I'd say probably not. It might have been closer in the past and there are definitely still areas like SE Oregon that are very conservative in terms of what they would approve/ban and width (70% of the vote goes to the Republicans in some of these counties) but these are small in population. I did want to see how Santorum would have fared here in our primary to get some more recent data but we all know what happened with that :P

P.S. - Walden is much like the current crop of "moderate" Republicans who have this pundit aura of centrism but vote lock in step with most of the reactionary agenda.

Also relevant: http://research.bshor.com/2010/02/11/abel-maldonado-is-a-liberal-republican-but-only-in-california/

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Wow, looks like the Republican state senate primary was successful with the primary challenger getting about 68% of the vote: http://oregonvotes.org/results/2012P/index.html


I was actually thinking it would fail. I wonder if we can pick up that Senate seat? It's only about R+3 or so IIRC.

We also managed to primary one of our Democrats in the house from the left by a similar margin: http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/05/oregon_legislative_primaries_k.html

Hatfield was more of a liberal "Rockefeller Republican." 

Was Gordon Smith a Moderate "Rockefeller Republican" or more of a Moderate Conservative like in the lines of Mel Martinez or Richard Lugar?

Thats is weird that Smith is part of the Udall family and is a Republican too.

I would say the Republicans have to move towards the political center in order to compete in the future. You don't want to move to far to the left that you are the Dem Party in disguise. The Republicans actually have a couple pro gay marriage candidates running  in this election cycle(Tsei-MA and DeLong-CA.) Thats sort of scary but not a deal breaker for me.

Yeah Maldonado I feel bad for. Both the Dems and Republicans in CA don't like him. I think moderates like Maldonado are probably the future of the party though.

Oregon and Washington both have more swing voters than you'd expect considering the political polarization.  Also, in a polarized state, it helps to be very moderate to actually win as a Republican.  Our losing Republicans tend to be pretty damn conservative.

There's my attempt at a very over-simplified explanation.

I would argue that the "Rockefeller Republicans" were some of the liberals of their day, maybe moderate liberals.  In the Senate, he was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a moderate Republican caucus.  Besides, he was a Republican from Oregon, so he almost had to be a moderate to get elected.  BTW: His great-uncle, Henry H. Blood, a Democrat, was Governor of Utah from 1933-1941.  And one of his cousins, Mike Lee, a Republican, is now representing Utah in the Senate.

Oh, and as for the initial question, the Republican Party in every state is conservative-- that's why they lose so much in more liberal states.  I'm a conservative and believe that Republicans don't have to move to the left or center to stay electable.  Rather, we need to educate the public about what we really believe and how it is better for people in their individual circumstances than liberalism.  Maybe the polarization is why Oregon and Washington have elected all Democrat governors for so long now and voted Democrat in the past six straight presidential elections.  People are more afraid of right-wing extremism than left-wing extremism because they imagine a right-wing extremist as being someone like Hitler and a left-wing extremist as someone like Stalin, despite the fact that Stalin killed at least four times as many people as Hitler.  I just think we need to stop with the "RINOs vs. Real Conservatives" fighting and foucs on winning elections, because no matter what, the most liberal Republican will probably be to the right of the most conservative Democrat.

Oh ok Mike Lee is Gordon Smith cousin. Never knew that before. Never knew about Henry H. Blood either. See you learn something new every day! Maybe Smith should have ran for Governor of Oregon last time. He could have beaten Khitzhaber I think. I mean Chris Dudley didn't lose by that much to Khitzhaber. I know Khitzhaber was popular from being being Governor the last time(1995-2003.)

The RINO's are all moderates(no not me saying this, other people) from the Northeast and The West Coast although I have heard Lugar and Martinez be called RINO's before but they hardly were/are. I am a moderate myself that is from NJ. 

I think it's safe to say the latter.