Oregon Public Broadcasting

Thirty years ago, Democrat Ron Wyden turned his legal career into a job representing Oregon on Capitol Hill. Republicans are hoping Wyden is in for his toughest race at least since he moved from the House to the Senate, a decade and a half ago. The GOP establishment is rallying around another Portlander to knock off the two-term incumbent.As a professor at the Lewis and Clark Law School, James Huffman’s name has appeared at the top of countless articles and legal briefs. Now, Huffman would like to put something in front of his name: the words “United States Senator.” 
 


“Particularly over the past year, much of what Congress has done, I think has either been misdirected, or badly executed," he said.



Powerful Republicans consider that he has the best shot at charting a new direction. And Huffman said he’s had constructive talks with former Senator Gordon Smith, eastern Oregon Congressman, Greg Walden, and the head of the Oregon Republican Party, Bob Tiernan. 



“Bob Tiernan sort of jumped out of the box, and seemingly endorsed me – although he has some other Republican candidates in the race," he said.
 
There are six others Republicans from all over Oregon in the primary race. There’s Army reservist Shane Dinkel from Redmond; business executive Loren Later from Springfield; contractor Walter Woodland who hails from Newberg, and Keith Waldron who farms and drives trucks out of Tillamook County. Huffman, though, has an air of advantage that rubs some Republican opponents the wrong way. Real estate broker Tom Stutzman said his fundraising dried up the day Huffman announced, as he was driving home to Monmouth.

“On the way home, one of the little Oregonian articles came out, and one of my supporter guys called me the next morning, asking me why he should be donating money to me, since Jim Huffman is already being anointed ‘the chosen one’," he said.
 


Huffman said he’s raised at least $50,000 and hopes to double that soon to as much as $100,000. But he said he can’t compete dollar-for-dollar with Senator Wyden, who has more than three million dollars in the bank already.
 
“I’m not going to try to compete on a dollar basis with him, I’m going to try to compete on ideas and policy issues," he said.
 


Tom Stutzman makes a similar argument about taking on Jim Huffman. 
 
“He’s got as much legislative experience as I have. He’s got as much policy experience as I have, which for both of us, is none. On a level playing field, I think I can beat him, because I’ve been in business a long time," he said.
 


Republican candidate Robin Parker, also argues that his professional background, solving business problems, is a good fit for a public servant.
 
“I work with people, rather than focused on telling them what they need to do. I elicit their requirements. I listen to what they’re saying. I translate what their needs are into real-world solutions to make their lives better," he said.
 


Conversely, Parker said attorneys, like Wyden, and more so, law professors, like Jim Huffman, are not well suited to serve the public. 
 
“He’s not been interacting with people, he’s been dictating to them and training them and telling them ‘this is how it goes.’ You see what’s happened with the last law professor we sent to Washington," he said.
 


Parker was referring to President Obama, who once taught law at the University of Chicago. The analogy amuses Huffman. 
 
"I’ve taught constitutional law for 37 years, and I’ve written a lot about it. With all due respect, I know a lot more about it than the President about that," he said.



But Huffman is less focused on Obama, or Republican opponents like Robin Parker, than he is on Senator Ron Wyden. 
 
Wyden chairs the senate’s sub-committee on public lands.

It’s a position that has helped him cast a long shadow over Oregon’s landscape – including the creation of a vast new wilderness area on Mount Hood. It’s afforded him quieter victories, as well, like last week’s Senate vote to allow the Parks’ Service veto power over what flies above Crater Lake.

Wyden pushed the measure to protect the national park from proposed helicopter tours. 

“This clearly defines the role that the Parks’ Service is going to play, in protecting what is an Oregon treasure, but also a unique American treasure," he said.
 
But health care may prove to be the decisive issue. Republicans in the race are generally united in opposing the package Democrats passed last week.
 
Senator Wyden is defending his pro-healthcare reform vote, though he continues to back his own bill, called the Healthy Americans Act. He said the health care changes passed last week are a beginning.


“This gives us an opportunity to start, first, with the ten percent of the people who are in the exchange – the marketplace. And then to keep growing it and expanding it. It allows people to get a better deal, in terms of holding down costs," he said.
 


In the Democratic primary, Wyden is facing perennial candidate, Pavel Goberman and Loren Hooker, who describes himself as a “conservative Democrat.” Hooker warns on his web site of a “financial cliff” facing the country. He advocates a freeze on taxes and government spending.