Oregon Public Broadcasting

The fall out from Idaho Senator Larry Craig's resignation announcement this weekend continues to reverberate in the northwest.

Oregon Senator Gordon Smith said Tuesday he feels sorrow over his colleague's resignation and said he's ready to pick up where Craig leaves on off on northwest issues.

Craig's detractors have been quietly pleased with his resignation.  But as Colin Fogarty reports, Craig still has his supporters.

Republican Senator Gordon Smith worked closely with Larry Craig for the 11 years the two have served with each other in the U.S. Senate.  Smith says he's been trying to contact Craig, but has been unable to reach him.

Smith called it mystifying that Craig was arrested in June at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport and plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.  Echoing Republican Senators who urged Craig to resign, Smith said law making and law breaking are incompatible.

Gordon Smith:  "Why would he plead guilty to something if he were not guilty of it?  I'm not in a position to judge that, but I just feel sorrow about the whole episode and feel very keenly to pick up the slack that Larry leaves."

Craig has insisted that he is not gay.  But, Smith says he doesn't know whether to believe his colleague.  

Gordon Smith:  "Only he and the good Lord know that.  And I think that Larry needs to figure that out and deal straight with his family.  And ultimately I hope what is remembered about Larry Craig is that he is a fine U.S. Senator."

Smith says he pans to fill in for Craig on issues such as federal payments to timber dependent counties and hydroelectric dams.

Craig's positions on Columbia and Snake River  salmon have generated controversy.  One of his more high profile battles in the last few years came when the Idaho senator tried to zero out funding for  Fish Passage Center in Portland. 

That's where a group of biologists literally counts how many salmon travel up the Columbia River.  Craig said the agency played  too much of an advocacy role.   But environmentalists went to court and got the funding restored for the Fish Passage Center.

Charles Hudson, with the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, says he's hoping a similar battle won't ensue with Craig's replacement in the Senate.

Charles Hudson: "Senator Craig operated with a bit of disdain for the science based agencies seeking to recover Columbia River salmon.  I wouldn't say he was anti-environmentalist, but his track record certainly wasn't river stewardship and didn't seem to have respect for people relying upon the best available science."

Though environmentalists won't miss Larry Craig, many conservatives will.

Chuck Cushman is executive director of the American Land Rights Association.  It's a conservative property rights group based in Battle Ground, Washington.  Cushman is trying to organize a boycott of the Minneapolis St Paul Airport, saying police there in Cushman's words, "ambushed"  Larry Craig.

Chuck Cushman:  Whether you agree with him or not..I do, but lots of people don't...he's been a stand up guy, a terrific senator, a terrific guy...and the arrest report, people come away from that thinking there is not very much here."

In fact, legal experts say it's not clear Craig would have had any charges against him had the activity described in the police report occurred in Oregon rather than Minnesota.