Oregon Public Broadcasting

Congress is back at work this week after the Fourth of July holiday.  But many lawmakers have an eye on retaining their seat in this November’s election.  

That includes Oregon Republican Senator Gordon Smith, who’s trying to head off Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley. Both have spent recent weeks courting rural voters.

Salem correspondent Chris Lehman caught up with the candidates and reports on the importance of the small town vote.

Running for Senate apparently means visiting a lot of roadside cafes.  Here at a diner in the coastal community of Reedsport, Jeff Merkley listens to a handful of voters talk about things like the Iraq war and the cost of health care.

Jeff Merkley talks with voters at a café in Mapleton, Oregon

Merkley is promising to visit 100 small Oregon towns during his campaign.  That’s because he can’t win the state by just winning the votes of Democrats in Portland and Eugene.

Though the Speaker of the Oregon House admits he’s not going to win a lot of votes by talking to a handful of people at a time.

Jeff Merkley:  “This probably isn’t really about persuading voters.  It’s really about my vision of a U.S. Senator who serves the entire state, understands issues throughout the state, advocates for each region and the particular issues that will help that region thrive.”

Jeff Merkley isn’t the only one making stops on the restaurant circuit.  Here at Elmer’s Pancake House in Albany, Gordon Smith is getting ready to shore up his support with members of the state’s natural resources industry.

Gordon Smith speech clip:  “If you know anything about me, I hope it is that you know I’m a kid from Pendleton....”

Smith is playing up his rural connections.  It’s key to securing his Republican base in small towns.  It’s also to counter the picture painted of Smith by the Merkley campaign as a politician who spends too much time in Washington D.C.

Gordon Smith addresses members of Oregon’s natural resources industry at restaurant in Albany, Oregon.

Gordon Smith:  “I spend time in D.C. because that’s where Oregonians have elected me to go and represent their interests. The work you’re elected to do is in D.C., but to do it well you have to come back to Oregon many, many times -- nearly every weekend -- in order to listen, to learn, and then you go back and lead for Oregon.”

After wrapping up the pancake house gig, Smith heads up the road to Salem to pick up the endorsement of the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Meanwhile Jeff Merkley hops in his hybrid Prius for a ride up the Oregon coast, to places like Depoe Bay and Cannon Beach. 

Bill Lunch:  “This is pretty much symbolic politics.”

Oregon State University political analyst Bill Lunch says the best Democrats like Merkley can hope to do in rural Republican strongholds is to reduce the margin by which they lose.  These soft-touch diner visits don’t really matter, says Lunch.  The place where candidates win votes is on the airwaves.

Bill Lunch:  “For the great, great, great majority of voters, they’re never going to see either a candidate for public office or a public official in the flesh.  They will see an image of that person in TV ads and maybe in TV news.  They may hear them on the radio.  But that’s as close as most citizens ever get to a public official.”

Both campaigns have already made use of the tube, and those commercials promise to become even more pervasive as the election approaches.  

Each candidate has been fundraising hard since the primary, and both are expected to spend millions of dollars.  But voters like Diane Saubert are hungry for more than a barrage of negative TV ads.

Diane Saubert:  “We have enough of that trauma.  I want some facts.  I want to know the truth—good or bad.”

Saubert got Merkley’s version of the truth.  She spent about 15 minutes chatting with the candidate at a small café in the struggling logging community of Mapleton.

Saubert lost her job recently as a teacher.  Despite the one-on-one time she doesn’t have high hopes that either Merkley or Smith will change things much in her town.