Oregon Governors Race and Neil Goldschmidt

Neil Goldschmidt was a Democratic power broker in Oregon for many years and we documented his downfall here last May. It would not have been too surprising to see the Republicans use Goldschmidt against the Democrats but David Reinhard reports in The Oregonian this morning that the Republicans may use him against each other in the primary race for governor.

I always knew I'd have to write the words "Neil Goldschmidt" again, but after last year's end-of-days revelations I was in no rush. I thought the "Goldschmidt issue" might figure in the 2006 governor's race, though not until the general. Now, some Republicans linked to Kevin Mannix want to make Goldschmidt an issue in the GOP primary.

If you're already worried about GOP prospects for defeating Ted Kulongoski and ending Democrats' 20-year-lock on Mahonia Hall, turning the GOP primary into a debate about Ron Saxton's ties to Neil Goldschmidt will leave you deep down in the dumps.

I'm not a Saxton or Mannix or Jason Atkinson supporter. I'm blissfully neutral. I just think Republicans should be running against the current governor and articulating an alternative governing agenda for Oregon. According to a recent Riley Research poll, 48 percent of Oregonians think Oregon is on the wrong track. Will they come to think Republicans will chart a new course if the GOP primary degenerates into a guilt-by-association fight?

That seems to be what an outfit called "Worried Oregonians" would like to make it. The cheesy bid to lash Saxton to Goldschmidt would be laughable if it weren't so malicious. In their mailer, they write that Saxton ("a proxy for Neil Goldschmidt") has been "the Goldschmidt's [sic] personal attorney" and "announced his candidacy for Governor from their Dunthorpe home."

This shows how desperate the theo-fascists represented by the likes of Kevin Mannix and Karen Minnis are to hang on to their control of the Oregon Republican Party. If Mannix should win the primary expect Neil Goldschmidt to reappear as a campaign issue. I'm sure the partisan Republican hack Reinhard will be fine with that.