My Neighbor Ron

I saw my neighbor Ron this morning in a nearby coffee shop. The well-appointed gentleman who resides up the hill on Mt. Tabor sat with his wife, reading the paper. He looked engaged in an article in the Opinion section of the Oregonian. I wondered if my neighbor was reading the article I had just finished about Tom McCall, the popular Oregon Republican Governor from the early seventies, who pioneered many great ideas about what it means to live here: quality of life, preserving open space, championing public transportation. This is the guy who created Oregon’s historical bottle bill, the law that started recycling not just for Oregon, but as a model for the USA. I wondered if my neighbor really thought he could be a Tom McCall-kind of Governor in today’s partisan political climate. You see, my neighbor is Republican Ron Saxton, who will find out on Tuesday if he has become Oregon's next Governor.

Ron Saxton is also the great hope of the national Republican Party this year. With the country’s mood turning against Republicans, many conservatives believe Saxton is their best hope to actually make an inroad in a Blue State. Toward this end, the national Republican Party and other conservatives have pumped more than 4 million dollars into his campaign. According to the Oregonian, timber companies and executives gave Saxton at least $265,000 in the past month; homebuilders contributed $130,000, and the Republican Governors Association gave $500,0000. Rudy has been here, so has Mitt. Trying to distance himself from national Republicans but cozy up to East Coast moderates, Saxton has been telling voters, “I am a Republican. I will vote with my party when they are right, and against them when they’re wrong.” It’s catchy, to be sure, and polls had indicated Saxton might actually win in a tossup.

What about the issues then? Is Saxton a moderate-enough Republican to change the direction and tone of the party in charge of our nation? Consider the record. Six years of Republican leadership has:
- Wasted good will and opportunity in Afghanistan in exchange for a prolonged and un-winnable civil war in Iraq along with the resurgence of the Taliban.
- Delivered 9 Billion a month to Iraq down a sinkhole. Did you know we can’t even account for ¾ of all small arms (guns) we have shipped to Iraq? Who is protecting our troops?
- Provided an unending deficit—this year, its $260 million—1.5 trillion since Bush’s first year in office after surpluses under Clinton.
- Subcontracted environmental, energy, labor, and healthcare policymaking to corporate interests. Never mind chemical company and logging industry board members in executive positions through the revolving door that has become the EPA, did you know that a reported two million dollar salary went to a retiring Republican congressman who became the pharmaceutical industry’s top lobbyist immediately after writing into law a bill that forbids the government to negotiate prices for prescription drugs?
- Taught economic lessons that no high school student would approve – increased inequality, poor race relations, replenished numbers of poor and uninsured, exacerbated the insecurities of the middle class.
- Wallowed in a festival of bribery and a culture of corruption from the boardrooms to Capitol Hill.

PBS.org tells us on the issues that one of the biggest differences between Oregon's two leading candidates for governor is the environment. 
Incumbent Governor Ted Kulongoski has won the endorsement of conservation groups while challenger Ron Saxton is championed by the timber industry. On education, Saxton believes education-spending yields few results. He favors tightening budgets, low taxes, and efficient government. Saxton also wants to restrict abortion by favoring a measure on the Oregon ballot to require parental notification, even in the case of incest or rape. Saxton ran as a moderate for Governor in 2002 and lost in the primary, so this time out he moved to the right, and his positions reflect this change.

Perhaps sensing the desperation of the Republican Party to find a bright spot, Oregon voters have dealt Saxton some bad news of late. CNN reports that Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski has pulled ahead in the Oregon governor's race, leading Republican challenger Ron Saxton by a margin of 47 percent to 36 percent.

I started this Blog by telling you about Ron, my neighbor. As Ron Saxton and his wife got up, walked out, and drove away in their Lexus, I told a couple my age, “Hey, there goes my neighbor from the Mr. Tabor neighborhood.”

“But he lives in the Pearl District neighborhood,” they smiled.

“No, I’ve seen his house,’ I insisted.

“No, Ron rents an apartment so his kids can attend Lincoln.” (The preppy public school on the West side of Portland with high test scores).

You know, that reminds me. Every time Ron is asked about how he might protect the environment while the timber industry and homebuilders fund his campaign, he talks about how much he likes to garden in the backyard of his Mt. Tabor home. I read today in the Oregonian that despite 99% certainty of global warming, U.S. citizens overwhelmingly believe George Bush when he says it is an issue that needs further study. More depressingly, Americans who drive high consumption, fossil fuel dependant cars, think that they, themselves, are not to blame for the scientifically proven effects of rising greenhouse gases.

My neighbor Ron strikes me as the type who will enjoy the outdoors, but not take the steps to protect it. He is the type of person who will benefit from a good public school, but only if he bends the rules so his children can attend it. My neighbor Ron strikes me as the type who will lose on Tuesday.

I just hope he’s not the only Republican in a tossup election that finds themselves unemployed on Wednesday.