In Oregon, the concept of doctor-assisted suicide is not a revolutionary idea. The notion that the government ought not mess with someone's guns is also well within the mainstream. The state has an income tax, but no sales tax, and anyone who tries to change that will bring upon themselves the combined wrath of Oregon's approximately 3.5 million, mostly socially liberal, fiscal conservative voters.
Divided roughly a third of the width of the state by the Cascade Mountains, there are strong conservative areas in the eastern high desert, though new transplants from California are giving Democrats a chance in state legislative elections in wealthy Bend, in the middle of the state. Those conservatives are outnumbered by liberal Portland, a town that epitomizes the concept of a Pacific Coast liberal bastion.
The combination of four straight Democratic presidential wins, a Democratic governor since 1986 and four Democrats out of five congressional representatives would seem to preclude national Republicans from having so much as a hope of picking up a Senate seat. Instead, the state is home to a long tradition of moderate Republican statesmen, including former Appropriations Committee chairman Mark Hatfield and Republican-turned-Democrat Wayne Morse.
It is no surprise, then, that Gordon Smith...read on
1 comment:
It is funny that they say that about Bend. My aunt from California, moved to Bend, and she is the most narrow-minded, conservative republican I have ever met. She only hears what she wants to hear, and disregards everything else. She's a good aunt though.
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