the Defazio boomlet
Somewhere as the Peter Defazio should take on Gordon Smith bubble started to boost, with the Democratic Party releasing an internal poll showing Defazio would beat Smith — taken as an indication that the DNC is recruiting hard for Defazio to enter the rae — a question popped up in the blueoregon blog comments. Some commenter was a bit perplexed at “Why Defazio?”, asking “Is there any particular reason Defazio is better than Blumenauer, Wu… or even” whatshiname, that man who made the Willamette Week cover saying how he would run and win?
I found myself shaking my head. Yes. Purely in terms of electoral chances, Defazio is better than Blumenauer, or … Wu… or anybody else in this state  The simplest explanation for why is that Blumenauer’s track record is a series of election victories of basically uncontested elections in the most Democratic district in the state. The alternative weeklies in the city are weary of him at endorsement time, and the type they give him is of a sort of “No brainer, and to go on about why he fits Portland is redundant. NEXT!” He has proven appeal in Portland, Oregon. Which does not necessarily transcend Portland, taking on issues of urban growth. He is, as of the moment, narrow — his dream reportedly has always been to be Portland’s mayor, which I assume might be his if he ever wants it and might likely have been his if he had jumped into the race in 2004. (Deferred because he deemed it necessary to stay in Washington because “needed to fight the Bush Administration” at this point in history. History’s call beckons, I suppose.)
Defazio has won consistently in a district which narrowly went for Bush in 2000, narrowly for Kerry in 2004. I suspect that it may have gone for Bush in 2000 with Eugene, Oregon as part of the district, and thus a large Nader contingency. (The implications of that statement are only a bare contradiction with my previous post.) His constituency is a bit broader than Blumenauer’s — which includes some series of libertarian-ish homesteaders along which he has folded in with common cause issue positions with his “progressives” and greens. It is better representative of Oregon, and is a better match of getting a high enough percentages of rural voters to defeat Gordon Smith. (Beyond which, he comes off as less dull for the “progressive” voting mass.)
There is nothing to say about David Wu, who appeared to show interest in the race but the DNC appears to have wisely side-stepped in favor of Defazio. (I don’t quite know his constituency. His district almost seems to be an accidental district there because you have to stick borders up somewhere to cover the population.) But I think Blumenauer would end up losing in a race against Gordon Smtih. I think Defazio would probably win.
But what do I know?
(I put quotation marks around the word progressive because I instinctively hate the word. It comes across like an apology and equivocation by liberals.)