Oregon Result Boosts GOP Senate Edge

The GOP Senate majority grew to 55-45 Friday as Republican Gordon Smith--who early this year narrowly lost a special election for the chamber--emerged as the victor in a close Senate race in Oregon.

It was the nation’s only Senate race left undecided in Tuesday’s elections and gave Republicans a two-seat gain even as Democratic President Bill Clinton was handily winning reelection.

In another closely contested race for a House of Representatives seat from Oregon, Democrat Darlene Hooley ousted one-term Republican incumbent Jim Bunn in the 5th District, which encompasses the state capital of Salem and much of the northern Willamette Valley.

The results in both races were delayed because more than one-third of Oregon voters cast absentee ballots.

Although final results will not be tallied for another several days, current tabulations showed that Smith, owner of a large frozen-food business and president of the state Senate, had defeated Democrat Tom Bruggere, the millionaire-owner of a computer software company.

Bruggere telephoned Smith to concede Friday afternoon. The Republican succeeds moderate GOP Sen. Mark Hatfield, who has held his seat for 30 years.

“It’s a remarkable and satisfying feeling to be elected to fill the seat of Mark Hatfield,” Smith said. “I have a profound feeling of gratitude to the people of Oregon for the trust they have placed in me.”

In January, Smith was defeated by then-Rep. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, in a special election to replace Republican Bob Packwood, who resigned his Senate seat in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against him. Smith lost the election by about 18,000 votes out of 1.8 million cast, in part because Wyden depicted him as being too conservative.

Smith, 44, initially decided not to seek Hatfield’s seat, but then changed his mind and set about moderating his image. For instance, while expressing philosophical opposition to abortion, he said he would not support criminalizing abortion, nor would he use the issue as a litmus test in considering judicial appointments.

He also distanced himself from anti-gay-rights groups and courted moderate suburban voters around Portland by emphasizing his work to secure funds for expanding the city’s commuter rail system and to find money for the Oregon health plan.

Bruggere sought to recycle Wyden’s strategy of painting Smith as an extreme conservative.

In the House race, Hooley was ecstatic as the count of absentee ballots showed her maintaining the edge she has claimed over Bunn as votes were counted on election night.

“This had to be about the longest election night in history, don’t you think?” joked Hooley, the victor in a district that historically has swung between both parties.

Bunn, one of a number of freshman Republicans across the country targeted for defeat by the AFL-CIO, blamed the race’s outcome on the barrage of ads against him that the labor group financed.

Hooley, a longtime state and local elected official, ran a campaign emphasizing a need for problem-solvers in Congress. “The days of big government are over. We need to concentrate on making government smarter and more efficient,” she said.

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Among Oregon’s five House members, Bunn was the only incumbent unseated. In the state’s 2nd District, former Republican Rep. Bob Smith took the seat held by freshman incumbent Wes Cooley, a Republican who opted at the last minute not to run after allegations that he lied about his war record and other matters.

Though Cooley did not back out of the race until after he been been renominated in Oregon’s primary election, Bob Smith was nonetheless able to regain the seat he had retired from two years ago, in part by touting a pledge by House Speaker Newt Gingrich to give him the chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee.