State GOP chairman will fight to keep job (Oregon)

Oregon Republican Chairman Perry Atkinson, angrily complaining that the state's two Republicans in Congress are trying to "stab him in the back," on Monday said he intends to run for another term.

Atkinson said he was confident he had the votes to win re-election, even though Sen. Gordon Smith and Rep. Greg Walden recruited another candidate -- former Oregon House Speaker Lynn Snodgrass -- to run for the party chairmanship.

Atkinson, who had been silent about his re-election plans since Snodgrass announced on Nov. 7, said he thinks Smith and Walden are intent on a "hostile takeover" of the party because of its growing financial importance under new federal campaign spending laws.

"It's for control of the money," Atkinson said, "and it's at the cost of ruining the grass-roots organization we have worked so hard over the last four years to put in place."

Chris Matthews, a Smith spokesman, said the senator was not seeking financial control of the party and was confident that Snodgrass would do a good job of energizing grass-roots activists.

Smith is "simply supporting (Snodgrass)," Matthews said. "He's not trying to rule anything from the top."

The battle over the future of the party comes as Republicans argue about who can improve on what is a mixed record of success in Oregon. The party gained seats in the state House this year, and Smith easily turned back a serious challenger, but Republicans lost sole control of the state Senate and failed for the fifth election in a row to win the governorship.

The fight, which will be settled by the 130-member state Republican central committee in February, also revolves around how to best use money raised for a variety of campaign activities. Under the McCain-Feingold law, state parties are expected to play a bigger role in raising big-dollar donations known as "soft money."

Atkinson said he is particularly angry at Smith, who he said gave him no indication he wanted a change in party leadership until he called him two days after the general election to say he was backing Snodgrass.

"I am disappointed in him thinking that he has this self-imposed divine right to come down over the top of people like this," said Atkinson, a Christian broadcaster from Medford. "This is just crazy . . . I'm fighting Democrats on their behalf, and here they take one of the chief guys paddling their boat, and they not only throw him overboard, but they stab him in the back and then shoot him in the head."

Atkinson last week told the Medford Mail-Tribune that Smith had implied the political future of his son, state Sen. Jason Atkinson, would be helped if Atkinson left the party chairmanship.

Atkinson said he thought he was speaking off the record, but he didn't disagree Monday with how he had been quoted. Smith aides have denied that the senator threatened Jason Atkinson's future in any way.

Smith spokesman Matthews said the senator was "appreciative of Perry's efforts and successes of the past, but this is really about the future of the party."

In addition to Snodgrass and Atkinson, Klamath County rancher Al King, the party's vice chairman, also is seeking the chairmanship.

I agree. Smith and Greg Walden ran successful campaigns and were reelected.

A simple fact of life: "You have no political power unless your people are elected to office!"

Like you I'm past tolerating the phoney conservatives/repubulicans who prefer losing to winning elections.

Let them leave and form their new party of losers or link up with one of the political orphan parties all ready established.

Well, I'll tell you what fired me up on this issue. When I read that one-third of the state GOP central committee voted for Lon Mabon, instead of Gordon Smith, it made me realize why we are losing elections in a relatively balanced and moderate state. It also made me angry. Change is required, if we are to succeed. Time to take the party back from these people.

There is zero loss when the party is taken back from these people, and they are led to the door told not to come back.

They don't vote for republicans and spend 24/7 stabbing republican candidates in the back. We had the same thing in Kali in our governor races. Many could be moles for the rats. Their words and actions make them look like Rats like the one third of phoney GOPers on your central committee voting for Lon Mabon.

It is past time to oust all of these phonies. They don't vote for our people anyway as per your documentation.

Like you I'm past tolerating the phoney conservatives/repubulicans who prefer losing to winning elections.

Real conservatives don't get elected in Oregon...that is a fact.

A simple fact of life: "You have no political power unless your people are elected to office!"

But if you have to get watered down candidates to get elected are they really "your people" you are getting elected?

EBUCK

Even I voted for Smith! But I knew while doing it that he aint no conservative. He's a fence sitter (and rightly so, this is Oregon after all).

I think you guys need to look at why they voted for Mabon. I'm kinda getting the idea that they know something we don't and issued those votes to show their contempt without damaging the party publicly. Not that voting for the other guy doesn't do that.

EBUCK

Get people elected and work with them. We are powerless without elected people whom we can talk to and work with.

Will we get all of our objectives no. At least we have a chance to get some of our objectives accomplished if we have a friend in political power.

What chance do you have with your new governor in get things done right? The same that I have with Herr Davis being reelected.

What did you and other conservatives accomplish with Katznslobber as your left wing enviral governor?

While we bicker over the finer points of social conservatism, here is what the Democrats are doing:

Bad grades, good reaction Grades: Letter grades a thing of the past

One way the Portland School District has addressed the esteem issue is by creating a new grading system at middle schools that abandons A's and B's for grades of "always" and "often." Students in some schools, such as Harriet Tubman and Hosford middle schools, are graded on effort, not right answers, so even lower-performing students can make the honor roll.

We can run on issues like this, where we can easily build a broad consensus, and win easily. It's a matter of strategy. Right now, we suffer from a lack of strategic thinking. It's time for a change.

The idea of Perry Atkinson stepping aside is laughable.

Why?

1. Perry Atkinson has quadrupled the ORGOP donor base in the past four years.

2. Prior to Perry's chairmanship, candidates ignored the party as irrelevant. Now that the party can produce troops on the ground and funds, Perry is blamed for losing races.

Give me a break.

3. Smith personally threatened the political career of Perry's son should Perry not step down.

4. The issue isn't races. Its money. Smith and Walden want to control the bucks coming into party coffers as a result of election reform without participating themselves in the party proceedings. Snodgrass isn't "supported" by Smith and Walden, she was recruited by Smith and Walden as a front.

5. This is a simple power grab by moderates after the conservative grass rootsd won control four years ago.

The whole thing stinks!

Smith personally threatened the political career of Perry's son should Perry not step down

Money is irrelevant if we cannot win races. Now that we've lost control of the State Senate, what shall we do? Shall we wait until we also lose the House before we make any leadership changes?

Smith personally threatened the political career of Perry's son should Perry not step down

Well, that's what Mr. Atkinson says, but Sen. Smith says otherwise. Who to believe? Hard to say.

This is a simple power grab by moderates after the conservative grass rootsd won control four years ago.

Well, everything is a "power grab" when viewed from outside the people trying to take control. I don't think this is purely a case of moderates taking on conservatives; I think it is more of a pragmatist vs. religious idealist battle.

It's going to be knock-down, drag-out. Whoever can get their people on the ground will win. I personally am rooting for Snodgrass, simply because I think we need change, and I think she can do the job. I have nothing in particular against Mr. Atkinson; I just want new leadership.

Can you show me alogical connection between Perry Atkinson and the loss of the majority? Before this, the party was always snubbed by candidates because it was impotetn to help.

Now that the party helps, it is to blame for losses?

I see from your profile that you care about the issue of partial birth abortion. Are you really willing to have a person, who as house speaker, single handedly suppressed an anti-PBA bill even after it had passed in the senate run the party????

Won't that inspire the grass roots!

Newberger

All I'm saying is that the guy at the top has to produce. He's had four years now, and we seem to be getting nowhere.

Lynn Snodgrass can probably explain her actions on the PBA bill better than I, since I wasn't there. From what I've read, there weren't the votes to win, and moderates put the pressure on to kill it. She is nevertheless a pro-life conservative, albeit a pragmatist.

When I read that one-third of the state GOP central committee voted for Lon Mabon, instead of Gordon Smith, it made me realize why we are losing elections in a relatively balanced and moderate state. It also made me angry.

You are making the assumption that this is true. It isn't.

In the original article, Mapes quotes an anonymous source who told him that. HOW COULD ANYBODY know how people voted? Everybody I know would have voted for Smith even though he is far to "moderate" for us. Control of the US senate was way too important. Mabon is worse than a joke!

As a meber of the state central committee, I can tell you that there is a small number of disaffected conservatives(?) in the committee (of around 130 people) who are also trying to take over the party. That's what the third candidate for party chair (Al King) is all about.

The wierd thing about this whole mess is that the original Snodgrass letter to central committee members contained rhetoric that comes straight out of the mouths of the "disaffected consservatives" at central committee meetings.

Very strange

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