The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

(Page 2 of 2)

br> The Democratic Party always seemed to enjoy the flighty, flaky culture of the Pacific Northwest that provided it with so many loyalists. Now you have to wonder if it's finally paying the price for this arrangement. /p>

Last Thursday the Prowler reported on Oregon's Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden refusing to go negative against Republican colleague Sen. Gordon Smith, who is facing a potentially tough re-election run against Oregon secretary of state Bill Bradbury. Wyden cited his friendship with Smith and his overall satisfaction with being part of a bipartisan Senate delegation as reasons for not wanting to bad-mouth Smith during the campaign. Both the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee are up in arms about Wyden's reluctance to play political hardball.

And now the story gets worse. Jackson County, Oregon Commissioner Sue Kupillas, who is also a Democrat, has announced she is forming Southern Oregon Democrats for Smith, to back Wyden's seeming desire to keep the Republican in his job. Kupillas, who claims to be a liberal, is also happy with the Smith-Wyden team and has organized the pro-Smith group in the face of threats and arm-twisting from the state and national Democratic Party. "It's not like she's rescuing people in danger or anything," says a Kupillas supporter in Medford, Oregon. "But in a way she is a hero."

Kupillas has been threatened with ouster from her state party's central committee, and members of the central committee have been spreading rumors about her, "They say she's a conservative, which in our neck of the woods is pretty nasty stuff," says the supporter.

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