What promises to be an fiercely contested race for Oregon’s Secretary of State job in 2008 just got started today when state Sen. Vicki Walker became the first candidate to announce officially she will seek the job.
“I’ll take a week off after the session and then the race begins,” says Walker, a 51-year-old Eugene Democrat who chaired the Senate Education Committee this legislative session.
Walker, who’s earned a reputation as a crusader in the Legislature, says she’s drawn to the race because the Secretary of State oversees state audits and elections and helps oversee the Common School Fund.
“I’ve tried to make my legislative career about accountability and the Secretary of State plays an enormous role in preserving Oregon’s integrity,” Walker says.
In addition to the oversight of audits, elections, the state archives and the corporation division, the Secretary of State’s job includes the crucial responsibility for redrawing legislative district boundaries, which next happens in 2010.
Walker says she’s been thinking about the race for a couple of months but only decided to run this week.
“It’s been a great session and I feel rejuvenated,” says Walker who overcame a 20-point deficit in the polls to hold onto her Senate seat last November. “But I feel I’ve plateaued and I could do more for the state in another role.”
Among the many other state senators who have been mentioned as potential Secretary of State candidates are Kate Brown (D-Portland), Rick Metsger (D-Welches) and Brad Avakian (D-Northwest Portland). Republican senators said to be considering the race include Bruce Starr (Hillsboro), Jason Atkinson (Central Point) and Larry George (McMinnville).
Incumbent Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, a Democrat, can’t run again because of term limits.
Although Brown, the two-term Senate Majority Leader, enjoys considerable support in Portland, Walker has already lined up two two influential supporters from the metropolitan Portland area.
The first is Sen. Margaret Carter (D-North Portland), the state’s first female African American lawmaker, and more surprisingly, Peter Bragdon, Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s former chief of staff and currently general counsel at Columbia Sportswear.
Walker and Bragdon, who remains an influential Democratic Party insider, have clashed in the past over Walker’s criticism of Kulongoski. Bragdon acknowledges he helped cut off Walker’s support when she considered challenging Kulongoski in the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary and also held a fundraiser for the Republican challenger for her Senate seat.
But Bragdon says he and Walker buried the hatchet after the November general election and he is now an enthusiastic supporter.
“Vicki is completely fearless and that is rare in politics,” Bragdon says. “A lot of candidates only tell you what you want to hear but she fights like hell for what she believes in.”
Walker, who first entered the Legislature in 1999, has shown no patience for the status quo, even when that means going after her party’s leaders.
Walker’s attacks during the 2003 legislative session of one of Salem’s sacred cows, the state-owned worker’s comp insurer, SAIF Corp, brought her into conflict with Kulongoski and with former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, then a lobbyist for SAIF.
(Her willingness to challenge Goldschmidt ultimately led to her tipping WW to Goldschmidt’s sexual abuse of a 14-year old girl three decades earlier.
“She came after us with a vengenance on SAIF and other issues,” says Bragdon, who was then Kulongoski’s chief of staff. “As a legislator, she’s never been somebody who represents just her district. She represents a big segment of the population who are hungry for change.”
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This is very exciting news. Senator Walker is one of our most dedicated and passionate public servants, and her skills and interests will be a perfect fit for the Secretary of State’s duties. Good job breaking this exciting story, WW!
Senator Walker will definitely get my vote for it. Our State of Oregon needs more decent people like her.
She will be a great one!