Ads paint GOP candidates as 'too extreme' for Oregon
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Two public employee unions and a top Democratic donor are pumping money into an advertising campaign targeting Republicans running for labor commissioner and secretary of state.
A new political action committee created this month has collected $190,000 in donations from the Oregon Education Association, the Service Employees International Union and Win McCormack, the publisher of the Tin House literary magazine.
The advertisements label secretary of state candidate Knute Buehler and labor commissioner candidate Bruce Starr as "too extreme for Oregon." Buehler and Starr are targeting Democratic incumbents, Secretary of State Kate Brown and Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian.
Buehler's campaign says the charge "doesn't pass the giggle test." Starr says he's focused on talking about ways to create jobs.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Too extreme for the whackos in the Portland metro area, not for normal people in  the rest of the state.
I'm a democrat usually but anyone that supports removing any kind of funding for bike lanes I would vote for.
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Bike lanes are worthless to the city and create more problems then they solve.
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Portland, the city of "tolerant" hate-mongers
It sounds like the extremist Democrats are to extreme for Oregon! It is time for a change! Vote Republican all the way!
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Yeah, anyone who is fed up with extortionist unions and incompetent fiscal management, in this State is "too extreme" !!
Anyone who would call Bruce Starr "extreme right" hasn't been paying attention. Throughout his political career, he has been lauded by both parties as shunning partisanship and for his ability to work on both sides of the aisle to get important things accomplished.
the two liberal demos  candidates are too extreme for any state.
I purposely favored the candidates who were NOT blessed by the unions. The public is harmed by these organized cry babies.
@Sweetpea
I do agree that most of the unions are really messed up. But.. there are cases were unions do work well for the employees and the public.
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I know someone who was a mechanic for a major airline for nearly 40 years. Had the union not been there to protect the employees that airline and others would have fired all the skilled workers in favor of paying minimum wage for unskilled and uneducated people to fix the airplanes you fly in. At one point the airline gave all their flight attendants and pilots a raise and gave the mechanics the middle finger. The union tried to work with the airline and finally told the mechanics to walk. The president at that time had to step in to avoid a strike.Â
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In the end the airline did cave and give the mechanics a much deserved raise. This is only the cliff notes version of all that went on.
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Personally I would much rather have people with decades of experience and training fixing the airplane I ride in. How about you?
Gee, my vote is already in the mail and  I voted for neither. Micky Mouse could do a better job I am sure of it.
The thinking that believes Starr is "exteme" is the same liberal thinking that has kept Oregon's unemployment rate higher than the national average for nearly TWO DECADES.
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personally, I'LL take "too extreme" over the status quo
 @kramr same liberal thinking, or for some people same libertarian thinking. I'd welcome a fiscal conservative, as long it didn't come packaged with social conservatism.
 @JTesla  @kramrÂ
"just wondering, what the the social issues you find so offensive?" kramr
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Anti-gay rights, anti-choice, pro-hawk, (many) anti-Islam, anti-environment, anti-science.
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@JTesla   just wondering, what the the social issues you find so offensive?
I don't know about Buehler, but all the Starr's would be considered too extreme in any state except Texas and Georgia.
This State has serious financial and economic problems. This State for decades, has been run by Democrats and the public Employye Unions. What does that tell you?
 @Rob C 503 So you slept through the twelve years that the Republicans ran the legislature?
 @ShallowEnder  @Rob C 503Â
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These are state positions not federal positions. My understanding is that Oregon has been dominated by Democrats for a long time and that they have been in many elected offices for a long time as well.
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So it depends on what level we are talking about, state, municipal or federal.
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 @Repoman  @Rob C 503 State Legislature control mirrored federal control. Republicans ran the legislature from 1994-2006. It was that split control that led to Kitzhaber's "ungovernable" comment, as well as his nickname of "Dr, No" (for his numerous vetoes of Republican efforts to defund everything from schools to social services while expanding corporate welfare).