Lavey: ‘You’re not going to have Republicans to kick around anymore’

Former U.S Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) staffer Dan Lavey and Democratic strategist Mark Wiener agreed on two things regarding the future of the Republican Party in Oregon at a post-election forum at the Portland City Club Friday.

They agreed that the GOP was overwhelmingly defeated in the Beaver State in the election on Tuesday. They also agreed that three days after the election, the future seemed bleak for Oregon Republicans. But they disagreed on the consequences a weakened Republican party would have on the state and the country.

“It’s the national environment that’s hurt the Republican Party here. Our politics is driven much more by culture than by economics, and it hasn’t been kind to us in the northeast and northwest,” said Lavey, a partner at Gallatin Public Affairs in Portland.

As for the immediate future of Republican influence in Oregon, where the GOP will be in the minority in both the state House and Senate, and will only have one federal representative, Lavey said Democrats would no longer be able to point fingers at their Republican counterparts.

“You’re not going to have Republicans to kick around anymore,” he said.

Wiener, who heads the Winning Mark strategy firm in Portland, was not too concerned about the receding Republican Party, both in Oregon and on the national level.

“It’s O.K.,” Wiener said of not being able to blame Republicans for future governing issues. “We still have [U.S. Sen. Joe ]Lieberman.”