Is Frohnmayer a spoiler, or is he for real?

A popular refrain among those affiliated with one party or the other when it comes to Independent candidates, is that they don't stand a remote prayer of winning, which leaves only one realistic role, and that is the role of spoiler.

But John Frohnmayer, who is running for Sen. Gordon Smith's seat next year as an independent, firmly rejected both assumptions in an interview Monday.

"That's absolutely wrong," Frohnmayer insisted. "I'm in the race to win, and I have no desire for any other office, I'm not positioning myself for anything else, I just believe the voters need a legitimate choice in this race, and the Democrats and Republicans are not going to provide that." "I also think the word ‘spoiler' suggests a certain sense of entitlement, as if the Democrats or Republicans own the election, and are entitled to the seat," he said.

Frohnmayer, an Oregon State University professor, has had a tumultuous political career, shifting from Republican, to Democrat, and then to Independent. His brother, University of Oregon President David B. Frohnmayer, spent ten years as Attorney General and was the GOP candidate for Governor in 1990.

In the late 1980's, the first President Bush chose Frohnmayer to serve as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, but he was later asked to resign after Christian conservatives aggressively decried the NEA for publicly funding projects that they deemed morally offensive.

Frohnmayer insists the Oregon electorate, and for that matter, the entire country, has an appetite for independent politicians less beholden to big money and influential interest groups.

"Nearly a third of voters in Oregon are registered with either the Republican or Democratic party, so it seems to me that that third in the middle is entitled to representation, which is one reason I'm running as an Independent, but I also believe that our political system has become so partisan and toxic, that that toxicity has resulted in an inability to pass legislation and get the results Congress is elected to do," he said.

After announcing his intentions to run for the Senate, Frohnmayer also ignited some controversy when he expressed his strong belief that impeachment proceedings should be brought against President Bush for what he has characterized as illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens, and a fraudulent case for war in Iraq.

Frohnmayer has been critical of Congress for not moving forward with impeachment, and dismissed the argument offered by critics that such a move would be a waste of time because the votes are simply not there.

"We're talking about the Constitution here, and it's difficult for me to imagine anything more important than protecting the integrity of the supreme law of the land," Frohnmayer said. "The reason I think President Bush should be impeached, is because he took an oath of office that requires him to protect and defend the constitution, and take care that the laws be faithfully executed, but what he has done with all those signing statements, is essentially take on the judicial function of interpreting the laws, and that is just way out of bounds."