Mark Hatfield

Mark Hatfield, who served two terms as Governor and five terms in the United States Senate, was honored this week with the designation of the Health and Science University Board of Directors as the Mark O. Hatfield Chair.  Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed an Executive Order that salutes Hatfield’s devotion to the state’s health care system.

Some good news for Gordon Smith: Oregonians traditionally doesn’t vote out incumbent U.S. Senators. It’s been nearly forty years since a sitting Senator lost, and its only happened three times in state history.

That was in 1968, when Republican turned Independent turned Democrat Wayne Morse lost to Bob Packwood by 3,445 votes. Since voters began directly electing U.S. Senators in 1912, only two other incumbent Senators lost re-election bids: Republican Guy Gondon, 3,462 votes in 1954 (against Democrat Richard Neuberger), and Democrat George Chamberlain, who lost to Republican Robert Stanfield by 16,572 in 1920.

Craig Campbell, the only prospective statewide candidate that has surfaced in past weeks, has told his lobby buddies he’s only “contemplating” the treasurer’s race until the party organization can find a different sacrificial lamb to take his place, as he has no interest in that position (or pay cut).

Bob Packwood was the last challenger to oust an incumbent U.S. Senator -- in 1968Some good news for Gordon Smith: Oregonians traditionally doesn’t vote out incumbent U.S. Senators. It’s been nearly forty years since a sitting Senator lost, and its only happened four times in state history.

The younger generation of Oregonians may not remember Wayne Morse, our Senator for 24 years and nationally prominent as a maverick who switched parties and fervently opposed the war in Vietnam.