George Bush

When Senator Gordon Smith announced in July he was skipping out on the Republican convention, little did he know of the political chaos he would be avoiding.

Republican Sen. Gordon Smith was in Portland today reaffirming his support of the State Children’s Health Insurance Progra m (SCHIP). 

“The future health and well-being of Oregon’s thousands of uninsured children depends on us finding a solution that provides our kids with affordable and meaningful health care,” he said. Smith’s support for the program places him squarely opposite President Bush, who vetoed the SCHIP bill in October.

U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick tooks ome shots at Gordon Smith todayDemocratic Senate canidate Steve Novick used his appearance at a Portland State University forum on on the national debt Thursday to take aim at Senator Gordon Smith.

“Not only did Gordon Smith support the war in Iraq (which now costs $10 billion a month), and not only did he support all of George Bush's tax cuts for the rich; but he added a huge tax cut of his own, a special tax holiday for multinational corporations with money stashed overseas,” Novick said.

John Frohmayer is challenging U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith as an IndependentA 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.