Bates may challenge Sen. Smith

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Rep. Alan Bates, D-Eagle Point, in Salem, Ore., Jan. 12, 2001. Rep. Alan Bates, D-Eagle Point, in Salem, Ore., Jan. 12, 2001.

SALEM— State Sen. Alan Bates, ending weeks of speculation, says he is "seriously considering" seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith in 2008.

"Health care is the biggest crisis facing our nation," said Bates, a physician. "In the last eight years, with Republicans in control of the House and Senate and the presidency, nothing happened on health-care reform."

The Ashland Democrat said that Smith made "a huge error in judgment" when he voted to give President Bush authorization to use military force to depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but then changed his position mercurially amid faltering public support for the war.

"I know he's apparently changed his position on the war, but many of us from the very beginning were opposed to the war," Bates said. "When you're at that level you have a responsibility to know what you're doing; be very careful of your votes."

Bates, 62, who served in Vietnam from 1965 to 1967, said recently that the war in Iraq is "unwinnable," as was the Vietnam War. He said U.S. troops remain in Iraq for "no discernible reason."

Bates said he's been considering a run against Smith for six months, but said he did not want to announce his interest prematurely, hoping that "somebody with a better chance and who was better known" would emerge.

Bates said he decided to express interest in the race after U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Oregon's 3rd District Democrat, announced that, "there is too much work to be done in the House of Representatives to take on a campaign for the U.S. Senate."

Rep. Peter DeFazio, the 4th District Democrat, said last month that he would not enter the race.

Bates acknowledged that he lacks Smith's campaign organization.

"I would be a dark-horse candidate," he said, but I do bring some things to the table. I'm a rural Democrat, a 30-year family physician in Southern Oregon and I volunteered to go to Vietnam."

Bates said he will formally announce whether he will run a few weeks after the end of the legislative session.

"Right now, my family is my key consideration in this," he said.

Gary Moore, vice chairman of the Democratic Party of Jackson County, said Bates is "exactly what we want to see" in a candidate to take on Smith, who easily won re-election to a second term in 2002.

Moore said Bates has "great credentials, and I deeply admire his integrity. I would just hate to see him leave (the Legislature) in the middle of what he is doing with health care."

Bryan Platt, chairman of the Jackson County Republican Central Committee, said Bates is no match for Smith, even though Smith has rankled some conservatives with recent statements opposing the Iraq war.

"Senator Smith has made some decisions — opposing the war — that don't sit well with his conservative base, myself included," Platt said. "But when the dust settles after the primary, the Republican Party will strongly unite because the (Democratic) alternative is unthinkable, whoever that it is."

Chris Rizo covers the state Legislature for The Daily Tidings. Reach him at csrizo@hotmail.com.

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