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State Rep. Scott Bruun (R-West Linn) is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader to represent Oregon in the Congressional Fifth District.
LAKE OSWEGO – Scott Bruun is the most put-together thing in his campaign headquarters.
From folding tables and chairs to lawn signs for other candidates sprawled across a mostly empty space in Lake Oswego, Bruun looks confident and comfortable in the humble environment.
The 44-year-old father of two, currently a state representative for West Linn, is in the political fight of his life as he attempts to win a national political seat against Rep. Kurt Schrader. Both are vying for the Fifth Congressional District, and many – including Democrats – say Bruun just might have a shot to unseat the Canby Democrat in the Nov. 2 election.
He’s running a modest campaign using more shoe leather than money. But Bruun doesn’t seem worried at all. As of Monday, his campaign has raised $470,599, while Schrader has raised more than $1.2 million in total contributions.
“I’m a working guy, I don’t have a bunch of wealth,” he said. “I’m not the guy who writes himself a check, I’m the guy who says that if I can’t convince people to write me a check I shouldn’t be running. So we have been convincing people to write us checks and we have done very well in Oregon. I’m really proud, that even though the cycle for Kurt started in January 2009 and we didn’t formally start raising money until October 2009, we have actually outraised him in Oregon money.”
It’s what keeps Bruun attending as many summer events and festivals around the district as possible. On the Fourth of July, for example, he walked in both the General Canby Day and Molalla parades. Earlier this month he visited with voters at Wilsonville’s Fun in the Park, and he is scheduled to speak at the Woodburn Rotary Club meeting on Sept. 2.
Endorsements, support and funding gap
It’s been a couple of very good weeks for the Republican businessman, who now has received the endorsement of the AG-PAC. AG-PAC is an agricultural political action committee comprised of 15 different organizations set up to help candidates committed to a healthy agriculture and forestry-based economy.
But that isn’t all. The Independent Party declared Bruun their candidate, something he called “a big deal.”
“This is a heavily independent district,” he said. “If I am not mistaken it’s the most independent of the five Congressional districts either unaffiliated or independent, so that’s why we have cautious confidence in this race.”
Schrader, meanwhile, hasn’t strayed far from the Democratic Party, voting with it 95 percent of the time, and agreeing with the White House 92 percent of the time, according to an analysis by Congressional Quarterly.
Schrader has voted in favor of everything from health care and financial reform to “cap and trade” energy proposals and the economic stimulus plan.
Bruun said he sees recent visits by Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as a “quid pro quo” for Schrader’s “unquestioning support of their agenda.”
Biden visited Portland in early July to fundraise for Schrader and, last Thursday, Pelosi was in town stumping for Democratic candidates.
In late July, the Democratic Congressional Committee expanded its list of ad reservations to 60 seats and budgeted to spend more than $49 million. One of the new races targeted? Oregon’s 5th District.
“It’s a good news, bad news type of thing,” Bruun said. “They know what we feel, and that’s this is the swing district in Oregon. This is a district that wants change and in the primary saw more Republicans vote than Democrats even though it has a small Democratic advantage. I think they have poll data … that confirms what we are feeling and seeing. That’s the good news. The bad news is they are going to dump it into Oregon.”
If elected, Bruun said there would be no question where his loyalty would lie: Defending the constitution of the United States of America and not the whims of a political caucus.
“I believe one of the most important jobs for a member of Congress is to listen,” Bruun said. “You have to get out and have real town halls, not faux town halls were you take people aside and give them three minutes. You have to listen to your constituents.”
It’s the economy, Schrader
Bruun’s positions are straightforward. On immigration he doesn’t want amnesty. He also wants more done to secure the border and enforcement of current immigration laws. In the Oregon Legislature he supported transportation bills, and said the Woodburn interchange project will be a priority. But he’s keeping his focus on the economy.
As a vice president of an investment company, Bruun said he has seen the effects of the current economy. He has some ideas on how to go about creating jobs. He doesn’t feel that the current American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects had the effect on the economy that the $787 billion price tag promised.
“If people are looking for a Congressman whose sole priority is to bring money for special projects back to the district, to bring pork back or whatever, I am not their guy,” Bruun said. “I think that is, in large part, what is wrong with Washington D.C. right now. That mindset.”
He pointed to the $7 million in stimulus money awarded to projects in Wilsonville and questioned whether it actually created more than 50 jobs.
“This stimulus was designed to revive the worst unemployment we have had since the Great Depression and it has failed miserably under every metric,” Bruun said. “The reason it failed is that it’s a failed philosophy. It’s a 1930s-era European economic theory that was relegated to the ash-heap of history until this latest group dusted it off and said, ‘Oh no, we just didn’t do it right. We didn’t borrow enough last time.’ It’s folks that just don’t understand how the free markets work.”
Bruun said the economic recovery doesn’t come from big corporations like Microsoft or Nike, but small businesses. That will be his focus.
“It really is about empowerment,” he said. “How the federal government empowers individual Oregonians and individual Americans to be entrepreneurial. Right now that’s not the mindset of the folks back there now, Kurt Schrader, in my opinion, the Congress he enables or the administration. They have a top-down approach.”
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