Bruun collects $160,000 in battle for Schrader's spot

By Peter Wong

Statesman Journal

Scott Bruun isn't Scott Brown, but the Republican from West Linn hopes to do Nov. 2 with the 5th District congressional seat what the Republican from Massachusetts did Tuesday for a U.S. Senate seat — wrest it from the Democrats.

Although Bruun has a contest in the May 18 primary against retired Salem businessman Fred Thompson, Bruun already has collected $160,000 for his battle for the seat held by Democrat Kurt Schrader of Canby.

"This is a good start," he said Thursday at a luncheon of the Valley Pachyderm Club. "It's given us national attention, and we are going to use that momentum — and the fact that for the first time in a long time, we have some wind at our back rather than the tide in our face."

Federal statements are due by Jan. 31. Schrader had $461,248 on hand as of Sept. 30, the most recent deadline of the Federal Election Commission; Thompson had $109.

The 5th District, which extends from the Mid-Valley into the Portland suburbs and the central coast, has been represented by a Democrat since 1996. During most of those years, Republicans outnumbered Democrats, but in 2008 — when Schrader won the seat vacated by Darlene Hooley — the balance tipped toward Democrats.

Schrader rode a Democratic tide to defeat Republican Mike Erickson, who was making his second bid and could not overcome personal questions raised by GOP rival Kevin Mannix during a bitter 2008 primary.

The campaign arm of U.S. House Republicans has targeted Schrader's seat this year — and Schrader is gearing up for what he expects to be a tough re-election contest.

Bruun said another tide has started with Brown's victory for the Massachusetts Senate seat, which Democrat Edward Kennedy held for 47 years until his death in August. He said it should send a message to President Obama and the Democratic congressional majorities about their agenda.

"My campaign is about saying no to this European-style atrophy — this centrally planned mediocrity — and saying yes to an American renaissance," Bruun said.

Bruun said he opposes the Democrats' economic-recovery program, increased federal spending, overhaul of health care, and pending cap-and-trade legislation to limit greenhouse-gas emissions and allow industries to buy pollution permits.

He also said he would continue tax cuts that President George W. Bush proposed and a Republican Congress approved in 2001 and 2003; Democrats may let some of them expire this year.

"I have no doubt that Congress will not address this issue in 2010," he said. "They will let it expire. But it's not just these policies — it's the mind-set that goes behind them."

Bruun, 43, is a vice president of a venture capital firm and has been in the Oregon House since 2005 — one cycle in the majority party and two in the minority. He also ran for Portland's 3rd District congressional seat in 1996, when he lost to Democrat Earl Blumenauer.

Bruun said he was recruited to run by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, the only Republican in Oregon's congressional delegation, who also is the deputy chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. But he said NRCC isn't officially backing him, even though NRCC noted his fundraising and regularly has criticized Schrader in press releases.