My name is Jeff Merkley and I’m running for the U.S. Senate for Oregon.
I’m very happy to have this opportunity to get to know the community here at Daily Kos. I’m a reader of blogs, especially those that focus on Oregon... I’ve read other’s diaries here but like many I don’t comment. My netroots outreach coordinator, Carla Axtman, has also been around Kos for awhile. She was one of the many bloggers at Yearly Kos last year, learning about how to become a more effective activist.
This is my first Kos diary and I’m looking forward to finding out more about how we can work together. This diary today is the first of what I hope will be many visits to this site. I plan to keep stopping by to let you know what’s going on with our U.S. Senate campaign here in Oregon.
But for today, I’d like to introduce myself to you.
I was born in the small town of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, where my father worked at the local sawmill. When the mill closed, my family moved just north to Roseburg. There, my dad worked as a logger and a homebuilder. I loved starting life in those rural communities. It’s great to be a kid learning to swim in the Umpqua River.
Like so many Oregon families we were affected by the ups and downs of the rural timber economy. Eventually, we moved to the Portland area where my dad worked as a mechanic on heavy construction equipment.
Living in those small towns in southern Oregon helped to shape my values. Families worked hard and helped their neighbors. They strived to build a better life for their children.
I’ll never forget my dad taking me to the doors of the local elementary school, telling me that they were the doors to opportunity. If I studied hard and did my best, I could do and be just about anything.
I love the idea that the son or daughter of a CEO and the son or daughter of a mill worker has the same opportunities to thrive in our society.
I took my father’s words to heart and they’ve stayed with me my whole life.
In high school, sports were an important part of my life. I played tennis and ran cross-country. The summer after my junior year in high school I had the chance to be an exchange student in a small town in Ghana. I lived in a community where families struggle to earn enough just so that they can feed themselves. That was an incredible, eye-opening experience.
My experiences in Ghana sparked an interest in world affairs. I studied International Relations at Stanford and went on to get a Masters of Public Policy degree at Princeton. Along the way I had a chance to work in villages in Mexico and spend a summer in India.
My two biggest interests in international affairs were economic development in poor nations and controlling nuclear weapons so that we didn’t end up blowing up the world. After graduate school I pursued these interests through a brief stint at the World Bank. I was then selected to be a Presidential Fellow at the Office of Secretary of Defense. Later I served as a strategic nuclear weapons analyst with the Congressional Budget Office.
I think these experiences in international affairs and national security is important. It would be a great thing if every senator and candidate for President had to have some international affairs experience. We might have avoided some of the biggest mistakes of the Reagan and current Bush administrations. It’s important to have senators who can distinguish between real threats and manufactured threats like those conjured up by Perle, Wolfowitz and President Bush.
But Oregon is my home. I wanted to get back.
So I returned to Oregon and threw myself into the fight for affordable housing. I served as the executive director of Habitat for Humanity. Whenever we built a home in partnership with a family and the community-- and turned over the keys—it felt like we’d created a small miracle for the family.
I went on to develop low income housing with another nonprofit and developed programs to empower low income families. I founded Oregon's first Individual Development Account (IDA) program to help families buy homes, attend college or start businesses. These are the three main pathways that help families move into the middle class. Giving a hand up to those in poverty is something that I feel very strongly about. We need to build a society that provides ways for every family to thrive.
In 1996, my experiences in foreign policy led to a seven year stint as President of the World Affairs Council. I started an international speaker series that brought world leaders like Gorbachev and the Dalai Lama to Oregon to share their experiences with our community. As a member of the national board I launched a global affairs competition called World Quest. It’s now in it’s fifth year.
I also decided during that time that I needed to do more for Oregon. So I ran for the Oregon House of Representatives.
My first few years in the state legislature were especially frustrating. Grover Norquist, the GOP policy strategist, tells us that his goal is to turn every state legislature into a place of bitter nastiness and partisanship. Oregon’s was no exception. Our state government was in total gridlock. We weren’t doing the job that Oregonians sent us there to do.
After talking it over with my wife Mary, I decided to resign my job at the World Affairs Council and dive into the work in the Oregon House. It was the only way I could see to help untangle the mess we were in.
In 2003 I was elected Oregon House Democratic Leader. At that time, we were in the minority by a 25-35 margin. I knew we had to take the majority if we were to get anything done. So I set about recruiting excellent candidates to run against the entrenched Republican machine.
The pundits in Oregon said it couldn’t be done. They said that there was no way we’d win any seats in 2004 because the Republicans had better consultants and a lot more money. But when the elections came, we took two seats.
In 2006 they said we’d lose because D’s in Oregon couldn’t win seats unless a presidential nominee was on the ticket. They were wrong again. We took one open seat and defeated three incumbents to put the Oregon Democrats in the majority for the first time in sixteen years. This was the first time that Democrats had picked up a seat in a non-presidential election since 1972.
The pundits again weighed in. You’ve only got a one vote majority, they said. You’ll never get anything done.
Once again, we proved them wrong. The 2007 Oregon legislative session was the most progressive and productive in 30 years. From the passage of domestic partnerships and other civil rights legislation to an effective renewable energy bill to strong new laws protecting consumers and those in poverty, to making substantial progress in education and health care. The legislative session was a resounding success for Democrats.
But there’s a lot more to do.
Now, it’s the national legislature that’s in gridlock. Even with a majority, Democrats are blocked by procedural moves and a Republican minority bent on the Norquist strategy of partisan bickering.
With only 49 Democrats and two independents they’re still having a difficult time getting bills to the floor.
We need Democrats in the U.S. Senate who will stand up to those roadblocks. We need Senators that will bring progressive change. I will be that Senator for Oregon.
Now it’s your turn. I want to hear from you. I’ll stick around here and answer your questions and comments for a little while.
You can also stop by my website: JeffMerkley.com