PORTLAND, Ore. — President Barack Obama urged Oregon Democrats on Wednesday night to “defy the conventional wisdom” and vote to send John Kitzhaber back to the governor’s office on Nov. 2.
Obama tried to rally the troops on the West Coast less than two weeks before an election that will determine control of Congress for the next two years. But his message was meant for Democrats around the country too.
“This election isn’t about anger, it’s not about fear. This election is a choice and the stakes could not be higher,” the president said, reinforcing his campaign message about where Republican leadership would take the country.
Obama charged that the GOP would repeal new health care changes designed to keep insurers from denying coverage to the sick, and cancel new rules to keep credit card companies from slapping people with hidden fees.
“We have tried that before and we’re not going back,” he said.
Kitzhaber, a doctor who occupied the governor’s office from 1995-2002, is in a tight race against Republican Chris Dudley, a former NBA player and a political rookie.
Obama said the former governor is the only candidate “that’s actually delivered change.”
“Here is a guy who’s already done the job and done it well,” he said.
But the fact that Obama flew to Oregon so late in the campaign to stump for Kitzhaber, long considered one of the state’s most popular politicians, is a sign of how beleaguered Democrats are this year — including Obama.
Obama has suffered from a presidency weighed down by a sluggish economy, high unemployment, a poor housing market, two wars and a public largely disapproving of his performance in office.
Two years ago, presidential candidate Obama drew 75,000 people to a riverfront park rally in Portland, including 15,000 who couldn’t get in.
But political organizers weren’t expecting such a sizable crowd for Obama’s return Wednesday night, his first visit here since the campaign.
The goal was for a far more modest showing of 5,000 people at the convention center, which holds twice that number. The convention floor appeared about three-fourths full, with tightly packed crowds in front and behind the stage where Obama spoke and a wide open space behind the press section in the rear.
Oregon was the first stop on Obama’s longest campaign swing of the season, a four-day, five-state blitz of fundraisers and rallies that also will take him to Washington state, California, Nevada and Minnesota.
Obama is scheduled to campaign separately with Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Barbara Boxer of California, plus Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada — Senate allies also in tight contests against their Republican challengers.
Obama already has campaigned with each senator, sometimes more than once. But he made the 3,000-mile return trip to help keep them and a Democratic majority in the Senate. It’s what he needs to boost his agenda in Congress in the final two years of his term.
Vice President Joe Biden, first lady Michelle Obama and Biden’s wife, Jill, are doing their part too in an all-hands-on-deck effort by a White House fully aware of the stakes for Obama should any, or all, of these Democrats fail to return to the Senate in January.
Biden campaigned this week with Murray, Boxer and Reid. Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden plan joint appearances next week in California and Seattle for Boxer and Murray.
Besides Kitzhaber, Obama plans to stump for gubernatorial candidates Jerry Brown in California and Mark Dayton in Minnesota.
Governors can help turn out the vote in presidential election years. They also can help draw new congressional districts, a once-a-decade process that gets under way next year following the 2010 census.
Obama has spent the week reaching out to core Democratic constituencies. He held a telephone conference call with reporters for African-American newspapers and invited Spanish-language journalists to the White House for a round-table discussion.
He’ll reach out to women Thursday in Seattle, discussing women and the economy with a female-only audience.
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