SALEM — Former TV personality and outspoken abortion foe Mary Starrett took her campaign for governor to several cities and towns last week saying she’s the one true conservative in the race.

Since independent Ben Westlund dropped out, Starrett has become the “wild card” in the 2006 gubernatorial sweepstakes.

Some call Starrett a potential “spoiler” instead, since the Constitution Party contender is likely to siphon votes from Republican contender Ron Saxton in his battle with Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

That doesn’t bother the sharp-tongued Starrett.

“Some people I’ve talked with say, ‘If I vote for you, it might throw the race to Ted Kulongoski.’ And I say, ‘So what? What’s the difference? There is no difference between Saxton and Ted. It’s just tweedle-

dee and tweedle-dum.’”

Underscoring GOP worries, prominent Republican lawyer Kelly Clark on Friday filed a state elections complaint seeking to kick Starrett off the Nov. 7 ballot.

Clark contends her party failed to follow proper notification procedures when it nominated Starrett. But Starrett says the complaint, which is being investigated by state election officials, is just an attempt to save Saxton, whom she calls a “phony conservative.”

She cites Saxton’s refusal to support the spending limit measure that will be on Oregon’s ballot in November, even through the Oregon Republican Party’s central committee recently unanimously endorsed it.

“When Saxton came out against the spending limit, the Republicans who thought they could hold their nose and vote for him realized that they couldn’t even do that,” she said.

The 51-year-old Starrett was co-host of Portland TV station KATU’s “AM Northwest” program from 1985 to 1997, which gives her some recognition with voters, plus experience in public appearances and speaking.

“Mary Starrett is good looking, articulate and savvy. Ron Saxton has got to worry that she will bleed enough conservative votes away from him that he will lose a portion of his base,” said Russ Dondero, who teaches political science at Pacific University in Forest Grove.

Starrett’s comments, especially “tweedle-dee, tweedle-dum,” drew a heated response from Amy Langdon, executive director of the state GOP.

“That’s disgraceful. She is saying, ‘I don’t care about the conservative cause; it’s all about me.’ That is so selfish and shortsighted,” Langdon said.

Saxton represents Republicans’ best hopes of recapturing the governor’s office for the first time in 24 years Langdon said, and Republicans are backing Saxton even if they disagree with his spending limit stand.

Saxton has shown little interest in dissecting the candidacy of Starrett or the other two minor contenders — the Pacific Green Party’s Joe Keating and Libertarian Richard Morley.

“It doesn’t matter to me how many other candidates are out there,” the Portland lawyer said. “I think this race is going to present a clear choice for voters between Ted Kulongoski and me.”

Dondero said he sees parallels with the 1990 governor’s race. In that year, anti-abortion candidate Al Mobley got 13 percent of the vote, which observers said drew votes away from Republican contender Dave Frohnmayer and helped elect Democrat Barbara Roberts.

In a statewide poll by Portland pollster Lisa Grove in early July, Starrett was backed by 2 percent of those responding, compared with 5 percent for Westlund. The same poll, conducted for the Oregon AFL-CIO, showed Kulongoski ahead of Saxton by 17 points, with a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

No statewide polls have been released since Westlund dropped out Aug. 10.

Starrett began making campaign appearances last week, and Dondero predicts she could have 5 percent of the vote or more in November — enough to spell trouble for Saxton if his race with Kulongoski is close.

Kulongoski’s campaign spokeswoman, Anna Richter Taylor, declined to discuss Starrett’s possible spoiler role.

She said she preferred to discuss Kulongoski’s recent success in patching up relations with some of his traditional support groups, namely public employee unions and environmental groups. Both had expressed some disenchantment with the governor, but are behind him now.

“This will be a tough race, but we’ve got good momentum going into it,” she said.

Starrett, the only woman and anti-abortion candidate in the race, may benefit from an initiative measure that would require 48-hour written notice to parents before a girl younger than 18 could obtain an abortion.

“It’s going to bring out a lot of the faith-based community to vote,” said Portland pollster Mike Riley. “That normally would benefit the Republican candidate, but in this case it’s probably going to benefit Mary Starrett.”

Questions have been raised about whether Starrett will be able to line up a clear source of campaign cash.

But in an interview this past week, Starrett said she’s been getting significant contributions — she won’t say how much or from where — that will enable her to run a statewide TV ad campaign this fall.

“Talk about pennies from heaven,” she said. “We’re getting money from some heavy hitters who don’t want Ron Saxton in office.”

Contributor identities will be made public in campaign finance reports to be filed with the state Oct. 2, she added.

GT Reader Comments

The comments below are from readers of gazettetimes.com and in no way represent the views of the Gazette Times or Lee Enterprises.

*Member ID: *Password: Remember login? (requires cookies)   You must be logged in to comment. It's free and quick!