The Corvallis resident will seek Gordon Smith's seat as an Independent

John Frohnmayer believes a political independent has the best chance to affect change in the U.S. Senate.

So the Corvallis resident - a former Republican who was appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts by President George H.W. Bush - is running as an Independent for the seat currently held by Republican U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith.

"The political system has become so partisan that our politics are toxic. It seems to be more important for the Republicans to bash the Democrats and the Democrats to bash the Republicans than to do the job for which they are all elected, which is to serve us the people and address our problems, " Frohnmayer said, "I don't think that will change until there is a third force in American politics."

Frohnmayer, who left the GOP in 2005, said he became disillusioned with the party's direction.

"We who have been Republicans should be weeping about the state of the Republican party," he said. "Because the Republicans have always stood for fiscal responsibility and we have a president who has taken a $3 trillion surplus and turned it into an $8 trillion defecit in seven years."

Frohnmayer is now registered as an Independent, a role he said will provide him a distinct advantage if Oregon voters send him to Washington, D.C.

"The U.S. Senate is a small enough body that an Independent can really make a difference. There are two in the Senate now, and with a third Independent we could potentially have the balance of power," he said. "It could be an immensely powerful position."

Currently, the Senate is made up of 49 Republicans and 49 Democrats. Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont are the two Independents.

Frohnmayer said he knows Washington well, and doesn't have illusions about how it operates. He says that will be useful in his run for Senate and would make him a good alternative to Smith.

He disputes the idea that Smith is a moderate, despite his vocal stance against the Iraq War. Instead, he points to Smith's voting record, which he said closely mirrors President Bush's position on most issues.

"I don't think the president is moderate," Frohnmayer said. "I think the president is a disaster."

The key issue in Frohnmayer's platform is education. Today's education system is a far cry from the one he experienced mid-century in his hometown of Medford.

"One of the things about Medford was when I was there, it had an extraordinary school system," he said, including arts, theater and music, as well as strong athletic teams. Frohnmayer was frequently both on-stage and on the field, as a male lead in high school productions and a member of the school's football team.

"You really felt Oregon was special then, and we were providing resources for what was really important, education," he said.

After high school, Frohnmayer graduated from Stanford and later received a master's degree in Christian ethics from the University of Chicago.

During the Vietnam War, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and went through Officer Candidate School. He served as an officer on a light cruiser from 1966 through 1969 and received a Navy Commendation Medal for heroism for his actions trying to save a drowning sailor.

After the war, he went to law school at the University of Oregon. He practiced as a trial lawyer in Eugene and Portland, and at the same time was named to the Oregon Arts Commission, where he held the role of chairman for four years. This experience whetted his appetite.

"I thought 'Gee, if there's any job in the world I'd like to do, it's chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts,' and so I set out to get that job, and I did get it in 1989."

Frohnmayer was appointed to the post by the first President Bush. While it was originally his dream job, his acceptance of the position couldn't have been more poorly timed.

"That was the most controversial time for the National Endowment, during the time of Mapplethorpe and Serrano," Frohnmayer said. "While those grants had been given before I got there, it was my job to deal with them."

The two artists drew criticism for work considered pornographic and sacrilegious.

Frohnmayer, who considers himself a long-time champion of the First Amendment, defended the endowment's decision to grant money to the artists.

"That job ended in me being fired by the president for essentially choosing the Constitution over political loyalty," he said. "There were lots of lessons I learned during that time, including your oath of office is to the Constitution, not to the president and not to the party."

In 2004, Frohnmayer returned to Oregon. He is an affiliate professor of liberal arts at Oregon State University, where he teaches First Amendment issues and ethics in the history department.

He said the current Bush administration's disregard for civil liberties is particularly distressing.

"Press, petition, assembly and speech are how we change our government, how we address our government and ultimately how we avoid violent revolution. And that's why the First Amendment is so critical in a political sense."

If elected, Frohnmayer said he'll focus on his priorities of education, healthcare and jobs and the environment, but most of all, he said he'll use his Independent status to demonstrate how government should work.

"The order of the day ought to be that partisanship ends when a person is elected, and for every minute the person is in office after that, the person ought to be doing the public's business."

ABOUT THE CANDIDATE

Who: John Frohnmayer, 65, candidate for U.S. Senate.

Professional background: Trial lawyer, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, affiliate professor at Oregon State University.

Family: Wife Leah, sons Jason, 37, and Aaron, 35. Brother Dave Frohnmayer is president of the University of Oregon and former Oregon secretary of state.

Birthplace: Medford.

Current hometown: Corvallis.

Unusual fact: Wrote a musical comedy called "Spin," which is going to be produced at OSU this spring.

Where he stands:

Education: "Education is the foundation upon which everything else depends. The Chinese spend 240 days a year in primary education, we spend 180. There's this aura of American exceptionality. That's hogwash. We have to compete in an increasingly competitive world and we can't do that with substandard education."

Healthcare: "We have to focus more on prevention than on critical care. John Kitzhaber's Archimedes project is exactly on target. The ratio of primary care physicians to specialists is 1 to 3, and it should be 3 to 1 because preventive care is much less expensive and the quality of life it produces is much better."

Jobs and the environment: "It's an issue of all of the stakeholders coming to some kind of consensus that will probably leave everybody half mad, but that's how a good solution ultimately works."

Iraq War: "I was marching against it before it started. I've opposed it every day since. I think we have to withdraw immediately."

Impeachment: "I am for impeachment of the president… We are in constitutional crisis and the answer to constitutional crisis is in the Constitution, and it is impeachment. It's not a dirty word. It's not a revolutionary word."