SUZANNE BONAMICI: No tiger suits in her closet. - IMAGE: Steel Brooks
First elected in 1998, Wu resigned last August after exhibiting bizarre behavior and, ultimately, facing allegations he had made improper sexual advances to a teenage girl.
Despite Wu’s work as an intellectual property lawyer prior to running for office, he never really clicked with Washington County’s tech sector. Nor did he enjoy a strong reputation for constituent service among the rural and agricultural sectors of his district, which stretches from Portland’s west side to Astoria and down to the central coast.
On Jan. 31, residents of the district will vote in a special election to replace Wu. The best choice on the ballot is state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Beaverton).
A lawyer and educational advocate prior to entering the Oregon House of Representatives in 2007, Bonamici, 57, has spent much of her time in Salem on consumer protection issues. She pushed for a better deal for homeowners facing foreclosure and helped expel payday lenders from Oregon.
Because of her diligence and attention to detail, Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem) last year selected her over more senior colleagues to lead the always-controversial job of redrawing legislative district boundaries. Bonamici completed that task without the help of the secretary of state or the courts, the first time in 60 years that has happened.
In many ways she’s like her former legislative colleague, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.): smart, dogged and dull.
After Wu’s antics, dull is good.
Bonamici’s chief opponent is Tualatin businessman Rob Cornilles. Cornilles, 47, ran a creditable race against Wu in 2010, losing with 42 percent of the vote. He is pleasant, blessed with a nice smile and the gift of gab.
Other than that race against Wu, however, Cornilles has no political experience and a thin record of community service. He’s running, then, on his record as a “job creator.” That’s a stretch.
Since 1995, Cornilles has run a company called Game Face Inc., which helps sports teams sell more tickets and also does executive recruiting for teams. WW’s reporting shows that Game Face is a company in decline, having reached its peak size of 22 employees nearly a decade ago. Today the company has no office and employs only four people other than Cornilles and his wife, Allison.
If starting and running a struggling small business were all it took to serve in Congress, Oregon would have tens of thousands of candidates ready to go to Washington.
In his policy statements, Cornilles has been inconsistent. He blasts tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals, but in 2011 proposed a renovation of Memorial Coliseum built on millions of dollars’ worth of tax breaks. He appeared at a 2010 tea party rally in front of a rack of guns but is so eager to attract independent voters he never mentions in campaign materials that he’s a Republican.
Cornilles is at his best when he criticizes Bonamici’s reflexive support for the Democratic platform, and suggests that he would be more independent. It’s true that he’s broken with conservative Republicans in a number of areas, including their opposition to what they call Obamacare. But his moderate stances feel less like independence than an acknowledgement he’s running in a district with a 12-percentage-point Democratic advantage—and that he needs a job. Besides, his résumé simply cannot match the accomplishments of Bonamici.
Libertarian James Foster, a Beaverton software engineer (who, like Bonamici, once served as a Federal Trade Commission lawyer), and Progressive Party candidate Steven Reynolds, a disabled West Point graduate, are also running.
Foster is a thoughtful candidate whose calm demeanor belies a fierce opposition to government interference in just about anything, while Reynolds, whose post-military adventures included a stint as a pot smuggler, seems personally adrift. Neither has mounted a serious campaign. Vote for Bonamici.
I've never agreed with news sources endorsing political candidates. It makes me think you have something to gain by it (as do most people who endorse candidtates) and then I start questioning your journalistic integrity.
Your comment makes me wonder if you read the endorsement. It's a considered piece.
As far as integrity, I think WW has far more than CNN or other TV news organizations, which have a record of softballing interviews to maintain continued access to sources.
Further, you'll be hard-pressed to find print news media which *don't* endorse candidates.
Only a far left, tax loving liberal has any chance of being elected in disrict 1. People here would elect a prison inmate if he was far left and running against anyone even slightly middle of the road.
Washington County has too many braindead voters who will vote for anyone with a D after their name. Vote for Bonamici and everyone's taxes will go up.
Your reasoning is flawed to the point of nonsense and your inclination toward sending another lawyer to Washington, D.C. qualifies you for a straight jacket. Has her husband threatened you with lawsuits, like he did when he was David Wu's lawyer?
Insisting that a businessperson without a record of community service is flawed shows a complete misunderstanding of commerce.
Insisting that a Republican Candidate make his party affiliation an issue in an Oregon general election shows a bias and a complete misunderstanding of modern day political campaigns. No one does it, since one-third of the voters are not aligned with either major party. Yet you malign the Republican for something done by the Democrat as well.
It is deceitful to claim that a businessperson’s resume “simply cannot match the accomplishments” of a political hack bureaucrat, gently coddled in the arms of a political machine that fiercely protects its sexual predators. Clearly, Cornilles’ resume far exceeds the “accomplishments” of his Democrat opponent.
Underhandedly implying that it is dishonorable for a man to alter his career path in service of his community shows complete contempt for free enterprise and modern careers.
Finally, it shows Cornilles’ opponent’s desperation and shallowness that her campaign web site proudly features your deceptive drivel.
WW should let its Editors explore the real world sometime. Then they could see that Cornilles (not a lawyer, not a Democrat, and not in anyway associated with the previous mess) authentically would be the “NEW” Representative for all of Congressional District 1.
Fortunately, the voter’s see Portland’s political hacks for what they are, and reject their second rate vision. They will get their truly new Representative when they elect Rob Cornilles.
Voted for Foster.