Nice photo :)

These numbers, if accurate, confirm that the GOP's hard lurch to the right has stuck it right in the ditch in Oregon. You'd think, after the Wu debacle, Cornilles would have more traction, but conservatives, particularly social conservatives, have so sullied the Republicans brand that even in tough economic times, after an ineffectual and embarrassing Democratic representative resigns, people still don't trust republicans to govern.

And the majority of voters have good reason for this distrust. The GOP now represents a political ideology that offers little but an abject hatred of government. Why would anyone want to hand the reins of government over to people who vow to drive it to a glue factory? Most people are just not that dumb.

But even more damning is the fact that the main spokesmen and women for the conservative ideology are not elected officials, but media and radio entertainers who, to keep ratings, throw rhetorical bombs, insist on ideological purity, and incite loathing for those citizens who disagree with their ideas.

This is what Cornilles, and all Oregon Republicans west of the Cascades (aka "Where the Voters Live") are up against. Until or unless a republican candidate repudiates the hard right social agenda and actively campaigns for progressive values, voters will associate him or her with the anti-gay, anti-women, and anti-government ideologues of the hard-right. That may play fine in Mississippi, but not in Oregon, and not in the first district.

Does this mean that the DCCC can stop feeding CD1 voters a steady diet of attack ads for the holidays?

Nothing says "Peace on Earth" like a misleading hit piece.

(Yes, I will be voting for Bonamici)

I smell toast.

11 point lead in an 11 point district ... wow, huge mandate.

If Bonamici's popularity is up, maybe it's because few know how her tactics and politics are what most people claim to hate. If you didn't like David Wu's sexually predatory and bizarre behavior, why would you celebrate Bonamici, whose husband was his lawyer and whose campaign staffer hounded Rob Cornilles with a camera at the memorial of a veteran? The creepiness factor alone should give a thinking person pause.
More important are Bonamici's politics, which appeal to some struggling Oregonians but only expand the government class at the expense of a shrinking private sector bludgeoned from decades of Democrat control. How can a lawyer and career politician like her understand anything about the crisis of businesses? Washington D.C. is full of "progressive" lawyers who think they understand business economics, but look at the state of the nation. At least Rob Cornilles knows what it's like to make a payroll. In addition, Bonamici hates charter schools, as they embarrass failing government schools whose union teachers don't like competition. But Bonamici is a union gal. Parent demand be damned. She also fought for in-state tuition rates for illegal aliens who couldn't have legally worked here once they graduated, although their college stints would have cost taxpayers an extra $40,000 each in subsidies. Any Oregonian concerned about rising tuition rates narrowly dodged that Bonamici bullet when S.B. 742 failed. It wasn't the first time she championed the attempts of illegal aliens to influence our government or compete with lower skilled citizens. She also voted against S.B. 1080, which would have required proof of citizenship to vote. We still don't know how many illegal aliens are stealing our representation, because our Democrat Secretary of State won't perform an audit. That's for another post. In a society addicted to centralized but parasitic government control as a security blanket, it's hard to appreciate the remnant of citizens who know how to generate money and jobs. Unfortunately, Rob Cornilles doesn't have the funds to advertise all of Bonamici's past. The DNC and Nancy Pelosi's Super PAC money are burying this common man in an avalanche of big government propaganda. Voters should asks themselves whose side they're on, the state's or the people's.