Many incumbent Democrats across the state are facing stiff competition from an invigorated push from Republican opponents, but polls show incumbent U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden with an unusually comfortable lead on Republican challenger Jim Huffman.
A recent political poll conducted by Real Clear Politics shows incumbent Wyden leading challenger Huffman by an 18-point spread, which is an exceptional disparity considering the gubernatorial candidates in the state are polling neck-in-neck, with Chris Dudley making a stronger showing among Republicans than John Kitzhaber is with Democrats, in the latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters.
Portland State University political science professor Richard Clucas said the difference between the races is name recognition. Unlike Dudley, who is known in the state from his stint as a former NBA player, Huffman is making his first big foray into the public arena.
Huffman, a former law professor and dean of Lewis & Clark College, admits his lack of celebrity has been a challenge for his campaign facing off with Wyden.
“A challenger faces some major obstacles,” Huffman said. “I think the main obstacle is name recognition. You have to build that, and the only real way to build that is to spend a lot of money on television ads.”
Polling reveals Wyden has maintained widespread popularity despite the public’s extremely unfavorable opinion of Congress; 56 percent of those polled gave Congress a “poor” job performance rating, with 13 percent giving it a “good,” and only 3 percent giving it an “excellent.” Wyden has a 55 percent favorability rating among 1,000 likely voters in Oregon and an unfavorable rating of 38 percent.
Clucas thinks voters tend to distinguish between individual members of Congress and the institution as a whole.
“I think the governor tends to be held accountable for the state of the economy, and in Oregon, the economy is totally suffering right now,” Clucas said. “The Republican candidates benefit from the economy not doing well, and while you may be mad at Congress, Wyden is not the Senate.”
Many Republicans running for office in Oregon have little or no political experience, portraying themselves as ordinary citizens confronting establishment politicians.
“I like the original concept of a citizen legislature, where people would have careers in different areas and then do some public service for awhile, but go back to their careers,” Huffman said. “This is the model I’m pursuing, because I have had a long career as an academic and legal scholar. Someone like Wyden — I think they definitely see it as a career.”
Ellen Macomson, president of the University College Democrats, said Wyden had distanced himself from the career politician image by voting independently and said that anti-Washington politics aren’t applicable to a single party.
“(T)here’s probably anecdotal evidence to all of that,” she said, “but I think it’s mostly kind of angry rhetoric that could be aimed at either party. (Wyden) has portrayed himself as an honest politician and if you look at his record he does vote the way he wants.”
Clucas said he thought the movement of anti-Washington politicking began in the ‘80s and was simply a response to frustration with the solidification of a class of professional politicians that grew out of 1950s and 1960s.  
“There has been a successful anti-professional movement … I would say primarily grew out of the late 1980s,” Clucas said. “Jimmy Carter’s election was an example of the outsider running for government, so it’s not a new movement. I do think it comes in waves of how loudly you hear it.”
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