A group of five longtime Eugene-area Republicans are calling on moderate Republicans to vote for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry this November.
In a public meeting at the University’s Baker Downtown Center Wednesday, Republicans Donna Fogelstrom, Patsy Hand, Howard Ollis, Ken Shulman and Jean Tate, who started the Eugene group Republicans for Kerry, spoke in opposition to the Bush administration to an audience of about 40 people, encouraging local moderate Republicans to vote for Kerry.
The group believes Bush has strayed from traditional Republican values such as fiscal responsibility, states’ rights and aid for the middle class, said Shulman, a local contractor and small-business owner. Shulman said he will vote for Kerry, because he does not like the way the Bush administration has mishandled the strong economy passed on by former President Clinton.
“I don’t feel that we can take four more years of damage to our economy,” Shulman said.

Shulman also said Bush has wasted the surplus he was given on an unnecessary war, a prescription-drug plan that only helps drug companies and a tax cut that does not help small-business owners.
“That $300 is not enough for me to fund one benefit plan for one employee for one month,” he said.
University law Professor Garrett Epps, who was invited to the meeting by Republicans for Kerry, said the autonomy of states has always been a core value of the Republican Party — a value Bush has strayed from by repeatedly interfering with social policy in Oregon and other states.
Epps, a professor of constitutional law, said he was also offended by the Bush administration’s attempt to change the U.S. Constitution to force his morality on the country.
“The president takes an oath to support the constitution, it is not given to him to enhance his popularity,” Epps said.
Epps also spoke in support of Kerry. He said Kerry would continue the war is Iraq responsibly and that he has pledged to increase funding for defense and intelligence. Epps said he believes in Kerry because he was not only willing to go to Vietnam and do his duty, but because he was also willing to come back and tell his country that the war in Vietnam was wrong.
Jim Rassmann, a former special forces officer who served with Kerry in Vietnam, said Kerry is the same man with the same character that he had in Vietnam.
Rassmann, a lifelong Republican, said he was “appalled” at the things that have happened in America since the Bush administration took control.
“The Republican Party has been hijacked by ultra-conservatives,” Rassmann said. “It is not my party.”
Rassmann said he was also disgusted by the prisoner abuse in Iraq that has been taking place since the Bush administration took office.
“I know it went on in Vietnam,” Rassmann said. “We should have stopped it then, and we should stop it now.”
Deb Atiyeh, the niece of former Republican governor Vic Atiyeh, echoed that statement, saying Bush has a horrible record on the environment as well as states’ rights. Atiyeh said the Bush administration has shown that it doesn’t value clean air and water, allowing three times as much mercury into the air than the previous administration.
“Corporate polluters have been allowed to write the laws,” Atiyeh said. “George Bush is more concerned with business interests than the health of the people.”
Atiyeh said she was also angered by Attorney General John Ashcroft’s attempt to invalidate Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law, which Oregon enacted through popular election and later confirmed.
After the meeting, sheets were passed out to collect information from audience members who would like to help Republicans for Kerry. The group hopes to hold further meetings with higher attendance before election day.

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