Remembering John McCain in Oregon

Bush and McCain campaigning in Oregon 2000

With the passing of Arizona Senator John McCain, I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the political items generated by his campaign, especially the Oregon items. During the historic 2008 presidential election, McCain made one swing through Oregon right before the May primary.  Yet, he still managed to make it to the Beaver State several times before and after his 2008 presidential run.

Early Life & Non-Campaign Visits

John McCain found himself standing next to Oregonian Gary Hill in one of the most widely used photos of a young John McCain completing a flight training. The photo was used a lot during his 2008 campaign. The Bend Bulletin covered the life of Gary Hill and his connection with McCain in this article.

We know, thanks to Jeff Mapes that he came to Oregon in 1993 to headline an Oregon Citizens Alliance fundraiser in Portland. You can read about that here: McCain 1993 visit.

Part of the deal for McCain coming to headline the dinner was to help keep Bob Packwood from getting a social conservative primary or third-party challenger in the '92 campaign. Lon Mabon, the leader of the OCA would eventually run for the U.S. Senate in 1996. Finishing with only 8% of the Republican Primary vote. Here is a Mabon for Senate button. McCain kept his word, even if Oregon's other Senator, Mark Hatfield was suggesting he should back out.

In the recap from Jeff Mapes, it mentions Chair of the Oregon Log Cabin Republicans, Mr. Lee Coleman. I know Lee Coleman. By the time I had met Lee he had become a Democrat and was running for the Oregon House in district 26 in 2006. Here is a photo of his button from that campaign.

This visit was unusual because you don't necessarily equate the views of John McCain to the Lon Mabon crowd. He made sure his speech set an appropriate tone that would not offend his hosts nor his supporters that fundamentally disagreed with the OCA. We learned that McCain also met with other local leaders from the NAACP and the local Jewish Federation to help smooth things over. The Seattle Gay News covered more of the speech and fallouts in a 2008 post around the time of the Democratic National Convention.  As soon as he was done with the dinner he bolted for his plane.

Mitch Greenlick: Capitol Letters & Buttons

One of the great joys of also collecting political buttons and working in politics is meeting the candidates behind the button. Over the years I have had the chance to get to know Oregon State Representative Mitch Greenlick. He has represented Washington County and Multnomah County in the legislature since 2002. He first ran in 2000 and was defeated and ran again in 2002 and has won every re-election since (2004,2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016). He is currently up for re-election in 2018.

There are some buttons that his campaign produced in the early years. All that I have picked up are badge-a-mint produced by supporter Wayne Anderson. For a long time, all I had known about was a 2.25" version. Just this last week I was able to find a 3" version as well!

Gore Family BBQ Pin

Some new national items found their way in my mailbox two weeks ago. I don't usually go out of my way to purchase items from other states, but these were convention and single day event related so I went for them.

I posted a few images on the APIC facebook page and got some responses. While they are fairly uncommon and even a rare one or two, because they are mostly Gore related items they do not set the hearts of collectors afire with need. Most were between $5 and $15 each. One pin did draw me to the lot a little more. It was this Gore Family BBQ pin from 1997.

I have found only two brief mentions of the 2nd Annual Gore Family BBQ from clippings in 1998, but nothing on the 1st Annual Gore Family BBQ, which is apparently where this pin is from. What was the purpose of this BBQ? Was it to help organize his partisans in Tennessee to keep them focused on 2000? Was it to raise money for local candidates? If you can find a newspaper article from the period, I would appreciate seeing it.

Gore items from 1996-2000 intrigue me the most of any Gore items. I have seen items promoting Gore for President in 2000 as early as 1997, on the heels of finishing the 1996 election Gore and supporters got to planning his 2000 effort. If you have any Gore 2000 items that can be traced to this time period please feel free to share them.

Ric Flair for Governor?

If you asked some people, I'm sure they would tell you professional wrestling and politics have a lot in common. There is the theatrics of trying to tell a story to win over a crowd. The competition of facing off your opponents. The tables, ladders and chairs. Ok...maybe not exactly that tough, but you get the idea. Sadly, there is also that part to politics and professional wrestling that you just know is predetermined. We know before going in who is going to win in most cases. Sometimes the writers pull a surprise and have Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in Iowa...but most of the time we know who is going to win. Folks like Nate Silver have made election night surprises very rare.

After Jesse The Body Ventura's remarkable win for the governorship of Minnesota in 1998 other professional wrestlers started contemplating running for public office. There have been draft movements to get folks like Hulk Hogan to run for President.

During the 2000 Democratic and Republican National Conventions stars like Mick Foley and The Rock addressed the conventions to get young voters to tune into politics. Wrestling was king during this time in American pop culture. Politicos who never heard of Mankind, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, were taking notes from these folks on engaging young voters. These efforts were called 'Smackdown Your Vote!' and were repeated during the next several elections. 


The UPN show Smackdown was one of the highest rated programs on television in 2000 and WWE (then WWF) sent out a challenge to Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W. Bush to appear and have a 'youth debate'. The 'jabronis' as The Rock would call them, never showed up.