1982 Oregon RNC Ribbon

This great ribbon was recently offered up on ebay from a seller in Iowa. It is from the 1892 Republican National Convention held in Minneapolis, Minnesota and given out to Oregon delegates.

Kitzhaber 1994 Opponents: Smith & Hickam

John Kitzhaber, the current Governor of Oregon, has just announced his intent to run for re-election for a historic fourth term as Oregon's Governor. If he wins nomination, he will be only the second person in Oregon history to have been nominated 4 times by a major state political party to run for governor (the first being Bob Straub). If he win in November of 2014 he'd be the first Governor in Oregon history to win 4 terms. The Humprhey School of Public Affairs noted that if Kitzhaber is elected and serves his full four years he will be the 2nd longest serving governor in United States history. Iowa Governor Terry Barnstad comes in at number one and Kitzhaber will manage to beat out Californian Jerry Brown.

Elmo Smith 1960 button

As Kitzhaber prepares to take on this feat we'll take a look at some of his campaign items from his last three campaigns, as well as the items of his various opponents over the years. In a well documented political move Kitzhaber met with sitting Governor Barbara Roberts to let her know that he intended to run against her. This event is documented in her 2011 autobiography Up The Capitol Steps gives her perspective on this event. Kitzhaber of course remembers differently and perhaps one day when he gets around to writing his autobiography we will hear his full thoughts on that meeting. The two governors have since put the meeting behind them and Roberts endorsed Kitzhaber in the 2010 general election.

Des Connall Remembered

Another former District Attorney has passed away this year. You might recall we had a previous post about Harl Haas, today, as reported through local media sources, former Multnomah District Attorney Des Connall passed away due to complications from heart surgery.

He served as district attorney of Multnomah county from 1970-1972. Connall was defeated by Haas for re-election as DA in 1972. Here are two pins from his 1972 campaign.

Keynoter: Retire Kennedy in '64 Taken Seriously by Grassroots

John Vargo had an excellent article in the Fall 2013 issue of the APIC Keynoter about the startings of the various movements of the 1964 election prior to the death of JFK. There are several really nice paper items put out by the RNC and pro-Goldwater forces advocating to retire 'The Kennedys'. The thinking was that if the GOP did a good job in the 1964 elections, JFK and RFK would be out of the White House and 'Teddy' Kennedy would be defeated in the Massachusetts Senate race. Two bumper stickers featuring the famous rocking chair and a RWB item from the Midwestern Regional Leadership Conference that was taking place in St. Louis, Missouri. The conference was taking place November 22-23, 1963. At similar conferences a set of three rocking chairs would be set up near the lobby of the conference for display.

Vargo's article mentions a mailer the RNC started sending out to raise funds for JFK's retirement fund. Upon some further research, it was discovered that some Republicans in the early fall of 1963 took this solicitation request seriously and were not very happy about it. The Toledo Blade covered one such Utah Republicans response to the fundraising request. The RNC wanted individuals to donate $10 dollars to help fund efforts for the party at defeating JFK in the upcoming election. A man in Utah sent back his mailer to the RNC with this response, "I think this is silly. Why can't the Kennedys live on the liberal provisions provided for upon retirement the same as Hoover, Truman and Eisenhower are managing to do? I'm not interested in contributing to any additional retirement fund for them."Sometimes things just go over our heads.

A Time For Greatness

Here is an example of a JFK Oregon campaign poster. 

This poster showed up on ebay a few months ago, and it was the first time I had ever seen this style of poster in an Oregon version. It looks to be printed on heavier cardboard stock and has the Oregon campaign information on the bottom.

JFK 50 Years Later

With the approaching 50th Anniversary since JFK's passing I went through my collection and pulled out all my JFK pins. It isn't much, but when you've been in college and working part time for the better part of the time you've been collecting you don't get much of a chance to get some of the 'good stuff', as JFK items have always been desirable.

From Carl Fisher Collection

Oregon member Grant Schott wrote up a great recap of JFK's visits to Oregon in the lead up to the 1960 Oregon Presidential Primary over at BlueOregon (one of the leading political blogs of the state). 

Veterans Day 2013

With Veterans Day 2013 soon upon us, it seemed appropriate to look at some of the political items used by and to appeal to veterans during our heated political campaigns. 2012 marked an interesting moment in American politics. It was the first time that none of the major candidates were veterans themselves. John McCain was the last veteran to be nominated by a major political party back in 2008.

McCain 2000 Pin

2008 Bumper Sticker