Long shot in Senate race isn't daunted

By JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press

AP Rancher Al King is the longshot Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Oregon. By June, he'd raised $11,457 and spent all but $300 in his race against Sen. Ron Wyden.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

MALIN, Ore. — It's a long jump from political discussions in the corner booth of Don's Diner to the U.S. Senate, but cattle rancher Al King — all 6 feet 5 inches and 250 pounds of him — is happy to try it.

He won the Republican nomination in a six-way primary, but the Republican Party is giving him little support in carrying his arch-conservative views from this tiny ranching and farming community.

After winning the primary, King, former state Republican vice chairman, wrote what he calls the "velvet-glove letter," asking for money from prominent Republicans and committees.

"Not one response," said King, 58. "This is going to be probably the cheapest campaign that has ever been run for U.S. Senate in the history of the Republican Party. It's shameful that they are going to allow a senatorial seat to go for a small piece of change."

With a sign at the end of his driveway demanding the United States get out of the United Nations, King is nothing like moderate Oregon Republican senators past, such as Mark Hatfield and Bob Packwood.

King is up against the well-financed and battle-hardened campaign of incumbent Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Wyden raised $4.6 million and had $3.7 million cash on hand, according to campaign-finance reports from last June.

King reported raising $11,457 and spending all but $300 of it. The National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Oregon Republican Party have given him no money.

"Mr. King's views are pretty far out of the mainstream, even in the Republican Party," said Wyden campaign spokesman Jeff Stuckert. "He wants to abolish the Department of Education. He's in favor of a national sales tax. I don't think he's going to qualify for the compassionate-conservative club with that agenda."
 
Born on a ranch in Napa, Calif., King spent 20 years with the California Department of Justice, then had a grading and paving business in Sacramento before moving in 1995 to Oregon, where he runs 100 head of red angus.

King said many people told him he couldn't break into the construction business, but he did it with a pickup with no reverse gear and a worn-out tractor.

"You get your little toe in, your finger in, next thing you know you're completely in there," he said. "That's what's going to happen with this campaign."

Previously, the highest office King had held was on the Klamath Community College board. He decided to run for the Senate minutes before the filing deadline, when he saw no one prominent was running.

He won the GOP primary but now is struggling. His wife prints campaign brochures using the home computer and printer. He has no money for television advertising. A fund-raising appeal was hand-addressed by a family in Corvallis.

Oregon Republican Party Chairman Kevin Mannix said he couldn't persuade a higher-profile candidate to run, given Wyden's popularity and financing, but denied the GOP was ignoring King.

"It is fairly traditional in Oregon that individual candidates have to go out and raise their own money," Mannix said.

King remains undaunted.

"I know what the odds are," he said. "That's not going to stop me until Nov. 2. Then we'll find out what my next excellent adventure is going to be."