Independent a wild card in Oregon Senate race May 31, 2008 By BRAD CAIN The Associated Press

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) John Frohnmayer can't resist the urge to show off his song-writing ability. So he grabs his guitar and sings a little ditty savaging the Bush administration's treatment of suspected terrorists.

"When they give you rendition ... you'll wish you'd gone fishing ... `cause you're going to be missing ... for a very long time," he croons to the tune of the folk classic, "If I Had a Hammer."

* * * There's nothing that cries out "fringe" about Frohnmayer, a former U.S. Navy officer who served in Vietnam and who lists competitive rowing and downhill skiing as two of his favorite hobbies.

Behind Frohnmayer, on the wall of his private study, is a sign advertising his new stage play, "Spin," a musical comedy he wrote based on his censorship battles with right-wing senators and evangelical preachers when he was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

These days, the ex-GOP-lawyer-turned-liberal arts professor is taking on both major parties in what appears to many a quixotic bid for the U.S. Senate. No third party or independent candidate has ever won a federal office in Oregon.

But the 65-year-old Frohnmayer is eager to try.

As the Independent Party's candidate, Frohnmayer insists he's not running as a spoiler in the three-way race that involves him, incumbent Republican Sen. Gordon Smith and Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley.

"I think my chances of winning are pretty good," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "There are an awful lot of Oregon voters who are disaffected with both major parties."

There's nothing that cries out "fringe" about Frohnmayer, a former U.S. Navy officer who served in Vietnam and who lists competitive rowing and downhill skiing as two of his favorite hobbies.

In fact, he comes from a family grounded in the political establishment — and a Republican family at that. Frohnmayer is the brother of Dave Frohnmayer, the University of Oregon president and former state attorney general. Their parents, Otto and MarAbel Frohnmayer, were for years one of Medford's most prominent couples, active in GOP politics as well as numerous civic causes.

A Stanford University graduate with a master's degree from the University of Chicago and a law degree from the UO, John Frohnmayer was a lawyer with a high-powered Portland law firm when the first President Bush in 1989 tapped him to become head of the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.

He came under attack from the religious right for his defense of federal grants to controversial artists, particularly the late Robert Maplethorpe, whose homoerotic photographs sparked outrage from critics like the late Sen. Jesse Helms.

At the height of the dispute, Bush fired Frohnmayer in 1992 for refusing to renounce the artists. Frohnmayer today said he has no regrets about the stand he took.

"If you're never offended by something, then that means the First Amendment isn't working because you're not hearing views that are contrary to your own," he said.

Frohnmayer and his wife Leah moved in 1995 to Bozeman, Mont., where Frohnmayer set up a private law practice. He often filed lawsuits on behalf of women who felt they were the victims of gender discrimination in the workplace.

Frohnmayer also changed his party registration to Democrat, a party designation he kept until the Frohnmayers moved back to Oregon in 2004. A year later, convinced that the two major parties were more interested in attacking each other than solving problems, Frohnmayer switched to independent.

Political observers aren't quite sure what to make of Frohnmayer's underfunded bid against Smith and Merkley, who both are expected to have millions of dollars at their disposal to flood the airwaves with TV ads in the fall campaign.

It's also not obvious at this stage whether a Frohnmayer candidacy would draw more votes from Merkley or from Smith.

"John Frohnmayer is running a stealth campaign right now," said Robert Eisinger, a political science professor at Lewis & Clark College. "Unless his campaign picks up steam, he won't be pulling too many votes from anybody."

Smith's campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond, said the Republican senator "expects misleading attacks from all sides" in the fall campaign and will be competing for the same independent and Democratic votes Frohnmayer is seeking.

Matt Canter, Merkley's campaign spokesman, called Frohnmayer "a former Republican official from the first Bush administration who has absolutely no record fighting for progressive causes."

But Frohnmayer believes he's in sync with voters by taking positions such as urging the impeachment of President Bush and calling for creation of a Canadian-style, "single-payer" national health care system. He also advocates the immediate pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq, and public financing of congressional races.

He is dismissive of Smith and Merkley, saying both are tools of the Democratic and Republican establishments and special interest groups who will spend millions of dollars to bankroll their campaigns.

"There's really only one party in Washington, D.C., and that's the party of money," he said. "Both these guys are really run by big bucks that can buy you television time."

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