VIABILITY IN OKLAHOMA

A couple weeks ago Jane and I each wrote about a dinner we went to that featured Montana Senator Jon Tester. Back in 2006 Tester was the populist underdog in the Democratic primary race to the DSCC's anointed candidate, State Auditor John Morrison, a DLC hack. Blue America endorsed him and raised money for him from 900 of our members; he beat Morrison and went on to beat the very corrupt and entrenched reactionary incumbent, Conrad Burns.

The ostensible raison de etre for the get together was so Tester could raise some money for his new leadership PAC. He wants to support Democratic candidates running for the Senate. Admirable goal. I asked him a question though. Would he be using his PAC to help real Democrats-- populists and progressives like himself-- or if he'd be using it to support any ole generic Democrat like John Morrison, the DLC hack the Establishment ran against him? I pointed out Oklahoma state Senator Andrew Rice as an example of someone who I find very much like Tester in so many ways. He didn't address the part of the question that draws a distinction between good Democrats and bad Democrats but said he was following Rice's campaign and that if it looked like he had a real shot to win, he'd be there to help!

And that brings us to today's Oklahoman, a reliably right-wing mouthpiece that did its one unbiased report we will ever see on Andrew Rice. The writer raised the same electability question Tester had. He wonders aloud whether environmental and other progressive groups, who have nothing but disdain and contempt for the extremist positions espoused by Inhofe, will see him as vulnerable-- and Rice as viable.

"State Senator Rice in Oklahoma is a good candidate,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the chairman of the senatorial campaign committee, told reporters recently. "He's going to surprise people.”

What would be a surprise in Oklahoma is a Democrat getting more than 41 percent of the vote in a U.S. Senate race.

That hasn't happened since 1990, when former Sen. David Boren won his final race. Inhofe was elected in 1994 to fill Boren's last two years; his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Dave McCurdy got 40 percent of the vote. Neither of Inhofe's last two opponents have topped that. Nor did either of the Democratic opponents of former Sen. Don Nickles, in 1992 and 1998.

In 2004, former U.S. Rep. Brad Carson, a Democrat, got 41 percent of the vote-- in the race to replace Nickles-- against Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee.

If he is ultimately the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat, Rice, like Carson, will be on the ticket in a presidential year, in a red state that hasn't voted for a Democrat for president since 1964.

But Rice sees an opening for a new face, at a time when, he said, voters are tired of partisan gridlock in Washington and nasty campaigns.

"They want competent and responsible government,” he said. "I think sometimes (political) races are portrayed as people are looking for the ideal candidate.

"People are pretty down-to-earth and realistic about what they expect. People want you to pay attention to what they're saying. They want immigration reform. They want affordable health care.”

I know from how Tester responded at dinner last month that he wasn't convinced about Rice's viability. Since then he's looked into it and in early December he's traveling to Oklahoma City to help Rice with a fundraiser. And not only is Tester coming himself, he's bringing Blanche Lincoln, from neighboring Arkansas, as well.