ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PORTLAND, ORE.
SOURCE: The Washington Post
Democratic leaders Wednesday were quick to proclaim Democrat Ron Wyden's election to the U.S. Senate a bellwether rejection of the conservative Republican agenda, but Oregon officials said local issues were just as important in Wyden's razor-thin victory.
Even Wyden, who defeated conservative Republican Gordon Smith to become the first Oregon Democrat in three decades to win a Senate seat, acknowledged at a news conference Wednesday that ``this was about Oregon values more than anything else.''
However, he said, his victory ``certainly ought to be a wake-up call to Republicans on issues such as the environment, a woman's right to choose and putting some balance in the balanced budget.''
Wyden, a liberal Democrat who has been in the House since 1980, won with 568,335 votes, or 47.6 percent, to 551,103 votes, or 47.1 percent for Smith, president of the Oregon state Senate.
Wyden will take over the Senate seat vacated last year by former Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., a moderate who resigned after sexual-harassment charges.
Republicans had predicted before the election that Smith would win the seat by as much as 5 percent.
Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour said the closeness of the Oregon election should signal President Clinton that he ``will not be able to take any state for granted in November. He'll have to fight hard for electoral votes even in states as traditionally Democratic as Oregon.''
Haley, in a statement released by the RNC, called Wyden's slim victory ``testimony to the strength of the Republican reform agenda [Smith] offered to the voters.''
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Senator-elect Ron Wyden and his wife, Laurie, beginby CNBa victory tour Wednesday at a senior center in Portland, Ore.