Senate Report Card: Gordon Smith R-OR

Senator Gordon Smith is the junior senator from the state of Oregon. He is a member of the Republican Party, and the only Republican currently holding a state position in what is widely considered a fairly liberal state.

Senator Smith is serving his second term in the senate, and will be up for reelection in 2008. All of his senate races were fairly close, the most recent in 2002 being the widest margin of victory with 56% of the vote. Senator Smith is the ranking member on the special Committee on Aging. In addition, he serves on the Finance; Commerce, Science and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources and Indian Affairs Committees.

Smith is neither seen as a liberal or a total conservative, often taking moderate positions on issues. He is a supporter of expanding hate crime laws to cover gays and lesbians as well. The Oregon Senator is one of few Republicans to be supported by gay rights groups, most notably the Human Rights Campaign. It should be noted that support stemmed from the hate crime legislation, and disappointment also is present by the gay community due to his support of the Federal Marriage Amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Gordon Smith, along with Democrats, introduced legislation that would guarantee gay employees of the federal government domestic partnership benefits.

Senator Gordon Smith is self described as pro-life. His support passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. He broke ranks with the Bush administration in voting for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.

In defense of television programmers, Senator Smith is a supporter of the Digital Content Protection Act. This act would ensure that television programs cannot be recorded by viewers in their homes using TiVo-type digital recorders.

Senator Gordon Smith is one of several Republicans who have broke ranks with the Bush administration with regards to Iraq policy. The senator has spoken out against the war in the time since he voted for the original war authorization approval. Although critical of the handling of the war, Smith has voted for all funding, citing to vote against funding would be dishonorable and dangerous to the troops.

He believes that Iraqis need to be responsible for their own security, and it is not the responsibility of American forces. He called the troop surge of 2007 a "Hail Mary pass" to the Iraqis. Smith believes that ineffective tactics lead to the status quo which has been extremely dangerous in the Middle East.

With 2008 being the year for Senator Smith's reelection to his seat, he is viewed as being very vulnerable to being unseated by a Democrat in that Oregon is a liberal state, and Republican policies are widely unpopular. It appears Smith is separating himself from the party at large to be seen more as an independent thinker, and furthering himself from the Iraq problem.