United States Senate election in Oregon, 1966
Encyclopedia
The 1966 Oregon United States Senate election was held on November 6, 1966 to select the U.S. Senator
from the state of Oregon
. Incumbent Senator Maurine Brown Neuberger
did not seek re-election. Held during the escalation of United States involvement of the Vietnam War
, the race was between Republican
candidate and incumbent Governor of Oregon
Mark Hatfield
, who opposed the war, and Democratic
congressman Robert B. Duncan
, who supported the war. In an unusual move, Oregon's other Senator, Democrat Wayne Morse
, who also opposed the war, crossed party lines to endorse Hatfield, who won in a close election, his first of five terms in the United States Senate.
died in office. Despite calls to appoint his widow, Maurine Brown Neuberger
, to the position, Governor Mark Hatfield
instead appointed Oregon Supreme Court
justice Hall S. Lusk
to fill the position until a November special election. Hatfield stated that he intended to have appointed Neuberger, but that he wanted to appoint someone who would be focused on completing the remaining eight months of the term and not running in the regular-term Senate election as Neuberger had announced she would. Some observers noted that Hatfield, a Republican, though required by state law to appoint someone of the same political party as the late Senator Neuberger, did not want to give the other party the political advantage of incumbency.
Neuberger went on to win the special election over former Oregon governor Elmo Smith
, but despite the urging of Oregon congressman Robert B. Duncan
, she chose not to run for a second term in 1966, citing health issues, poor relations with Oregon's senior Senator Wayne Morse
, and the burden of fundraising. Duncan also urged fellow Oregon congressperson Edith Green
to run for the post, but Green also declined.
, he had been among the first to walk through the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
; in a later assignment in Vietnam, he saw first-hand how imperialism led to incredible disparity, with poor Vietnamese living in poverty next to opulent French mansions. The war issue gave Hatfield competition from several minor candidates on the right, but Hatfield nonetheless won by a wide margin, besting his nearest competitor, conservative evangelist Walter Huss, by a nearly 6–1 margin.
's escalation of the Vietnam War with its goal of stopping Communist expansion in Asia. Duncan's strong announcement exposed a rift among Oregon Democrats, including Oregon's senior Senator Wayne Morse
, a leading anti-war voice, and Duncan's House colleague, Edith Green
. Green had urged Duncan to run, but Duncan's hawkish statement troubled her. Soon after Duncan announced his candidacy, Howard Morgan, a former member of the Federal Power Commission
, announced he was running as an anti-war option to Duncan. Morgan had the support of Morse and Green (though Green's endorsement did not come until the final week of the campaign), and Duncan had the endorsement of most of the party organization and the major newspapers in the state. When the results were announced, Duncan won by a nearly 2-1 margin in one of the first elections in which the Vietnam War was a central issue.
Democrat and Hatfield, an anti-war Republican. With more than three-quarters of Oregonians sharing his view on the war, Duncan used the issue to attack Hatfield, stating that the outcome of the war would determine "whether Americans will die in the buffalo grass of Vietnam or the rye grass of Oregon." Duncan also stressed that his election was necessary to provide a pro-Government voice for Oregon to counteract the anti-war views of Senator Morse. Morse, who had strongly supported Duncan's rival in the primary, now went across party lines and threw his support to Hatfield, though he did not campaign for him.
Hatfield, whose popularity as Governor had made him the favorite in the race, soon found his campaign in trouble. Morse's support backfired among many Republicans; Morse had left their party in 1952 to join the Democrats a few years later, and many worried that Hatfield would follow the same path. At a June conference of governors of all 50 states, Hatfield was the lone dissenter on a resolution expressing support for the war, calling the resolution a "blank check" for President Johnson's conduct of the war. By the middle of the summer, fueled by the departure of Republican hawks (such as former Oregon State Treasurer
and 1962 Senate candidate Sig Unander who wholeheartedly endorsed Duncan), and with a strong majority of voters in the state already registered as Democrats, Duncan surged to a lead in most polls.
While Hatfield did not back away from his war stance, he sought to focus his campaign on other issues, chiefly focusing on the Johnson administration's economic policies that, in Hatfield's view, had created a recession that was creating unmployment in Oregon's timber industry. As the election neared in early fall, Hatfield had pulled even with Duncan with momentum on his side. Hatfield won in 27 of Oregon's 36 counties en route to a solid but narrow 52%-48% victory. In his victory speech, Hatfield maintained that the vote was not a referendum on the war and that "neither Hanoi
nor Washington
should misread the results."
, but came in second in a close three-way primary that he might have won had not a third candidate drawn off some anti-Morse votes. After Morse's loss to Bob Packwood
in the 1968 general election, Duncan and Morse again squared off for the Democratic nomination in the 1972 Senate election to face Hatfield. Morse won again, and lost to Hatfield in the general election. In 1974, Duncan was re-elected to the House of Representatives. He served three terms before being defeated in the Democratic primary by Ron Wyden
in 1980.
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from the state of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. Incumbent Senator Maurine Brown Neuberger
Maurine Brown Neuberger
Maurine Brown Neuberger was an United States senator for the State of Oregon from November 1960 to January 1967. She was the fourth woman elected to the United States Senate and the tenth woman to serve in the body. She and her husband, Richard L. Neuberger, are regarded as the Senate's first...
did not seek re-election. Held during the escalation of United States involvement of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the race was between Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidate and incumbent Governor of Oregon
Governor of Oregon
The Governor of Oregon is the top executive of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. territorial governments....
Mark Hatfield
Mark Hatfield
Mark Odom Hatfield was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served for 30 years as a United States Senator from Oregon, and also as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee...
, who opposed the war, and Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
congressman Robert B. Duncan
Robert B. Duncan
Robert Blackford Duncan was an American politician from the state of Oregon. A Democrat, he served multiple terms in the Oregon Legislative Assembly and as a U.S. congressman from Oregon. In the Oregon House of Representatives he served as speaker for four years, and in the U.S. House he...
, who supported the war. In an unusual move, Oregon's other Senator, Democrat Wayne Morse
Wayne Morse
Wayne Lyman Morse was a politician and attorney from Oregon, United States, known for his proclivity for opposing his parties' leadership, and specifically for his opposition to the Vietnam War on constitutional grounds....
, who also opposed the war, crossed party lines to endorse Hatfield, who won in a close election, his first of five terms in the United States Senate.
Background
In March 1960, first-term U.S. Senator Richard L. NeubergerRichard L. Neuberger
Richard Lewis Neuberger was a U.S. journalist, author, and politician during the middle of the 20th century. A native of Oregon, he would write for The New York Times before and after a stint in the United States Army during World War II...
died in office. Despite calls to appoint his widow, Maurine Brown Neuberger
Maurine Brown Neuberger
Maurine Brown Neuberger was an United States senator for the State of Oregon from November 1960 to January 1967. She was the fourth woman elected to the United States Senate and the tenth woman to serve in the body. She and her husband, Richard L. Neuberger, are regarded as the Senate's first...
, to the position, Governor Mark Hatfield
Mark Hatfield
Mark Odom Hatfield was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served for 30 years as a United States Senator from Oregon, and also as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee...
instead appointed Oregon Supreme Court
Oregon Supreme Court
The Oregon Supreme Court is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States. The OSC holds court at the Oregon Supreme Court Building in Salem, Oregon, near the capitol...
justice Hall S. Lusk
Hall S. Lusk
Hall Stoner Lusk was an American jurist and politician in the state of Oregon. A native of the District of Columbia, he became a judge in Oregon, serving in both the Oregon circuit courts and later on the Oregon Supreme Court, including time as its Chief Justice...
to fill the position until a November special election. Hatfield stated that he intended to have appointed Neuberger, but that he wanted to appoint someone who would be focused on completing the remaining eight months of the term and not running in the regular-term Senate election as Neuberger had announced she would. Some observers noted that Hatfield, a Republican, though required by state law to appoint someone of the same political party as the late Senator Neuberger, did not want to give the other party the political advantage of incumbency.
Neuberger went on to win the special election over former Oregon governor Elmo Smith
Elmo Smith
Elmo Everett Smith was an American politician, a Republican, and the 27th Governor of the state of Oregon, U.S., from 1956 to 1957.-Early life:...
, but despite the urging of Oregon congressman Robert B. Duncan
Robert B. Duncan
Robert Blackford Duncan was an American politician from the state of Oregon. A Democrat, he served multiple terms in the Oregon Legislative Assembly and as a U.S. congressman from Oregon. In the Oregon House of Representatives he served as speaker for four years, and in the U.S. House he...
, she chose not to run for a second term in 1966, citing health issues, poor relations with Oregon's senior Senator Wayne Morse
Wayne Morse
Wayne Lyman Morse was a politician and attorney from Oregon, United States, known for his proclivity for opposing his parties' leadership, and specifically for his opposition to the Vietnam War on constitutional grounds....
, and the burden of fundraising. Duncan also urged fellow Oregon congressperson Edith Green
Edith Green
Edith Louise Starrett Green was an American politician and educator in the state of Oregon. A native of South Dakota, she was raised in Oregon and completed her education at the University of Oregon and Stanford University...
to run for the post, but Green also declined.
Campaign
On the seventh anniversary of his inauguration as Oregon's 29th governor, Hatfield announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination. In his announcement, Hatfield focused on the economic achievements in the state since his election, citing record-high employment and the creation of 138,000 jobs. Hatfield was considered vulnerable on the subject of the Vietnam War, which he opposed, in contrast with 75% of Oregonians, who favored the war. Hatfield's views on the war had been strongly affected by his own experiences: as a U.S. Navy ensign in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he had been among the first to walk through the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
; in a later assignment in Vietnam, he saw first-hand how imperialism led to incredible disparity, with poor Vietnamese living in poverty next to opulent French mansions. The war issue gave Hatfield competition from several minor candidates on the right, but Hatfield nonetheless won by a wide margin, besting his nearest competitor, conservative evangelist Walter Huss, by a nearly 6–1 margin.
Results
Campaign
In March 1966, Duncan announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination, which was quickly endorsed by Neuberger. In his speech announcing his candidacy, Duncan reiterated his strong support for President Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
's escalation of the Vietnam War with its goal of stopping Communist expansion in Asia. Duncan's strong announcement exposed a rift among Oregon Democrats, including Oregon's senior Senator Wayne Morse
Wayne Morse
Wayne Lyman Morse was a politician and attorney from Oregon, United States, known for his proclivity for opposing his parties' leadership, and specifically for his opposition to the Vietnam War on constitutional grounds....
, a leading anti-war voice, and Duncan's House colleague, Edith Green
Edith Green
Edith Louise Starrett Green was an American politician and educator in the state of Oregon. A native of South Dakota, she was raised in Oregon and completed her education at the University of Oregon and Stanford University...
. Green had urged Duncan to run, but Duncan's hawkish statement troubled her. Soon after Duncan announced his candidacy, Howard Morgan, a former member of the Federal Power Commission
Federal Power Commission
The Federal Power Commission was an independent commission of the United States government, originally organized on June 23, 1930, with five members nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate...
, announced he was running as an anti-war option to Duncan. Morgan had the support of Morse and Green (though Green's endorsement did not come until the final week of the campaign), and Duncan had the endorsement of most of the party organization and the major newspapers in the state. When the results were announced, Duncan won by a nearly 2-1 margin in one of the first elections in which the Vietnam War was a central issue.
Results
Campaign
The general election was now set up between two participants whose views on the Vietnam War were in direct opposition to the majority of opinion in their party: Duncan, a pro-warDemocrat and Hatfield, an anti-war Republican. With more than three-quarters of Oregonians sharing his view on the war, Duncan used the issue to attack Hatfield, stating that the outcome of the war would determine "whether Americans will die in the buffalo grass of Vietnam or the rye grass of Oregon." Duncan also stressed that his election was necessary to provide a pro-Government voice for Oregon to counteract the anti-war views of Senator Morse. Morse, who had strongly supported Duncan's rival in the primary, now went across party lines and threw his support to Hatfield, though he did not campaign for him.
Hatfield, whose popularity as Governor had made him the favorite in the race, soon found his campaign in trouble. Morse's support backfired among many Republicans; Morse had left their party in 1952 to join the Democrats a few years later, and many worried that Hatfield would follow the same path. At a June conference of governors of all 50 states, Hatfield was the lone dissenter on a resolution expressing support for the war, calling the resolution a "blank check" for President Johnson's conduct of the war. By the middle of the summer, fueled by the departure of Republican hawks (such as former Oregon State Treasurer
Oregon State Treasurer
The Oregon State Treasurer is a constitutional officer within the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon, elected by statewide vote to serve a four year term. As chief financial officer for the state, the office holder heads the Oregon State Treasury, and with the Governor...
and 1962 Senate candidate Sig Unander who wholeheartedly endorsed Duncan), and with a strong majority of voters in the state already registered as Democrats, Duncan surged to a lead in most polls.
While Hatfield did not back away from his war stance, he sought to focus his campaign on other issues, chiefly focusing on the Johnson administration's economic policies that, in Hatfield's view, had created a recession that was creating unmployment in Oregon's timber industry. As the election neared in early fall, Hatfield had pulled even with Duncan with momentum on his side. Hatfield won in 27 of Oregon's 36 counties en route to a solid but narrow 52%-48% victory. In his victory speech, Hatfield maintained that the vote was not a referendum on the war and that "neither Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
nor Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
should misread the results."
Results
Aftermath
Hatfield would be re-elected to five more terms, most comfortably, before retiring from the Senate in 1996. Duncan sought revenge against Morse in the Democratic primary of the 1968 Senate electionUnited States Senate election in Oregon, 1968
The 1968 United States Senate election in Oregon was held on November 5, 1968. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Wayne Morse was narrowly defeated by Republican Bob Packwood.-Democratic primary:...
, but came in second in a close three-way primary that he might have won had not a third candidate drawn off some anti-Morse votes. After Morse's loss to Bob Packwood
Bob Packwood
Robert William "Bob" Packwood is a U.S. politician from Oregon and a member of the Republican Party. He resigned from the United States Senate, under threat of expulsion, in 1995 after allegations of sexual harassment, abuse and assault of women emerged.-Early life and career:Packwood was born in...
in the 1968 general election, Duncan and Morse again squared off for the Democratic nomination in the 1972 Senate election to face Hatfield. Morse won again, and lost to Hatfield in the general election. In 1974, Duncan was re-elected to the House of Representatives. He served three terms before being defeated in the Democratic primary by Ron Wyden
Ron Wyden
Ronald Lee "Ron" Wyden is the senior U.S. Senator for Oregon, serving since 1996, and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1996....
in 1980.