Opinion: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama looking ahead to Oregon

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PORTLAND, Ore. -- We’re guessing neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama has ever climbed Mt. Hood, hiked the Wallowas or pulled salmon from the Columbia River. But that isn’t stopping the two Democratic presidential hopefuls from arguing their Oregon credentials in the run-up to this state’s May 20 primary.

As they’ve done across the country, both candidates released state-specific issue plans here in recent days. They’re mostly detailed highlights of the campaigns’ national policy proposals with some local stats thrown in. But they each tackle a few local concerns too. Clinton’s ‘Oregon Compact,’ for example, promises to protect the state’s unique assisted-suicide law. Obama’s ‘Change Oregon can Believe In’ pledges to restore dwindling wild salmon runs.

These are big issues in Oregon, a state that equally prizes its natural resources and its political independent streak. So of course, as the Oregonian newspaper reported this morning, the campaigns are hammering each other over them.

Clinton’s Oregon spokesman ripped Obama Thursday for including a reference to the Great Lakes in his plan, calling it proof that the state is an ‘afterthought’ for ...

the Illinois senator. Obama’s Oregon spokesman responded by noting Clinton misspelled ‘liquefied’ in a section of her plan that deals with the siting of controversial new natural gas facilities in the state.

The actual policy plans show little difference between Clinton and Obama on Oregon issues. They particularly agree on one point: their willingness to suck up to the state. ‘Oregon has often led the nation when it comes to crafting creative, innovative solutions to complex problems,’ Clinton says in her Compact. ‘Even before Oregon became a state in 1859,’ Obama says in his ‘Change’ plan, ‘Oregonians have pioneered new solutions to America’s most intractable social problems.’

Oregon is left to wonder: Do you say that to all the states?

-- Jim Tankersley

Jim Tankersley writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau.