1990 United States Senate election in Oregon

Primaries

The front-runners emerged quickly: for the Republicans, Hatfield was in his fourth term and was the 8th most senior U.S. Senator, having previously served as Governor of Oregon for two terms and Oregon Secretary of State. For the Democrats, Harry Lonsdale, who had founded the biotechnology company Bend Research, announced in early 1990 that he intended to aggressively challenge Hatfield over the incumbent's ties to special interests, and his positions on abortion rights and timber management.{{cite news | access-date = March 31, 2011

Republican primary

Campaign

In the Republican primary, Hatfield received a token challenge from Randy Prince, an environmentalist and former Eugene mayoral candidate who had once protested old-growth forest logging by tree sitting for 40 days.{{cite news | access-date = March 31, 2011

Results

Democratic primary

Campaign

Representative Ron Wyden of Oregon's 3rd congressional district considered challenging Hatfield, but decided against it.{{cite news | access-date = March 31, 2011 | access-date = March 31, 2011 | access-date = March 31, 2011}}

Results

General election

Campaign

Once the primaries concluded, Hatfield, who had been first elected U.S. Senator in 1966, rolled out his usual campaign honed from his decades of experience: he refused debates, never engaged his opponent directly, and focused on small, friendly campaign appearances that stressed the influence he wielded as a U.S. Senator with seniority and influence.

Lonsdale's self-financed campaign made heavy use of TV attack ads, criticizing Hatfield as being out of step with Oregonians on every issue, but primarily in terms of timber and abortion. He also made use of a nationwide anti-incumbency sentiment, and tore into Hatfield for being too closely tied to Washington special interests, and attempted to tie Hatfield to the Savings and loan crisis of the mid-1980s through his advisor Gerry Frank of the Meier & Frank chain of Oregon department stores, who had ties to a Salem savings and loan. By early October, polls showed the gap closing from 25 down to about 4 points in an early October poll conducted by The Oregonian newspaper, and by the end of October, some polls showed Lonsdale in the lead.{{cite news | access-date = March 31, 2011

With the polls running against him and time running out, Hatfield, who had not been seriously challenged since first being elected in 1966 and had never lost an election,{{cite news | access-date = March 31, 2011 | access-date = March 31, 2011 | access-date = March 31, 2011

Results

Aftermath

This would be Hatfield's last term as U.S. Senator. He announced his retirement from the Senate in 1996. Despite stating that he was finished with politics following his loss to Hatfield, Lonsdale sought the Democratic nomination for Oregon's other Senate seat, held by Republican Bob Packwood in the 1992 Senate election, but lost in an extremely close and bitter primary to U.S. Congressman Les AuCoin. Lonsdale tried again for the Democratic nomination for the seat vacated by Hatfield in the 1996 Senate election, but lost by a wide margin to Mentor Graphics founder Tom Bruggere, who in turn lost to Republican Gordon Smith.

References

References

1. Cain, Brad. (May 16, 1990). "Lonsdale getting ready to battle Hatsfield". [[Albany Democrat-Herald]].
2. Liep, Dave. "1990 Senatorial General Election Results - Oregon".