Barnhart faces well-backed rival.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

Two-term state Rep. Phil Barnhart, a Democrat, is facing a well-financed challenge in the November election from political neophyte Michael Spasaro in House District 11, which combines parts of south Eugene with east Lane and south Linn counties.

Spasaro, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent living near Lebanon, has received heavy backing in his bid against Barnhart from a political action committee trying to oust several key Democrats from office.

In their most recent campaign filings, Spasaro reported raising $53,537, with his largest contribution being $24,200 from the House Republicans PAC; Barnhart reported raising $36,506, with Barnhart being his own biggest contributor at $8,615.

Barnhart says he isn't worried.

"You know, elections are the process of having a conversation with the voters," he said. "And I am going to have a conversation with the voters whether I have an opponent or not."

The Eugene psychologist says the most important job facing the Legislature right now is closing loopholes in the state's tax code that allow corporations and wealthy individuals to skate by without paying their share of taxes.

"The real job of the Legislature is to work on funding schools and health care and creating jobs," he said. "The way we get there is, we have to stop giving away our hard-earned tax dollars to big corporations and the wealthy in Oregon. In the last four years, I have voted against over a billion dollars in tax loopholes for corporations. If we had that money, we could afford to fund schools and health care."

Despite the GOP effort to push him out of office, Barnhart says it's more likely that the Democrats will gain control of the Legislature - first the Senate and eventually the House - for the first time in 14 years.

"There is a path to get there with the House," he said. "I wouldn't claim it is likely this time. But I think it is likely next time. We are very likely to win the Senate this time. Anybody will tell you that - even the Republicans, if they're talking off the record."

Spasaro, the retired DEA agent, said that after a career of secretive public service, he decided to run for office so he could work entirely in the open. "It feels good to be able to go out there and really tell people what you think," he said.

His two big priorities are public safety and education, Spasaro said. Where he differs most from Barnhart is where he would find the money to pay for them.

"I would stimulate our economy," he said. "Instead of having the attitude that business is our enemy, I would say, `What could we do to help you prosper?' We have to work with our businesses. We collect most of our taxes from small business."

Spasaro comes to politics from a lengthy career in law enforcement, starting off as a patrol officer with the Fort Lauderdale police in 1974 and working his way up to being resident agent in charge of the DEA's office in Turkey.

There, he says, he oversaw the "world's largest seizure" of 5,751 kilograms of morphine base, from which heroin is made, in 1993.

Spasaro also acquired a blemish on his record in Turkey. According to a 10-page document posted on the a pro-marijuana Web site, Spasaro was to be suspended for 30 days from his job and demoted after the DEA Office of Professional Responsibility found in 1995 that he had misused his office by asking U.S. immigration officials to investigate his Turkish girlfriend's ex-husband over a child custody issue.

Among the allegations against him were that he was "deliberately evasive" in his response to investigators and "conveniently could not remember" specifics of the case.

Spasaro doesn't deny helping the woman, who is now his wife, though he says it is untrue that she was his girlfriend at the time of the alleged incidents. He says the Web document is genuine but misleading; it was later expunged from his record, he says, and contains allegations that are untrue. "I never lied and I never misled anybody," he says.

Spasaro says the incident actually resulted in a reprimand and a "voluntary downgrade" in position, from resident agent in charge to senior investigator, but no suspension.

"All I did was help a scared mother get her kidnapped daughter back again," he says. "If the incident was to happen today, I would do exactly the same thing but I would document the events as they happened."

More recently, Spasaro was in the news in Oregon in 2002 when, as a DEA agent, he seized 12 state-licensed marijuana plants from a Lebanon quadriplegic, who filed a federal lawsuit in response.

"DEA policy and direction from the Department of Justice requires that any DEA (agent) seeing marijuana must seize the drug even if the person has a state license to possess the drug," Spasaro said. "So that is what I did."

HOUSE DISTRICT 11

House District 11 includes parts of south Eugene, along with portions of south Linn and East Lane counties. Its communities include Brownsville, Coburg, Creswell, Marcola and Pleasant Hill.

Name: Phil Barnhart

Age: 58

Family: Wife, Florence; two grown children

Education: History, psychology, law degrees, UO; master's, doctorate degrees, California School of Professional Psychology

Civic/political experience: State representative since 2001; Lane County Democratic Party chairman, 2000; Eugene School Board member, 1994-2001; former member, state Board of Psychologist Examiners

Work: State representative

Contact: 484-5119

Name: Michael Spasaro

Age: 52

Family: Wife, Canan; four children, 4, 8, 17 and 18

Education: Bachelor of Arts, Florida Atlantic University, 1980.

Civic/political experience: Calapooia District Board, Boy Scouts of America; Linn County Commission on Families and Children; Lebanon School District Budget Committee

Work: Retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent; teaches part time at Linn-Benton Community College 

Contact: 689-3261