District 5: Verger.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Voters in Senate District 5 should ignore the hype about how the outcome of the race between Democrat Joanne Verger and Republican Al Pearn could determine which party controls the state Senate. Instead, they should focus on electing the best candidate.

If they weigh the accomplishments and experience of Verger - two terms in the Oregon House and four terms as Coos Bay's first woman mayor - against the slender public service background of Pearn - three unsuccessful bids for the Washington Legislature - Verger emerges as the clear choice.

Pearn attempts to downplay his own inexperience by labeling Verger a "professional politician." But Verger didn't enter elective politics until she was 58, at a time many people are planning for retirement.

Before her successful campaign for a Coos Bay City Council seat in 1990, Verger devoted her energy to the car dealership she started and still co-owns with her husband, and to numerous civic projects.

After her groundbreaking eight-year tenure as Coos Bay's mayor, Verger ran successfully in 2000 for the Legislature in House District 9 and was re-elected in 2002. Now she's seeking the seat vacated by Republican Sen. Ken Messerle in a newly configured district that no longer contains conservative Curry County but has added Lincoln County.

Verger has a tough fight on her hands. The strategic importance of District 5 has attracted big Republican Leadership Fund contributions to Pearn's campaign, and the gloves are off. Verger has accused Pearn and the Leadership Fund of running a smear campaign, which Pearn and Republican officials deny.

Pearn is an articulate and hard-nosed campaigner who knows which buttons to press in support of Republican themes. Democrats, Pearn says, "look at the coast as a place for recreation, as opposed to a place for living-wage jobs."

He also argues that he can better represent the district because he lives in Florence, its geographic center. It's more likely that the candidate who has lived and worked in the district for the longest time will make a better representative. On that score, it's no contest: Verger has been a businesswoman and civic activist in Coos Bay for more than 30 years. Pearn, a retired Army officer, moved to Florence from Tacoma in 1994 and started a tree farm.

Try as he might, Pearn also is having trouble tarring Verger with the standard "liberal Democrat" label. Verger didn't become a successful representative of the rough-and-tumble South Coast without understanding her constituents.

Farming and economic development issues are hugely important in her district. Verger has been given an A grade for her agriculture voting record by the Oregon Farm Bureau. Associated Oregon Industries ranked her as voting for its preferred positions 69 percent of the time during the 2003 legislative session, the highest ranking of any Democrat in the Legislature. The Oregon National Federation of Independent Businesses scored Verger as voting for its positions 82 percent of the time.

Further confounding Pearn's effort to pigeonhole her as a liberal, Verger received a rating of only 33 percent from the American Civil Liberties Union and a rating of 47 percent from the Oregon League of Conservation Voters for her votes during the 2001 session.

For the past 14 years, Verger has found common ground in an often contentious political arena. It didn't hurt that she and her husband, Lawton, have been married for 54 years. No one can stay married for 54 years without learning a thing or two about compromise.

District 5 voters need someone with Verger's ability to reach across the aisle and make things happen in Salem. They should mark their ballots to send her to the Senate.