GOP's chairman stumps in Oregon.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

With the fall campaign season still weeks away, this is the time when energizing the party faithful is a main priority, according to the country's top Republican operative.

And Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, was in Eugene on Tuesday to do just that.

He arrived here for a ribbon-cutting at the Oregon Republican Party's new "Lane County Victory Office" in Eugene, and to speak at a fund-raiser at the Town Club of Eugene. Today, he will continue his Oregon swing with an appearance at a Portland rally to boost Republican voter registration.

Gillespie, a longtime political worker and lobbyist, said that when he first did election work 20 years ago, campaigns could spend months trying to corral the 20 percent or so of the electorate that was considered undecided.

But in this year's presidential race between President Bush, a Republican, Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry, and possibly independent Ralph Nader, he said, the fraction of voters considered up for grabs has shrunk to 8 percent to 10 percent. And those voters are considered unlikely to start paying attention until this fall.

"The key is, at the point at which they become interested, to be ready to get your 60 percent of them," Gillespie said.

In the meantime, both parties will focus on keeping their base working, talking, and contributing money. "You want to keep energy in your party, keep people who are rank-and-file Republicans excited and active and working," Gillespie said.

With Oregon one of up to 19 "battleground states" that are considered potential wins either for Bush or Kerry, both parties are spending money and attention here. Bush's education secretary, Rodney Paige, and his treasury secretary, John Snow, made appearances in Oregon on Tuesday.

Political scientist Bill Lunch said none of those names are likely to ring a bell among most Oregonians, but they're the political equivalent of second-tier rock stars to the few thousand political hard-cores who are likely to be asked to do the behind-the-scenes work to help Bush's re-election in Oregon.

"For the party staging these visits, this will have some positive impacts," said Lunch, chairman of the political science department at Oregon State University. "That is, to generate energy, enthusiasm and activity on the part of the folks who are the ground troops in the assault on the 2004 electorate."

In his speech Tuesday night, Gillespie sought to energize the GOP base by taking a few shots at Kerry. "When it comes to national security, when it comes to homeland security, when it comes to creating jobs, and when it comes to who shares our values, President Bush is right, his opponent is wrong," he said.

Democrats took some shots of their own at Gillespie. Neel Pender, executive director of the Democratic Party of Oregon, issued a statement pointing out that Gillespie's former lobbying clients included Enron. "It's understandable why the Bush administration is suffering from a serious credibility gap when they send folks like 'Enron' Ed, who wrote the book on back-room deals, out here to try to sell another bad deal to Oregonians," Pender said.