Smear ad sullies race.

Byline: Karen McCowan / The Register-Guard

TALK ABOUT PARTISAN politics at their worst - and in a nonpartisan race.

I heard the anti-Susan Castillo smear ad for myself after it was captured on a reader's answering machine late last week. Stan Green of Veneta was so outraged that he called and played it for me.

The recorded message from Oregon Republican Party Chairman Perry Atkinson attacks Castillo, a Democratic state senator running for the state's top education post.

"Here's how you can support President Bush's war on terrorism in May," it begins. "Our friend Rob Kremer is running for superintendent of public instruction, and his opponent has taken an extreme stand against the war on terrorism. Susan Castillo directs a national pacifist organization that opposes the war in Afghanistan and supports reducing our military spending.

"The Republican Party feels strongly that Susan Castillo is too extreme to be put in charge of educating our children. Rob Kremer is highly qualified to lead our public schools, and we are proud to endorse him. Please join me in voting for Rob Kremer."

If the recording aimed to sway Green away from voting for Castillo, it badly misfired.

"The message that we don't want someone running our schools if they value life over war - to me, that sends the wrong message," Green said.

It also sends a false message, Castillo said.

"Neither the candidate nor anyone from the Republican Party has ever spoken to me about my stand on Afghanistan and the war on terrorism," she said. "I very much support the president in his efforts to address the terrorist acts against our country. These phone calls are basically lies.

"My father is a World War II veteran. I feel this is an insult not just to me, but to my family. To question my patriotism - where does that come from? I thought the days of McCarthylike tactics were behind us. It's outrageous."

Castillo is indeed one of 20 female leaders from across the country serving on the board of directors for WAND - Women's Action for New Directions.

And WAND indeed issued a statement asking that the bombing in Afghanistan cease, she said - "though they also said they supported the president's efforts to go after the terrorists and bin Laden."

CASTILLO DISAGREED with the group's November statement opposing the bombing, however, and said she has told them so.

"I have been supportive of the president's actions and the fact that he has successfully broken up the al-Qaeda network," she said.

She also questioned Atkinson's characterization of WAND as a pacifist group, saying it aims chiefly to "get more women's voices heard in reprioritizing the federal budget to put more money into education and health care and other programs that help families in this country. It's very much in line with the work I do in the Oregon Legislature."

After visiting WAND's Web site, I'd say both impressions could be true.

It lists the organization's mission as "to empower women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism, and redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs." (Emphasis mine.)

But that hardly seems "extreme."

Kremer spokesman Matt Wingard said the telephone campaign was the work of the Republican Party chairman, not his candidate. But Kremer "supports the chairman's right" to conduct it, Wingard added.

Both he and Atkinson dismiss any suggestion that the calls were unfair even if Castillo disagrees with WAND's position on the bombing of Afghanistan. As a board member of the national group, she can't have it both ways, they said.

But no less a Republican than Senate Assistant Majority Leader Verne Duncan - a former state superintendent of public instruction - disagrees.

In a Tuesday letter to Atkinson, he said it's "very unfair to challenge someone for being a member of a group, when in fact they might not be in agreement with that group on all issues. If that be the case, maybe I should resign from the Republican Party because I adamantly disagree with you on this major issue."

Duncan's letter also criticized as "completely out of line" his party's endorsing of Kremer and campaigning against Castillo.

"As one who spent many years as a nonpartisan state official, I am convinced that these positions must remain just that - nonpartisan," he said. "It puts the individual in a very precarious position when they receive an endorsement from a political party. They should, in fact, reject that endorsement, stating that they do not even want to give the appearance that they will be beholden to a political party. That is why these positions have been set apart as nonpartisan."