Let's bring Barack, Hillary to Baker

Memo to Oregon Democrats: Bring Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to Baker City.

Actually, why don't you try to bring both candidates.

You can do it.

After all, Oregon, which less than a month ago seemed destined for political purgatory due its tardy May 20 presidential primary, now has attracted the attention of both Democratic candidates.

The race for the party's nomination almost certainly won't be decided by May 20, and officials from both the Clinton and Obama campaigns said recently that they expect their respective candidates will visit Oregon.

We hope those visits aren't confined to the west side of the Cascades.

That's where more than three-quarters of Oregon's people (and voters) live, it's true.

But both Obama and Clinton have campaigned in towns with populations far smaller than Baker City's 10,000.

A couple weeks ago, for instance, Clinton traveled to Pomeroy, Ohio. Only about 2,000 people live there. Heck, the entire county has just 2,500 or so registered Democratic voters.

Baker County has 3,018 registered Democrats.

Baker County voters, regardless of their party affiliation, have ample reason to feel disenfranchised.

During the past couple decades, several ballot measures that a majority of Baker County voters favored failed because majorities in more populous counties such as Multnomah, Marion and Clackamas opposed those measures.

That's happened in presidential elections, too.

In 1996 almost twice as many Baker County voters cast ballots for Republican Bob Dole, yet Oregon as a whole — and of course the country — went for Democrat Bill Clinton.

But imagine if Hillary Clinton or Obama, or better yet both, stopped by Baker City this spring. Imagine if a campaign rally from Baker City headlined the evening reports on CNN and Fox News and the major networks.

Our votes wouldn't carry any more weight, of course.

But it sure would be exciting to welcome to our city one or two of the three people who are vying to become the next president of the United States.

We'd be telling the story for decades.