Beer, Cars Overshadow Corvallis Man's Run For The Presidency

Michael Charles Smith with the Oregon State Alumni marching band Photo: smithforpresident.com

(CORVALLIS) - Folks at the Benton County Fairgrounds showed quite a bit more interest in a car sale and a microbrew festival than in their homegrown presidential contender - Michael Charles Smith.

Nonetheless, Smith made the best of things as he opened his quixotic run for the presidency over the weekend with a fundraising dance at the fairgrounds.

He welcomed his two dozen or so supporters, encouraged everyone to get out on the dance floor and even picked up his tuba to sit in with the band on a couple of polkas, the Corvallis Gazette-Times reported on Monday.

"For those of you who don't know me," he began after letting the Hilltop Big Band warm up the crowd, "I'm Michael Smith, and I'm running for president."

The small crowd cheered. Then Smith, a Hewlett-Packard employee, acknowledged his candidacy is the longest of longshots.

"Realistically," he said, "I don't have my bags packed for Pennsylvania Avenue just yet."

Smith, a Republican, is running a campaign against what he sees as his party's drift to the far right. His goal is to win enough votes in the 2008 Oregon primary to take a delegate or two to the Republican National Convention.

Smith hopes to send a message that moderates like himself want the GOP to cut its ties to the religious right and stop wasting time on socially conservative causes such as banning abortion and gay marriage.

He said he'd like to see his party return to a focus on small government, individual liberties and fiscal conservatism.

"A smaller government," Smith said, "would have a lot less time on its hands and a lot less resources to tap our phones and worry about who's marrying whom."

Charlotte Drost, who came to the campaign event after a visit to the beer festival, said she was happy to see a moderate running under the Republican banner.

"We need more of those," she said.

To qualify for the Oregon ballot, Smith will need to gather 5,000 valid signatures from registered Republicans spread throughout the state's five congressional districts. He was hoping Saturday's fundraiser would give him enough of a war chest to campaign through the summer, but to judge from the turnout, that may be unlikely.