In his ongoing strategy of showing political courage through ignorance, Saxton is now declaring that he opposes building a tribal casino in the Columbia River Gorge. A nice position, but totally irrelevant to the current debate over the proposed Warm Springs casino.

As the Dalles Chronicle reported last week:

Saxton says he does not support the idea of putting a casino anywhere in the gorge, but says he can’t say if he would have signed off on the Cascade Locks casino if he had won in 2002.

It's too bad that Ron won't give Oregon voters a straight answer on controversy of the day: should the Warm Springs tribe be allowed to build in Cascade Locks or should they be forced to pursue construction on their land in Hood River? As the Oregonian editorial board wrote last year:

Every self-appointed defender of the gorge ought to understand the potential consequences of stopping the casino at Cascade Locks. It will prompt the Warm Springs to pursue a casino on a prominent headland near Hood River in the middle of the most beautiful stretch of the gorge.

Most experts on Indian gaming law believe the Warm Springs can legally build a casino on their long-owned hillside land near Hood River. Gov. Ted Kulongoski recognized that the state faced an either-or choice -- Hood River or a compromise site at Cascade Locks.

What is really sad is that Saxton acknowleged these realities when he ran for Governor in 2002. Appearing at the Annual Conference of the Association of Oregon Counties in November 2001, Saxton endorsed exploring alternatives to Hood River for the proposed casino:

"On the Indian Gaming very very quickly ... when you talk about the one in the gorge, without taking specific example here, the commitment to these have to take to historic Indian lands, often leads to some pretty, I think, absurd transportation issues, absurd land use issues. So I think there has to be some flexibility to look at these, not to move them where people don’t want them, not to cause more problems, not to build more than anybody has a right to build. But I’m not going to say absolutely you can’t put any of these except in historic lands."

Despite Saxton's claims he is the same candidate as 2002, he keeps misrepresenting the issues in the election to pander to voters.