Oregon: NRCC Gets Top Recruit to Run Against Schrader

The National Republican Congressional Committee’s recruiting hot streak is continuing, with state Rep. Scott Bruun (R) poised to announce today that he is challenging freshman Rep. Kurt Schrader (D).

“Congress is broken and it’s pushing bad policies,” Bruun said in a statement.

Bruun, 43, was first elected to the Legislature in 2004. He is also an executive at a real estate investment company and previously worked in the commercial banking industry.

This is not Bruun’s first run for Congress: In 1996, when the Congressional boundaries were somewhat different, he was the Republican nominee against Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D), taking just 26 percent of the vote.

But that district was considerably more liberal than the one that he is running in now. The 5th district takes in part of the Portland metro area but also runs into far more rural territory. Bruun and Schrader share the same political base in Clackamus County.

Schrader won an open-seat race against a flawed Republican nominee by 16 points last year, while President Barack Obama won the district by 11 points. But the two parties have essentially tied there in the previous few White House elections.

Schrader had about $360,000 in his campaign account as of June 30.