SALEM, Ore. -- He wasn't invited to take part in Thursday night's televised debate between Oregon GOP Sen. Gordon Smith and Democrat Jeff Merkley, but David Brownlow could influence the outcome of the heated U.S. Senate race nonetheless.
Brownlow is the third contender in the race, running as the nominee of the anti-war, limited-government Constitution Party.
In that capacity, the 51-year-old Damascus resident could well end up playing a spoiler's role in a race where polls show Smith and Merkley basically running neck and neck.
"It's a very close race, and Brownlow is probably going to at least pull 4 or 5 percent of the vote," Portland pollster Tim Hibbitts said. "Some of those votes will come from the political right, which will come out of Smith's hide."
Brownlow insists he's not running as a spoiler. He said he wants to advance the Constitution Party's agenda, which includes a call for a speedy pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq.
At the same time, though, Brownlow said it wouldn't break his heart if he ended up drawing votes away from Smith and costing the incumbent senator the election.
"Am I going to be the spoiler in this race? I don't know," Brownlow said. "But if Gordon Smith loses because people vote for me, it's not my fault. He's got millions to spend on this election. I will spend virtually nothing."
Brownlow says neither Smith nor Merkley deserves to win. Brownlow said he's the "only true anti-war candidate" in the Senate race.
"Under the right leadership, it will not take long to bring all our soldiers home -- a small number of months. We drove right in, and we can drive right out," he said. "Afghanistan is just as big a mess as Iraq. It is time to leave."
Brownlow said he's hoping a good number of voters will see his candidacy as a place where they can park a vote against both major party nominees.
"These guys are running a miserable campaign. Their ads are terrible," he said of the barrage of TV commercials, many of them attack ads, that both sides have been running for months.
