Running for U.S. Senate, Democrat Bill Bradbury pledged to hold corporations and the federal government accountable at campaign stops in Clatsop County Monday.

Bradbury, currently Oregon’s Secretary of State, met with about 50 supporters at Common Grounds, an Astoria coffee shop and art gallery. Sitting on a tall, canvas directors’ chair, Bradbury, 53, outlined his campaign priorities.

The government has to crack down on corporations and greedy CEOs who walk away with multi-million-dollar bonuses while working people watch their retirement savings disappear, Bradbury said.

Corporations that pollute must be made to pay for the environmental cleanup, he said.

“We need to keep corporations accountable for the messes they make,” Bradbury said. “Because it’s not right that you and I as taxpayers be the ones who pay that bill.”

Bradbury wants to hold government accountable, as well.

The government has made promises to seniors and retirees through Medicare and Social Security that it has to keep, Bradbury said.

He discussed the Medicare system and a prescription drug benefit with seniors Monday morning at a “Coffee Table” discussion.

The former Oregon Senate President told supporters that federally mandated education programs need federal funding. The federal government said it would pay 40 percent of states’ special education costs, Bradbury said. In Oregon, only 9 percent of those costs are covered by the federal government – a difference of $250 million each biennium, he said.

Bradbury pledged to represent the wishes of Oregon voters, even if he didn’t share their views.

He pointed to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s attacks on Oregon’s Death With Dignity law. “John Ashcroft has decided that Oregon voters are not allowed to enact a law like this,” he said.

Bradbury’s opponent, Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, has supported Ashcroft’s attempts to strike down the law, approved twice by Oregon voters, he said. “I think that’s pretty haughty,” Bradbury said.

That was about the strongest language Bradbury, who promised a clean campaign, used to describe Smith.

He said he’s been gaining in the polls since March, when he was 11 percentage points behind incumbent Smith. He was 4 points behind in September before his television ads went on the air Sept. 17. A series of “respectfully comparative spots” will go on the air in the coming weeks.

After his stump speech, Bradbury answered questions on Iraq, Israel and the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

He said the administration’s “significant drum-beat” to attack Iraq is overwhelming discussion of domestic priorities.

Asked about the groundfish crisis, Bradbury, who lives in Bandon and led coastal representatives at the Oregon Legislature, said the federal government has an obligation to provide relief to commercial fishers and communities hurt by groundfishing limits.

His first priority is to get a well-funded federal buy-back program to reduce fishing capacity. He said the federal government encouraged people to make huge investments and build an excessive groundfishing fleet and now it must help people get out of the fishing industry.