As Republicans took back control of the U.S. House on Tuesday, a number of gubernatorial races also went to the GOP. One of the last races to be called was Oregon’s on Wednesday evening, in which the difference between the two candidates was less than one percentage point.
Despite Oregon’s recent history of electing liberal national elected officials, discontentment with the Democratic administration in Washington, D.C. caused an increasing amount of voters to support GOP candidates. Consequently the closeness of the Oregon race for governor between Republican Chris Dudley and Democrat John Kitzhaber embodied a true blue state bleeding red this cycle.
Oregonians sought change even in the formerly Democrat-heavy legislating bodies. In 2004 and 2006, Democrats held 60 percent (18 of 30 seats) of the State Senate. This year’s comeback by Republicans to possibly overpower Democrats in the state Senate (two races to decide control this are still outstanding) and an Oregon first, a tie in controlling the state House indicates the public was clear.
Dudley finally conceded to Kitzhaber at 7 o’clock on Wednesday evening. The Oregonian newspaper called the victory after the remaining votes from highly liberal Portland’s Multnomah County had been processed.
The conclusion of the race created three new records for Oregon politics. Dudley, a wealth management adviser and former NBA player for the Portland Trail Blazers, raised a record of $10 million in his first run for politics. Dudley would have been Oregon first Republican governor since 1987.
The second record stemmed from the shocking turnout as over 1.3 million Oregonians voted at their designated precincts or through mail-in ballots.
According to CBS News, only 12,547 votes separated Kitzhaber from Dudley at 12 p.m. on Thursday. The last race to cut it so close happened in 1956, when the Democrats beat Republicans by 8,599 votes, just over one percent of their voting population.
Although Oregon did not experience a turnover by the GOP, the unexpectedly high number of voters for an off-year election is in part to blame for the close gubernatorial race.
“If you get that many ballots on Election Day, it’s just going to take a long time to get through,” said Eric Sample, spokesman for Multnomah County elections office, in the Oregonian.
The incoming wave of ballots was the result of last-minute pushes by Democrats in the greater Portland area. Over 91,000 ballots were collected on Election Day, comparable to under 88,000 from Barack Obama’s election in 2008.
Contrastingly the Oregon Republican Party pushed hard with phone calls to likely Dudley voters and focused on swaying over undecided voters in Portland’s neighboring Washington and Clackamas counties.
The final new record set by the gubernatorial race in Oregon was Kitzhaber’s win for a third term as governor. The former emergency room doctor previously served two consecutive terms from 1995 to 2003 and took time off because of Oregon’s laws that limit period in office to two in a row.
Kitzhaber faces a different political climate to his predessesor as he enters another four years in office. In addition, the Oregon House is now split even at 30-30, while the Senate is looking to be led by Democrats, 15-13 (with two seats still to be decided, so a Republican tie for control is still possible). Oregon’s Senate was split in 2003 but the House has never experienced this situation before in Oregon history.
“This was a highly competitive race, and both candidates can take pride in having run strong campaigns… and for engaging the public in some of the hard but pressing issues that must be addressed by the next governor and Legislature,” current governor Ted Kulongoski wrote in a message to both men on Wednesday night. “We need to put aside the divides of this election cycle and come back together as Oregonians.”
Dudley made no additional remarks upon conceding and congratulating Kitzhaber on Wednesday night. However he did emphasize the importance of bringing together Democrats and Republicans if any work is going to get accomplished in the next four years.
