Obviously, the primary election in Oregon wasn’t high on anyone’s watch list last night, but a few things of note.
The winner of the Democratic primary, John Kitzhaber, is going for a third-term as Governor. And somewhat unusually, it’s not a consecutive term either. He was governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003.
Before he was governor, Kitzhaber was President of the State Senate. A former emergency room physician, in the legislature Kitzhaber was the principal author of the state’s Oregon Health Plan, one of the early state attempts at universal health care coverage. The plan has been a miserable failure, so it will be interesting to see how much of a liability, if at all, this is for him given the national health care debate.
The winner of the Republican primary was Chris Dudley, a former center for the Portland Trail Blazers. While the Trail Blazers are venerated by Oregonians as their only professional sports franchise, Dudley has never held elective office before. In any other year, that might be a huge liability. But he’s already got a high profile in the state, and if you’re going to run as an outsider this is the year to do it.
Regardless, it’s difficult for Republicans to win statewide in Oregon. On the whole, the state’s more conservative than the results of statewide elections might tell you — but Portland has grown so rapidly and is such a population anchor that how the city votes dominates state elections.
