Comments expressed
November 05, 2010
Dudley Ignors Party Leaders
Word is that GOP leadership had advised all candidates not to concede. Concession closes the door on other possibilities and leadership advised it would be best in any race to bypass offering the concession speech too early. Dudley surprised me when he conceded before every vote was counted. Sure it was obvious that Multnomah County was going for Kitzhaber and it was also obvious that Linn County would go the same way once their count issues were resolved, but Dudley should have held firm until the bitter end. After all, when you spend as much as he did trying for the job he deserved a seat at the finish line. I suppose he decided to create his own finish.
November 03, 2010
Elections
This election shows Clatsop County to be a rural county with decidedly metro county tastes.
While most rural counties in Oregon came out strong for conservative candidates, Clatsop County aligns itself with the crowd in Multnomah county when it comes to state leadership choices.
That's not to say that conservatives made no in-roads in this election, quite the opposite. I believe that many people voted in this election as the result of a strong showing in key races by republicans. I don't remember a time here when republicans like Bob Horning and Lew Barnes were able to make any impact at all.
The Tea Party has had its impact in elections across the country and that was true here in terms of providing a moral support structure for races that everyone knew would be difficult. It's tough to beat a Betsy Johnson. Slamming her over a "possible" conflict of interest was a stretch and a critical error.
It will be interesting to see how a more equal politically populated Oregon legislature grapples with the budget, amongst other things. The Democrats have lost the super-majority to pursue their party agenda without the republicans so we are likely to see some fireworks over a number of key issues. Reaching consensus will be challenging and I suspect we may see a return to less civil discussion in Salem.
At this writing the Governor's race is still too close to call but with ballots yet to be counted in Multnomah and Linn counties it's looking better for John Kitzhaber.
While most rural counties in Oregon came out strong for conservative candidates, Clatsop County aligns itself with the crowd in Multnomah county when it comes to state leadership choices.
That's not to say that conservatives made no in-roads in this election, quite the opposite. I believe that many people voted in this election as the result of a strong showing in key races by republicans. I don't remember a time here when republicans like Bob Horning and Lew Barnes were able to make any impact at all.
The Tea Party has had its impact in elections across the country and that was true here in terms of providing a moral support structure for races that everyone knew would be difficult. It's tough to beat a Betsy Johnson. Slamming her over a "possible" conflict of interest was a stretch and a critical error.
It will be interesting to see how a more equal politically populated Oregon legislature grapples with the budget, amongst other things. The Democrats have lost the super-majority to pursue their party agenda without the republicans so we are likely to see some fireworks over a number of key issues. Reaching consensus will be challenging and I suspect we may see a return to less civil discussion in Salem.
At this writing the Governor's race is still too close to call but with ballots yet to be counted in Multnomah and Linn counties it's looking better for John Kitzhaber.
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