How a Republican Could Lead Oregon: Liberal Disharmony and Nike Cash

[Nevilledog]

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Don Moynihan
@donmoyn
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The richest man in the state decides he does not like the Dem gubernatorial candidate (calls himself an "anti-Tina person”), spends a bunch of money on the two competing candidates, and a Dem +16 state a toss-up.

Best democracy money can buy.

Reid J. Epstein
@reidepstein
NEW: The GOP is poised to win the Oregon governor's race for the first time since 1982, thanks to a third-party candidate siphoning Dem votes and Nike founder Phil Knight, who is the largest donor to two of the three candidates in the race.

w/@ByMikeBaker
https://nytimes.com/2022/10/15/us/politics/kotek-drazan-oregon-governor.html…
10:40 AM · Oct 15, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/us/politics/kotek-drazan-oregon-governor.html

No paywall
https://archive.ph/rDSnc

MONROE, Ore. — Democrats haven’t lost a governor’s race in Oregon in four decades. Two years ago, Joseph R. Biden Jr. won the state by 16 percentage points. The only Republican to win a statewide election since 2002 died before finishing his term.

And yet this year’s race for Oregon governor is now among the tightest in the country, illustrating both frustration with one of the nation’s most progressive state governments and the power of a single billionaire donor to shape an election to his whims. The Republican candidate, Christine Drazan, has a real path to victory, despite promoting anti-abortion views that would ordinarily be a political loser in a state that has become a refuge for people who can no longer get abortions in their home states.

The contest is so close in part because a quirky Democratic-turned-independent candidate running as a centrist has drawn a sizable bloc of support away from the Democratic nominee, Tina Kotek, leaving her struggling to stitch together a winning coalition. The Democrats’ predicament has now ensnared President Biden, who is visiting Portland this weekend to hold events for Ms. Kotek and the state party.

Republicans are salivating at the prospect of breaking up the Democratic lock on the West Coast — Alaska is the only state on the Pacific Ocean where the G.O.P. holds a statewide office — and relishing the news that a sitting president is required for a Democratic rescue mission.

*snip*

[BComplex]

1. Well, that sucks.

The democrats need to run ads about how governors can allow or veto legislation that can help people, and having republicans running a governorship puts abortion issues at stake.

[tirebiter]

2. No discipline. Who wouldn't step aside?