What are the strategies of the Oregon Republican governor candidates? Principled or manipulative? Will a good Public Servant Republican like Dennis Richardson be nominated? The Republican candidate MUST have non-Republican Votes to win. Richardson had over 250,000 of them. TPNW's current analysis/Op-ed before the April 16th ORP debate. What strategies are being employed?
The games people play in the public realm during an election. Observing on social media the supporters of each of the four candidates who will debate on April 16th in Hillsboro, the candidates and their supporters appear most worried about Chris Dudley.
Do supporters take on the personal characteristics of the candidate they chose and wed? Who are they most worried about in the race? By on-line social media comments it is Chris Dudley.
Candidate Bethell, she maligned Dudley within an hour of his announcing his run for Oregon governor.
Diehl supporters are all over social media dumping on all voters not yet deciding who they are supporting. Any criticism of Diehl and a swarming backlash comes out including from some social media podcasters.
Drazan supporters refuse to do the math and insist Drazan in her loss to Tina Kotek in 2022 was the "closest" and dismiss out of hand that Chris Dudley came closer to a win in 2010. Dudley was winning until two days after the election in 2010 until late Multnomah County ballots appeared and were counted; then Dudley lost by about 22,000.
As the verbal and emotional kerfuffles have been playing out on social media, Chris Dudley has quietly been meeting with and listening to constituents all over Oregon. Dudley hasn't gotten into the fray on social media or elsewhere.
What will play out at the debate, what will the candidates do with Chris Dudley at the debate? What strategies have they employed so far? Let's take a look.
Who can take on Tina Kotek and win the race for Oregon governor in 2026?
Drazan's first palm card dropped in the mail just two days ahead of the debate. Why? Drazan declares she is the "Pro-Life champion". Other than "saying so" what does her record show?
Drazan sponsored a bill seven years ago in 2019 regarding babies born alive during a procedure to kill such a baby, that they be saved. Then no action found again until 2026 as Drazan made her decision to run for governor again. She put forth a repeat of that bill.
There is no public record that Drazan made visits to any abortion clinic to investigate the situation, attempted to meet with management of those clinics, nor came to any clinic such as Lovejoy, Planned Parenthood or Lilth to pray with activists who for over eighteen years have done sidewalk counseling weekly.
Full
disclosure, the editor of TPNW comes out of history of having been involved
with a small campaign group when she lived in Yakima, Washington. That small
group did a Margaret Meade win in five campaigns including county and state
offices, flipping the county from one political party to the other political
party in two short years. Some very specific decisions about the visuals to use on palm cards were made. We reversed fifty years of political party history in that county.
Thus, visuals chosen for a palm card can be telling of what is being signaled. Drazan's visuals show a very white baby, not a particularly joyous baby. Perhaps Irish descent baby, although Drazan doesn't share she's Irish. Her family history might be more French.
Perhaps the strategy was to drop this the day before the debate to try to take Chris Dudley out by claiming he's not pro-life enough? And why only a white baby? Babies of color are over represented in being aborted. Who decided the visual should only be of a white baby?
Diehl supporters make all kinds of derogatory claims and statements about Chris Dudley, huffing about Dudley, "What has he done for Oregon in sixteen years!" When informed that Dudley promised his wife he wouldn't run again until their children were grown makes no dent in the emotions of those Diehl supporters. A conservative value is family. They also come across as liberal Democrats by complaining that Dudley is a millionaire as though being successful is a bad thing as though he should have been paid only minimum wage as an NBA basketball player. They are against renovating the Moda Center. They see no connection to that being good for business including small businesses, for tourism to return to Portland, Oregon.
Dudley supports renovating the Moda Center, but had criticisms of some of the details in the bill which Diehl fails to state in his comments. Chris Dudley was not in the Oregon legislature. He had no control over the bill passed.
Tune in and find out what unfolds on debate night.
Might Multnomah County, Portland, Oregon be open to electing a principled good guy neighbor for the coming general election for a state representative office?
Leo Morley is that good neighbor down the street always ready to help
neighbors and friends kind of guy. 
The ability to engage and help people who may have struggles takes a civic duty minded kind of individual. Takes a guy who is not afraid who can handle any situation. At the train station it also included trying to stop people from stealing the hot dogs! 
On that Friday the surrounding areas of the train station were clear of tent encampments, a change from his time down there in 2017.
In front of the shutdown Greyhound Bus Station, that was lined with the drug selling and drug taking activity. The Resource Center had little activity at this visit. 
In terms of election and ballot security there might be some issues, but their mail room 
endeavors to keep that room secure. 
Talking to a homeless young man about voting and who votes. Like the public at large there are some who are totally disgusted with government and others who engage in conversation who likely vote. 
Other civic engagement duties in Leo's history included being Chair of the Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association when the plans were finalized to remodel the community center. 
As shown in a previous run of office, Leo not only has a sense of humor, he is dedicated to doing Get out the Vote (GOTV) activity, thus citizens will see him out and about doing that. 
How did the Democrats show they are worried? Some primary candidates in the Republican Party got a two page "drop out of the primary race now" letters in the mail. Kind of like Tokyo Rose announcements to the US troops in World War II about how terrible things were for them, that things were going badly so quit fighting. Now, finding out how MCRP has turned itself around and gotten its act together, there is reason for the extremist Democrats, yes, the extremes do need to worry. 
When Governor Tina Kotek with great hubris blew off 94% of Oregonians who told her "No to tax hikes", the Democrat caucus in the Salem legislature didn't bother to tally how many emails they received from citizens saying no. No citizens mattered, Tina did not care about her Democrat base in the slightest.
Peters has that down to earth, calm presence similar to Chris Dudley who only missed winning the governor's race in 2010 by 22,000 votes. 
People are drawn to and like hanging with these types of guys.
With over ten or so candidates in the governor's field if Oregon voters do their due diligence, guard their vote like it's their most valuable asset, don't give it impulsively, out of all their interactions with the candidates they can make the right choice in the May 19th primary election; and perhaps choose the candidate a majority of Oregonians might agree with in the general election, November 3, 2026.
The race for the Oregon governor has many primary candidates and Oregonians are going out to their meet and greets, doing their due diligence as to who will be the candidate that a majority of Oregonians would find trustworthy. The room was packed with attentive voters who will have to pick the nominee who can get over 250,000 non-Republican votes to win. Will this be the historical general election where the non-affiliated voter gets respect?
There is still enough time for voters to come out for meet and greets and other panel forums to make that choice of what is for the greatest good of all Oregonians?
Mark is now getting some national exposure when 10 seconds of Mark's testimony to Georgia got edited out of Mark's testimony of how easily vote changing in these machines can happen.
When it turned out in 2022 it was Dan Forester who was the IT guy, who had left to head up Washington County's elections, the editor was referred by Elections Director, Tim Scott to go Dan to answer the question about the adjudication process, the editor encountered Dan at the Tim Sippel trial, but when asked about adjudication, Dan simply walked away, refusing to answer.