Skip to main content
Every election is, in part, about future elections.
On Tuesday night, the man whom many political observers see as a front-runner in the 2018 race for Oregon governor, State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, suffered a setback.
Wheeler, a Democrat, wasn't on the ballot. But he wrote Measure 86, which would have allowed lawmakers to use the state's bonding authority to finance an endowment for college scholarships. Wheeler grabbed hold of the Legislature's chronic failure to provide funding for higher education and decided to make it a campaign issue.
As state treasurer, the post he's held since 2010, Wheeler does not get many opportunities to make news. He acts as the state's banker and plays a key role in investing state pension funds. Neither of those functions generates much passion among voters.
Increasing Oregon's anemic level of financial aid, however, is the kind of issue that had the potential to help Wheeler distinguish himself from other potential Democratic candidates for governor, such as Secretary of State Kate Brown, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian and House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland).
The 2013 Legislature referred Measure 86 to the ballot, so Wheeler did not have to gather signatures. Virtually every newspaper in the state, including WW, endorsed the measure, and there was no opposition campaign.
Yet as of the most recent count, Wheeler's measure is getting creamed, 59 percent to 41 percent.
Wheeler says going into last night he expected voters to reject the measure but he did not expect such a large margin of defeat.
"I was surprised at how significantly it lost," he says.
Wheeler says that in pre-election conversations around the state, he heard a variety of concerns: the measure seemed complicated; its ballot title included the word 'indebtedness,' a red flag; and the measure amended the Oregon constitution, which makers voters nervous. "If people weren't sure, it was easier to vote no," Wheeler says.
Despite the defeat, Wheeler says he's undeterred. He says with the help of a broad coalition who want to increase student aid, he plans to continue seeking new approaches to Oregon's lack of commitment to higher ed funding.
"I don't
think it changes anything," Wheeler says of last night's loss. "It certainly created a robust conversation, and the need for scholarships is not going away."
One potential 2018 rival is moving forward with her own bid to raise her profile. In remarks on election night, Secretary of State Brown, who like Wheeler was not on the ballot, told the Democratic faithful assembled at the Portland Hilton that she'll reintroduce legislation in 2015 that would register to vote anybody who obtains or renews a drivers' license. If that law, which failed in 2013, gets a green light next year it could add hundreds of thousands of new voters to the rolls—an outcome that could make Brown a lot of friends.
WWeek 2015