News John DiLorenzo, a Portland lawyer and powerful lobbyist in the Oregon Legislature, has decided against an independent run this fall for governor. Here's the email going out from DiLorenzo to his friends explaining why he's not getting into the race against Democrat John Kitzhaber and Republican Chris Dudley: Dear friends, I would like to thank you for the outpouring of advice and encouragement ...   More

News In these dog days of summer, candidates have little to do except polish their stump speeches and make the fundraising phone calls that most of them dread. Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Dudley has continued to attract strong financial support. And after a quiet period following the May primary, Democratic nominee John Kitzhaber is reporting more checks. New fundraising filings show that ...   More

News Former Gov. John Kitzhaber and the powerful Oregon Education Association are making nice again in Kitzhaber's run for his old job. The teachers union announced today it's endorsing Kitzhaber in the general election, hardly a surprise given the OEA's support for Democratic candidates. But it's worthy of some note only because the OEA didn't endorse Kitzhaber last spring in the Democratic primary. ...   More

News GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Dudley reported two new large checks and a slew more in the $2,500-and-up category today. Dudley, the former Portland Trail Blazer making his inaugural political run, raked in $100,000 from Newberg-based Austin Industries and $15,000 from Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle. The Austin family, who made a fortune in the dental equipment industry are reliable Republican ...   More

News GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley continues to pick up big checks from prominent locals. This week, Dudley reported a $20,000 contribution from investor Peter Brix and $5,000 from real estate maven Barbara Sue Seal. The most notable check collected by Dudley's Democratic opponent, former two-term Gov. John Kitzhaber, was a $10,000 contribution from International Brotherhood of Electrical ...   More

News In a somber address to Portland City Club, Gov. Ted Kulongoski today laid out a bleak vision of Oregon's present and grabbed hold of Oregon's political third rail with both hands. The two-term Democratic governor is completing his final year in office and could be forgiven if he took the summer off. Instead, the former labor lawyer drew on the work of his "reset cabinet" to propose a bold set ...   More

News Not a great day on the political horse-race front for Oregon Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber. First came this morning's front-page piece on fund-raising in The Oregonian detailing how Republican Chris Dudley, a rookie candidate (albeit one with name recognition from his NBA career), is outdistancing a veteran pol like Kitzhaber, a former two-term governor and ex-president of ...   More

News A couple of days after a tough 24-hour stretch for John Kitzhaber, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate has released his first TV ad of the general election a little more than three months before the November ballot in Oregon. Three quick observations about the ad (which comes in a week when not all the horse-race news has been bad for Kitzhaber): 1) Befitting most initial ads in a campaign, ...   More

News It's not exactly surprising that Basic Rights Oregon's political action committee announced this morning that it's endorsing Democratic candidate John Kitzhaber in the Oregon governor's race But what is surprising in the gay rights organization's news release (which extols Kitzhaber's track record when he was governor for two terms) is that BRO says Republican candidate Chris Dudley didn't respond ...   More

News The campaigns of both gubernatorial candidates continue to trade accusations of bad faith amid efforts to get both Republican nominee Chris Dudley and Democratic nominee John Kitzhaber in the same room at the same time. Yesterday, the Dudley campaign released a letter [PDF] from its debate coordinator, Fred Granum, to Kitzhaber's campaign manager, Patricia McCaig, detailing its efforts to communicate ...   More