News The Oregon Business Association sprang up in 1999 as an alternative to Associated Oregon Industries, long the state's largest and most influential business lobby. The intriguing premise behind the group's formation was that OBA would be less conservative than AOI and include a stronger voice for Portland-area business leaders than AOI. OBA has walked a difficult path over the past decade, nowhere ...   More

News GOP gubernatorial candidates Allen Alley, Chris Dudley, John Lim and Bill Sizemore made their cases today at City Club of Portland for the party's nomination in the May 18 primary. While the candidates stuck closely to talking points, the closing section of the debate featured a classic moment. Candidates got a chance at that point to ask each other questions, which is often tricky because ...   More

News GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Sizemore won a victory in Multnomah County Court last Friday. Previously, Judge Janice Wilson forbid Sizemore from raising money for political purposes as part of her ruling in favor of teachers unions against the longtime initiative activist. But on April 9, as first reported by the blog NW Republican, Sizemore convinced Wilson that preventing him from raising ...   More

News Former Trail Blazer and first-time candidate Chris Dudley cruised to an easier-than-expected primary victory over former Pixelworks CEO Allen Alley tonight. Maybe in the general election, he'll get a television feed. In a surreal Rose Garden election-night party that couldn't get a TV signal (and aired a silent slide show of the 6-foot-11 candidate instead), Dudley debuted his strategy for the ...   More

News That didn't take long. Less than one hour after tonight's 8 pm voting deadline, Oregon Democrats are already up with a web site targeting the Republicans' Chris Dudley in the fall gubernatorial election. They're calling it the www.DudleyDoLittle.com site (wonder what they were calling the anti-Allen Alley site they must have had ready to go if Alley had confounded the polls and beat Dudley). ...   More

News Earlier this week, a Survey USA poll showed GOP gubernatorial hopeful Chris Dudley with a substantial lead over rival Allen Alley. But a new poll done by Eugene-based Lindholm Research shows the race much closer heading into its final days. In a telephone survey of 400 likely Republican voters, 29 percent favored Alley, 26 percent favored Dudley and 29 percent were undecided. The remaining ...   More

News GOP gubernatorial candidate Allen Alley has trailed rival Chris Dudley in fundraising for months. Alley made up some ground today, loaning himself $150,000. In this calendar year, Alley has raised $508,000, less than half of Dudley $1.13 million. Dudley has $181,000 remaining; Alley shows a deficit of $205,000 but that includes loans to himself of $365,000 so he actually has about the same amount ...   More

News GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley continues to collect big checks from big names. He reported another $50,000 contribution today from Nike founder Phil Knight, bringing Knight's total to $100,000 for the primary. Earlier in the week, Dudley reported a $10,000 check from former Louisiana Pacific CEO Harry Merlo. It's been a slow week so far for Dudley's chief rival for the GOP nomination, ...   More

News As the debate begins about whether to continue Portland's practice of publicly-financed city elections, it's worth looking at what happens in other Oregon races that are entirely financed by private donors and interest groups. The effect of public financing in Portland has been to limit individual donations in most cases to $500 or less (although privately financed candidates do sometimes accept ...   More

News The first post-primary poll shows Oregon gubernatorial candidates Chris Dudley and John Kitzhaber pretty even. In a Rasmussen poll released today, Dudley leads Kitzhaber 45 percent to 44 percent, a difference that's smaller than the 4.5 percentage point margin of error. Dudley, a former NBA player and rookie political candidate, won the Republican gubernatorial nomination last week. Kitzhaber, ...   More