News New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had a bit role in the recently concluded governor's race in Oregon. GOP candidate Chris Dudley brought in the New Jersey Republican's spokeswoman to work for him. Democratic candidate John Kitzhaber surprised us in his WW endorsement interview when he praised Christie for identifying some of the embedded costs in state government. And Christie flew to Oregon in ...   More

News While many of us worried on Thanksgiving only about eating and drinking too much, a cadre of highly-paid Oregon state employees probably had a lot more on their minds yesterday. That's because when Gov.-elect John Kitzhaber returns next week to the work of preparing for his third term as governor, he'll be delivering some unpleasant news. Back in September, Kitzhaber convened reporters for the ...   More

News Gov.-elect John Kitzhaber today announced more members of his transition team. Two of the most interesting names announced by the Democrat at a press event in Gladstone were Ron Saxton, former Portland School Board president and 2006 Republican gubernatorial nominee; and Lynne Saxton, Saxton's wife. She runs ChristieCare, a provider of children mental health services. The Saxtons will work ...   More

News The Oregon Republican Party has asked for a partial recount in Multnomah County for the governor's race. The request came in 15 minutes before the final deadline on Tuesday, according to Secretary of State Kate Brown's spokeswoman, Andrea Cantu-Schomus. Multnomah County spokesman David Austin says the GOP requested a recount for three precincts in Nob Hill, the Lloyd Center district and Laurelhurst. A ...   More

News Among the many casualties of Oregon's ongoing budget crisis is the line item that normally would have paid for Gov.-elect John Kitzhaber's transition expenses. To help defray those costs, interested parties have been contributing steadily—if unspectacularly—to Kitzhaber since Nov. 2 when he beat Republican Chris Dudley by 22,000 votes. State filings show a couple of dozen donors ...   More

News Gov.-elect John Kitzhaber hasn't let the holidays slow his political action committee's collection of contributions. Since WW reported last week that the Democratic governor-elect was raising money to cover expenses for his transition to office next month, there have been several large and noteworthy donations to Kitzhaber 2010 over the past week. Among those on the list of donors since Dec. ...   More

News Last week, Attorney General John Kroger's office issued a statement marking the end of his investigation into contracting practices at the Oregon Department of Energy. "We are currently of the opinion that we could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any state employee committed Official Misconduct in the First or Second degree while awarding the Energy Assurance Grant," wrote Kroger's ...   More

News The Daily Astorian's Deeda Schroeder, a former WW intern and occasional freelancer for us, has an interesting piece in which state Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) was very critical of Gov.-elect John Kitzhaber one week before his Jan. 10 inauguration. The piece quotes Johnson telling the Astoria Rotary Club this week that the organization by her fellow Democrat "is coming together very, very ...   More

News Gov. Ted Kulongoski ratcheted up the pressure today in his desire to see a thorough investigation of the Oregon Department of Energy's contracting practices. Last week, the Oregon Department of Justice completed its investigation into one ODOE contract that involved Gov.-elect John Kitzhaber's longtime companion Cylvia Hayes, finding it "could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any state ...   More

News In this clip from our interview with departing Governor Ted Kulongoski,(A fuller version of the interview appears in this week's print version of the paper), he discusses his ambivalence about running for reelection in 2006 because of the loss of Neil Goldschmidt as an advisor. Goldschmidt retreated from public service after the former governor and Portland mayor was found to have abused a girl ...   More