In an Endorsement Interview, Kotek, Drazan and Johnson Assess Gov. Kate Brown

All three candidates for governor displayed formidable skills.

UNPOPULAR: Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. (Brian Brose)
By Nigel Jaquiss

For 90 minutes this morning, in an endorsement interview at WW offices, all three of the leading candidates for governor showed why their supporters are so enthusiastic.

Betsy Johnson, the unaffiliated candidate, mixed a cutting wit with deep budgetary understanding. Republican Christine Drazan deftly dissected the state’s ills and the perils of one-party power. And Democrat Tina Kotek demonstrated a formidable grasp of policy and clear-eyed candor about what’s not working.

On that last point, all three took aim at the woman they hope to succeed, in their answers to a question why Gov. Kate Brown has the lowest approval ratings of any governor in the country.

“I think she’s been absent on the issues that matter to Oregonians,” Kotek said. “We need decisive leadership right now.”

Drazan took a different tack: “She had leadership in the Legislature that didn’t hold her to account because they were in the same party.” Drazan then pivoted to an unflattering comparison of Brown’s and Kotek’s relatively integrity.

Johnson, Brown’s former colleague in the Senate Democratic caucus, was unsparing. (She was feeling under the weather, and attended via Zoom.)

“When she became governor, it was sort of the example of dog catches car,” Johnson said. “You’ve got what you want, now you’ve got to execute.”

Here’s the full exchange:


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