Election 2010: Blogtown, PDX, Portland Mercury

Oregon GOP Files For Partial Recount of Governor Votes

Andrea "the Intern" Vedder — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:13:02 -0800

On Tuesday, executive director of the Oregon Republican Party Brandon Danz filed for a partial gubernatorial recount of Multnomah County ballots. The precincts in question are 1017 (NW 23rd), 3253 (Broadway/Rose Quarter) and 3290 (Laurelhurst).

Official elections results from the Oregon Secretary of State give Kitzhaber a win by 22,238 votes, and more recently updated elections results from the Oregonian put the figure at 22,735. In either case, the combined 8,094 votes of the re-count precincts (2,070 ballots cast in precinct 1017, 3,147 ballots cast in precinct 3253 and 2,877 ballots cast in precinct 3290) fall far short of election-altering possibility.

The Oregon GOP is paying for the hand recount, which the county is scheduled to begin at 8:30 am on Monday, Dec. 13, so maybe the Republican Party has something interesting up its sleeve. But... probably not.

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Roseburg Paper Prints: Dudley Wins!

Sarah Mirk — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 10:17:14 -0700

Ah, yes, a dispatch from the alternate reality of Roseburg, where a small town paper struggled with an election night print deadline.

Thanks to Roseburg native Cody for sending this in!

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The Metro President Math Isn't Looking Good for Bob Stacey.

Sarah Mirk — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:20:48 -0700

Okay, political nerds, there's one local race left undecided so it's time to whip out the calculators.

The Metro President helps set the region's land use policy and has a large hand in figuring out how the region can grow in a smart way. Bob Stacey and Tom Hughes are locked neck and neck in the tri-county race, with Hughes currently leading by only 281 votes.

There's roughly 5970 ballots left to count in Multnomah County (which is going 56.7 percent for Bob Stacey), 10,324 to count in Washington County (which is going 60.25 percent for Tom Hughes) and 3,684 to count in Clackamas County (which is going 53.37 percent for Tom Hughes). By my math, that puts Tom Hughes ahead by 1,877 votes at the end of the grueling vote count.

You know what's interesting? The number of write-in votes in this election is higher than the number of deciding votes. The three counties wrote in 2,890 votes. Also of note: there's a write-in Rex Burkholder Facebook group... only 40 members, but one of the creators is Burkholder's wife.

Of course, these numbers could change as new results come in, it's all just speculation at this point. Excuse me while I go chew off my fingernails.

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Kitzhaber Accepts Governor's Seat from the Heartland of Oregon: The Pearl District

Sarah Mirk — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:09:30 -0700

John Kitzhaber gave a blink-and-you-missed-it victory speech this morning from Tanner Springs Park in the Pearl, thanking his supporters and uttering some bipartisan remarks in a speech that clocked in at under four minutes.

I counted 10 small, adorable dogs (see one at right) wandering through the crowd during the talk, as Pearl-dwellers out for morning strolls stumbled across their once and future governor. While progressives and police officers packed in around Kitz's podium, PNCA art students reclined throughout the rest of the park, painting the landscape and not paying the big speech any mind.

"This race is not about being a Democrat, or a Republican, it's about being an Oregonian," said Kitz, noting that Dudley had graciously wished him good luck in his Margarita Concession speech last night and welcoming both Duds and his supporters to "stay engaged and work with us as we put this state back together." You can watch the whole thing here.

The morning wasn't so much about the speech as a time for Democratic supporters to celebrate breathing easily for the first time in weeks. After Kitzhaber's brief remarks wrapped up, the crowd stuck around, mingling, back slapping and decompressing after the squeaker election.

"There's no doubt that the turnout in the last couple days—greater than in 2008—that last minute phonebanking, doorknocking, and Get Out the Vote efforts made the difference," said Caitlin Baggot, the project director at youth voting group the Bus Project, which knocked a whopping 17,000 doors on Halloween night.

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It's Really, Really Over: Chris Dudley Concedes... Outside a Mexican Restaurant

Denis C. Theriault — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:34:11 -0700

Faced with the mathematical certainty of a slender defeat—but likely not slender enough to trigger a recount—Republican Chris Dudley has pulled the plug on his oh-so-close bid to serve as Oregon's next governor.

The Oregonian's Harry Esteve caught up with Duds in his hometown of Lake Oswego. Outside the El Ranchito Mexican Restaurant (Here's the Yelp review).

Dudley wished John Kitzhaber well and said he hoped he got the message Oregonians were trying to tell him. Namely that a lot of them were so disenchanted with the prospect of a Kitzhaber third term that they almost voted for an Ivy-schooled backup center who's never served in government before. Although Dudley put it differently. Something about setting aside our differences.

But Duds, it seems, wasn't up for much of a postmortem. "We haven't had time to let the dust settle," he said. He also wouldn't say whether he'd try again after a bruising campaign. "Right now I'm just going inside to have a margarita."

Good choice! According to Yelp reviewer Andrew M.: "The large margarita is about the size of your head."

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And Now, Badass Photos of John Kitzhaber.

Sarah Mirk — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:16:52 -0700

You know, I'm actually more excited that Chris Dudley isn't the governor than that John Kitzhaber is. To psyche myself up for the next four years, I put together this little treasury of John Kitzhaber looking badass. The proper soundtrack for these photos is a patriotic song by National Whistling Champion Chris Ullman:

John Kitzhaber, Finally in an Appropriate Cowboy Jeans Setting:
John Kitzhaber: Burly General Hospital Edition

John Kitzhaber Looking Manly in Front of His Own Manly "Dignified Wildman" Portrait

John Kitzhaber: Wearing an Awesome Tie.

John Kitzhaber: Serious Smarts. Serious 'stache.

John Kitzhaber Also Makes an Excellent Cartoon Cowboy

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Wow, We Agree With FOX (and The Oregonian) on Something

Sarah Mirk — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:33:16 -0700

That John Kitzhaber is going to win this race.

From FOX 12's Twitter feed:

And the Oregonian homepage is blaring:

Kitz is trailing by only 5,454 votes with 14 percent of Multnomah County ballots and 22 percent of Lane County ballots still waiting to be counted. Anyone want to burst our optimistic bubble?

UPDATE: I should note that the estimate right now is for Kitzhaber to win by about 10,000 votes... exactly like commenter Evil Wm. Steven Humphrey predicted in this morning's Good Morning News! Hooray! You get no prize at all, just recognition for being closest. (Though if the results change, I'm taking away your recognition and giving it to someone else)

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Bristol Palin Didn't Even Vote.

Marissa Sullivan — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:13:59 -0700

And they call her a "teen activist." Just listen to her: "I did not send in my absentee ballots to Alaska. I'm going to be in trouble. Sorry, mom!"

Ooooooooo, her mom is going to ground her for sure! And somehow home-girl keeps making the cut on Dancing With the Stars, which is kind of cool, I guess, I mean, I don't watch but she doesn't seem horrible. Maybe she's got a really good partner. Who knows? And really, who cares?

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Good Election News: Aliens Now Free to Roam Our Skies

Sarah Mirk — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:55:48 -0700

This is the best news I've heard all day, guys: Denver voters have rejected an initiative that would have established a commission to track alien movements.

Colorado's Initiative 300 asked voters to "adopt an initiated ordinance to require the creation of an extraterrestrial affairs commission to help ensure the health, safety and cultural awareness of Denver residents and visitors in relation to potential encounters or interactions with extraterrestrial intelligent beings or their vehicles?"

No dice, y'all! The aliens are still free to roam, untethered and untracked! A victory for freedom!

In other good news, the Onion reports that none other than Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio is the sole surviving politician of this bloody, bloody election.

GIVE 'EM HELL, PETEY!

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What Killed Portland Voter Owned Elections?

Sarah Mirk — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:38:50 -0700

Trailing by a steady 5,000 votes, the city of Portland voter owned elections campaign has conceded. This means we're back to where we were in 2005, before then-City Commissioner Eric Sten pushed through campaign finance reform that allows candidates for city council and mayor to gather 1,000-1,500 $5 contributions to receive $150,000 in public funding from the city.

Personally, I'm really surprised by this outcome. These are the most liberal voters in the state we're talking about! Portland! The program was a solid investment in a more accessible democracy. And now it's dead. Quick factoid: When Randy Leonard ran as a privately-financed candidate for city council in 2008, 80 percent of his donations came in checks over $500. Amanda Fritz ran as a publicly-financed candidate and you know what percent of her donations were checks over $500? Zero.

For now, Fritz isn't giving up on her pet cause. Caught outside this morning's city council meeting, Fritz said, "I'm going to wait, I'm not conceding yet."

But it seems that voter owned elections were another casualty of the strong conservative voter turnout during this election.

Campaign director Heather Stuart blamed the loss on two things: the economy and misinformation. The cost of voter owned elections since it began in 2006 totals $1.8 million, and anything biting from a local budget during this recession hasn't gone over well with voters.

Stuart says the opposition to the system (under the moniker "Portlanders Against Taxpayer Funded Political Campaigns") effectively spread the idea that there was no cap on the cost of the program. They brought this up in our endorsement interview and were shot down—voter owned elections can't spend more than .2 percent of the city budget on campaigns and has never spent near the amount. "The opposition repeated time and time on the radio, at neighborhood meetings, again that there is no cap on how much city money could be spent on this," says Stuart. She thinks that misinformation cost the election.

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Numbers Game: Republican Turnout Higher than Democrats'

Sarah Mirk — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:15:26 -0700

This wait for election results is excruciating. The news changes by the hour and, so far, the news is mostly bad.

As of 11:42:30 am, 92 percent of votes have been counted and Dudley leads Kitz by 15,411 votes. BUT because voters in Multnomah County are slackers who turn in their ballots at the deadline, the majority of the votes that still need to be counted (62,000, to be exact) are here in MultCo, while there's 33,000 in Lane, 13,000 in Washington & 11,000 in Jackson. All that vote calculating leads to some hopeful math that puts Kitz ahead at the end of the total vote tally by between 6,000-12,000 or so votes.

You know, last night I was hanging out on the Portland Spirit cruise ship with some fancy cheese platters and Tom Hughes, who is still locked in a nail-biting race for Metro President, and he had some good insight. Though his pals were reloading election results constantly on an iPad, Hughes was totally calm. "I'm just glad it's over, there's nothing more I can do," he said. "It's in the voters' hands." Obsessing over the hourly returns today is only going to give you a headache and carpal tunnel. Go outside, eat a sandwich, and check back in a few hours when the state has more solid numbers. For now, there's nothing we can do... let's just hope no race ends in a Dino Rossi-style recount that drags out the results to the last, bitter 133 deciding votes.

Here's some numbers we do know: Republicans turned out at a higher rate than Dems for this election.

Overall turnout is almost exactly the same percent as in the 2006 midterms, but there's 105,000 more registered voters in Oregon now than in 2006, so that means more people are voting overall. Which is good. What's also interesting is more registered voters are signing up as Democrats than in 2006—the percentage of registered voters who are Dems jumped from 38 percent in 2006 to 41 percent this year (thanks, Obama!) while the percent of voters registered as Republicans dropped from 35.2 percent to 32 percent. So while Oregonians have increasingly registered as Democrats, Republicans were more likely to actually turn out to vote.

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Besides the Governor's Race, What's Still Up in the Air?

Denis C. Theriault — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:44:28 -0700

John Kitzhaber was a little bit off last night when he invoked Jeff Merkley's U.S. Senate run two years ago and suggested he might wake up this morning having been declared victorious in the governor's race. If anything, he might have to wait until Thursday morning.

As ballots are counted throughout the state, especially in good ol' progressive Multnomah County (where the uncounted tally remains in the tens of thousands), Chris Dudley's statistically slender lead over Kitzhaber continues to grow ever more slender. (And everybody knock on wood: I heard the word "recount" mentioned on OPB this morning. Shudder.)

Here in Portland, we're stuck waiting for a similarly tight battle to resolve itself over Randy Leonard's fire bond proposal. Maybe that's why Leonard keeps getting up from the dais in City Hall? As of 11 am, the measure is currently ahead by 708 votes—out of just shy of 160,000 ballots counted so far. Another race where it might be a couple of days before we really know WTF is going on.

Also up in the air, as far as I'm concerned, is the fate of voter-owned elections in Portland. That measure is trailing by fewer than 5,000 votes, a smaller gap, proportionally, than the early returns showed last night. The Oregonian has called it as a loss, according to its results page, but I still want to see how all the late votes still being counted break. A lot of those votes, I suspect, are the handiwork of groups like the Bus Project that back the measure and which brought out a lot of people at the last minute, both this weekend and on Election Day.

UPDATE 11:57 AM: The campaign backing voter-owned elections has just conceded. "We are disheartened but remain more convinced than ever that the corrosive influence of money in politics must be addressed at all levels of government," the campaign says in a statement.

Meanwhile, Bob Stacey still might have a chance in his bid to become Metro's next president. Once more, we're waiting for Multnomah County, since there are fewer votes left to count in Tom Hughes-backing Washington and Clackamas counties.

And while it looks more and more likely, Democrats are wringing their hands over the chance that not one but both houses of the Oregon Legislature will revert to split control between the Dems and the GOP. Only two years ago, the Democratic Party surged to three-fifths super-majorities that gave them carte-blanche over taxes and budgets.

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Good Riddance to Blue Rubbish

Dan Savage — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:58:00 -0700

We're not gonna miss some of the Dems who lost last night:

In a fell swoop, the once-powerful Blue Dog caucus of conservative House Democrats was reduced from 54 members to 26 in Tuesday’s midterm election. The caucus lost two members to retirement and two others who ran for higher office, and out of the remaining 50 members, 24 Blue Dogs lost. There were still a few Blue Dogs in tight races that had yet to be called early on Wednesday morning. There is the potential for more losses, though most of them look likely to hold on. Two members of the leadership—Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin of South Dakota and Rep. Baron Hill of Indiana—both lost to Republican challengers.

One of the most frustrating things about the last two years was watching Obama and real Dems bend over backward to appease faux Dems.

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Who Saved the Senate for the Dems?

Dan Savage — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:29:00 -0700

Thanks, Sarah.

It makes sense to be pretty careful in judging how things will affect Sarah Palin. But there's a decent argument that this is not a great night for her. Think about if Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell hadn't won their primaries. There's a decent chance Dems would have lost the Senate tonight. That's a pretty big deal. She also made a late endorsement of John Raese in West Virginia. He got crushed. And perhaps most importantly, she went to war in a big way with her state's senior senator, Lisa Murkowski. She got her beat in the Republican primary. But now it's looking like Murkowski's quite likely to win as a write-in, which is usually pretty much impossible to pull off.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think Sarah Palin will be going anywhere soon. The problem for the GOP is that the people who love her—and there are a lot of them in the GOP—really love her. And this won't matter a bit to them. But this result is going to get a lot of talk in GOP circles. Because there's a plausible argument that she lost them the Senate.

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Who Handed the House to the GOP?

Dan Savage — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 09:44:07 -0700

Old fucks voted and dumb fucks—dumb young fucks—didn't.

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A Post-Midnight Roundup of State and Local Ballot Measures

Denis C. Theriault — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:22:21 -0700

Okay, so the top of the ticket—Kitz v. Duds—is still too close to call. But what about the ballot measures? When we last posted, after early results, it was too hard to say how things might shake out. But four hours later, we have a bit more clarity.

So here's a quick roundup based on where things stand as of (technically) Wednesday morning, with a focus on state measures and local measures we haven't already posted about. (Keep checking here for the latest statewide results. Or here for Multnomah County's numbers.)

MEASURE 71 (annual sessions for the Legislature): PASS

MEASURE 73 (mandatory minimum sentences): PASS (boo)

MEASURE 74 (marijuana dispensaries): ALL BUT A FAIL

MEASURE 75 (private casino in Multnomah County): FAIL

MEASURE 76 (lottery money for parks): PASS

MEASURE 26-108 (voter-owned elections in Portland): Trailing, but too close to call

MEASURE 26-109 (repeal term limits for the Multnomah County commission): Probably headed to defeat, but still a hair to close to call

MEASURE 26-110 (commissioners wouldn't have to resign while running for a different office): FAIL

MEASURE 26-117 (Portland fire equipment bond): Trailing, but only by a hair

MEASURE 26-118 (Multnomah County tax for state history museum): Leading, but too close to call

MEASURE 26-119 (TriMet bus tax measure): Leading in MultCo, but trailing elsewhere; too close to call

Another handful of county measures—26-111, 26-112, 26-113, and 26-114—have all sailed to victory. They would expand the powers of the county's salary commission, toughen residence rules for commissioners, consolidate elections for mid-term vacancies, and make it easier to create a special tax district for the county library.

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Dudley Calls Race In Own Favor!

Andrea "the Intern" Vedder — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:53:54 -0700

Well, not quite. He's just "very confident", and claims there's "no doubt which way it's going." He pretty much kept repeating himself from there.

"The comeback starts tomorrow!" Dudley said, which leaves me to wonder: Is Dudley giving a shout-out to comeback sauce? Because suddenly, I really want a po' boy... which Dudley, ironically, is not.

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John Kitzhaber Says, "GO TO BED ALREADY!"

Sarah Mirk — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:33:52 -0700

Seriously, stop biting your fingernails over the election results, have a nightcap, climb into bed, and cry yourself to sleep a little.

John Kitzhaber waltzed into the Grand Ballroom in the bowels of the Hilton to a screaming crowd of fans and told them, essentially, GO TO BED.

"This probably won't be decided until some time before the sun comes up," said Kitz, wearing his signature tight cowboy jeans. "I'm very optimistic. and let me tell you why. We've known all along that this would be a close race. We've known all along it would come down to the Multnomah County vote. We're down two points statewide, but almost half the Multnomah County vote isn't in yet."

"Jeff Merkley was in exactly the same place at 11 o'clock on election night," continued Kitz. "And he woke up the next morning as a United States Senator. I expect the same thing is going to happen this evening.

Even though it's a superclose race, Kitzhaber will be resting easier tonight than Duds.
Here's the hopeful math that puts Kitz in the lead: There's 400,000 ballots left in the state to count, a third of them are in Multnomah County. Judging by the results so far, our county is going 70 percent for Kitz, which means by the end of tonight he'll likely be ahead.

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So It Looks Like TriMet is Going Down?

Sarah Mirk — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:19:07 -0700

The Oregonian is calling the TriMet measure as a loss, since it's trailing by four percent. I think it's still too close to call, as only half of Multnomah County's ballots have been counted and it's leading 51 to 49 in this county.

Either way, the message is clear. TriMet: Not the most popular transportation agency on the playground right now.

Transportation writer Elly Blue sums it up best:

If TriMet's bond does fail, hey, it could be a good thing. Rather than cutting service, they could be forced to renegotiate seriously with the operators' union, whose members are currently protesting having to pay a portion of their healthcare costs. Rising healthcare costs have helped push TriMet into the red, this could be some intense leverage to balance the budget.

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Loretta Smith Wins Big

Marissa Sullivan — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:11:23 -0700

With Karol Collymore conceding surprisingly early, Loretta Smith is officially the new County Commissioner of Multnomah County.

Regarding her early win and if she was expecting this outcome, Smith had this to say:
"NO, I thought that this would be a back and forth all night and maybe we would find out tomorrow. This is a surprise."

In her victory speech Smith mentioned she had just talked to her opponent Karol Collymore and that she was very gracious when they talked. Smith mentioned that some of the issues surrounding food equity are very important to her and she plans to work with Karol on them. "I want to sit down and talk with her about those and carry them forward."

Her speech was lengthy and at times touching, bringing up her son, Jordan, to speak and mentioning that he is a "Huskie" but she doesn’t hold that against him. He went on to say that he’s really proud of her, she was dedicated—she didn’t sleep or eat—and that everything she says she believes in and she will get it done.

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Ben Quayle Wins in Arizona; Stupidity Wins As Well

Wm.™ Steven Humphrey — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:03:43 -0700

Republican Ben Quayle—son of former Vice President Dan Quayle—has won the third congressional seat in Arizona. For those with short memories, Ben is THIS GUY:

Congress, you're gonna be SO MUCH better off!

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Tea Party and GOP Get What They Want: No African-Americans in Senate

Wm.™ Steven Humphrey — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:38:29 -0700

From CNN:

Despite record election achievements by African-Americans in the House, the United States Senate will not have an African-American in its ranks.

All three black Senate candidates, Kendrick Meek (D-FL), Alvin Greene (D-SC) and Mike Thurmond (D-GA) are projected to lose tonight. The only incumbent black senator, Roland Burris (D-IL), is retiring.

GO WHITEY! GO WHITEY! GO! GO! GO WHITEY!

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Oh Great... the New Speaker of the House is a Goddamn Crybaby

Wm.™ Steven Humphrey — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:30:35 -0700

Unless you want to hear a bunch of masturbatory posturing, jump right to the 6:00 mark where you can see the next Speaker of the House, Republican John "Don't Call Me Boner" Boehner, cry like a big, tubby baby. JESUS CHRIST! Now they're really not going to be able to get anything done!!

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From Behind The Iron Curtain: The Republican Party

Andrea "the Intern" Vedder — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:13:20 -0700

I'm at the Rose Garden, where Chris Dudley has chosen to host his election night party. He's still hiding in the locker room, leaving me to troll the crowd of approximately 100 people... Maybe the rest are still getting their hair did? (Update: they're upstairs, in the Rose Room, where money buys you a whole lot more than the crackers, water, and $8 Widmers on offer to us yokels.)

Some snappy snapshots to entertain you while we wait for the Dud's first words:

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Calling the Local Measures: Library Tax Passes, PDX Measures Too Close

Denis C. Theriault — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:11:24 -0700

The Multnomah County Library is claiming a victory for Measure 26-114, the ballot initiative that would make it easier for the county commission to create a special tax district to pay for the library. After early results, the measure was up by a comfortable 43 points.

Several other county measures appeared to be sailing to victory by massive margins, including a requirement that commissioners who move out of their districts have to leave office. Voters did not appear to be supporting a change that would allow commissioners to keep their seats if they explore a run at another office. A bid to repeal term limits and create a tax for Oregon's history society were too close.

Also too close to call, even after results at 9 pm, were Portland's two measures on the ballot: Measure 26-108 which calls for keeping the city's system of public financing of elections, and Measure 26-117, which seeks millions in property taxes to purchase firefighting equipment. Both were trailing.

I'm hearing that most of the ballots cast in Multnomah County were cast today, which means it might be some time before we really know how things stack up—and how effective last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts this weekend have been.

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