A massive upset may be brewing in Oregon, a state long a blue stronghold despite vast pockets of conservatism.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate there got some unexpectedly good news this week: polling against incumbent left-wing Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek.
Republican State Sen. Christine Drazan is polling four points ahead of Kotek, according to a new poll from the research firm Public Opinion Strategies.
Drazan toured manufacturing facilities in Eugene and Springfield and discussed her thoughts on public education requirements.
“We took away our requirements for graduation some years ago,” Drazan said, according to local reports.
Advertisement
“It’s time to restore graduation requirements and know that our students are going to be prepared for community college, or the trades, or college, whatever they want in their future, that our public education is going to help them get there,” she continued.
“Today, we found that that has not been the case. We need to ensure that by attending a public school, you’re not going to be left behind,” she added.
Drazan also discussed her lead in the polls.
“This isn’t about what color jersey you wear,” Drazan said. “This is certainly not about personality contests or anything like that. This place that we live in is extraordinary.”
“We shouldn’t be losing people to Texas or Nevada or Arizona or Tennessee or anywhere else,” Drazan continued.
“People should want to live here because it’s the best place to live,” she added.
“And so we just have to work on solving these problems differently. We need a new vision and a new direction for our state.”
Advertisement
The last Republican to hold the governorship in Oregon was Vic Atiyeh, who served from 1979 to 1987.
Last month, the Cook Political Report changed the Oregon governor’s race from Solid Democrat (the highest possible Democrat rating) to Likely Democrat.
“Oregon’s gubernatorial races have become something of a nagging headache for Democrats, in part because the policies that play well with Portland progressives are poisonous elsewhere in the state,” the report stated in its race summary.
This comes as the U.S. Supreme Court handed Republican campaign committees a decisive victory Friday in a dispute that could affect how far political advertising dollars stretch during the final weeks before the midterm elections.
The justices intervened after a federal appeals court struck down an FCC policy that allowed political parties engaged in coordinated advertising to obtain the same favorable broadcast rates as candidates.
The emergency dispute arrived at the Court just as the discounted-rate requirements were scheduled to take effect and as campaigns began committing substantial sums to television and radio advertising.
Republican committees warned that broadcasters had already begun withdrawing favorable rates following the lower court decision, increasing the cost of reaching voters before Election Day.
The Supreme Court granted an emergency request from the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee, temporarily restoring the FCC policy while further litigation proceeds.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to publicly dissent from the Court’s unsigned decision.
The dispute concerns the Federal Communications Commission’s “lowest unit charge” rules, which require broadcasters to give legally qualified candidates favorable advertising rates during specified periods before elections.
In granting the stay, the Supreme Court focused substantially on a procedural problem with the Fourth Circuit’s ruling rather than finally deciding whether political parties are legally entitled to the discounted rates.
The majority concluded that the appeals court likely lacked jurisdiction because the Democratic candidates had gone to federal court before the full FCC finished considering their administrative challenge.
The Court said federal communications law generally requires parties to complete that agency-review process before seeking judicial review.