Battle for Oregon House - among the top 10 in the nation

A report by a panel of election experts convened by the National Conference on State Legislatures included the fight for the Oregon House among the top 10 battlegrounds in the nation.

From the article at Stateline.org:

Oregon House – Democrats need four seats to take over and this election may be their best chance in 15 years to take control.

And it's a good year for Democrats:

“The 2006 state legislative elections could rival those of the historic 1994 elections when the GOP picked up more than 500 statehouse seats,” Tim Storey, who specializes in statehouse elections at NCSL, said. Historically, the party that controls the White House loses statehouse seats during midterm elections.

What are you doing to help win back the Oregon House?

Read the rest. Visit the Oregon House Democrats website. Discuss.

  • Anonymous (unverified)
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    This sounds very hopeful.

    What is the update with Minnis? Last I heard she was quite far ahead in the polls.

    However, even if she wins and loses the speakership that would be a great improvement.

  • spicey (unverified)
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    what am I doing? working to make sure Brading and Thackaberry sail to victory. Donating to house campaigns - both time and money. encouraging my friends to participate. making sure everyone I know is registered to vote. paying attention to this site :) thanks for this news.

  • PSJackson (unverified)
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    The key to the Oregon House is Rob Brading winning. So far Karen Minnis has spent $250,000 that we know of to no effect. That’s $250,000 that did not go to other Republicans. As of late, Karen Minnis has been dumping huge amounts of cash on hired phone banking, once more to no effect. As long as we (Progressive Democrats) keep sending people to work and walk for Rob, there will never be enough money in Republican hands to get Karen Minis re-elected. And if Karen goes down she will take every Republican with her because she will be taking their money (the Speakers PAC) with her. Therefore, when you help Rob Brading, you are, in a very real way, helping every other Democrat in Oregon. BTW The Multnomah County Democratic Party is walking for Rob Brading tomorrow (multdems.org), come on out to Troutdale and join them.

  • LT (unverified)
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    PS, the key to Democratic victory is people working on the state rep. races in their own county. Here in Marion County-mid Willamette Valley we could see some very interesting results. And don't forget--whatever happens to Brading and Caudle, if 3 Marion Democrats win, that ties the House (changing the leadership). A combination of Brading, Caudle, and 2 Marion (or other nearby county) wins controls the House.

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    If I may, Minnis is also having her friends and consultants spend money and time trying to pin Brading as a supporter of kids viewing pornography. She denies the connection, but Carla at LoadedO busts a big ol' hole in that excuse. It's a Chuck Adams/Tim Nashif/Dennis Tuuri job all the way--there's no chance she can credibly disavow her involvement with these latter day Nixon Plumbers.

  • Levon (unverified)
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    I respectfully disagree with PSJackson's claim that "the key to the Oregon House is Rob Brading winning."

    Yes, a Brading win would be great news for the state. However, the notion that the Republicans will have a shortage of $ because of this race belies the facts. The Republicans have a great deal more money than do the Dems. Period.

    Even if Minnis spends one million and loses, the GOP will match and most likely beat Democrats in fundraising and expenditures in all of the key races.

    In fact, one might just as easily argue that Dems are taking a much greater risk by dumping gobs of money into the Brading/Minnis race with the hope of pulling off a tremendous upset.

    Me thinks emotion is clouding logical decision-making here. Being pissed off at Minnis (rightly so), doesn't make it wise to expend so many resources in a fit of anger and revenge.

    There are many races that are more important than the Minnis/Brading race. Clem-Dalto; Cowan on the coast; Riley; Galizio; Roblan; Edwards; Read; etc....

    Let's be smart....not simply angry.

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    What am I doing to win back the House (and keep the Senate/governor)?

    Personally, I'm helping to coordinate numerous canvasses and phone banks between now and the election to help candidates like Brading, Galizio, Metsger, and Kulongoski win in November. As mentioned above, our very first such canvass is this weekend-- www.multdems.org/brading. It's our kick-off to the general election.

    I urge everyone who can to come out on Saturday and help us in the effort to retire Minnis. If you live outside the area, get out and work for the candidates near you-- it's going to take more than one victory to win the House. We need seats across the state to win the House. And the more seats we win, the stronger our hold on the House (remember-- many votes go through with less than 100% of members voting due to illness, other legsilative business, etc.).

    Can't canvass? Then out in a few hours each week phone banking. Those calls are EXTREMELY important, as they help turn out additional volunteers and help us to reach voters we can't physically get to (behind locked gates, large dogs in the yard, in remote areas, etc.).

    If you're in Multnomah County and want to get involved, contact me: 503-248-0826 or field [-at-] multdems.org

    If you want to get involved in other areas, and don't know how, I recommend getting a hold of the great DNC organizers we have at the DPO. Contact info can be found here: http://www.dpo.org/contact/

  • PSJackson (unverified)
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    I want to thank Levon for responding to my post.

    <h2>But Levon did not read it close enough. I never asked people to give Rob Brading money. What I asked for and what Rob needs is something that Karen Minnis and her supporters can never match, even with all the Republican money in the world - People. Last time Rob almost beat Karen Minnis even though she out spent Rob 10 to 1. That was accomplished by real people, like me, talking to voters about Rob; not mailers, billboards or auto- dialers. So the gobs Rob Brading needs from everyone is gobs of time.</h2>
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