SOS: Kate Brown draws a challenger for 2012
Kari Chisholm
Willamette Week reports that a Republican challenger to Secretary of State Kate Brown is already running hard, raising money, and bringing on top-tier staff.
A Bend orthopedic surgeon running for secretary of state is serious about raising big campaign money. Dr. Knute Buehler, a Republican, has pulled in $45,000 so far, mostly from local donors and some family members. Buehler, a former Oregon State baseball player and Rhodes Scholar, has hired fundraiser Lori Hardwick, who helped Republican Chris Dudley raise $10 million in his race for governor last year.
It appears that Dr. Buehler was nominated to the Ford Family Foundation in Roseburg earlier this year. His bio:
Born in Roseburg, Ore., Dr. Knute Buehler is an orthopedic surgeon in Bend with a special interest in joint replacement and computer assisted surgery. He completed his medical training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and his fellowship in joint replacement surgery at Scripps Clinic in San Diego. He is past President and managing partner of the Center for Orthopedic and Neurosurgical Care and Research, a 35 - provider, surgical group practice that has 180 employees.
Before his career in medicine, Dr. Buehler attended Oregon State University, where he played varsity baseball and was the first graduate ever to be awarded a Rhodes scholarship. He graduated from Oxford University in England with a Masters degree in politics and economics. He is a member of the board of advisers for Oregon State University's Cascades Campus in Bend and the board of directors of the Western Orthopedic Association, and chairman of the Mid-Oregon Osteoporosis Network. Knute and his wife, Patricia, make their home in Bend with their two children.
There's an even more extensive bio over at his medical practice.
Over on Jack Bogdanski's blog, Cascade Policy Institute president John Charles writes, "he's worked on election reform, so he knows what the Sec of State's office actually does, and what it can do with the right person in charge." No word on exactly what election reform issues Buehler has "worked on".
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1:59 a.m.
Sep 14, '11
Full disclosure: My firm built Kate Brown's campaign website in 2008. I speak only for myself.
3:08 p.m.
Sep 15, '11
And the good news is now that she has an opponent Kate is likely to hire you to do her campaign website again. Congratulations, Kari!
(I speak only for myself, too.)
10:39 p.m.
Sep 15, '11
Ha ha. Funny.
8:33 a.m.
Sep 15, '11
This will be a tough fight and require a strong Dem turnout to win it for Kate.
12:56 p.m.
Sep 15, '11
he has staff, too! which just about seals the deal.
1:05 p.m.
Sep 15, '11
I loved Kate's speech at the City Club where she patted herself on the back for her voter registration efforts saying, "we've found that people who are registered are more likely to vote!"
4:52 p.m.
Sep 15, '11
What I want to know is how can a person who is a Rhodes scholar and has earned a medical degree stand to associate himself in any way with today's republican party? Most of the party wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole because of the knowledge he has gained through his education.
10:42 p.m.
Sep 15, '11
Oh now, let's be fair. It's possible to be both smart and conservative.
There are lots of dumb conservatives, to be sure. And many conservatives these days seem to celebrate disdain for science and lack of knowledge about current events (even in their vice-presidential candidates).
But there are plenty of dumb liberals, too.
I don't accept the premise that brains and ideology are correlated. We're right, but it's because we're right, not because we've studied more.
11:16 p.m.
Sep 15, '11
Ah, but there is a difference, Kari. Democrats do not attack people for being academics, studying at a prestigous college, working in science, or being considered an intellectual. Many Republicans make such attacks.
11:34 a.m.
Sep 17, '11
How refreshing to see a progressive liberal acknowledge that some of us flat-earth, Bible and gun clinging Republicans can actually graduate from high school and sometimes beyond.
Somehow I managed to earn a B.S. with honors, graduate from seminary after three years of Greek and Hebrew, attend and graduate law school with Brad Avakian and Max Williams as classmates, pass the bar 20 years ago - and chew gum at the same time.
Though I have to admit, my career goals of being either a brain surgeon or Double-Nought Spy were dashed when I hit my head diving into the cement pond with Ellie Mae.
9:04 a.m.
Sep 19, '11
Great point. It's hard to understand how anyone with Dr. Buehler's education could embrace the Republicans' "unreality-based" view of the world. I suspect the "smart conservatives" give greater weight to their disdain for the middle class and the poor.
3:10 p.m.
Sep 16, '11
I find it best to distinguish between the Liberal/Conservative axis and the Democrat/Republican axis. One speaks to ideology while the other speaks to political partisanship.
They are not as closely correlated as modern political dialog suggests.
10:39 a.m.
Sep 17, '11
A medical doctor a politician?
Who'd a thunk :-)
3:00 p.m.
Sep 22, '11
With Roseburg connections, no less.
I'm wary of CPI/Republican ideas on Election Reform. It always looks like voter suppression to me.