HD-49: How pathetic is Matt Wand?
Kari Chisholm
This is hilarious. Chris Lehman, whom you'll often hear on OPB News, followed up on a story he did earlier in the spring - and the outcome is pure comedy.
You see, freshman state Rep. Matt Wand (R-Troutdale) tried to bounce the Democratic candidate, Chris Gorsek, right out of the race - by encouraging Democrats to write-in Wand's name in the primary election. After all, if Wand got more votes than Gorsek, he'd win the Democratic primary, too.
Cue Lehman:
It appears as though Wand's quest fell far short. According to the unofficial election results from the Oregon Secretary of State, there were just 88 write-in votes on the Democratic ballot in HD-49. We won't know for a few weeks just what those names are. But needless to say, even if every last one of them is "Matt Wand" it would be far less than the vote total for Gorsek--which currently stands at 2,326.
88 votes. After all that hullabaloo, Wand got 88 votes max. And that's not the best part. This is:
In fact, Gorsek's Democratic primary total far exceeds Wand's Republican primary total, which is currently 1,806.
That's right. Wand didn't even get more Republican primary votes than Gorsek got in the Democratic primary. (No word on how many Republicans wrote in Gorsek on their ballots. I jest.)
And actually, the really best part of all?
Matt Wand started the year with $25,099 in the bank. He's raised a fairly impressive $52,180 so far in 2012. But he's managed to spend a stunning $75,423 so far this year -- leaving him with just $6,151 in the bank after the primary. How does that even happen?
Upset alert!
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connect with blueoregon
12:04 p.m.
May 23, '12
Yeah, that little campaign didn't pay off for Wand at all.
As the Democratic Party Leader for HD49, I encourage everyone to pull a few shifts canvassing and phonebanking helping us unseat Matt Wand. Chris is a terrific candidate with great ideas. Help us take back House District 49!
Contact Chris' campaign at www.chrisgorsek.com or email [email protected]
12:51 p.m.
May 23, '12
Thanks, Kari, for posting - and thanks, Mel, for all your great work out there in HD 49. Dems CAN win in 49, but as Mel says, it'll take a lot of us chipping in and connecting with voters out there.
We want our electeds to take principled stands and do the hard work when they are elcted to DC or the Statehouse. We MUST hold up our end of the bargain and do the work that gets them there!
6:28 p.m.
May 23, '12
Yes, we received a big glossy fold-out flyer as well as other pieces of mail on this write-in campaign. Very expensive, especially when you neglect to combine people in a household together. We received his mailers over the last few months even before the write-in campaign began. He always sends to everyone regardless of party, which gets pretty expensive in a primary.
7:26 p.m.
May 23, '12
Actually, FB Connect is working. But we recently were forced into a code upgrade by Facebook. Give it a hard ctrl-refresh, and you should see names reappear.