Observations on the Primary Election

Kari Chisholm

A few random observations about what happened:

• Apparently, Jason Conger now regrets failing to hire an opposition researcher. Ya think? As the Washington Post's Chris Cilizza notes (regarding Mitch McConnell's big win in Kentucky), "The best expenditure a campaign can make is in a good opposition researcher." Of course, given how dreamy Senator McConnell thinks Monica Wehby is, ya gotta wonder if the NRSC actually vets the candidates they recruit.

• Wow, Deborah Kafoury's win in the Multnomah County Chair race was dominating. I don't think anyone saw that coming. Jim Francesconi managed just over 18% -- barely a point more than the rest of the completely-unknown field combined. Jules Bailey crushed his opponent, Brian Wilson, in the District 1 race.

• Congressman Greg Walden stomped out the primary challenge 76-23% from Klamath County Commissioner Dennis Linthicum, whose hoped-for support from the Club for Growth never materialized. (Of course, over in Idaho, the CFG poured in a half million bucks -- only to see their primary challenger lose 63-23.)

• Listen up, folks. The incompetent and ideological Clackamas County Clerk, Sherry Hall, has a strong challenger. David Robinson comes out of the primary down 41-30, but you'd better believe that the votes for the other three candidates are anti-Hall votes. (And while we're on the topic, any investigative reporters going to dig in and find out why Hall canceled the midnight vote count release?)

• In Washington and Clackamas Counties, the incumbents won all the commission races -- good news in Clackamas County, and 2/3rds bad news in Washington County. Bottom line? No change for the suburban counties. The closest race was the one between WashCo Commish Bob Terry and former Congresswoman Elizabeth Furse -- at 52-48%.

• Folks should be paying attention to SD-20, featuring Senator Alan Olsen and former Clackamas County Commissioner Jamie Damon. Both were unopposed, but Damon managed just 636 votes fewer. Same thing in SD-15, where Senator Bruce Starr outpolled former Rep. Chuck Riley by just 95 votes. With the higher turnout in the fall for Democrats, those two are likely to be real races.

• Meanwhile, in SD-8, Rep. Sara Gelser earned 7682 primary votes to Sen. Betsy Close's 5774 votes. Looks very, very promising.

• As has become a regular thing around here, the Oregon House Republicans featured a couples of primary challenges to incumbents. In HD-18, Rep. Vic Gilliam handily beat back his challenger, David Darnell, 59-41; while in HD-23, Rep. Jim Thompson got beat 63-37 by Mike Nearman, who was endorsed by Oregon Right to Life.

• In the major Democratic primary races for the Oregon House, Rob Nosse beat out Teddy Keizer 49-36 in HD-42; Ken Helm beat our Brian Tosky 48-40 in HD 34; and Kathleen Taylor beat out Deborah Barnes 60-34 in HD-41.

• I have to say that I'm impressed that the Secretary of State had faster updates for election results (and longer into the night) than did the AP or the Oregonian.

That's it for me. What did you learn from the election results last night?

By Kari Chisholm May 21, 2014