Did Saxtonville take down Saxton?

That's right, folks.

Larry George, a GOP Senator-elect from Washington County (and Measure 37 supporter), is crediting Saxtonville with taking down Ron Saxton. From the Portland Tribune:

At Ron Saxton’s election-night party at the Hilton Portland last week, the kids were popping campaign balloons long before the failed gubernatorial candidate’s 9:30 p.m. concession speech.

Legislative candidate Larry George, however, saw the air going out of Saxton’s campaign well before that. Despite last-minute reports of Saxton’s campaign gaining momentum, George, a Republican who won his bid for the state Senate, told Sources Say he saw a dramatic shift in the polling numbers in late October.

It started, he said, right after the news broke that Saxton had been part owner of a farm and said he wasn’t sure if it had employed illegal immigrants – this after Saxton had supported harsh penalties for employers who hired illegal immigrants.

Here's the big ol' Saxtonville archive at BlueOregon. Discuss.

  • Serious? (unverified)
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    Seriously putting a lot of air in your own sails this time...

  • Zak J. (unverified)
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    "Saxtonville" certainly added to the aura of insincerity he generated each time he played both sides of an issue, didn't it? That and his rehashed Reaganomics plan for bankrupting the state showed his true colors, er, that he had none.

  • (Show?)

    Serious -- This is just a quote from Larry George.

    I'm not sure I fully agree with the analysis - and I haven't seen the GOP's polling data (or Ted's, for that matter)... but what's interesting here isn't necessarily whether Saxtonville had an effect or not, but that some Republicans THINK it did.

  • Betsy Wilson (unverified)
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    Larry George and think don't really go together in the same sentence for me. Actually, he'a probably a pretty good thinker. Just when it comes to being intellectually honest, he's not so much...

  • Sid Leader (unverified)
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    The word high atop the KOIN Tower is Ronnie knew his campaign was dying when he saw himself portrayed as Arnold Ziffle, or worse, on this web site.

    It was not the end, just the beginning of the end.

    Thankfully.

  • Anonymous (unverified)
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    Yesterday's news. Let's move on...

  • Joe12Pack (unverified)
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    Hate to burst your bubble of self importance, but most folks were unaware of this non story or saw it for what it was.

    It's real simple. Saxton's support from the GOP base was weak at best while anti-Republican sentiment was strong. That combination did not bode well for Ron, even against a pitifully weak incumbent.

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    Who knew Joe12Pack had conducted a statewide survey of Saxtonville's effects on the race? Thanks for your reasoned, substantiated insight, Joe.

    It's real simple. Voters were satisfied with Ted, and even those who weren't, were not ready to hand over the keys to someone who feared being specific about his plans as if the process would make him contract ebola.

    See, anyone can play the "here's why X won and Y lost" game!

  • LT (unverified)
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    even those who weren't, were not ready to hand over the keys to someone who feared being specific about his plans as if the process would make him contract ebola.

    Thanks Torrid for summing up what was wrong with Saxton's campaign. It may have looked good on paper (moderate who lives in Portland ) but when he started acting like the legislature doesn't matter because the governor controls everything, he showed his lack of understanding of the way Oregon government works.

    Maybe next time they should nominate a legislator who understands that---and talks about specific proposals.

  • Harry (unverified)
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    TJ writes: "It's real simple. Voters were satisfied with Ted,..."

    Maybe simple, maybe complex, I dunno.

    But you sure are correct about that last bit. Ted won much bigger than I ever thought it would be.

  • Joe12Pack (unverified)
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    <h2>Speaking of self-importance, torridjoe everybody. Ya' know Joe, one does not need to conduct a poll or survey to have an opinion. We can disagree what impact the Saxtonville story had on this election (miniscule IMHO), but I hope we can agree the other factors I stated were factual.</h2>
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