Oh, glorious data! 2012 statewide election results, compiled by lege districts

Kari Chisholm

OK, all you legislative and political nerds. Here's a little something to explore while you're snowed in.

Over at DailyKos, they've produced legislative district totals for the 2012 presidential and statewide elections.

Why is this so awesome? Because elections officials don't report results by legislative district. They report by precinct and by county. So, to assemble district-level data, you have to compile it from precinct data from the ground up. Having done this before, it's fascinating, but it's painfully tedious work. So, thank you to DailyKos!

That's right: We now know that Barack Obama won in 39 Oregon House districts. Five Republican state reps are in Obama districts -- Jason Conger (Bend), Julie Parrish (West Linn), Mark Johnson (Hood River), Vicki Berger (Salem), and John Davis (Wilsonville). Zero Democrats represent Romney turf. See that on a map here.

In the Senate, Obama won 19 districts, so three Republicans are in blue country -- Betsy Close (Albany), Bruce Starr (Hillsboro), and Chuck Thomsen (Hood River). And again, zero Ds in Romney turf. See that on a map here.

OK, the presidential might be unique. The Secretary of State race between Kate Brown and Knute Buehler might tell us a bit more about which districts are competitive downballot. Two House Republicans, Berger and Johnson, are in Brown districts, while zero Democrats are in Buehler districts. (Note: Buehler won in the Conger seat 48.9% to 46.2% -- so it's close. A local Bend Democrat like Craig Wilhelm should have strong shot at it.) In the Senate, Brown won in 20 districts -- picking up the Salem-area seat of Jackie Winters, in addition to the Close, Starr, and Thomsen districts.

One little bit of interesting trivia that turns up in these charts: How did Senator Bruce Starr do in his race against Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian in his own Senate district? Well, he won -- but it was close, just 53.3% to 47.7%. Meanwhile, Brown beat Buehler there 52-42. It'd be tough, but Starr is beatable.

Last thought: There's been a lot of chatter about a Democratic primary challenge to Senator Betsy Johnson (Scappoose). Some have argued against, suggesting that she might be the only Democrat who can win there. That's just not true: Obama won 52-44, Brown won 51-44, and Avakian won the nonpartisan race 51-49. I venture to say that any Democrat who won that primary would win handily in November.

DailyKos has made all the data tables available via Google Docs: House, Senate, Congressional.

By Kari Chisholm Feb. 07, 2014