Game On: GOP's Write-In Efforts Appear To Have Worked

Capitol Currents:

At 10:15 this morning, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber announced that he'd selected Ellen Rosenblum to fill the remainder of John Kroger's term as Attorney General. Less than six hours later, Rosenblum picked up an opponent in the November election. Of course, neither events were a complete surprise. Rosenblum had won the Democratic nomination for Attorney General in the May primary, so it's not a big shock that the governor would select her.Meanwhile, the Oregon Republican Party had been encouraging its members to write-in the name of James Buchal after the party failed to find a candidate in time to make it onto the primary ballot. This afternoon, the Secretary of State's office released unofficial totals showing that Buchal appears to have secured the nomination. Likewise, Democratic incumbent treasurer Ted Wheeler will face successful GOP write-in candidate Tom Cox.Both Cox and Buchal have an uphill battle if they want to win in November. Both Rosenblum--by virtue of running a vigorous primary campaign--and Wheeler--by virtue of the incumbency--start off with more name recognition. Of course, Rosenblum and Wheeler are probably not household names in Oregon. So a well-funded opponent could probably make some inroads. But neither Cox nor Buchal fit that description, so far. Cox hasn't reported a single dime in contributions, and Buchal reports campaign assets of just $100, all of which came in the form of a loan from himself.Compare that to Wheeler and Rosenblum's campaign coffers. Wheeler has about $100,000 in cash on hand, and had the luxury of an uncontested primary. Rosenblum, after spending more than a half-million dollars to defeat Dwight Holton in the Democratic primary, now reports having just $32,000 in cash.  But she's proved capable of raising money and will likely have little trouble replenishing her warchest. Of course, it's logical to think that GOP donors may have been waiting to see if Cox and Buchal would actually make the general election ballot to start forking over cash, so the totals don't mean much at this point. But you have to think Cox and Buchal have a tall order when it comes to rounding up enough cash to finance a statewide campaign in such a relatively short time period.

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