Kitzhaber Not Heading To Dudley's BBQ

Capitol Currents:

Don't expect to see Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber at his Republican counterpart's "Bipartisan BBQ" next month. Chris Dudley is asking state lawmakers to his Lake Oswego home "to get to know each other as people so we are able to work together as leaders." Of course, if Dudley wins the election, one of the people he won't need to work with is Kitzhaber. That may explain why Kitzhaber, when I asked him today if he was planning to attend Dudley's barbeque, responded:  "I don't think I got the invitation."

In fact, Kitzhaber says he's never even met Dudley. A possible meeting this afternoon at the Oregon Mayors Association conference in Cottage Grove doesn't seem like it will happen, after all. The OMA had invited the candidates to make a joint appearance, but Dudley's campaign said the suggested timeslot wouldn't work for them. Kitzhaber's camp released a letter in which the former governor said he'd be willing to stick around for Dudley's afternoon timeslot if that meant the two could jointly answer questions. But Kitzhaber departed the conference this morning after his speech, and an aide said that since they did not receive an answer from the Dudley campaign, the assumption at this point is that the joint appearance won't happen. I'll update this post later this afternoon after Dudley speaks.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width="1" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3320471128493510714-9202927572666401654?l=www.capitolcurrents.com" alt=""/></div>

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