Kitzhaber wins Independent Party primary nod

PORTLAND, Ore. - Democrat John Kitzhaber won the nomination of the Independent Party Friday in the state’s first Internet-held primary election.

He garnered 850 votes out of 2,214 cast in the governor’s race. The runner-up was photographer Richard Esterman of Sisters. He got 438 votes. Jerry Wilson, the founder of the Soloflex exercise machine, received 300 votes. But a significant number of votes landed in the “None of the above” and “Write-in” columns, 312 and 314 respectively.

Kitzhaber, in a statement released after winning the nomination said, “My campaign is centered on bridging divides and creating a new Oregon majority, and I am proud to receive the nomination of the Independent Party of Oregon. Together, we can make this election about moving beyond partisan division and remembering that we are all Oregonians first.”

Republican nominee Chris Dudley did not seek the nomination for the minor party. The Dudley campaign has declined to say why he decided to forego the primary, saying it doesn’t discuss “internal strategy.”

For Kitzhaber it will mean that, in addition to appearing on the November ballot as a Democrat, he will also appear as an Independent.

Having up to three party labels appear under a candidate’s name is now allowed under a new Oregon law passed by the 2009 Legislature. (It’s Senate Bill 326 and it’s called fusion voting.)

The growth of the Independent Party has exploded since it formed in 2007 and now has about 57,000 members. That may explain why major-party candidates are seeking its nomination.

Skeptics, however, argue that many voters may have mistakenly registered for the Independent Party thinking they weren’t registering for any party.

Linda Williams, one of the founders of the Independent Party, told The Associated Press Friday the party has gotten only a dozen complaints from people who say they didn’t intend to join a party.

Only about 4 percent of the party’s eligible members turned out for its primary; however, the party in a press release trumpeted its turnout as higher than similar Internet voting in other states.

A San Diego Company called Everyone Counts conducted the election, whose representatives decrypted and processed the results at a downtown Portland law office Friday.

The voting included 60 different races with a total of 86 candidates (many races only had one candidate).

In the 5th Congressional District, Republican Scott Bruun beat Democrat Kurt Schrader for the party’s nomination, 237-211.

Democrat Peter DeFazio lost to Republican Art Robinson in the 4th Congressional District, 288-418.

A list of the winners and losers in all races is available from the party here.

Kitzhaber and Dudley appear at the same event but don’t debate

Also on Friday, Kitzhaber and Dudley appeared at the Oregon Mayors Association in Cottage Grove but didn’t debate each other.

While both addressed the gathering of mayors from 60 Oregon communities, the candidates missed meeting eye to eye by a couple of hours. Still, both said they’re looking forward to squaring off in a true debate soon.

“The bottom line is there’s going to be debates,” said Dudley. “There’s absolutely going to be debates. I’m looking forward to those debates and that time will come.”

“I’m anxious to appear onstage with my opponent sometime before the ballots go out and hopefully not like November,” Kitzhaber said.

The top concern for both candidates and a huge worry for mayors across Oregon is the state’s struggling economy. Both candidates said they plan budget cuts if elected, but they differ on a long-term strategy.

Kitzhaber said he would use targeted cuts with a plan to restore reductions as the economy improves.

“It will be part of a 10-year plan,” he said. “When we make the reductions that we’ll have to make next year, we’ll be able to show people how we’re going to rebuild those programs as the private-sector economy comes back. So there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Dudley said it’s time for Oregon to move to a zero-based budgeting process instead of basing budgets on what agencies operated with the previous biennium.

“We can no longer say that we spent ‘x’ last biennium and that we’re automatically going to spend ‘x’ plus eight, ten, twelve percent increase,” he said. “We’re going to have to scale it back.” 

A KATU News/SurveyUSA poll released earlier in the week shows it’s a tight race. Kitzhaber is trailing Dudley, 44 percent to 46 percent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.