Former Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek leads all Democrats in the race for Governor, as far as fundraising goes, but not by much. She's raised a little over $1.5 million, while her opponent State Treasurer Tobias Read has raised over $1.1 million. Far behind is Patrick Starnes who has raised $46 thousand.

In all, 15 people have filed as Democrats to be Oregon's next Governor. Five of those have filed a Political Action Committee but have not raised any money and another five have not even filed for a PAC. Two other Democrats have raised small amounts of money -- Dave Stauffer and Wilson Bright.

Kotek is expected to draw much of the public employee union money -- just this week, she pulled in another $50K from SEIU, Oregon's second largest public employee union -- and is seen by many as the leftmost of the two leaders. Read has positioned himself as a business friendly, more moderate candidate. Whomever emerges will have to contend in an election in which Democrats are expected to underperform their historical dominance in Oregon.

Interestingly, the Democrat Gubernatorial field has two contenders who have previously run for office as members of other parties. Michael Cross ran for Attorney General as a Republican in 2020 and Patrick Starnes ran for Governor the same year, as a member of the Independent Party of Oregon.

The elephant in the room is, of course, former Democrat and State Senator Betsy Johnson, who has raised a commanding $5.2 million with $4.4 million on hand -- and no primary to spend it on.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2022-03-29 12:12:17

Last Update: 2022-03-29 13:12:55