The gubernatorial race remained too close to call late Tuesday night with 70 percent of ballots tallied, with Republican candidate Chris Dudley at 49.4 percent of the vote and Democratic candidate John Kitzhaber with 47.7 percent.
The gubernatorial contest between Kitzhaber and Dudley is one of the closest in Oregon’s recent history. The last close gubernatorial race was in 2002 between current Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Republican opponent Kevin Mannix, which was the closest one in the previous 60 years.
If political newcomer Dudley holds out to win against the veteran Kitzhaber, he would become Oregon’s first Republican governor since 1987.
For much of election night, the race between Kitzhaber and Dudley remained a dead heat, with Kitzhaber’s early lead dissipating and Dudley moving ahead by about 20,000 votes by 9 p.m.
Dudley maintained this lead late into the night, but some of the most populous of Oregon’s 36 counties had not yet been tallied. In Multnomah County, with a population of over 700,000 people, only 59 percent of ballots were counted as of midnight. The county represents 18.7 percent of Oregon’s total population.
The final results of the gubernatorial election could take several days of ballot counting, said Tim Hibbitts, a Portland political pollster.
Oregon’s other Democratic candidates fared well in the other high-profile races, and maintained a majority in both houses of the state legislature, as well as winning the offices of treasurer and all but one of the U.S. Congressional races.
In the two U.S. Congressional races, incumbent Democrats Peter DeFazio and Ron Wyden won big in their respective races.
DeFazio, representative for U.S. House District 4, successfully defended his seat against Republican opponent Art Robinson. DeFazio won with 53.7 percent of the vote and Robinson won 44.5 percent.
Wyden surged to a win for U.S. Senate over challenger Jim Huffman, a Lewis & Clark Professor. Wyden had 56 percent of Oregon’s vote, while Huffman earned 40.6 percent.
DeFazio voiced appreciation for southwest Oregon voters’ support on an election night where much of the country veered toward the right.
He said he was ready to work with a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I really appreciate the fact that the voters of the 4th District saw through the fog in this election,” DeFazio said. “I was in the minority for 12 of the last 16 years, so I’ve got a proven record of working with the Republicans on common issues and standing up to them on things we disagree on.”
State Sen. Floyd Prozanski was one incumbent who defended his place in the Senate among myriad national and local anti-incumbent sentiment.
Though the results of the gubernatorial election remained up in the air, Prozanski said Oregon voters showed in the rest of the races Tuesday that they still believed in the ideals of proven incumbent leaders.
“I think Oregon voters have shown more a mood of reflection,” Prozanski said. “We’re definitely faced with a national and international situation, and I think voters have decided to go with proven people — people who they can trust — in looking at where our state needs to be.”
In hard-fought local contests, civil engineer Jay Bozievich defeated former Lane County Commissioner Jerry Rust for the position of West Lane County Commissioner, and Springfield Mayor Sid Leiken beat Lane Community College board member Pat Riggs-Henson for County Commissioner for Springfield. While Bozievich and Leiken portrayed themselves as conservative candidates in these two races, county commissioner seats are non-partisan offices.
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Governor race up in the air, DeFazio defeats Robinson in 2010 midterm elections
Daily Emerald
November 2, 2010
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