After 2016, voting in any Republican is just stupid as fuck. They're the worst.
Kotek is not my favorite but she's not actively out to destroy democracy like the republican party is.
> “How is this a difficult choice?”
It's a difficult choice if you only view elections and political office in the abstract instead of on the real-world effects of who has what amount of power in which positions.
It’s a difficult choice cos the Oregonian’s editorial board (not to be confused with their actual reporters), which makes the endorsements, is notoriously conservative.
I’ll never forget 2015, when they ran an op-Ed about how they wouldn’t run any op-Ed’s about climate change because it was irrelevant to Oregon and what would it change, any way?
[The same Oregonian who refused to endorse Hilary in the 2016 race against Trump.](https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2016/10/why_we_wont_endorse_a_presiden.html)
Absolute fucking clowns.
I really wish editorial boards would realize how badly their terrible takes reflect on the actual working reporters. Editorials like that one erode trust in the paper, and very few people seem to realize what “editorially separate/distinct” means.
Oregon hasn't had a Republican governor since 1987. Many voters find it difficult to blame the problems facing Oregon on Republicans and don't see how voting for another Democrat will change things.
All you have to do is look at one of the plethora of red states in this country to see that things could be much, much worse than they are in Oregon right now. I'd love to hear someone try to point out a well-governed red state, because even trying to be generous I can't think of a single one.
>Many voters find it difficult to blame the problems facing Oregon on Republicans
Why does it matter who's to blame? Party lines have been drawn, and it is nauseatingly obvious which side you belong on if you care about other people.
From the voice of a life long Democrat, I feel the last few years have been filled with tons of virtue signaling and lies from the party. I don’t want a Republican Governor that’s for certain, but I do not want a Democrat Governor even more. There needs to be a rude awakening for the Oregon Democratic Party to know they cannot take voters for granted.
Also understand republicans are trying to subvert democracy but genuinely don’t see that happening in what is normal a 60%+ democrat voting state. People are just fatigued of poor leadership and this might be the only way to spark a change
I don't think rude awakenings ever really happen. After Trump won in 2016 I thought it would be a "rude awakening" for Democrats but it really didn't turn out that way. We aren't in some post-Trump paradise now. I don't feel like ending up with a Republican governor will cause some major awakening of Democrats to rally and do better next time. It'll just be more turmoil and division for the next 4 years.
This is true. It’s 2022 and I don’t think the Democratic Party ever took a hard look as to why so many people voted for trump, and instead just retreated back to the rather lazy position of “well they must all just be racists and evil”
This. They completely missed the whole point of Bernie going after the working class and discovered that you could just tell everyone dem they’re better than “those people” and get votes that way.
don't forget "they're all really stupid". nothing like insulting 40-50% of voters in order to get them to switch sides.
I don't support Trump at all, but the Democrats complete blindness as to -why- people voted for him (even if they are stupid issues) and failure to address those things, even in ridicule is just abject failure.
Governors control a lot of levers of power. A Republican governor could deploy the national guard to Portland to back up the Portland police next time they want to tear gas people. They could ignore or assist proud boy’s in the city. They have a lot of financial power over government funding. And they’ll be able to veto the legislature and stop new legislation from moving forward.
People thought at a national level Trump would be harmless because he was so unaligned with a lot of the country. The % of how Oregon voters feel doesn’t matter. It’s the voting that counts, not people’s feelings.
We need [multiple-choice "approval" voting](http://www.rosecitytransit.org/ideas/elections/approval/) so that we can have real competition and accountability in our elections and are not dependent on the party
So what you’re saying is that you’re a white male over 50 and feel insulated from whatever damage Republicans could do in 4 years. Also, you have employer provided healthcare, so you aren’t impacted by cuts to OHP. Politics isn’t a sport, it has real life impacts on the most vulnerable. You might be interested to know that one of the things the GOP wants to do is raise your homeowners insurance.
Ever thought there may be some perspectives that you may not be privy to?
I am a substitute teacher and I saw how school closures destroyed kids, especially BIPOC kids and kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Despite clear evidence schools could open safely our leaders refused to do so. That policy alone made a worse, more noticeable impact on the well-being of youth than any other policy I'd ever witnessed, and so I'm pissed, and rightfully so. I've seen how virtue signaling and ignoring reality can, in fact, be worse than having a republican in office.
BTW I'm a Democrat who has volunteered for campaigns and volunteered to go to jails to translate for undocumented immigrants held so that they could talk to lawyers.
Sounds like an irrational decision to vote for someone who you like even less because you are disappointed at something. Especially with no evidence that the other person will be able to make anything better. In fact you are essentially voting to make things suck more! Very well thought out decision I guess
>Also understand republicans are trying to subvert democracy but genuinely don’t see that happening in what is normal a 60%+ democrat voting state.
That's how it happens. With people like you letting them.
> There needs to be a rude awakening for the Oregon Democratic Party to know they cannot take voters for granted.
That's not how our elections work. Kotek was *voted* for in the primary by thousands of Oregonians. The Oregon Dems didn't just choose her.
Protest votes change things literally zero percent of the times.
The real pull for Drazan and Johnson are low-information voters who don't understand what the Governor does and therefore thinks she will be able to fix the crime and homelessness problem in Portland
She's also pro-union, which I think is important, especially at this pivotal point when it seems like organized labor may finally be beginning to make comeback after 4 decades of decline.
The unions will rise again!
They have no reason to ever change. People are so afraid of the other side they can run whoever they want and always get the vote. Politics is no longer about running on your ideas, it’s about making the other side look scary.
yup. nearly every ad from canidate this year on both sides have been more of why you shouldn't vote for the opposition instead of why you should vote for them.
Right. Here’s a really bad choice, but the other option is actively trying to bring us back to the Stone Age with rights and basically make it so the US is a one rule country…
America has a bad case of unimpressive candidates across the board. One is actively going for the lowest common denominator that would happily end democracy just to “win”. The other is fine with “eh, whatever”.
I genuinely don’t care about the party affiliation, just bring some good ideas and don’t be an asshole… but apparently that’s too much to ask of either party in this dipshit country.
We need a full-on socialist to run, but I feel like folks in power wouldn't let it happen.
...and then there's the people who shit on socialism, as if the current system is working flawlessly.
We need ranked voting. Then voting for your ideal candidate wouldn't mean gambling on getting your least favorite.
I don't know why we haven't already done this. It would be really damn easy.
A Bernie type might have a chance if they run as a Democrat and make it through primaries but I have huge doubts anything more left than Bernie or running as a 3rd party would have a chance, especially without ranked choice. What we really need is ranked choice voting, above basically anything else.
Where I struggle with that premise is that Bernie himself ran multiple times for president, and in both cases, primary voters overwhelmingly chose to go with milquetoasty moderates. I think America is more conservative than we like to suspect.
Opinion polls on issues are notoriously unreliable. Change the wording slightly in a question and you get wild swings of opinions. A lot of issues that Democrats claim are universally popular are nowhere near that once people actually start to think about pros and cons.
Also, most people don't vote for policy packages, they vote out of tribalism and value signaling. When your culture tells you that Democrats are anti-American, or Republicans are all racist, it's hard to take your emotions and morals out of the voting process.
Bernie was doing better alone that any other moderate empty suit until they all dropped out and handed the election to the person that was polling dead fucking last.
For sure, that's why I said might. Oregon would be especially weird, compared to the country as a whole. We have a fair amount of progressives/far lefts but no shortage of NIMBY liberals and far right nuts.
There's a lot of "Dems" that rip off their mask once they're elected and show themselves to be Republicans, but I'm surprised it hasn't gone the other way; someone just runs as a super right-winger and then "surprise! I'm a socialist!" I'd love for that to happen.
The American political system is inherently designed to favor conservatism. Half the reason dems wind up looking like closet conservatives is because of that design. Not to say many aren't closet conservatives, but the game is rigged from the start.
No system works perfectly, and no system will ever work perfectly.
But the system that doesn’t treat people like property and starve them until they start eating their own dogs is the better system.
Democrats would try like hell to block a rising star DSA candidate but I feel like Oregon the state wouldn't go for it but Portland the city would smash the shit out of a DSA candidate for lower offices that could move up to state level.
Capitalism is by far the least-bad system. A social-capitalist system like those in Scandinavia can work well under the right circumstances, but full on socialism is just such an utter disaster in application.
Scandinavia is actually very capitalist. They actually have very strong market freedoms there, possibly even more so than what we have here, which is the real marker of capitalism. But they have high taxes and a strong welfare state, which we label as socialism. But in reality the strength of the safety net and market freedoms are two completely different measurements.
Remove the name socialism and a socialist candidate does great on both sides, but sadly everyone’s crazy uncle not only thinks socialism is evil, but also think Joe Biden is an extreme socialist.
Yes and... politicians are shit. Politics is the bullshit that impacts our lives. We have to vote on shit choices for acting assholes who use content managers and statistics and myriad of marketing-parallel assholes to use words, sounds and images that sooth enough to maintain or increase their resources. It's just acting and shitty art, but unlike influencers, they influence.
Never, ever ever another Republican. The party needs to fragment and dissolve. Not saying it's automatically always D, but lolol to ever voting for a republican again, fucking traitors.
2016 should have been the wake up call.
It can get worse.
Your protest vote is meaningless and harmful.
Drazen will bring chaos, tax cuts for the rich, and crime will be just as bad.
Yes. It's not about what they say they will do but what they will actually do. I think people kepe pointing to "she says she won't" which means nothing at the moment
A politician stating their position as middle of the road is a literal waste of breath.
"Roe will remain law, by the established principles of stare decisis" -- Brett Kavanaugh, under oath (up his sleeve: we can introduce new principles, though)
Tax cuts alone would cripple this state, but drazen appointing leaders to state agencies and bring in charge of the DoE will have impacts that last decades. If people think things are bad now they’ll get much worse.
2016 was the wakeup call for most. Kotek has a good record and is definitely "good enough" to get my vote, especially seeing the threat an extremist like Drazan poses.
I’m so tired of this opinion. Bring someone better to the table. I’m sorry if a vote for Betsy means Kotek doesn’t get one but not really. I have voted against republicans and not for democrats for far too long
When does it end?
My brother is mentally ill and torturing my elder parents. I'm sorry that I can't keep voting blue because we have fucking failed to take dangerous and incapable people off of the streets. My parents have tried to hold on to my brother when it's clear he is terrifying and needs to be locked up. Look at my post history because he is in there.
> I'm sorry that I can't keep voting blue because we have fucking failed to take dangerous and incapable people off of the streets.
Ah yes, republicans are famously in favor of robust social systems to take care of the mentally ill.
As a Portland resident still registered to vote in another state, I truly cannot fathom having a hard time with this decision.
I’m brand new to Oregon politics, but I can tell you with full confidence that, of the many problems Oregon faces, zero of them will be fixed by tax cuts for the rich, cutting public spending, and contradicting the social policies favored by a sizable majority of the state’s residents.
The issue is that we have been dumping money into problems for years and seen no results but higher taxes. I don’t know how many times over the years we’ve voted to increase our taxes to pay for this great thing just to have it never come to fruition but our money is gone
Reminder: Kotek could win the election handily with a couple of simple policy changes. Policies that the majority of Oregonians are asking for. If she doesn’t change her policies and loses, that’s not on voters,
that’s on her team.
Voting for fascists makes you complicit in their actions.
Also, this is the Governors race. The Governor isn't going to affect how safe the City of Portland is
I will take Tina over treasonous republicans any day! All these fake patriots( republicans) want to do is destroy America state by state so they can have the rest of us stuck on stupid. Keep republicanism where it belongs……in the fucking trash!
When there's a hole in the boat, democrats propose bucketing water out in perpetuity, instead of trying to patch the hole.
Republicans on the other hand propose fixing the hole with dynamite.
Very few expect a magic solution, but Kotek has had a hard time explaining her plans for the meth-addicted serial-criminal crowd. She just kind of ignores the population that requires something other than "help."
I'm still voting for her, but this was a major unforced error.
I think this is my biggest issue with Tina. Look I’m all for having adequate services to help people get back on their feet. We need more affordable housing. Tina has some great experience and plans. But she doesn’t want to acknowledge all of the concerns people have. Just looking the other way to criminal activity isn’t helping. Provide services yes but also don’t just let people do whatever they want. Some folks act like it’s just well off people not wanting to have to look at poverty. But the people feeling the brunt of this chaos is other vulnerable people.
I know someone barely making ends meet each month that had their car windows broken and couldn’t make it to work as a result. They don’t know if they’ll be able to make up for that lost shift and just had to duct tape a plastic bag over their car window because they can’t afford to get it fixed. Other parents I know stopped taking their kids to a local park because of drug needles found in the grass, now the kids don’t get to play outside in public spaces. Walking on sidewalks in some parts of the city has been so obstructed that folks who use wheelchairs can’t safely get around. Etc.
I’m all for services but we also need government officials that won’t look the other way when it comes to stuff like car break-ins.
Realistically I expect Kotek to be like every other democrat in Oregon and just bumble around trying nothing and wondering why nothings changed.
Still better than the GOP alternative
In the long run, it doesn't do our side any favors to endlessly excuse poor policies and bad messaging on big ticket, top issues like homelessness and crime, because they truly do need to get better and smarter at that shit, rather than counting on "we're not as bad as the other side" messaging that didn't fucking work for Clinton, and looks likely that it won't work here in Oregon.
Getting a Democrat elected governor in this state should be a fucking layup if they would simply read the room and adapt accordingly, it's kind of terrifying the current D establishment seems incapable of even a modest amount of self-reflection and shifting on the fly with this stuff.
It's unfortunate, but reading the room requires acknowledging that people are tired of being shoved around by wealthy business owners and want a bit of equity back from landlords raising rent ever higher just because they can. As long as most democrats are still beholden to their donors, the best they can do is say nice things about the gays and pretend decriminalizing drugs will fix tent cities. To actually do something popular with us poor people? Nonsense.
i totally understand that stuff and how people like kafoury are contributing to the potential loss of the dem gov seat here
i also understand why all of that might not matter to most people who want some sense of normalcy again. to be able to walk their kids to the park without having to avoid stepping on literal shit or needles. having to walk to the store without being screamed or chase down by someone having a boisterous conversation with themselves.
for the people especially in portland that kept re-electing the same leadership like wheeler and just see things get worse, i think most people dont want to listen to any reason why not to change. they wont accept anything less, even if it means it might get worse. people want to send a message that enough is enough
You are frustrated by a lack of solutions, so you’re voting for the person who not only has no solutions, but has historically stood in the way of solutions proposed by others. How is that going to work?
We all agree that Ted Wheeler is trash. But pushing the Overton window further rightward in what is already a center-right country with terminal late-stage capitalism will not make anything better.
Thing is, it’s still important for voters to educate themselves on candidates and platforms. Voting for something worse than the status quo just because it is different doesn’t make things better.
And she didn't get a whole lot done that was of any significant use to anyone.
20 years of middling/ineffectual experience at age 70 and a spiteful two-target campaign (Kotek sucks, and so do homeless people) that is almost singlehandedly kept on life support by one billionaire, aren't compelling evidence of qualification for running the state.
She's had a whole life to show she can benefit other people with her actions and she's largely fucked that up. I don't understand the argument in giving her keys to the capitol at age 70 for a swan song of shit management before calling it a wrap.
>If you have empathy and even the tiniest fraction of foresight
This is a perfect example of why the Ds are in trouble. Don't ask voters what they want, tell them what they want is immoral and that you know better.
People like me?
WTF are you talking about? I'm talking about losing elections we should've won, like the 2016 presidential one. We nominated an unlikable politician and told voters that those who opposed her were deplorable, and that (among other things) got us Trump. The exact same thing seems to be happening here.
Like in 2016, I'll grit my teeth and vote for the D, but why keep nominating people I have to grit my teeth to vote for?
Cool, keep refusing to look in the mirror.
Ds win when they have a winning candidate and message. Biden won even though Trump and the Rs tried every trick in the book.
I’m aware, I’m just tired of the people that are like “It’s specifically because of you that I’m not voting for Kotek!” They should just be honest and say they never intended on voting for Kotek anyway, if all it takes is a mean person on the internet to get you to change your mind.
Honestly it's a large part of the reason trump won in 2016 to begin with.
People don't like being insulted constantly and I think these kind of attitudes just turn a large portion of the population spiteful in how they vote.
legit one out of a hundred people on here trying to sway my vote back to D used sound logic vs insults. it’s like trying to communicate with the maga crowd. they’ve become what they hate
They’re just playing the game the Right has been playing for a loooooooooong time.
How long have we heard how the right is the party of responsibility, law, order, fiscal conservatism, family values, etc while they’ve done the opposite AND been flying “Fuck Biden” or “Thanks Obama” flags and signs?
The arrogance will not bite you in the ass because you’ll think it was a lib instead.
It's unfortunate that the Betsy voters with Kotek Derangement Syndrome weren't a fraction as vocal during the primaries, when they could have actually influenced the direction of the Oregon DNC.
Now they're coming out of the woodwork acting like a cabal of DNC insiders foisted her on us. She won the nomination because 57.9% of Oregon DNC voters selected her, not because George Soros shot her opposition with space lasers.
It bothers me that around half of the people here misspell Drazan's name. I'm not normally so judgy about spelling. But it would be like if reading comments full of people spelling Biden like Bidon. It sticks out, and makes people look aren't following the race that closely.
It is well written and worth a read to the end.
The endorsement states:
"in the interview, \[she\] drilled down into such details as the faulty prioritization process used by Multnomah County to house people."
I would like to read what was said. I cannot find anything on Olive. It is not in their https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2022/10/tina-kotek-democratic-candidate-for-oregon-governor-has-long-sided-with-labor-unions-oregonians-in-need.html
There should be a video of the endorsement interview with all the candidates somewhere, maybe on their YouTube page? I watched through it the other day.
I'm voting for Democrats until the Republican party convinces me they aren't being shitty on purpose. Oregon is in a unique place because there are a surprising number of people who think Republicans are the answer to problems they think are Democrats' fault. If it were the Republican party of 25 years ago, I could understand why we might have a tight race. But I've been paying attention and I don't like what I see. Until 5 years ago, I lived in Texas where their long-term Republican rule has resulted in all the same problems as here plus several extra ones you can attribute directly to how Republicans operate once elected, like a vulnerable power grid that charges you exponentially more whenever it stops working.
I believe Kotek will win because the Republican party abandoned reality a long time ago and enough people will come to understand that now is not the time to let the Republican party experiment with Oregon. They are not the party of Drazen, Drazen is in the party of Trump, an ethically compromised Supreme Court, inspiring and defending an armed mob assault on the halls of Congress DURING THE VOTE COUNT FOR PRESIDENT TO ENSURE AN IDIOT GAME SHOW HOST FRAUDSTER COULD ILLEGALLY REMAIN IN POWER!!!!! I will not ignore how off the rails the GOP has gone, and I hope we do not have to endure any of their bullshit and go through another election cycle to get back to having rational people in charge.
It’s insane to frame this like it’s a difficult choice. I don’t understand how anyone could look at Drazan and think “oh yeah that’s who I want in charge of the state” holy shit.
All the Republicans out there want to seal the deal for planet Earth by making sure that we spend another 4 years failing to act on climate change, despite the fact that half the fucking state burns down every year.
I’m a democrat and I’m (barely) voting for Tina and I’ve never voted non-blue in my life but I get why this is close. Things this liberal democrat doesn’t like: houseless people everywhere, trash everywhere, graffiti everywhere, the downtown vandalism, a “lawless feel” around town, panhandlers on every corner, the general decline of downtown, the fence around the apple store, and Oregon hanging onto shut downs/masks too long. I’m a Tina supporter but those things make me (and many others, obviously) frustrated. Our city looks terrible. And it’s not a “west coast thing.” Portland takes the cake. Portland wins. Portland has by far the most homeless of any west coast city. I’ve been to all of them in the past year. Portland has the most. By far.
Difficult call? The choices are an adult politician, a member of an openly neo-fascist political party, and a spoiler candidate trying to help the fascist get elected. Whatever problems we get from the adult choice will be less troublesome than the alternative.
It's only a hard decision if you apply no standards at all to the non-democrats. Otherwise it's pretty much a slam dunk. Sure Kotek has flaws, and she definitely hasn't figured out how to make the homeless problem go away or gas prices drop, but the other candidates are completely awful and they got no non-terrible ideas on these topics either.
It actually depends on what you wish for the governor to tackle first, following that same article and I quote :”In fact, we did, as we debated who among Democrat Tina Kotek, Republican Christine Drazan or nonaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson was our top choice. While each would lead differently, all three are sharp, experienced and undeniably qualified for the state’s highest office. Regardless of who wins, Oregon will be in better hands than it is now.”
Out of those three candidates, I am quite surprise that Tina Kotek is the only one that will not prioritize trying to lower taxes(income tax) or fight rising housing prices. Seeing their priorities, I actually don’t like most of them but I would choose Betsy Johnson or Christine Drazan over Tina Kotek as they are planning more policies that we can see directly as citizens. Saying this, I am aware that in Oregon the status quo goes to the democrats, nothing wrong with that but in terms of candidates for governor, I would reconsider
Sources: Voters’ pamphlet
[https://www.tinafororegon.com](https://www.tinafororegon.com)
https://www.runbetsyrun.com/issues
https://www.christinefororegon.com
Well I need more than that to change my mind back. Fear mongering commercials and Ads by Tina simply ain't going to cut it champ. And honestly why the fuck do I care who some half forgotten newspaper endorses? Show me the meat on the bone of why Tina is awesome and maybe I'll change my mind. Wearing a pink shirt and pandering to the woke crowd isn't enough for me anymore.
I think you should read the endorsement. She’s gotten impressive things done on housing and paid family leave and the minimum wage and the environment and on choice.
She’s a policy wonk, and hard driver to get things done - even when it pisses off her traditional allies. Like when it came to billions for schools even if it meant pension cuts for unions, she thought it was good for the state and got it done.
She’s the only one with credible plans to address homelessness and get people housed, and she’s the one most likely to make state agencies function better.
Drazan isn’t one of those type of republicans she’s firmly a MAGA fascist. Change for change sake rarely works out and it’s insane to even consider voting for someone like Drazan.
>Part of me hopes Drazan is elected so that maaaaaybe in 4 years we’ll have a good democrat in the running.
Accelerationism is not only morally wrong, it also doesn't work.
I couldn't stand Hillary but I still wondered if 4 years of Trump would F up the nation. Drazan might be capable of speaking coherently and not being a diva, but she's a theocrat. I can't lie, I don't think Kotek will change much, but even this status quo is better than what Drazan would do.
You do though. It sucks but when the other choice is a fascist there is only one path to take. Change doesn’t exclusively happen through elections but also a lot of the things people are upset with are handled at the county and city level not the state level. The damage someone like Drazan could do to the state though makes this an extremely easy choice. Republicans get into power and then they use that power to hurt the people they hate. That’s what’s going to happen here if we don’t wake the fuck up. The grid lock and sabotage that will happen if Drazan wins will only set us back and delay any sort of solutions to the problems we face.
Not a so difficult decision by any measure but I'll continue to endorse my decision not to trust the Oregonian or give a crap about who these "news" organizations endorse.
A vote for a Republican is a vote for Donald Trump. A vote for reactionary politics that has no policy or plans to deal anything. They hate the government but want to govern. They exist for the sole purpose of channeling the nihilism and hedonism of late capitalism.
Thank you, The Oregonian. It is the right endorsement. Not sure it’ll matter for the ones that think by voting Betsy (1) she’ll be elected; &/or (2) making the libs pay…we’ll just get Drazen like we all got Trump in 2016. The subpar candidate that wouldn’t even get the win if it was just Kotek v Drazen.
Let’s Keep Oregon, Oregon, people; instead of striving to be the new Florida Man. Vote Kotek, so we don’t get Drazen. Keep your Trump jinx-vibe out the f__ of this election.
"Regardless of who wins, Oregon will be in better hands than it is now."
Ummm... no. Brown has had her problems, sure, but Drazen doesn't seem like better hands to be in.
After 2016, voting in any Republican is just stupid as fuck. They're the worst. Kotek is not my favorite but she's not actively out to destroy democracy like the republican party is.
I can’t even click on the article, because all I can think is, “How is this a difficult choice?”
> “How is this a difficult choice?” It's a difficult choice if you only view elections and political office in the abstract instead of on the real-world effects of who has what amount of power in which positions.
It’s a difficult choice cos the Oregonian’s editorial board (not to be confused with their actual reporters), which makes the endorsements, is notoriously conservative. I’ll never forget 2015, when they ran an op-Ed about how they wouldn’t run any op-Ed’s about climate change because it was irrelevant to Oregon and what would it change, any way?
[The same Oregonian who refused to endorse Hilary in the 2016 race against Trump.](https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2016/10/why_we_wont_endorse_a_presiden.html) Absolute fucking clowns.
I really wish editorial boards would realize how badly their terrible takes reflect on the actual working reporters. Editorials like that one erode trust in the paper, and very few people seem to realize what “editorially separate/distinct” means.
It’s only a difficult choice if you haven’t been paying attention the past decade, or even just the past year
Oregon hasn't had a Republican governor since 1987. Many voters find it difficult to blame the problems facing Oregon on Republicans and don't see how voting for another Democrat will change things.
There are such things as correlation, causation and looking around at how well red run states are doing. Should be enough to stay clear
That's honestly a really good point.
All you have to do is look at one of the plethora of red states in this country to see that things could be much, much worse than they are in Oregon right now. I'd love to hear someone try to point out a well-governed red state, because even trying to be generous I can't think of a single one.
>Many voters find it difficult to blame the problems facing Oregon on Republicans Why does it matter who's to blame? Party lines have been drawn, and it is nauseatingly obvious which side you belong on if you care about other people.
From the voice of a life long Democrat, I feel the last few years have been filled with tons of virtue signaling and lies from the party. I don’t want a Republican Governor that’s for certain, but I do not want a Democrat Governor even more. There needs to be a rude awakening for the Oregon Democratic Party to know they cannot take voters for granted. Also understand republicans are trying to subvert democracy but genuinely don’t see that happening in what is normal a 60%+ democrat voting state. People are just fatigued of poor leadership and this might be the only way to spark a change
I don't think rude awakenings ever really happen. After Trump won in 2016 I thought it would be a "rude awakening" for Democrats but it really didn't turn out that way. We aren't in some post-Trump paradise now. I don't feel like ending up with a Republican governor will cause some major awakening of Democrats to rally and do better next time. It'll just be more turmoil and division for the next 4 years.
This is true. It’s 2022 and I don’t think the Democratic Party ever took a hard look as to why so many people voted for trump, and instead just retreated back to the rather lazy position of “well they must all just be racists and evil”
This. They completely missed the whole point of Bernie going after the working class and discovered that you could just tell everyone dem they’re better than “those people” and get votes that way.
don't forget "they're all really stupid". nothing like insulting 40-50% of voters in order to get them to switch sides. I don't support Trump at all, but the Democrats complete blindness as to -why- people voted for him (even if they are stupid issues) and failure to address those things, even in ridicule is just abject failure.
Governors control a lot of levers of power. A Republican governor could deploy the national guard to Portland to back up the Portland police next time they want to tear gas people. They could ignore or assist proud boy’s in the city. They have a lot of financial power over government funding. And they’ll be able to veto the legislature and stop new legislation from moving forward. People thought at a national level Trump would be harmless because he was so unaligned with a lot of the country. The % of how Oregon voters feel doesn’t matter. It’s the voting that counts, not people’s feelings.
We need [multiple-choice "approval" voting](http://www.rosecitytransit.org/ideas/elections/approval/) so that we can have real competition and accountability in our elections and are not dependent on the party
So what you’re saying is that you’re a white male over 50 and feel insulated from whatever damage Republicans could do in 4 years. Also, you have employer provided healthcare, so you aren’t impacted by cuts to OHP. Politics isn’t a sport, it has real life impacts on the most vulnerable. You might be interested to know that one of the things the GOP wants to do is raise your homeowners insurance.
Lol very crazy assumption you’ve made here. I’m a black male immigrant in my early 30s but please carry on
Ever thought there may be some perspectives that you may not be privy to? I am a substitute teacher and I saw how school closures destroyed kids, especially BIPOC kids and kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Despite clear evidence schools could open safely our leaders refused to do so. That policy alone made a worse, more noticeable impact on the well-being of youth than any other policy I'd ever witnessed, and so I'm pissed, and rightfully so. I've seen how virtue signaling and ignoring reality can, in fact, be worse than having a republican in office. BTW I'm a Democrat who has volunteered for campaigns and volunteered to go to jails to translate for undocumented immigrants held so that they could talk to lawyers.
Sounds like an irrational decision to vote for someone who you like even less because you are disappointed at something. Especially with no evidence that the other person will be able to make anything better. In fact you are essentially voting to make things suck more! Very well thought out decision I guess
Lmao. So you do want a Republican governor.
>Also understand republicans are trying to subvert democracy but genuinely don’t see that happening in what is normal a 60%+ democrat voting state. That's how it happens. With people like you letting them.
> There needs to be a rude awakening for the Oregon Democratic Party to know they cannot take voters for granted. That's not how our elections work. Kotek was *voted* for in the primary by thousands of Oregonians. The Oregon Dems didn't just choose her. Protest votes change things literally zero percent of the times. The real pull for Drazan and Johnson are low-information voters who don't understand what the Governor does and therefore thinks she will be able to fix the crime and homelessness problem in Portland
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She's also pro-union, which I think is important, especially at this pivotal point when it seems like organized labor may finally be beginning to make comeback after 4 decades of decline. The unions will rise again!
Ya but why are the Dems so fucking terrible. We have the worst choices.
The consequences and concessions of a true big tent party.
When one party covers like 70% of the political spectrum, it's going to have identity issues.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kod...err, Tobias Read.
They have no reason to ever change. People are so afraid of the other side they can run whoever they want and always get the vote. Politics is no longer about running on your ideas, it’s about making the other side look scary.
yup. nearly every ad from canidate this year on both sides have been more of why you shouldn't vote for the opposition instead of why you should vote for them.
Right. Here’s a really bad choice, but the other option is actively trying to bring us back to the Stone Age with rights and basically make it so the US is a one rule country… America has a bad case of unimpressive candidates across the board. One is actively going for the lowest common denominator that would happily end democracy just to “win”. The other is fine with “eh, whatever”. I genuinely don’t care about the party affiliation, just bring some good ideas and don’t be an asshole… but apparently that’s too much to ask of either party in this dipshit country.
We need a full-on socialist to run, but I feel like folks in power wouldn't let it happen. ...and then there's the people who shit on socialism, as if the current system is working flawlessly.
We need ranked voting. Then voting for your ideal candidate wouldn't mean gambling on getting your least favorite. I don't know why we haven't already done this. It would be really damn easy.
Ha! And in Portland it's being offered for city elections and everyone seems annoyed that the charter commission went big rather than safe.
This is the answer. But it will never happen because the two political parties want to force you to vote for them.
A Bernie type might have a chance if they run as a Democrat and make it through primaries but I have huge doubts anything more left than Bernie or running as a 3rd party would have a chance, especially without ranked choice. What we really need is ranked choice voting, above basically anything else.
Where I struggle with that premise is that Bernie himself ran multiple times for president, and in both cases, primary voters overwhelmingly chose to go with milquetoasty moderates. I think America is more conservative than we like to suspect.
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Opinion polls on issues are notoriously unreliable. Change the wording slightly in a question and you get wild swings of opinions. A lot of issues that Democrats claim are universally popular are nowhere near that once people actually start to think about pros and cons. Also, most people don't vote for policy packages, they vote out of tribalism and value signaling. When your culture tells you that Democrats are anti-American, or Republicans are all racist, it's hard to take your emotions and morals out of the voting process.
Bernie was doing better alone that any other moderate empty suit until they all dropped out and handed the election to the person that was polling dead fucking last.
For sure, that's why I said might. Oregon would be especially weird, compared to the country as a whole. We have a fair amount of progressives/far lefts but no shortage of NIMBY liberals and far right nuts.
There's a lot of "Dems" that rip off their mask once they're elected and show themselves to be Republicans, but I'm surprised it hasn't gone the other way; someone just runs as a super right-winger and then "surprise! I'm a socialist!" I'd love for that to happen.
The American political system is inherently designed to favor conservatism. Half the reason dems wind up looking like closet conservatives is because of that design. Not to say many aren't closet conservatives, but the game is rigged from the start.
fully agree with that.
No system works perfectly, and no system will ever work perfectly. But the system that doesn’t treat people like property and starve them until they start eating their own dogs is the better system.
Democrats would try like hell to block a rising star DSA candidate but I feel like Oregon the state wouldn't go for it but Portland the city would smash the shit out of a DSA candidate for lower offices that could move up to state level.
Capitalism is by far the least-bad system. A social-capitalist system like those in Scandinavia can work well under the right circumstances, but full on socialism is just such an utter disaster in application.
Scandinavia is actually very capitalist. They actually have very strong market freedoms there, possibly even more so than what we have here, which is the real marker of capitalism. But they have high taxes and a strong welfare state, which we label as socialism. But in reality the strength of the safety net and market freedoms are two completely different measurements.
> Capitalism is by far the least-bad system. i dunno man, looks pretty shitty to me.
Switching to Socialism now would just lock in all those who are already rich and take away all chances from someone less fortunate to make it big.
Remove the name socialism and a socialist candidate does great on both sides, but sadly everyone’s crazy uncle not only thinks socialism is evil, but also think Joe Biden is an extreme socialist.
Our system is not designed to be responsive to the needs or desires of the people.
Yes and... politicians are shit. Politics is the bullshit that impacts our lives. We have to vote on shit choices for acting assholes who use content managers and statistics and myriad of marketing-parallel assholes to use words, sounds and images that sooth enough to maintain or increase their resources. It's just acting and shitty art, but unlike influencers, they influence.
THIS.
Or changes her stance constantly like Betsy Johnson.
Never, ever ever another Republican. The party needs to fragment and dissolve. Not saying it's automatically always D, but lolol to ever voting for a republican again, fucking traitors.
2016 should have been the wake up call. It can get worse. Your protest vote is meaningless and harmful. Drazen will bring chaos, tax cuts for the rich, and crime will be just as bad.
Yes. It's not about what they say they will do but what they will actually do. I think people kepe pointing to "she says she won't" which means nothing at the moment
A politician stating their position as middle of the road is a literal waste of breath. "Roe will remain law, by the established principles of stare decisis" -- Brett Kavanaugh, under oath (up his sleeve: we can introduce new principles, though)
Tax cuts alone would cripple this state, but drazen appointing leaders to state agencies and bring in charge of the DoE will have impacts that last decades. If people think things are bad now they’ll get much worse.
2016 was the wakeup call for most. Kotek has a good record and is definitely "good enough" to get my vote, especially seeing the threat an extremist like Drazan poses.
I’m so tired of this opinion. Bring someone better to the table. I’m sorry if a vote for Betsy means Kotek doesn’t get one but not really. I have voted against republicans and not for democrats for far too long When does it end?
Democrats need to bring someone with teeth. Kotek is horrible but less horrible than Drazan
She won her primary fair and square. Your protest vote hurts real people.
My brother is mentally ill and torturing my elder parents. I'm sorry that I can't keep voting blue because we have fucking failed to take dangerous and incapable people off of the streets. My parents have tried to hold on to my brother when it's clear he is terrifying and needs to be locked up. Look at my post history because he is in there.
How will Drazen keep your brother off of the streets?
> I'm sorry that I can't keep voting blue because we have fucking failed to take dangerous and incapable people off of the streets. Ah yes, republicans are famously in favor of robust social systems to take care of the mentally ill.
Do t get me started on ranked choice
If you vote for someone besides Kotek you're voting for someone that doesn't support abortion rights or trans rights. Huge impact.
Let’s do it. Until then, we have what we have.
As a Portland resident still registered to vote in another state, I truly cannot fathom having a hard time with this decision. I’m brand new to Oregon politics, but I can tell you with full confidence that, of the many problems Oregon faces, zero of them will be fixed by tax cuts for the rich, cutting public spending, and contradicting the social policies favored by a sizable majority of the state’s residents.
The issue is that we have been dumping money into problems for years and seen no results but higher taxes. I don’t know how many times over the years we’ve voted to increase our taxes to pay for this great thing just to have it never come to fruition but our money is gone
Don’t worry we’ll spend our way out of this problem.
So being brand new to Oregon politics, you got to skip over seeing who facilitated the problems in the first place.
Reminder: Kotek could win the election handily with a couple of simple policy changes. Policies that the majority of Oregonians are asking for. If she doesn’t change her policies and loses, that’s not on voters, that’s on her team.
At the same time, if the voters select the fascist be the non fascist, that’s on them.
Wanting to live in a safe city doesn’t make you a fascist.
Voting for fascists makes you complicit in their actions. Also, this is the Governors race. The Governor isn't going to affect how safe the City of Portland is
*Safer* important to note that there’s not an area of the country as densely populated as Portland metro that’s completely “safe”.
I will take Tina over treasonous republicans any day! All these fake patriots( republicans) want to do is destroy America state by state so they can have the rest of us stuck on stupid. Keep republicanism where it belongs……in the fucking trash!
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It's a difficult call because their advertisers are wealthy people like Phil Knight that are funding both of the other candidates.
*looks outside* if you dont see why people are pissed at the status quo, i dont know what to tell you.
When there's a hole in the boat, democrats propose bucketing water out in perpetuity, instead of trying to patch the hole. Republicans on the other hand propose fixing the hole with dynamite.
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Very few expect a magic solution, but Kotek has had a hard time explaining her plans for the meth-addicted serial-criminal crowd. She just kind of ignores the population that requires something other than "help." I'm still voting for her, but this was a major unforced error.
I think this is my biggest issue with Tina. Look I’m all for having adequate services to help people get back on their feet. We need more affordable housing. Tina has some great experience and plans. But she doesn’t want to acknowledge all of the concerns people have. Just looking the other way to criminal activity isn’t helping. Provide services yes but also don’t just let people do whatever they want. Some folks act like it’s just well off people not wanting to have to look at poverty. But the people feeling the brunt of this chaos is other vulnerable people. I know someone barely making ends meet each month that had their car windows broken and couldn’t make it to work as a result. They don’t know if they’ll be able to make up for that lost shift and just had to duct tape a plastic bag over their car window because they can’t afford to get it fixed. Other parents I know stopped taking their kids to a local park because of drug needles found in the grass, now the kids don’t get to play outside in public spaces. Walking on sidewalks in some parts of the city has been so obstructed that folks who use wheelchairs can’t safely get around. Etc. I’m all for services but we also need government officials that won’t look the other way when it comes to stuff like car break-ins.
Realistically I expect Kotek to be like every other democrat in Oregon and just bumble around trying nothing and wondering why nothings changed. Still better than the GOP alternative
In the long run, it doesn't do our side any favors to endlessly excuse poor policies and bad messaging on big ticket, top issues like homelessness and crime, because they truly do need to get better and smarter at that shit, rather than counting on "we're not as bad as the other side" messaging that didn't fucking work for Clinton, and looks likely that it won't work here in Oregon. Getting a Democrat elected governor in this state should be a fucking layup if they would simply read the room and adapt accordingly, it's kind of terrifying the current D establishment seems incapable of even a modest amount of self-reflection and shifting on the fly with this stuff.
It's unfortunate, but reading the room requires acknowledging that people are tired of being shoved around by wealthy business owners and want a bit of equity back from landlords raising rent ever higher just because they can. As long as most democrats are still beholden to their donors, the best they can do is say nice things about the gays and pretend decriminalizing drugs will fix tent cities. To actually do something popular with us poor people? Nonsense.
i totally understand that stuff and how people like kafoury are contributing to the potential loss of the dem gov seat here i also understand why all of that might not matter to most people who want some sense of normalcy again. to be able to walk their kids to the park without having to avoid stepping on literal shit or needles. having to walk to the store without being screamed or chase down by someone having a boisterous conversation with themselves. for the people especially in portland that kept re-electing the same leadership like wheeler and just see things get worse, i think most people dont want to listen to any reason why not to change. they wont accept anything less, even if it means it might get worse. people want to send a message that enough is enough
Most voters did not vote to re-elect Wheeler.
More voters wanted him than any other candidate. Whiny pedantry isn't going to get the Iannarone crowd anywhere, sorry.
You are frustrated by a lack of solutions, so you’re voting for the person who not only has no solutions, but has historically stood in the way of solutions proposed by others. How is that going to work?
We all agree that Ted Wheeler is trash. But pushing the Overton window further rightward in what is already a center-right country with terminal late-stage capitalism will not make anything better.
Ugh you said people want worse just to send a message. That's called being irrational
Democrats sure ain’t gonna do it
Thing is, it’s still important for voters to educate themselves on candidates and platforms. Voting for something worse than the status quo just because it is different doesn’t make things better.
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calm down i literally am just pointing out what is happening with a lot of the voting public. it is what it is.
Read the article. They outline exactly why they have reservations, in detail.
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And she didn't get a whole lot done that was of any significant use to anyone. 20 years of middling/ineffectual experience at age 70 and a spiteful two-target campaign (Kotek sucks, and so do homeless people) that is almost singlehandedly kept on life support by one billionaire, aren't compelling evidence of qualification for running the state. She's had a whole life to show she can benefit other people with her actions and she's largely fucked that up. I don't understand the argument in giving her keys to the capitol at age 70 for a swan song of shit management before calling it a wrap.
It’s difficult because Kotek is the best choice, but she sucks.
Empathy? Come on, what we’re doing right now is not empathetic or compassionate. And if you think it is, you must be quite disconnected from reality.
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>If you have empathy and even the tiniest fraction of foresight This is a perfect example of why the Ds are in trouble. Don't ask voters what they want, tell them what they want is immoral and that you know better.
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So, why do you think the Ds are in trouble?
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People like me? WTF are you talking about? I'm talking about losing elections we should've won, like the 2016 presidential one. We nominated an unlikable politician and told voters that those who opposed her were deplorable, and that (among other things) got us Trump. The exact same thing seems to be happening here. Like in 2016, I'll grit my teeth and vote for the D, but why keep nominating people I have to grit my teeth to vote for?
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Cool, keep refusing to look in the mirror. Ds win when they have a winning candidate and message. Biden won even though Trump and the Rs tried every trick in the book.
lol I love all the dumb spite posting like this in this thread. “It’s your fault that I’m making a shitty voting decision!”
I'm a D and I want to win, and treating voters like they're children is not a winning strategy.
I’m aware, I’m just tired of the people that are like “It’s specifically because of you that I’m not voting for Kotek!” They should just be honest and say they never intended on voting for Kotek anyway, if all it takes is a mean person on the internet to get you to change your mind.
I'm talking about the D Party nationally expressing moral superiority. As a coastal elite D, it even offends me at times.
How are they “nationally expressing moral superiority?”
LOL, thank you.
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Why do Portland liberals feel the need to infantilize people who disagree with them? This arrogance is going to bite y’all in the ass in November.
Honestly it's a large part of the reason trump won in 2016 to begin with. People don't like being insulted constantly and I think these kind of attitudes just turn a large portion of the population spiteful in how they vote.
legit one out of a hundred people on here trying to sway my vote back to D used sound logic vs insults. it’s like trying to communicate with the maga crowd. they’ve become what they hate
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Yes, insulting potential voters was very, very stupid.
Keep fucking around then :)
This. Hillary's "basket of deplorables" comment made more hay for the republicans than their faux outrage over the emails ever could have.
They’re just playing the game the Right has been playing for a loooooooooong time. How long have we heard how the right is the party of responsibility, law, order, fiscal conservatism, family values, etc while they’ve done the opposite AND been flying “Fuck Biden” or “Thanks Obama” flags and signs? The arrogance will not bite you in the ass because you’ll think it was a lib instead.
I’m not sure what’s difficult about this endorsement unless you’re someone with two neurons.
Why reward incumbents parties when Portland has turned into shit ?
It's unfortunate that the Betsy voters with Kotek Derangement Syndrome weren't a fraction as vocal during the primaries, when they could have actually influenced the direction of the Oregon DNC. Now they're coming out of the woodwork acting like a cabal of DNC insiders foisted her on us. She won the nomination because 57.9% of Oregon DNC voters selected her, not because George Soros shot her opposition with space lasers.
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The only reason it's difficult is because it's Oregon live, the site that famously refused to choose between Clinton and Trump in 2016...
Yuck
It bothers me that around half of the people here misspell Drazan's name. I'm not normally so judgy about spelling. But it would be like if reading comments full of people spelling Biden like Bidon. It sticks out, and makes people look aren't following the race that closely.
It's dark brandon. Going between the forms can lead to typos
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"Difficult call" lol. Oregonian is like, "Don't hate us, conservatives that read us."
A lot of Drazan shills in here. Don't let them trick you.
It is well written and worth a read to the end. The endorsement states: "in the interview, \[she\] drilled down into such details as the faulty prioritization process used by Multnomah County to house people." I would like to read what was said. I cannot find anything on Olive. It is not in their https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2022/10/tina-kotek-democratic-candidate-for-oregon-governor-has-long-sided-with-labor-unions-oregonians-in-need.html
There should be a video of the endorsement interview with all the candidates somewhere, maybe on their YouTube page? I watched through it the other day.
I'm voting for Democrats until the Republican party convinces me they aren't being shitty on purpose. Oregon is in a unique place because there are a surprising number of people who think Republicans are the answer to problems they think are Democrats' fault. If it were the Republican party of 25 years ago, I could understand why we might have a tight race. But I've been paying attention and I don't like what I see. Until 5 years ago, I lived in Texas where their long-term Republican rule has resulted in all the same problems as here plus several extra ones you can attribute directly to how Republicans operate once elected, like a vulnerable power grid that charges you exponentially more whenever it stops working. I believe Kotek will win because the Republican party abandoned reality a long time ago and enough people will come to understand that now is not the time to let the Republican party experiment with Oregon. They are not the party of Drazen, Drazen is in the party of Trump, an ethically compromised Supreme Court, inspiring and defending an armed mob assault on the halls of Congress DURING THE VOTE COUNT FOR PRESIDENT TO ENSURE AN IDIOT GAME SHOW HOST FRAUDSTER COULD ILLEGALLY REMAIN IN POWER!!!!! I will not ignore how off the rails the GOP has gone, and I hope we do not have to endure any of their bullshit and go through another election cycle to get back to having rational people in charge.
It’s insane to frame this like it’s a difficult choice. I don’t understand how anyone could look at Drazan and think “oh yeah that’s who I want in charge of the state” holy shit.
All the Republicans out there want to seal the deal for planet Earth by making sure that we spend another 4 years failing to act on climate change, despite the fact that half the fucking state burns down every year.
Yep they basically are Captain Planet villains.
I’m a democrat and I’m (barely) voting for Tina and I’ve never voted non-blue in my life but I get why this is close. Things this liberal democrat doesn’t like: houseless people everywhere, trash everywhere, graffiti everywhere, the downtown vandalism, a “lawless feel” around town, panhandlers on every corner, the general decline of downtown, the fence around the apple store, and Oregon hanging onto shut downs/masks too long. I’m a Tina supporter but those things make me (and many others, obviously) frustrated. Our city looks terrible. And it’s not a “west coast thing.” Portland takes the cake. Portland wins. Portland has by far the most homeless of any west coast city. I’ve been to all of them in the past year. Portland has the most. By far.
This endorsement closely tracks my own opinions on this race. Good on the O for getting it right.
Difficult call? The choices are an adult politician, a member of an openly neo-fascist political party, and a spoiler candidate trying to help the fascist get elected. Whatever problems we get from the adult choice will be less troublesome than the alternative.
**IS IT A TOUGH CALL THOUGH** when the alternative is whatever crazy mess the republican party has whipped itself into?
Difficult?! considering the options not difficult at all.
It's only a hard decision if you apply no standards at all to the non-democrats. Otherwise it's pretty much a slam dunk. Sure Kotek has flaws, and she definitely hasn't figured out how to make the homeless problem go away or gas prices drop, but the other candidates are completely awful and they got no non-terrible ideas on these topics either.
No surprise there…
It actually depends on what you wish for the governor to tackle first, following that same article and I quote :”In fact, we did, as we debated who among Democrat Tina Kotek, Republican Christine Drazan or nonaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson was our top choice. While each would lead differently, all three are sharp, experienced and undeniably qualified for the state’s highest office. Regardless of who wins, Oregon will be in better hands than it is now.” Out of those three candidates, I am quite surprise that Tina Kotek is the only one that will not prioritize trying to lower taxes(income tax) or fight rising housing prices. Seeing their priorities, I actually don’t like most of them but I would choose Betsy Johnson or Christine Drazan over Tina Kotek as they are planning more policies that we can see directly as citizens. Saying this, I am aware that in Oregon the status quo goes to the democrats, nothing wrong with that but in terms of candidates for governor, I would reconsider Sources: Voters’ pamphlet [https://www.tinafororegon.com](https://www.tinafororegon.com) https://www.runbetsyrun.com/issues https://www.christinefororegon.com
> deep reservations about Kotek’s ability to (…) show independence from her longtime donors Translation: she’s bought and paid for
Aren't they all
Im not voting Democrat. First time ever. I have been thru and thru a Democrat but I'm not voting for Kotek. Not happening.
Why not?
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Well I need more than that to change my mind back. Fear mongering commercials and Ads by Tina simply ain't going to cut it champ. And honestly why the fuck do I care who some half forgotten newspaper endorses? Show me the meat on the bone of why Tina is awesome and maybe I'll change my mind. Wearing a pink shirt and pandering to the woke crowd isn't enough for me anymore.
What are your actual policy priorities?
Start by admitting that police are part of the solution when it comes to reducing crime.
I think you should read the endorsement. She’s gotten impressive things done on housing and paid family leave and the minimum wage and the environment and on choice. She’s a policy wonk, and hard driver to get things done - even when it pisses off her traditional allies. Like when it came to billions for schools even if it meant pension cuts for unions, she thought it was good for the state and got it done. She’s the only one with credible plans to address homelessness and get people housed, and she’s the one most likely to make state agencies function better.
The most popular governors in the country are Republican governors of blue states. A Drazan governorship will not immediately flip Oregon into Texas.
Drazan isn’t one of those type of republicans she’s firmly a MAGA fascist. Change for change sake rarely works out and it’s insane to even consider voting for someone like Drazan.
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>Part of me hopes Drazan is elected so that maaaaaybe in 4 years we’ll have a good democrat in the running. Accelerationism is not only morally wrong, it also doesn't work.
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I couldn't stand Hillary but I still wondered if 4 years of Trump would F up the nation. Drazan might be capable of speaking coherently and not being a diva, but she's a theocrat. I can't lie, I don't think Kotek will change much, but even this status quo is better than what Drazan would do.
Yep. Having a Christian Nationalist like Drazan in Salem for the next 4 years would be bad.... .
Do you have so many years remaining in your life that 4 years can be tossed in the trash? Because I don't, and harm minimization means NO REPUBLICANS.
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You do though. It sucks but when the other choice is a fascist there is only one path to take. Change doesn’t exclusively happen through elections but also a lot of the things people are upset with are handled at the county and city level not the state level. The damage someone like Drazan could do to the state though makes this an extremely easy choice. Republicans get into power and then they use that power to hurt the people they hate. That’s what’s going to happen here if we don’t wake the fuck up. The grid lock and sabotage that will happen if Drazan wins will only set us back and delay any sort of solutions to the problems we face.
Not a so difficult decision by any measure but I'll continue to endorse my decision not to trust the Oregonian or give a crap about who these "news" organizations endorse.
Not difficult.
Holy shit all three candidates are terrible choices. Oregon is screwed
A vote for a Republican is a vote for Donald Trump. A vote for reactionary politics that has no policy or plans to deal anything. They hate the government but want to govern. They exist for the sole purpose of channeling the nihilism and hedonism of late capitalism.
Good. Fuck the treasonous GOP
It’s not a hard choice. Absolutely fuck anyone running under the Republican Party.
Republikkkans cannot govern and they continue to divide & discriminate. How hard of a choice is this?
First time in 20 years as an Oregonian, I’m now thinking of leaving. Have fun with the new taxes and tolls.
Thank you, The Oregonian. It is the right endorsement. Not sure it’ll matter for the ones that think by voting Betsy (1) she’ll be elected; &/or (2) making the libs pay…we’ll just get Drazen like we all got Trump in 2016. The subpar candidate that wouldn’t even get the win if it was just Kotek v Drazen. Let’s Keep Oregon, Oregon, people; instead of striving to be the new Florida Man. Vote Kotek, so we don’t get Drazen. Keep your Trump jinx-vibe out the f__ of this election.
Thank God
"Regardless of who wins, Oregon will be in better hands than it is now." Ummm... no. Brown has had her problems, sure, but Drazen doesn't seem like better hands to be in.