It ain’t great. Problem is, federally-speaking, the GOP has been at a disadvantage since the 1950s and have been dreadfully underrepresented in the House (the seat he is running for has only elected 1 Republican, Bunn, since after Denny Smith lost in 1990). Remember, too, that the party got shafted with respect to redistricting for the legislature after 2000. That wasn’t his fault, that was the fault of Kitzhaber and the liberal rodent judges. And also remember that he came the closest to winning the Governorship since Vic Atiyeh in ‘86 and the others haven’t. If he were the sitting Governor and through deliberate incompetence allowed the shrinkage to happen, I’d blame him, but he was only the party chair for a paltry 2 years, and that was beginning 5 years ago. If I had to blame someone, I’d blame the Libertarian Tom Cox for keeping him from winning both the AG and Governorships, both providing the margin of victory.
For all that I think libertarians tend to be nitwits, you almost seem to be suggesting that they haven't really got a right to run for office under their own party banner....