Free Republic

PORTLAND, Ore.—To find enough votes to win the governorship in a state that last elected a Republican leader in 1982, Knute Buehler has focused on voters like Danielle Miller. A 47-year-old mortgage-loan officer, Ms. Miller voted in 2016 for Kate Brown, Oregon’s incumbent Democratic governor, but has since grown disenchanted with her on issues including education funding and homelessness. This year, Ms. Miller isn’t planning just to vote for Mr. Buehler, a two-term Republican state representative. She is campaigning for him and even appeared in one of his commercials. “This is the first candidate I’m crossing party lines for in...

Simply, the Oregon governor's race is about who can best lead Oregon in tackling the human and economic crises unfolding on our home turf. From the state's distressed K-12 education system to the critical need for pension reform to encouraging more affordable-housing construction, Oregon is running out of time to responsibly address these challenges. With little vision and no urgency by Brown in her nearly four years as governor, and insufficient experience from Independent Party nominee Patrick Starnes, voters fortunately have a strong alternative. Oregonians should vote for the candidate who is willing to take courageous action on these entrenched problems and...

The major threat of the “blue wave” is that it might sweep over not only purple but even red districts and states, tossing control of the House back to the Democrats and threatening the Senate majority. But what about that “red wave” that the President keeps talking about? Here’s an interesting possibility I didn’t see coming. What if a partial red wave washed up on the shores of Oregon, flipping the governorship there to the Republicans? The current officeholder, Kate Brown, looked like a sure bet, particularly in the era of the Trump Resistance. But if that’s the case, why...

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown positioned herself early on as a leader of the anti-Trump opposition, but the state’s never-ending panoply of protest activity has backfired on her re-election bid with voters suffering from resistance fatigue. Ms. Brown, who was expected to coast to victory in deep-blue Oregon, has found herself deadlocked in the latest polls with state Rep. Knute Buehler, an affable orthopedic surgeon whose moderate brand of Republicanism is attracting crossover voters. That includes Ben West, who supported Ms. Brown’s previous bid for office but was horrified by the mobs that shut down the Immigration and Custom Enforcement office...

Portland police chief Danielle Outlaw says she told the mayor Portland police would clear the protest camp surrounding a federal immigration office, with or without his support. In a very frank radio interview first noted by the Portland Tribune, Outlaw says she approached Mayor Ted Wheeler and told him she intended to use her bureau's resources to put an end to the protest outside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's headquarters. "I went to the mayor and said, 'Look, this isn't sustainable, not just resource wise, it's just out of control for many reasons,'" she told talk-radio host Lars Larson on...

Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw is not satisfied with how reporters have covered the heavy-handed police response to antifascist counterprotesters at an Aug. 4 rally. Today, she used a vivid analogy to make her point. She told conservative talk-radio host Lars Larson she thought the protesters were acting like children who lost a schoolyard fight and had gone of to "whine and complain" after police fired flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets and pepper spray into a crowd of demonstrators. (At least two people were sent to the hospital with serious injuries after being hit directly with stun grenades launched by...

It isn’t supposed to happen this way in Democrat Medialand. In deep blue Oregon and super nova blue Rhode Island Democrats are thought to be just so loved by the people that the governor’s race in both states should be donkey party walkovers. But that’s just not happening. The two Democrat damsels in distress, Governor Kate Brown of Oregon and Governor Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island aren’t supposed to be home campaigning to save their jobs, they are supposed to be out organizing fund raisers to bring Venezuelan socialism to all of America not just their states; but they aren’t....

Knute Buehler, a Republican State Representative, is likely to become the next governor of Oregon. It won’t be an easy job for him. Winning in a statewide election in Oregon is never easy for a Republican. Nevertheless, the numbers are there to see. They say Buehler is moving up and Kate Brown the current Democrat Governor is fading. In a just released Gravis Poll Buehler has pulled even at 45/45 with 10% undecided or third party. Brown is likely to lose in November because she is a weak candidate in a race with an energetic challenger that has gotten traction...