The Way: Takeaways from party primaries
Gary Conkling and Mark Hester look at lessons from this week's voting in Oregon; Marty Wilde shares what he learned about partisanship in Bosnia and Herzegovina
This week’s party primaries (see results here) didn’t produce any major surprises, though Jamie McLeod-Skinner’s likely victory over incumbent U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader in the Democratic primary for the 5th district in notable since incumbents rarely lose primaries unless there’s a big scandal. The results, however, set up some intriguing possibilities for the November general election.
Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries:
1. Oregon has achieved near-maximum gerrymandering. Tuesday’s vote effectively decided who will represent vast majority of legislative districts in the state. All but a handful of districts are dominated be one party of the other to the extent that the November general election is a formality. Only 12 of 60 House districts had more than one candidate in the Democratic primary. With party control locked in, you would hope that the primaries at least would be vigorously contested. Sorry to disappoint. On the Republican side, residents of 18 districts had a choice. Worse, few of the races with choices for voters were close – often because one candidate had huge advantages through funding, incumbency or institutional support. With votes still to counted, it’s possible that only two or three legislative primaries will be decided by less than 5 percentage points. Five House candidates and one Senate candidate got complete free passes – no opponent in the primary and also will not face opposition in the general election.
2. The governor’s race has the potential to be one of the most interesting in decades. It shapes up as a competitive race between three women, all of whom have played significant roles in recent legislative sessions. Democrat Tina Kotek was House Speaker. Republican Christine Drazan was House minority leader. And independent Betsy Johnson was the most conservative Democratic state senator, held significant power as co-chair of the Ways and Means committee and wasn’t afraid to disagree with her party’s leaders.
3. Oregon really needs to find a way to count votes faster. We are a national example of mail voting, a system other states should copy. Mistakes, like misprinted ballots that delay vote counting, not only make Oregonians wait for election results, they provide fodder to those who in other states who oppose mail voting. Mistakes happen, but the bigger the consequences the bigger the effort to prevent them needs to be.
To read:
· Marty Wilde explains what Bosnia and Herzegovina teach us about the dangers of extreme partisanship. Read more here.
· Gary Conkling analyzes the election and what the general election campaigns might look like. Read more here.
This week’s cartoon:
To look forward to:
· Marie Bowers and Chris Harder add their thoughts on the urban/rural divide.
· Jesse Burke, owner of the Society Hotel, weighs in on the dysfunction in the Rose City.
· State Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward writes about the future of health care and health systems in Oregon.
· Our #GovernorGoals series. Learn more about how you can help shape the future of our state here.