The winners of last nights election and the low voter turnout was no surprise. The May 17 article in the Oregonians suggest that one of the reasons for low voter turnout was the mudslinging and negative campaigning.
""Negative campaigning" and the fact that "nobody who is running has really fired up the electorate," may have contributed to Tuesday's lackluster returns, Secretary of State Bill Bradbury said. the Oregonian "
I disagree with Bill Bradbury.
Many times the people of Oregon have voted only to be cut down by either one judge or Bill Bradbury & Co. rejecting or disqualifying a large number of votes.
I mean why bother? Let's be honest. How many times do we have to be told that our vote doesn't count.
55,000 illegal entry scrubbed from databaseKGW
" About 55,000 voter registrations have been scrubbed from the state's new elections database after investigators found duplicate entries and dead voters on the rolls, Secretary of State Sam Reed said Friday.
The purge of illegal registrations is the result of months of work by county and state elections officials, who began combing the new statewide voter database after its launch in January.
Reed, the state's top elections officer, said the invalid registrations included 35,445 duplicate records and 19,579 entries for dead people. "
think maybe that could be a problem? It also brings the question how many illegal votes were cast in favor of Kulongoski because he does not favor adding troops for our Borders.
let's look at last nights election resultsthe Oregonian
Not surprisingly, Ted Kulongoski on the Democratic side received 159, 311 (54.28%) which is almost double from what the number two candidate Jim Hill's(D) 86, 242 (29.38%) of the vote.
On the Republican side, again not surprising, Ron Saxton receiving 115, 119 (42.16%) of the vote to leading Kevin Mannix who received 81, 909 (30%).
I have said all along that if sleepy Ted won the election, that there should be a massive investigation. Simply because of his I don't have to do anything, going to win anyways nonchalant attitude, reminds me of someone who has already fixed the race and knows the outcome.
Probably more realistically speaking, Ted-tax&gouge-me probably just got name recognition.
Ron Saxton on the other hand, in my opinion flip-flopped like a fish out of water going with the way of the tide. I will give him credit in the fact that he was not afraid to stand up and defend his position no matter which position that was at the time.
Jason Atkinson, I believe the issue with Lars Larson really hurt his campaign. It wasn't so much the fact that he refused to attend the roundtable on Lars's show as much as it was for him not standing up for his beliefs.
Atkinson supported President Bush's guest worker program however refused to defend his opinion on Lars's show. In addition, along with Ted Kulongoski, both refused to take advantage of the free statewide airtime on Lars's show to promote themselves and their cause.
As you all know, I support Jason Atkinson because after meeting him several times and having a chance to talk with him one-on-one, I really truly believe in my heart that he's a good honest person and would have made a good governor, however, I think the issues about immigration is what killed his campaign.
Then finally, there's Gordon Leach, William Spidal, David Been, & Bob Forthan.
Who?
The four Republican candidates also running for governor who received 1% or less of the vote and who contributed to diluting the votes from the three major Republican candidates.
So who will win the governor's race?
My prediction unfortunately is Ted Kulongoski on the Democratic side. Simply because people will go solely with name recognition and because of short memories will buy what he saying on his ads.
Just remember, if Ted Kulongoski gets elected, you think gas prices are high now, just wait until you have your very own GPS system in EVERY vehicle that you own so that you may pay a VARIABLE ROAD TAX when you fill up at the pump.
4 comments:
I believe you are right on most counts. I don't think Jason failing to go back on Lars was a factor: his numbers did go up after the flap, as not all Republicans blindly follow Lars.
However, Lars' continuing bashing of Jason and praising of Ron certainly did its part. Lars likes the idea of being a kingmaker for the GOP. Trouble is, the candidates he helps win primaries tend to lose general elections. It will happen again.
Ted will win in a landslide. Remember, most of the democrats who voted for Jim Hill did so because Ted really upset unions by (to his credit) being tough in contract negotiations. Unions would have been happy to replace Ted with Jim. But all that is meaningless now, as unions HATE Ron Saxton and will rally around their candidate no matter what to keep Ron "fire all public union workers" Saxton from winning.
I predict Ted will get around 55% of the vote in November. Saxton will hit about 40%. Ben Westlund probably won't make the ballot at all -- Bill Bradbury will do "whatever it takes" to nullify his petition.
It was a sad, sad night for reform in Oregon.
BUT--
There is still a lot we can do:
1) We need to keep Saxton's feet to the fire, and keep him from flip-flopping back to the "center" as he moves from primary to general. Ron needs to realize that he won this race by promising CONSERVATIVE positions. If he goes soft now, he has to pay a price.
2) We need to support all the other conservatives in November. We have judicial run-offs. We have important Senate races. We can gain some big seats in the legislature that, even if Ted is re-elected, can prevent the liberals from pushing more liberalism down our throats.
3) We need to stick together as conservative bloggers, and reach out to other conservative bloggers who had supported Mannix (and even Saxton), in order to strengthen our web presence.
Keep your chin up, and get ready for a rough 6 months!
All the negative campaigning for Saxon and Mannix made me sick. I voted for Jason but have to admit that I wouldn't have known about him if it wasn't for the internet. How many people even knew his ideas? Here in Eugene, I never saw one bumper sticker, or one lawn sign. I never even heard a radio or tv ad. I even emailed his campaign site and asked how to get sign or sticker and never got a reply.
It is absolutely natural for Teddy the K to be against putting troops on the Mexican border. These troops would probably stop a great many of his next voters in November.
The current administration is killing everyone - local, state and federal. I was shocked to see some school budgets didn't pass because they didn't get a 50% voter turnout. Only 40% of them voted! That's sad. If we don't get riled up and continue to vote, this country will be in the toilet in no time. We are in deep shit!
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