Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Friday, May 05, 2006

Oregon: Ben Westlund and Open Primary Initiative ready to rock

Exclusive Poll Shows Kulongoski Is Vulnerable
By Melica Johnsonand KATU.com Web Staff May 5, 2006 SALEM, Ore. - The results are in for our exclusive KATU News/Oregonian poll on the governor's race and the news spells trouble for the sitting governor.
It is no secret that Gov. Ted Kulongoski is vulnerable, but on Thursday we found out by how much. .... The poll spells good news for Ben Westlund, the Independent candidate running for governor.
The poll shows Oregonians across the state are really discouraged with government and that creates the perfect climate for an Independent like Westlund to pull an upset in November. ...
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For governor, let’s shake it up
Albany Democrat Herald May 5, 2006-- Registered Democrats and Republicans hardly need any advice concerning their choice of nominee for governor. But everybody in Oregon has an interest in shaking things up so that politics would once again be at least mildly interesting.
What would be interesting in the fall is a contest for governor featuring Pete Sorenson for the Democrats, Ron Saxton for the Republicans, and Ben Westlund for the independents..... Kulongoski has been an honorable governor with a long, long history in public service. But his three and a half years as governor have been without signal achievement in state government. Lately he has issued one proposal after another, including a promise to raise the school fund by $2 billion or so. But there are no ideas for fundamental reform.
That’s why, on the November ballot for governor, it would be encouraging to have names that haven’t been there before: Sorenson for the Democrats and Saxton for the GOP....
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10 Proposals Top $100,000 in Spending
Peter Wong Statesman JournalMay 5, 2006 ...Open primary: $207,776 raised and $189,291 spent on a measure that would revamp Oregon's primary election so that the top two finishers, regardless of party, would go on to the general election. Top contributors were the Oregon Business Association, $10,000; state Sen. Ben Westlund of Tumalo, who is mounting an independent bid for governor, $6,000; Regence Group of Portland, $5,000.... more

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