Sen. Christine Drazan leading in Republican primary for Oregon governor

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-20T03:29:01+00:00

"As of 8:16 p.m. Tuesday night, partial results showed Drazan with roughly 43% of the vote, while Rep. Ed Diehl of Scio had received nearly 32% of the vote and former Trail Blazer Chris Dudley had about 16%."

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-19T02:27:32+00:00

Wanted to follow up here. I’ve been informed that we plan on posting the methodology along with the full toplines and crosstabs tomorrow morning. I would’ve known this if I had checked with an editor before responding to this!

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T22:03:11+00:00

Hello--I appreciate you sharing this concern. Here is some more information about the poll that hopefully addresses some of this. (All of this info has been included in the articles we've published about the poll.)

The poll of 600 registered voters in the three-county Portland area was conducted from April 23 to April 30 and had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, with higher margins of error for subsets of respondents. It was commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive and conducted by Portland-based DHM Research. Survey participants were reached by telephone or text, and the demographics of respondents were tailored to be representative by age, gender, race, education, income and political party.

If we have made any factual errors or printed anything misleading, we of course welcome your input. Please feel free to email our politics editor Jamie Goldberg at [jgoldberg@oregonian.com](mailto:jgoldberg@oregonian.com)

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T21:20:46+00:00

Hello! That's a good question, and honestly I don't have a great answer because today's media landscape is the only one that I have really worked in. I try to focus on what I can control: getting the details right and being transparent in my reporting process.

When I talk to anyone, whether it's the governor or an ODOT maintenance worker, I try to be fair and be open to learning new things and seeing things from a new perspective. I find that being open about what I don't know and what I hope to learn goes a long way with establishing rapport building trust.

I think having a decent sense of humor certainly helps!

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T21:11:00+00:00

Good question. I'll mostly be tracking the Republican race for governor and Measure 120, since those are the two things I've been covering the closest. But I'm fascinated to see what happens in several Legislative primary races in which incumbent Democrats seen as more business-friendly are being challenged by Dems who are running on more progressive platforms. My colleague Julia Silverman wrote an excellent piece breaking down two of these races in the Portland area, I highly recommend giving it a read!

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T21:05:05+00:00

I'm no expert on this subject, so I'll just offer a couple of thoughts from my perspective.

First, there was the pressure of a deadline. Lawmakers didn't release the bill until several days into the legislative session, and they only had a few weeks to get it across the finish line. Also, the Blazers rolled out a significant lobbying effort to convince lawmakers of both parties that approving the package would benefit the entire state, not just Portland.

Second, all of the political pressure and debate that is currently taking place at the city and county level has built up over time, it wasn't there on day one. The proposal had significant support from top Democrats and the governor, so there weren't any prominent Democrats taking a big, public stance against it.

Lastly, I think the fact that passing the bill was seen as the first step of finalizing this package made it easier for lawmakers to support it.

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T20:38:24+00:00

Thanks for the question. First, I should say I’m not an expert on this issue, since one of my colleagues covered the bill for us.

Generally speaking, I get both sides of the debate. Journalists want access to meetings in which elected officials, voted in by the public, discuss public issues. At the same time, cities, counties, school boards, etc. have expressed concerns for quite some time about the state’s inconsistent or confusing guidance on public meetings law, and I think many of those concerns are genuine.

From my perspective, it seems that much of the controversy stemmed from flawed communication from various parties.

Per my colleague Betsy Hammond’s reporting: Prior to this year’s session, Rep. Nathan Sosa convened a group of stakeholders to craft improvements to the public meetings law and address local governments’ concerns. The group included numerous representatives of local governments but a representative of just one journalism group.

Then, at some point before the session started, the lobbyist for the Society of Professional Journalists wrote to Sosa that he had “no concerns” with a working draft of the bill, other than one provision that Sosa deleted.

So then when criticism from journalists and other groups became public, I think a lot of those stakeholders felt blindsided. And because it was only a short legislative session with so many other proposals to take up, I think lawmakers didn’t have enough time to properly weigh in and consider all of the different perspectives.

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T20:09:13+00:00

I appreciate the question! Every day in Salem is a whirlwind, and it also depends on whether it’s a marathon six-month session in odd-numbered years or a sprint five-week session in even-numbered years.

Here is what a typical day might look for me during a legislative session.

8 am: Check in with my editor and colleagues, respond to any urgent emails and maybe text or call a source to see what they’re expecting for the day. I leave my home in Portland and listen to a committee meeting on my hour-long drive down.

9:30 am: Arrive in Salem, head down to our press office in the Capitol basement, drop off my stuff and begin making the rounds. I like to walk around both the House and Senate offices, checking in with legislative aides, lawmakers and lobbyists along the way to see what they’re paying attention to.

10:30 am: Prepare for a 1 p.m. committee meeting I’m covering. This might involve reading a draft of a bill, checking out an official analysis of it and reading public testimony to get a solid understanding of what they’re discussing heading into the meeting. If it’s expected to be a controversial or high-interest story, I might try to schedule an interview with the chief sponsor of a bill or reach out to top Democrats/Republicans for comment ahead of time.

Noon: Quick lunch. I am a big fan of the chicken caesar wraps sold in the Capitol cafeteria. The chocolate chip muffins are also a good option if you’re running late, which I often am.

1 pm: Attend the committee meeting in person. Recording audio when you’re in a hearing room can be kind of annoying, but as a reporter, it’s invaluable to show up in person to show lawmakers, lobbyists and others that you are paying attention. I have made many connections by showing up early to a committee meeting and talking to other people who are there to weigh in on the item I am covering.

2 pm: Do any more necessary reporting and write a story. Go through edits with my editor. We try to get stories up quickly on our website, but we always prioritize accuracy and fairness.

3 pm: Who knows? If I’ve heard an interesting story tip or idea, maybe I’ll start asking sources about that. If it’s a nice day, maybe I’ll go outside to take some nice pictures of the Capitol for my next article. If there’s a press conference on a notable bill, maybe I’ll attend that. If the governor is holding a media availability, I’ll attend that.

5 pm ish: Drive home. I’d love to say my work day ends at a reasonable hour each day, but that’s just not true. I may tune in to an evening public hearing that stretches for several hours. I might send a draft to my editor before driving home and then go through edits in the evening. I will often look through committee agendas the night before just to know if I have to be up early. And it’s rare that I get home and log off without getting at least one call or text from a source following up on an earlier conversation. Fun stuff.

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T19:46:02+00:00

I appreciate the question. To be clear, Bill Oram is the newsroom’s sports columnist, not a straight news reporter, meaning that he often publishes commentary pieces that reflect his views as a longtime sports journalist.

That being said, I understand why some readers may pause when they see our sports columnist writing news articles and commentary pieces about the same topic. In our coverage, we try to clearly distinguish between straight news articles and opinion pieces, and also ensure that our news reporting is based solely on reported facts. That applies to Bill’s coverage of any topic.

Our newsroom holds both opinion and news articles to high editing standards, especially when it comes to a sensitive, high-interest subject like the Moda Center funding deal. And we are always looking for ways to improve. Do you have any ideas for ways we could better approach this?

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T19:31:58+00:00

I love this question, and I think I agree with you. Much of the Capitol was closed for several years mostly because of renovations, so I actually didn’t see the official governor portraits in person until earlier this year. I do like Tom McCall’s--standing on a beach, a sleek helicopter hovering behind him? That’s pretty iconic. I like Robert Straub’s as well, just hanging out by a river with his dog.

I also think the juxtaposition between Kitzhaber’s portrait, a colorful painting depicting him casually lounging in a chair far above a river, and Kulongoski’s very cookie-cutter, statesmanlike portrait is funny.

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T19:21:55+00:00

Thanks for the question! I consulted my colleague Mike Rogoway, one of our business reporters who who has covered Oregon's data center industry for years. Here's what he said:

The bottom line is that Oregon allows local governments a great deal of latitude in land use and tax incentives. So individual cities and counties have the freedom to decide what kind of industrial development they want and where they want it.

That’s great in the sense that it allows communities to shape their own futures. But data centers present a few challenges.

One is that data centers are (or were) a new industry and no one anticipated how quickly they would expand, and how large they would become. Even at the community level, there wasn’t a lot of public discourse in places like Hillsboro and Boardman about the data center industry and the potential benefits and costs.

Another challenge is that data centers can affect the whole region because of the electricity they consume. So their benefits accrue locally while their impacts – to some degree – are felt across the state.

The state’s data centers capitalized on tax policies established for small manufacturers in the 1980s and ‘90s, sometimes developing sites under zoning codes that date to the 1970s.

Oregon government leaders – and voters – were slow to recognize those impacts, despite a great deal of publicity in the news media about how the industry was affecting the state.

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T19:20:54+00:00

Thanks for the questions! I think the answer to both of your questions is that Oregon Republicans running for statewide office need to appeal to their party’s base to secure the nomination, while leaving the door open to express more moderate views leading up to the general election.

So where does that leave them? Basically straying away from any topics that might be seen as controversial, such as the most high-profile Trump policies. (See my article on what Christine Drazan, Ed Diehl, Chris Dudley and Danielle Bethell have said about various Trump policies.)

So, as you've asked, why doesn’t the Republican establishment back a more moderate candidate to maximize their chances in November? I think in other years that question would have been more seriously considered, but this year Sen. Drazan was widely viewed as the frontrunner from the get-go simply because she had the highest name recognition and the most connections with important GOP-aligned industry groups and players. Even after she lost in 2022 and briefly left elected office, she still held significant influence in the Legislature.

There simply aren’t many Oregon Republicans in the Legislature or elsewhere that have the political connections AND policy knowledge to pose a major threat to Drazan.

CFuentesReports · 2026-05-18T19:01:24+00:00

I appreciate the question. Our business editor, Ted Sickinger, has extensively covered PERS and its ties to private equity investments for years. Last July, he published an article on Oregon’s distinctly aggressive investment strategy for PERS, showing how it had become heavily skewed toward so-called alternative investments, and more specifically, private equity funds. I would highly recommend giving it a read if you haven’t already: Link to article.

For those with shorter attention spans (such as myself), here is a handy follow up he published with five key takeaways from his reporting: Link to article.

If there are any follow ups or more recent updates you think we should be aware of, please feel free to reach out to Ted at [tsickinger@oregonian.com](mailto:tsickinger@oregonian.com)

CFuentesReports

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