BY SARAH ROSS
Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley
PORTLAND- A new poll released on Tuesday continues to show this year’s gubernatorial race to be a close one, despite fundraising efforts telling a different story.
Rasmussen Reports, the firm conducting the poll, stated, “Little has changed in the race to be Oregon’s next governor, with Republican Chris Dudley and Democrat John Kitzhaber still running neck-and-neck.”
The poll puts Dudley just three points ahead of Kitzhaber with 47 percent to 44 percent. Five percent of respondents preferred another candidate, and 4 percent are undecided.
With only a three percent difference, the results fall well within the poll’s +/- 4 percent margin of error. The campaign fundraising, however, is not as close as polling on the race has been.
Kitzhaber, the former statesman and Oregon governor, has raised $1,334,001 so far in 2010, while former professional basketball player Dudley has raised a whopping $2,210,664 in this election cycle.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber and former Sec. of State Bill Bradbury
As of July 28, The Cook Political Report still classified the race as leaning Democratic, meaning it is in the category of races considered competitive but where one party has an advantage.
Senior Editor at the Cook Report Jennifer Duffy said the race is a good example of an outsider attempting to take on an established politician.
“It’s one of five in the country where you have a former governor seeking his old job back, which is kind of interesting considering how tough it is to be governor these days,” said Duffy, adding that it should be a “good race.”
Duffy noted that while it is currently listed as a lean-Democrat state, implying that party has a small advantage, it could be moving into the more competitive section.
“It would not surprise me if sometime over the next couple of months I move it into toss-up,” she said.
She also mentioned that this kind of movement happens all the time and that this race alone is a good example, since it started as a likely Democratic state and has since moved to leaning Democratic.
When asked what factors go into determining how a race is moved from one category to another, she said that fundraising and good polling are the biggest things to consider.
“I got sort of a first answer when I saw their fundraising numbers. So obviously Dudley is proving he can raise money,” she said. “I’d like to see some good polling because the polling that I have seen has left something to be desired. They do show a single digit race, but I’d like to see a live interview poll. And so that will be the other factor.”
From 1993until I was activated for Iraq in 2003, I ran a small business. It was only a 3 bay auto shop. I designed and built the building from scratch. In addition, we paid off the commercial property as soon as we could.
So, I operated with no lease payments, and avoided adding fixed costs to the operation. I paid cash for everything. We operated with a very low overhead and passed the savings on to the customer.
At the end of every month, I had to write checks to the employee, the state, the parts distributors, the uniform man, this vender, that vender, a new lazer printer, Quick books Pro, a new Dell PC, a specialty tool, a shop keepers policy, utilities, telecommunications, a new tool box, and this and that etc.
I never understood fully that small business is the heart and the soul of our economy. When I worked for Boeing, I was basically on a fixed income, and only bought X amount of items a month. As a small business owner, I became a super consumer, and pumped capital into the economy. No employed person or state worker ever created a job. They never purchased $10,000 a month in services and parts. No government entity ever created capital, it always consumes, consumes, and consumes. The entrepreneur and small business creates the jobs and economies that pump the economic blood through this country. Without small business, our American economy shrivels up and dies. No one has a job, and the government gets no revenue. The entitlement class is on the street.
John Kitzhaber owes his allegiance to the state, and not the small business community. He will institute an Oregon sales tax, and sink Oregon business. No one will come across the river etc.
I am insulted that Kitzhaber suggested a progressive sales tax. If you make more money, you pay more sales tax. Kitzhaber is out of his mind! Its like the “Gringo price” in Tijuana, Mexico.
Does John Kitzhaber really hate small business and the rich that much? The more and more one hears from John Kitzhaber the more one feels he is a Karl Marx style Socialist.
Kitzhaber wants to make Oregon Small business unfriendly!
I think I will give to Chris Dudley’s campaign!