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If money talks, the Democratic Governors Association says Oregon’s three-way contest for governor is a close race.
The national political action committee donated $500,000 on Sept. 1 to former House Speaker Tina Kotek’s gubernatorial bid. That brings the total the Democratic fundraising machine has given to Kotek’s campaign since May to nearly $1.9 million (it’s $1,878,850, to be precise).
The Republican Governors Association has spent nearly as much on its party’s nominee, former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan: $1.54 million.
The third major candidate in the contest, former state Sen. Betsy Johnson, has no party backing. But Nike co-founder Phil Knight has bankrolled her campaign to the tune of $1.75 million—essentially turning the profits from Oregon’s largest Fortune 500 company into a third national-scale political spending mechanism.
Such spending reflects both Oregon’s lax campaign finance rules and the competitive state of the race. Few public polling results have been released, but the nonpartisan Virginia Center for Politics in August moved the contest from “leans Democrat” to “toss-up.” That change, the think tank says, reflects the uncertainty of a three-way race in which the winner needs just 40% of votes, and the deep unpopularity of the incumbent Democrat, Gov. Kate Brown.
Kotek’s campaign spokeswoman, Katie Wertheimer, tells WW that the donation reflects the stakes of the race. “Thousands of Oregonians, as well as the Democratic Governors Association, have donated to Tina’s campaign because so much is on the line in November—defending abortion access, preventing gun violence, protecting our environment, and standing up for workers,” she writes.