As a life long moderate Democrat, I was so put off with all this uber progressive baloney of the far left that I registered Republican. I am also put off from the crap from the far right but we need a change. Even if he does nothing else, I would rather have Dudley vetoing a bunch of garbage the Demos come up with than business as usual.

Those of us who were part of the crowd that was excited about Kitz when he first was elected are having a hard time getting excited about him the second time. Mainly because the guy was a major disappointment in office. He really was a "dud".

Don't ask how but I know - or used to know - a recent Congressional candidate. I will say the Blue Oregon team would be very interested in the connection - especially one of them. Oooo, mysterious.
The guy outspent his opponent by a ton with TV ads and avoided debates because his advisors thought he would cruise to victory. I think he was up 17% at that point.
The decision not to debate ended up costing him a chance to connect with the voters and he lost big.

Dudley should debate Kitzhaber. It can't be any worse than the freethrows.

As long a Dudley doesn't look like a complete moron in a debate, or invite Sarah Palin to campaign for him, he'll have a great chance to win.

Bill, both of them are sparing about these debates and I don’t think that Kitz wants a real debate either. He just wants points for having people believe that Dudley doesn’t want to. That strategy is wearing awful thin as he won’t agree on dates either. Kitz knows he really has nothing to gain in a debate because defending eight years of mediocrity is far worse than defending inexperience.

A discussion about a discussion by Democrats discussing what discussions about Kitzhaber might be if people were discussing it at party discussions?

Brilliant. And entirely detached from the reality of everyday voters.

Which is why come election time, Kitzhaber will get around 60% of the vote, and Dudley around 38%. Then, the navel-gazing of career politicians will begin anew.

As a life long DEM, I'm with John Benton. Enough is enough.The Dems are out of control in this state. Kitz will destroy our economy and taxes will go thru the roof to support the public employee unions. The Goldschmidt (rapist) crew will run the State. Health care will be rationed, so he can live out his fantasy. Construction workers will continue to suffer so he can reward his corrupt mistress and her buddies in the radical enviro movement. Dudley may not be the best, but we need to radically change the political lanscape.

As a life long DEM, now NAV, I would rather put Dudley in the chair just to put up a speedbump to stop the BO crew's insanity.

Even the BlueOregon kids seem to have an enthusiasm gap.

The last pro-Kitzhaber post (as opposed to anti-Dudley post) is more than one month old. If that is what the water cooler kids call rallying the troops, Kari will have to change his company's name to Languid Media.

A republican has a shot at the office??? Be still my heart, because in the end I know that once again the voters in Oregon will close thier eyes, click thier heels and chant, "There's no one but democrats, there's no one but democrats." As they pull the handle for four more years of misery. Just saying.

Might as well just pull the lever for the republican ticket, top to bottom. The country's done for anyway.

Kitzhaber is running his campaign the same way that he ran the state as governor. If he doesn't get what he wants he pouts and retreats and blames the other party. As an emergency room doctor you should always get your way and everyone else in the room should do what you say. As a politician you sometimes have to make compromises which means holding your nose and shaking the hand of someone you hate.

I voted for Kitzhaber in the past. He is the kind of politician that I like: well educated, intelligent and principalled. But I also like a politician to get something done once in a while.

Dudley may not have much political experience, but I know this, that when he got in a basketball game that wasn't going his way he didn't just pick up the ball and walk away.

I'll say this about the Kitzhaber campaign: I volunteered for Obama and Merkley in 2008, walked tons of precincts, did phone banking, gave $$$ (not a ton, but for me it was substantial), and etc. I'm a registered Dem. I have received ZERO phone calls from the campaign, zero requests for money, zero notices asking me to volunteer...nada. I'm not sure if the problem is that there's no enthusiasm among the voters, or no enthusiasm from the campaign. How many calls have I received asking if I want a yard sign? None. How many calls about bumper stickers? None. It's not like I want or need the attention, but Campaign Tactics 101 would tell you that I'd be among the first group of people called. The fact that I haven't been contacted tells me something.

Sure, I can follow the guy on Facebook and Twitter. But I'm not seeing much evidence that they're spending their $$$ right now on getting people out to pound the pavement and press the flesh. That tells me (a) they don't have much money, and (b) they're counting on name recognition to carry them in MultCo and they'll try to eke out enough votes statewide to get 50% + 1.

Not so fast, cbb. Here's what you should have written:

"Dudley may not have much political experience, but I know this, that when he got in a basketball game that wasn't going his way he yelled the F word repeatedly and hurled the ball at an opposing player."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNOYChVkvPs

Unfortunately, Kitz will win again because he is a Dem, and this is Oregon. The margin may not be that big though.

To me it's mostly just a sad sign of how low the well of "leadership" has run in this state. Rather than having new dynamic people coming onto the scene we dust off a governer from the 1990s.

I'll vote for Dudley. I generally tend towards the Dem side, but I really feel that Oregon (due to Portland's influence) is no longer just Democratic, but basically Leftist. I don't want ideologues of the left or the right running the government unchallenged.

There's nothing about Dudley that really matters much.

Kitzhaber is what he is and he has no loyal or enthusiastic base.

Isn't it reasonable to conclude that with Democrats all over the State turned off by the Doctor he can't win?

Onviously a lot of moderate Ds are going to be voting for Dudley.

Especially since BlueOregon et al has been unable to paint him as some right wing loon.

Seems like the guy is as moderate a Republican as Jack is a moderate Democrat.

How bad could he be for the average or moderate Democrat?

At least Dudley would provide a cleansing purge of the state agencies, boards and commissions.

Spikez: liked the video, but I'll stick with what I said. What I saw was someone willing to take on an opponent twice his size and 10 times the "Q" rating. Kitzhaber was famous for not being willing to take the fight to the state house or senate, instead retreating to the governor's mansion and declaring the state "ungovernable". At this point I'm willing to vote for someone who shows a little pluck.

The problem with Dudley is he's such a blank slate that he could very easily throw up his hands and adopt a "hey, too complicated for me, why don't you fellas handle it" attitude a la George W and let Mannix and his ultra-right cronies run the show when it comes to a lot of the "small" agencies that don't dominate debate but that make really important policy decisions.

Statewide Dems have really dropped the ball. I don't know how Kulongoski won the last election, and this year is just weak. Neither Kitz nor Bradley were going to inspire much enthusiasm. I think most Dems are waiting for 2014 when it'll be Kate Brown vs. John Kroger, with Jeff Smith setting himself up for 2022.

hey Dudley , you look like an idiot not debating , man up.
You are missing your chance to look down on your opponent , taller guys often win by just standing side by side on stage.
It's the Photo Op , Stupid.

DaveJ.

Why connect Mannix or any other scary fellas to Dudley?

Mannix is not one of his fellas.
Dudley doesn't have any ultra right cronies as his fellas.

Unless you think Frank Morse is ultra right.

There are many moderate Republicans despite the BlueOregon song and dance that they're all defective wingers.

Many Republicans would be preferable to Kitzhaber and other Goldshmidt cronies still around.

I'm a moderate R and make a point of sitting down with moderate D's to talk politics. You know what's interesting? We both agree on what is important and needs to be addressed. Sometimes we disagree a bit on how to address those issues but not always.

The sides are much closer then most people want to admit.

ccb - When Dudley was in a game that wasn't going his way, he just heaved balls at opponents (Shaq) and got technicals.... wonder what the political equivalent of a technical foul is.

OK... the mere mention of Kevin Mannix makes me want to hurl and to never vote for any R in Oregon again.

When Dudley was in a game that wasn't going his way, he just heaved balls at opponents (Shaq) and got technicals....

Wow, how weak a criticism is that? Once in a long NBA career, he lost his temper on the court. Got anything else?

One of the jobs of being the biggest guy on most sports teams is to play enforcer when the other team's Goliath starts literally throwing his weight around and threatening to injure people.

And do you think John Kitzhaber's ever lost his temper on the job? Probably not about anything that mattered.

^^^ At least it shows he had a pulse and invested emotion in his job. Did Dudley ever get a foul and claim the game was "unplayable?"

Sure Jack, I got something else.. shall we talk about carpetbagging? So Dudley grew up in So Cal, attended Yale in CT, played for the Cavs, the Nets, the Blazers, the Knicks, the Spurs, the Suns, back to the Blazers, and moved into OR from WA so he could run for office. I mean seriously, it's a calculated move because he could never win office in WA but having played for the Blazers he has some name recognition here.

His granddad worked for Tricky Dick and then Gerald Ford (can you say silver spoon - I knew you could).

And Phil Knight has dumped big bucks into his coffers suggesting he'll be a big proponent of relaxed foreign trade constraints.

Do you really think he cares much about Oregon? I don't.

Do you want some more? I can get it.

How shrill. You still make an exceedingly weak case, but at least it's better than nothing, which is what you offered before.

And Phil Knight has dumped big bucks into his coffers suggesting he'll be a big proponent of relaxed foreign trade constraints.

As bad as Bill Clinton?

he could never win office in WA but having played for the Blazers he has some name recognition here.

What state other than Oregon would elect Kitzhaber to anything right now?

His granddad worked for Tricky Dick and then Gerald Ford

Kitzhaber's great-great-great-great grandfather probably owned slaves.

I don't vote for Republicans, but John Kitzhaber doesn't do it for me, either.

Jack - I don't particularly like either candidate any more than you do. But I don't see Dudley as any panacea. And I don't think people are going to get what they expect from him.

And I question someone with no political experience being able to operate at a level as high as a state governor. And yes, I know that California loves to elect movie stars as governors but what has been the real legacy of their work.

And the bottom line for me is right now I don't have a clue as to where Dudley stands on much of anything and I think that's quite a deliberate ploy on his campaign's part.