Ted Kulongoski

Rep. Greg Walden has told some of his GOP House colleagues that he expects to return to Oregon in 2010 to run for Governor – the latest in a large series of reports that Walden is making no secret of his desire to run statewide in two years, when Gov. Ted Kulongoski is term-limited.  With only a small number of competitive gubernatorial contests in 2008, the Republican Governors Association is already looking to the next cycle, and RGA Chairman Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, has already mentioned Oregon as a possible pickup. 

Gov. Ted KulongoskiGov. Ted Kulongoski will be opting out of the Democratic National Convention, his spokesperson Anna Richter Taylor said Thursday.

“He didn’t think being away from the office for a week would be worth it,” Taylor said. “And when he looked at how much it was going to cost his PAC to help get him and a staff member to the convention, he decided he’d rather give the money to House Democrats.” 

The 76 gas station in southeast Portland, where a gallon of regular gas is going for $4.04, was the site where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) was to announce his plans lower the price of gas on Tuesday.

State Sen. Doug WhitsettAs President Bush and Washington, D.C., lawmakers debate lifting the ban on offshore drilling, state Sen. Doug Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls) came out in support of offshore drilling and chastised Gov. Ted Kulongoski for not doing the same.

House Speaker and U.S Senate candidate Jeff Merkley’s (D-Portland) campaign Monday accused U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) of being powerless to help his own state after President Bush snubbed Oregon’s fishermen by denying them disaster relief on Friday.

We can all exhale now that Governor Ted Kulongoski is back from his gallbladder surgery.

Since the last elected Republican governor of Oregon, Vic Atiyeh, took office in January of 1979, it doesn’t look good for the party’s 2010 prospects.

A new poll shows state House Speaker Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) trailing U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) in his bid for U.S. senate.

The survey, conducted by Rasmussen Reports, shows Smith ahead of Merkley 47 percent to 38 percent. Eight percent of respondents chose “other” and 7 percent said they were “not sure.”

Some Republicans are saying that a loss by Mike Erickson to Kurt Schrader in the 5th district House race could help conservative Kevin Mannix stage a comeback in 2010 – either through another race for Governor (he came within three percentage points of beating Ted Kulongoski in 2002 and lost a primary in 2006), or for the GOP nod to run against freshman Schrader.

Summer in Oregon: a couple of rare months of sun will be shining on what Governor Ted Kulongoski hopes are mills state employees arriving at work powered by their own steam.

The Governor today set a goal of reducing the state’s carbon footprint by 500,000 pounds of carbon—or roughly 2.5 percent—a target which will most likely be facilitated by astronomically climbing gas prices.