Questions

Jeff Merkley’s 45%-41% win over Steve Novick in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary raises two questions: can Merkley beat incumbent Gordon Smith, and what does the future have in store for Novick? With no general election opponent, does John Kroger’s victory in the race for Attorney General (56%-44% over the favorite, Greg Macpherson) put him into the race for Governor in 2010?

Sho Dozono lost his bid for Mayor of Portland by wide margin – 24 percentage points – which leads some observers to believe that the businessman won’t make a second bid for public office. Mike Erickson is now the Republican nominee for Darlene Hooley's 5th district seat, but do the allegations of the last two weeks make him substantially less likely to win a general? And Kevin Mannix, who lost the fifth district GOP congressional primary, 50%-44%, has lost two consecutive primaries and hasn’t won election to public office in ten years. Was this his last hurrah?