[Oregon Primary]

Primary Wrap-up.

With 99% of the vote in, incumbent governor Ted Kulongoski sailed to a better-than-(most)-expected win of 55% over Jim Hill (29%) and Pete Sorenson (16%). Based on what I was hearing, I predicted a 56% win. The progressives registered their protest with Pete, who doubled his polling numbers, but moderates who saw Jim Hill's campaign sliding jumped on the Kulongoski express.

Kulongoski will face Ron Saxton, who took the wood to Loren Parks Kevin Mannix 41%-30%. Jason Atkinson, running a netroots campaign with little cash, was the dollar-for-dollar winner, pulling in a hefty 23%. Kevin Mannix has never won a statewide race, and after all the scandals and dirty tricks, Oregonians let him know last night that he never will.

Losers? Loren Parks, who pretty much solely financed Mannix's campaign, just watched a half mil go down the drain. On the Dem side, unions took another drubbing--they backed Jim Hill.

In the City Council races, I was shocked by incumbent Dan Saltzman's thumping of Amanda Fritz, who got a huge amount of exposure and whom I believed would force a run-off. Nope: 58%-25%. But she's got some name recognition now, and could make some noise in the future. At the moment, Erik Sten appears to have held his seat outright. Last tally has him at 50.5%, and Ginny Burdick a woeful 27.3%. If he hangs on, he will turn Burdick into the anti-Atkinson; the candidate who got the least votes per dollar (she was the city's corporate candidate).

The race that was most heartbreaking to me was in the State Senate District 24 seat, where Jesse Cornett, whom I know and like a great deal, got beat by a tired old warhorse. By--and this is the painful part, 200 votes. He had very little time to put the campaign together and ran well against a guy who's been kicking around Oregon politics for decades. Still, 200 votes? I feel Jesse's pain.

Finally, another hotly-contested race was in the House 46th, where five pretty impressive candidates were running. Ben Cannon, a young Rhodes scholar and Portland teacher, scored a pretty hefty win, with 43% of the vote. Willamette Week-endorsed Mary Lou Hennrich got 27%. And in yet another black eye for unions, Mary Botkin, longtime union activist, got killed, drawing just 12% of the vote.

I have a few more thoughts, but this is a good start.

State results are here, Portland and Multnomah County results here.