The four leading candidates for the Republican nomination for governor gathered April 16 in a forum sponsored by the Oregon Republican Party at the Hillsboro Events Center.
The live-streamed event marked the first opportunity for voters to see Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell, State Rep. Ed Diehl (R-Stayton), State Sen. Christine Drazan (R-Canby), and former Portland Trail Blazer Chris Dudley together on stage.
About 400 people showed up for an evening which appeared designed to minimize friction. Rather than having the candidates stand at lecterns, for instance, organizers seated them at individual tables. That minimized the contrast between Dudley, who stands 6’11” and Drazan, who’s not much over 5 feet tall.
Bruce Sussman, a former KOIN and KGW weatherman who now works in cybersecurity, and Angela Todd of the PDX Real website moderated the event. They posed questions about education, taxes, housing and homelessness, forest policy and public safety.
One issue the candidates were not asked about—abortion. Oregon Right to Life, the state’s leading anti-abortion group, co-endorsed Diehl and Drazan for this race and were a strong supporter of Bethell’s in her 2020 race for the Marion County Commission. Dudley, alone among those on stage, says he’s pro-choice.
Another issue that never came up: President Donald Trump. Although polling shows that Trump remains overwhelmingly popular with Republicans, none of the questions or any of the answers from the candidates mentioned the President’s name even once.
Asked why Trump didn’t figure into the evening, Dudley, who as the GOP nominee in 2010 lost to Democrat John Kitzhaber by fewer than 25,000 votes, later told reporters, “I’m focused on Oregon issues and the questions were specific to Oregon.”
During the forum, candidates answered questions with similar talking points: as governor, they would cut taxes, reduce regulation and fix Oregon’s ailing schools. There was no give-and-take or debate and little interaction among the four.
Bethell, a Marion County commissioner and plumbing company owner, came the closest to zinging her opponents, noting she hadn’t loaned herself a lot of money (Diehl, $190,000) or gotten a $1 million check from Nike co-founder Phil Knight (Dudley).
Throughout the evening, Drazan, the former House minority leader and 2022 nominee, gave the most detailed answers. She also repeatedly made reference to Gov. Tina Kotek, as if she’s confident the primary is already decided. (No polling has been released.)
“The number one question here tonight is who can beat Tina Kotek,” Drazan told the audience. “I have gone toe to toe with her in the Legislature.
Dudley, whose 16-year NBA career included two stints with the Trail Blazer, including his final season in 2002-2003, took the opposite tack, harping on the value of being an outsider.
He has worked in wealth management since retiring from the NBA and spent most of the time since his 2010 loss living near San Diego where he grew up. Dudley tried to position himself as a moderate, telling reporters after the event that “we need to go to where people agree, rather than where they disagree.”
He took issue with a question why he’d been absent from Oregon politics since his loss to Kitzaber, calling the question “ridiculous.”
Bethell, who entered the race long before the other three, told reporters that her work on the Marion County Commission, which involves working on timber payments and homelessness, give her public sector executive experience the other candidates lack. Bethell expressed frustration that the “party elites” are not giving her the attention the other three candidates are getting.
Diehl, an engineer who built and sold two companies, lacks the state-wide electoral experience Dudley and Drazan possess but displayed serious political chops last fall when he helped gather 250,000 signatures to refer a 6-cent per gallon gas tax increase lawmakers passed in September.
He emphasized that success, which he says makes him the “base candidate.” That’s probably true and yet when reporters asked him if that meant he was the candidate in the race philosophically closest to Trump, he demurred, saying he wasn’t sure which of the four fit that bill. That’s somewhat surprising, given Trump’s popularity with the Republican base and suggests that, like Drazan and Dudley, he’s already thinking about the general election.
Diehl’s strategy: energize voters like he did with anti-gas tax petition signers to overcome the voter registration advantage Democrats hold over Republicans.
“There are 120,000 Republicans on the bench who don’t vote and another 120,000 conservative non-affiliated voters,” Diehl said. “I’m going to work Portland voters like no other Republican has—the common ground is taxes.”
The candidates are scheduled for at least two more joint appearances, at the Dorchester Conference at Mt. Hood Resort April 25 and the KOIN/Portland City Club debate May 4.
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon.
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