  {"id":19093,"date":"2022-11-01T18:02:07","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T02:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=19093"},"modified":"2022-11-01T19:33:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T03:33:55","slug":"the-race-for-oregon-governor-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/the-race-for-oregon-governor-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"The Race for Oregon Governor Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Written by News Editor Mirella Barrera-Bentancourt<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oct. 18 was the last day to register for voting in the 2022 November general election in the state of Oregon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A total of 470 seats in the United States Congress are up for election, with 35 Senate seats and 435 House seats. State executive offices up for election include 36 gubernatorial seats, 30 lieutenant gubernatorial seats, 30 attorney general seats and 27 secretary of state seats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the state of Oregon, there are six candidates running in the gubernatorial election. With long-term incumbent Kate Brown unable to run for re-election, the November election ballot will include a spot for Oregon governor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Running for Oregon governor, and included in the ballot, are Democrat and Working Families party candidate Tina Kotek, Republican candidate Christine Drazan and non-affiliated candidate Betsy Johnson. Also running in the election are minor party, independent and write-in candidates Donice Smith from the Constitution Party, Paul Romero from the Constitution Party of Oregon, and R. Leon Noble from the Libertarian Party.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The ballot will also include four new ballot measures \u2014 #111, #112, #113 and #114.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If passed, ballot measure #111 will establish Oregonians\u2019 right to healthcare.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As 1 of 10 states still allowing slavery and involuntary servitude in the constitution, Oregon ballot measure #112 will remove the outdated language from the constitution and remove slavery as an option for punishment for crime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ballot measure #113 will guarantee consequences for absent lawmakers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ballot measure #114 will strengthen rules and regulation regarding firearm safety by <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">requiring completed background checks for all gun sales<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tina Kotek | Political Party: Democrat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kotek served as Speaker of the House from 2013 to 2022, where she pushed the agenda for affordable housing and the strengthening of tenant and home renter protection. She said she would aim to address the problem of homelessness, as well as <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cto provide mental health and addiction services to every Oregonian.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In 2015, Kotek passed the law to protect and advance reproductive rights, and expanded access to birth control for thousands of Oregonians. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kotek is the only candidate <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in the race endorsed by Planned Parenthood PAC of Oregon and Pro-Choice Oregon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Christine Drazan | Political Party: Republican<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Drazan served <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">as house minority leader from 2019 to 2021. Her plans include declaring a state of emergency regarding the issue of homelessness in Oregon and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">i<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">nvesting in public health services and public safety measures.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Regarding abortion, Drazan is the only candidate in the election who stands alone in the fight for anti-abortion laws. She applauded the judge\u2019s reversal of Roe v. Wade. Drazan is endorsed by the anti-abortion group Oregon Right to Life. Drazan has no plans to expand access to healthcare or strengthen COVID safety measures for Oregonians.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Betsy Johnson | Political Party: Non-affiliated<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Johnson served in the Oregon State Senate from 2007 to 2021. She has repeatedly used her non-affiliation status as a way to move forward in the race, stating, \u201cAs governor, I\u2019ll move Oregon forward by being loyal only to the people, not (to) any political extreme or special interest.\u201d Much like Drazan, Johnson criticized Oregon Measure #110, Drug Decriminalization and Addiction Treatment Initiative. Johnson also criticized Oregon&#8217;s Reproductive Health Equity Fund, which intends to support women&#8217;s access to abortion care. She stands firm in her belief that the way to a better, brighter Oregon is by holding those with personal issues accountable in the face of homelessness, addiction and crime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n<p><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2067\" height=\"3014\" data-id=\"19120\" src=\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2022\/11\/899EF8DC-001D-4F64-8C0D-9D7B08BEA8D3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19120\" \/><figcaption>Tina Kotek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1707\" data-id=\"19118\" src=\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2022\/11\/BA3D5351-88DD-4767-B3CF-5A5F3634436C.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19118\" \/><figcaption>Christine Drazan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"798\" height=\"1200\" data-id=\"19119\" src=\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2022\/11\/DE59941D-BE3F-47DC-8240-4474229FC731.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19119\" \/><figcaption>Betsy Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":19095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}