This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

So, which one, given that there are three?

The answer?  Of course, Betsy Johnson.

She is running as an independent, facing off against the Democrat, former Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, and the Republican, former Oregon House Minority Leader Christine Drazan.

Political analysts believe Johnson has a genuine chance to win, rating winning as “possible,” though “not probable.”

Johnson has a gift for turning a phrase that engenders media coverage.

Such was the case this week when she was interviewed by the New York Times.  Here is what the Times wrote:

“Portland’s homelessness crisis is animating Johnson’s campaign.  One of her TV ads shows her driving around the city’s encampments.  ‘No more tent cities,’ she says.  Johnson didn’t mince words:  ‘You can see the deterioration of the beautiful City of Roses, now the city of roaches.’”

Some Portland residents might be offended by Johnson’s comment, but, no doubt, she thought about the risks before speaking. 

Her criticism could resonate with many Portlanders who are tired of homeless encampments, local protests (on all sides), higher crime rates (including murders), and the apparent inability of the city’s leaders to do anything about it.

I grew up in Portland, but, now, given the deterioration of the central city, I try to avoid going back home, except to drive through the city on the way to someplace else – or, perhaps, to visit my two brothers who still there, though not in the strike-torn downtown area.

Here is more of what the Times reporter, Reid J. Epstein, wrote:

“Almost nobody in Oregon seems to be happy.

“In Portland, just 8 per cent of residents think their city is on the right track, according to a May poll from Oregon Public Broadcasting.  East of the Cascade Mountains, nine counties are so fed up with Democrat control of the state that they have voted to leave the state to join Idaho.

“Only Democrats have served as Oregon’s governor since 1987, but the party, weighed down by soaring gas prices, inflation, and President Biden’s unpopularity, is in so much trouble in this year’s mid-term elections that even deep-blue Oregon is suddenly competitive.

“Portland, like many other cities in the U.S., has seen a rise in homelessness and violent crime.  Visiting the city’s downtown in recent years has been an exercise in navigating its sprawling homeless encampments — an issue that polling shows is top of mind for the state’s voters.  And homicides jumped to at least 90 last year, from 36 in 2019.”

So, enter Johnson, along with her ability to utter pithy quotes.

Here is how the Times describes Johnson:

“She is a helicopter pilot whose signature Liz Claiborne eyeglasses are embedded in her campaign logo.  She has raised far more money than both Kotek and Drazan.  Johnson has also earned an array of high-profile endorsements from members of both parties.  Much of her fund-raising has come from Oregon’s corporate moguls, including more than $1 million from the Nike founder Phil Knight.

“Democrats say they believe Johnson will take more votes from the Republican base than from their own.  But they are spending as if she is a real threat, creating a PAC to attack her as an obstacle to environmental progress, and gun control.  (Shortly after the Sandy Hook massacre, Johnson told a group of high school students that she owned a machine gun.  She said it was “a Cold War artifact” and she still had it.)”

As will be the case in many high-level political races around the country, abortion also will be a major issue.

In Oregon, Drazan, the Republican nominee, is anti-abortion and pro-Trump, a change from the moderates Oregon Republicans have nominated for governor in recent years.  Her campaign believes she could win the three-way race with just 40 per cent of the vote — the same percentage Donald Trump took in 2020.

By contrast, Kotek and Johnson favor abortion rights.  Johnson served on the board of the local Planned Parenthood chapter, while Kotek led passage of legislation in 2017 that expanded state-funded abortion access.

So, on to the general election next November. 

Kotek is still the favorite to win.  Oregon Democrats have significant structural advantages — there are just more of them than anyone else.  But it’s not a sure thing, and Democrats are sweating the result for the first time in years.

One of the reasons, perhaps the major one – the Independent Johnson is running and could pull votes from various Oregonians frustrated with the inability of either party to solve major problems facing the state.

Should be one of the most interesting governor’s race in Oregon in many years.